Friday Oct. 01/04

Random update:

Roots is on tonight...7:30pm - 9:00pm (so about 2:30 - 4:00 for you folks at home) at the church/rectory. I'm gonna try and get them to think/talk about the whole idea of 'faith.' I'm introducing the subject with a clip from the movie Contact. I'm using the scene where Jodie Foster and Matthew McConahdufdjkrehwhatever are at the party in Washington and they go out on to the balcony and talk about their belief in God and Occam's Razor and all that good stuff (it's chapter 21 on the DVD for anyone who's keen...) The kids tend to be a bit quiet and shy when it comes to bible/christian stuff, but I'm hoping the use of Hollywood actors might draw them out a little bit. In a related note, here's a flyer I designed for the month of October today. I'm quite proud of it!

In a totally unrelated note, I found this on the Internet the other day and thought it was quite humourous! Just wanted to share the wealth.

Ugh, I still haven't planned anything for Sunday school yet, and tomorrow I'm off to Cambridge -- which will be exciting, but which also means that the day is a write off -- and then I'm going to the annual Harvest Supper in the village hall. I gotta go to bed early tonight too cuz my first of three trains to Cambridge leaves the station at 7:30 in the morning. Maybe I can get some work done on the train (it's 2 1/2 hours each way). Well that's it for now...I'm off to dinner and then Roots. Hope you're all doing well!

Wednesday Sept. 29/04

Went into East Grinstead today and took some pictures (posted below). It was nice and historic, but not very big...I certainly don't have any strong desire to return any time soon. I went to my course yesterday in Eastbourne, but didn't have any time to snap pictures. I'll write more about that sometime later...maybe. Not much else to say...tomorrow is the Harvest service for the school, then Roots (the name of the youth group, which is based on the name of the magazine that the Church of England puts out with ideas for leading events for kids/youth) on Friday night. On Saturday I'm off to a different, one-shot course in Cambridge, then Sunday is the harvest service at the church, and Sunday club (Sunday school) for me to lead...it's mostly the same kids from Roots, with just a couple younger ones. Anyhow, I'll try and get some pics of Cambridge this weekend, assuming the weather is nice (which is a fairly lofty assumption, actually). Here's East Grinstead:

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Here are some pictures of me that I took in my room, in case you miss my mug: 01 - 02 - 03

Lastly, you're damn right that this is a car with three wheels! Good ol' Peugeot...

Sunday Sept. 26/04

It never ends around here! Today it was off to the sea for a taste of Brighton! And this time I've included a picture of myself there, just in case you all thought I was hiding somewhere in Ontario and paying someone to tour England and take pictures for me. Mind you, you have to have been to Brighton to know that it's a genuine photo...and with the way that digital image editing has advanced, even that's no guarantee. But I digress. I said I only got a taste for Brighton because the reason we were there was the Trade Justice March in front of the Labour Party Conference Headquarters. The Labour Party Conference is an event which is similar to the Democrat & Republican National Conventions which recently occured in the US. The Labour Party is currently the ruling party of the UK, and while they're also supposedly the most left-wing of the 3 big UK parties, they fully supported and contributed to the US invasion of Iraq (well, at least some party members did, including their leader Tony Blair... apparently Iraq is a very divisive issue within the party). I'm told that the next federal election is in May, so the purpose of this event (as I understand it, at least) was to sort of rally the party members together, and get them all back on the same page. However, as interesting as UK politics are, that's not really why I was there. The march itself was in support of Trade Justice, which means trading fairly and sustainably with countries who are less affluent then we are in the Western world; and its an issue that I believe all the First World nations need to address. One analogy that was used by a lady I was with to explain the current system was this: imagine a deer and a giraffe competing for the leaves at the top of the tree branches. Who's going to win? The giraffe of course. In fact, the deer is not even going to get anything unless the giraffe helps it in some fashion. This is the current economic situation for many countries trying trade globally, and while the systems are certainly complex and there's no simple answer, it's not fair that we should prosper while others suffer for no reason other than the fact of where we all happened to be born. But enough ranting from me. The march was organized by Christian Aid, an awesome agency here in the UK. It was cleared with the police ahead of time, and well executed by all in charge. We had "ballots on the beach," whereby we all filled out a card, "voting" for trade justice, and then put them in big glass boxes which were spaced along the road we were marching on. We also had 2 minutes of silence to acknowledge those in other countries who feel that they have no voice, and then made lots of noise outside the Bright Conference Centre to get the attention of the politicians inside.

I went with a group of 3 old ladies from our church, and it was a blast! There were people of all ages, colours and sizes there. I never did hear a final count of how many people showed up, but I'm sure the Christian Aid site will tell you (I haven't checked cuz I have limited Internet access). After the march, we went to a local Quaker meeting hall for some fair trade food and drink, and then off to a non-denominational service at another church, then sadly, home. It was great tho! In all, we were only in Brighton for 6 or 7 hours, so I definitely need to go back and spend some time looking around (Hayden is playing there on the night of Thursday October 7th, so I might try and skip down there for that...) Anyway, enjoy the pictures to the right, and await my next update with fierce anticipation ;)

Here's pictures of me at the Brighton pier, as well as the old pier that collapsed, and a couple other random shots of the city, grafitti, and the sky:

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Here's a ton of shots from the march. Someone got up onto some local scaffolding and hung the sign in picture 7. At first I thought it was a shame that they misspelled it, but then I realized that it was probably a play on words, as the simple act of switching those two letters includes "Liar" in his name. Pictures 11 & 12 are of the front of the march on its way back.

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And these are pics of the police guarding/scowling at/supervising the demonstration. Everyone in bright green is a cop. Picture 3 is of all the police vans ready to haul us away, and pictures 5 & 6 show that apparently we were important enough to get helicopter supervision! Of course the march was peaceful and none of this was necessary (mind you, security for the Labour Party Conference would be strong whether or not we were there).

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These are the dudes whose attention we wanted to get! Tony Blair was in the building, tho I don't think he was on the balcony...

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Lastly, as a bonus for Matty, Sherry, Sar, HJ and anyone else who was at Phat Factory this summer, I got some pics of the public skate park in Brighton down on the beach, near where we were protesting! A girl came around asking for donations to keep it running because apparently the city gave money to build it, but refuses to run/maintain it. Big surprise! Anyways, it certainly isn't as good as our's was, but I still donated a pound because I believe in the principle of it. Skate on, youth of Brighton!

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Thursday Sept. 23/04

Went with the minister for lunch at the neighbouring Buddhists' house today, who then got me drunk before the children's service at 2pm. That's all I'm gonna say about that, write me for more details ;)

Anyway, here is the "Holy $#*! I can't believe I'm living in Europe!!" collection. Most of these shots are from Tunbridge Wells, but a few are from the surrounding area. The UK is beautiful, as particularly evidenced in picture 6...
(I'm also fairly positive that they guy in picture 5 ISN'T peeing, although I'm not 100% - I didn't really see him until after I took the picture)

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And here are a few shots of my new place:
This is a shot of the outside. And here you can see where it is in relation to my old place (once again using this map as a reference). This is what my room looked like before I moved in, and this is a shot of a garden in the backyard.

Tuesday Sept. 21/04

Back in Tunbridge Wells for the day, seeing as I have the day off. Weekend was pretty exciting...read Saturday's entry below for more details. Sunday was the service and then the community sports day. This basically consisted of all the local sports club (football, cricket, stoolball, tennis and volleyball) members getting together with the kids in the village and playing all of these games on the field in the middle of the village. Sorry that I didn't take any pictures, but it really wasn't that exciting. Slept in on Monday and then met with Paul for 2 hours in an 'official' manner and talked about a schedule for the year, etc. Had dinner with the family and then I moved out of their house! Actually, I'm just down the road. I'm staying with a wonderful lady named Rose who lives right beside the gatehouse (see previous map for details). She is alone in a big old English house, but often rents rooms for lodgers, boarders or people who need a retreat. She doesn't attend the church because it's style is too old and stuffy for her, but she is a committed Christian who cares about the environment, world peace, and other important things. We've had some good chats already! I think the parish is paying her for me to stay there, so I'll probably only be there for a couple weeks (until one of the other families is ready to take me in), but it's quite lovely, and nice to have some space to my own, away from noisy children ;) I might get some pictures of the place up soon, but who knows.

So I'm back in Tunbridge Wells again today, because it's only 4 1/2 pounds for a return trip on the bus. I suppose I should have spent the day wandering around the village and getting to know the place, however there will be plenty of time for that. In related news, Paul is looking at equipping his house with wireless broadband access, so once that is available, I won't have to run off to town to connect and update this site. Another reason that I came is that it's nice to see people closer to my own age, as I spend the rest of the week with adults over 30 and children under 15 (although Rose has told me that a bunch of 20-something South Africans work at one of the Hartfield pubs, so I should go check that out soon!) So there, that's my excuse for taking off again today. I've taken pictures of the pantiles and the town today, but I can't transfer them to my computer yet...I'll do that when I get home and put them in the next update.

Ok, I guess that's it for now...I'm loving the UK and the village is all right too. I'm looking forward to getting into a regular routine and to start actually making a difference. I'm also gonna look up some info on courses while I'm on the net and see if I can get enrolled somewhere soon.

I love you all, and hope that you're doing well. Let me know how you're doing (hint hint) although be aware that it might take some time for my response to get to you (being that I can only connect to the net every so often) God bless!

-Chris

Saturday Sept. 18/04

Today we went to Bewl Water to participate in a dragonboat race to raise money for the church's school. A dragonboat is a Chinese water vessel that holds 16 paddlers, a drummer, and a steering/rudder person. The idea is that the drummer sits up at the front and pounds the drum; the paddlers are then supposed to stroke in unison to the beat of the drum and then the first team to cross the finish line wins. This is all theoretical however, as once you are on the choppy water near the back of the boat and getting soaked by the guy paddling in front of you, it is much harder to hear the drum and paddle in sync with everyone else. There were 57 teams in total, and ours was called the "St. Mary's Marvels." (although the guy keeping track on the scoreboard must have misheard someone somewhere along the line as it was originally written "St. Mary's Marbles") It was a big fundraising event and each of the teams was raising money for some kind of charity, be it schools, welfare programs, aid agencies or whatever. Each team and their supporters were set up in a tent on the field next to the water, and there were all kinds of fundraising activities going on (draws, games, etc.) See the pictures on the right hand side to get a better sense of the carnival-like atmosphere. It's also worth pointing out that each team is encouraged to pick an imaginative team name and related uniform. The St. Mary's Marvels were dressed up like old English women, complete with headscarves and hair curlers!

Every team participated in three races -- with about 3-5 teams competing in each one -- and then a final race for the top 10 placers. Two of the participants on our team were late arriving, so me and the daughter of one of the other members got roped into the first heat! We had a safety briefing and then practiced on the water for a bit before competing in our first race. We cleaned up in our first round, destroying the other two teams! I got completely soaked in the process, however it was quite enjoyable. We completed the race in just over a minute and five seconds. There was a large chunk of time between our first and second race since we had to wait for the remaining 30 teams to complete their first heat and by the time our second heat rolled around, the other participants had arrived which meant that I didn't get to compete again. I didn't really mind though...it had been cold and very wet. The second race was an extremely tight one, with our team and another neck in neck to the end. St. Mary's prevailed, albeit by only 0.4 seconds! The conditions were worse this time around, but with the practice from before, and the two new ringers in, they shaved 5 seconds off their previous time. They managed to take off another second to get it down to 59 in the final race, however this wasn't good enough to beat the team dressed as pirates in the next boat and in the end, the scallywags won. Although they got our time below one minute, many of the other teams managed to as well, and it just wasn't quite enough to make it into the finals. It was only St. Mary's second year in the competition however, and apparently they just keep getting better! Well, it's after midnight now, and I have to get up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to help Paul get his drum-kit from his attic and over to the church. After the service(s), we're going to some community picnic/participatory sporting event or something. I'm still a little jetlagged, and more than a little tired after today, but it was good to hear from my mom on the phone tonight, and I'm still really glad to be here!

I should also note that I expect journal entries to be rather rampant for the next week or so as I experience all kinds of new things, but then to die off a bit once I settle into a routine. It's not that I'm planning to be lazy, but rather that there won't be as much new or exciting stuff to document for you folks. Or maybe there will be....who knows?!? Just thought I'd warn you in advance....

I should also point out that my internet access is sporadic at best at the moment, however I'm supposed to be moving in with some new people on Monday or thereabouts, and that situation may or may not change when I get there.

Here is a picture of the crowd and the lake it was on. And here are some more pictures
of the dragon boats themselves (not of our group though). If you look closely you can see the guy with the big oar at the back, and the chair and drum for the drummer at the front. This is an example of what happens when you capsize the boat (though thankfully,this is once again not our group).
Here are some shots of the grounds and various tents and activities (including our own!) that could be found...

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Next we have a fashion show of sorts. First up is Paul sporting a sweet "Taipei International Cricket Club" ringer. Then we have Zamira with her brand new polystyrene (that's styrofoam for you North Americans) hair catcher. Polystyrene continues to be in vogue this season as Prince Sebastian wears the official crown of the Royal Monarchy. His sister is not far behind.

Finally, we have shots of the scoreboard after the first and second heats. Our team improved its speed by about 1 second on the third heat, however by then it was starting to get cold and rainy (cold and rainy in England, can you believe it?) and we didn't place high enough to get into the finals, so we left without any pictures to prove it. Take my word
for it however, everyone gave it their all!

• The First Heat
• The Second Heat

Friday Sept.17/04

A quick update:
1.) I saw this hilarious sign when I was in Tunbridge Wells (again) today. I know what it actually means, but it's funny nevertheless.
2.) I was watching some TV with Paul and Hananja after youth group tonight (which went fairly well by the way) and I saw that Aero chocolate bar commercial that I hate...you know, the one with the two ladies dressed in business suits in the office and the one is telling the other to put the Aero bar on her tongue and just let the bubbles melt.... anyhow, it was exactly the same as at home... same location, same actresses, same everything... EXCEPT, in this version they had british accents! They don't have accents at home! It made me wonder how many other languages the commercial was shot in!

Thursday Sept.16/04

Today I went on a field trip with Ashley's class as an "adult volunteer" (heh, except that I got scolded by Ashley's teacher for having too much fun at lunchtime and "getting the kids TOO excited!") to the Pantiles area of Tunbridge Wells. Tunbridge Wells is a small town which is actually based on a spring which was "discovered" by Lord North (which they all pronounce as "Lawd Nawth") in 1606. The waters were said to contain magical healing properties when you drank or bathed in them (although in actuality, they just had a high iron content, which was apparently something lacking in their diet at that time). Anyway, they built this whole 1600's English-style theme park around this place, with a promenade and then buildings with balconies on either side to watch the people promenading (actually, there's two promenades: an upper and a lower one...the lower one was for the subhuman servants so that they wouldn't get in the way of the aristocrats and their activities....presumably water-drinking). So the promenade was made out of pantiles which were/are clay tiles cooked in square pans, hence "pantiles." I spent the day with Ashley, Tom, Danny and Max. We saw the promenade, the musick gallery, the church of King Charles the Martyr, and the Tunbridge Wells museum. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera along with me, so I decided instead to take some pictures with Ashley after we got home.

I forgot to take one of the Rectory, where I'm currently living, however all of these other pictures are literally within a 2 minute walking distance of the house. So without further ado...

St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church (I couldn't get the whole church in one picture)

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As you can see in the last picture, there's a neat-but-creepy cemetary out front of the church which they all refer to as the "graveyard" which makes it even creepier to me!

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At one end of the church is the rectory, where we live, but at the other end is this small building called the gatehouse.
Again, I couldn't get it all in one picture, but it's old and beautiful...

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At the gatehouse is a simple map of Hartfield, which is the first picture in this next set. I also included various other buildings which are on our dirt road that leads down to the main road.

• Hartfield Map
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• Hartfield 05

Finally, here are some pictures of Ashley and I goofing around, playing in the forest, and climbing trees. Ashley is the youngest of the children, age 7, and he's adorable!
Oh, I should also mention that the last picture is of this neat hole thing he showed me in the forest...I put my foot in the picture to give you a sense of its dimensions...

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Tuesday Sept. 14/04

I didn't actually do a journal entry for Tuesday or Wednesday so here are the highlights:

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Tuesday Sept. 14/04

• Land in London: Gatwick at 10am after an all night flight
• Meet Paul and determine to try and stay up for the whole day to get my body clock set
• See a little bit of East Grinstead
• Go home, meet the rest of the fam, have dinner, go to bed early

Wednesday Sept. 15/04

• Sleep-in (or "lie-in" as they call it 'round these parts)
• Go with Paul and Ashley to pick up Sebastian after school
• Dinner with the whole family
• Go with Natasha to a book club where a small group of people from the church are reading and discussing "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren
• Power failure (or "power-cut" as they call it 'round these parts) from about 10pm-midnight
• Get home, collapse into bed exhausted, but stimulated by the group's discussion