Rolling along

It feels like ages since I last blogged, it has been a while, but also so much stuff has been going on. I don't know where to start updating you all. Things at work have been going decently well. I’m now qualified to lead most of the activities the center provides. My favorite one is the adventure walk. We only do it with young kids, but it is basically an imaginary scenario. The kids have to sneak all around the center, because everyone is out to get them, and they have to save the world, and get very muddy in the process. It’s so much fun for me to use my imagination. The more I act like a kid the more fun the kids have and the more exciting the adventure. Outside of work things are going brilliantly. The slightly warmer and less wet weather has allowed me to get out of the house a lot more. I’ve started climbing regularly in my time off with some other volunteers. It’s so much fun just spending a day in the mountains with friends. I feel like I’ve really hit a groove in my time here. Things are rolling along well. I sometimes wish they would slow down a little, but at the same time I can’t wait to go home and see everyone again. I guess that’s a good dilemma to have.

London and a Retreat

Last week was brilliant. The weather, which hadn't changed since November, finally got a bit warmer. Its amazing how warm weather can raise your spirits. (I even got to wear shorts one day :)) After a very fun week the RAD group headed to the North Coast for a Mennonite Missions Network (MMN) retreat. The North Coast is a beautiful part of Northern Ireland (it's the same place I went with my parents). We spent one day site seeing, but the rest we spent at a Christian retreat center that was right beside the ocean. We met Tim, two MMN volunteers from Bradford, and one from London. Also two of Tim's friends who are preachers (Anglican I think)came as well. It was very refreshing to hear people who are doing similar work, and going through similar challenges. I had an amazing time. Rod came on Sunday night, so that he could spend the night, and get up really early and take us on a plane to go to London.

An airline called Ryanair was selling tickets to London for one pence (Cent). The leadership at Greenhill decided that it would be a nice brake if everyone went on a day trip to London. So at 5 AM on Monday morning Caitlyn, Kevin, Rod, and I left the retreat center to meet up with the rest of the staff at George Best Belfast City Airport. The plane left at 8, and we got into the heart of London around 10. There were two types of plans people had. 1)visit everywhere you can in a day, or 2)find one nice attraction and spend the whole day there. I decided to go to as many things as I could. A group of 6 of us all traveled together (by foot we didn't want to spend the money for a bus tour) to almost all the major tourist attractions. We didn't go into any of the because they were too expensive for our volunteer budgets and because it would take up more time. In only 8 hours we saw St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Place, Westminster Abby, snow sleet rain and warm sunny weather, Trafoger Square (pardon the spelling), Big Ben, the Globe Theater, The London, Millennium, and Tower Bridges, The Tower of London, and I'm sure I've forgotten to include some spots. As you can guess we were all dead tired for the trip home. It was a great day.

Things are going better than ever for me here right now, which might be why I'm finding it so hard to find time to write. I'm loving every minuet of it, But I would also love to hear whats happening back home. Write me.