Interesting...

I still don't understand something. I've been looking at my webstats and something doesn't make sense to me. My blog post entitled "A Rainy Day In Wales" collected 67 page views. Now I realized that I would probably only have 5 followers of this blog, at best, and I was ok with that. However, when blog posts involving things like London only made it into the double digits and "A Day Of Firsts" accumulated only 20 hits it "wrecks my head" (an Irish saying) that a post with a dreary title incurred, by far, the most hits of all more than doubling the second highest number being 27, for "A Change In Plans."  I'm trying to figure it out so maybe I could up my readership. Not that that has been my goal really, but if 67 people will read it at one point why not get 67 to read it again? Do I need to make more soggy posts? That will be a little hard since it hasn't rained here in Ireland for about three weeks now. So much for being the Emerald Isle.

Next Week

In six days at this time I'll be leaving Boston, driving north with my baby sister who will have landed only a couple hours earlier from South Carolina. I'm really excited to see her. I'm excited to go home, but not as much as I thought I would be after two months. I'm also sad to leave, but not as sad as I thought I would be given how I felt the last two times I left. I feel pleasantly neutral almost. I'm really happy to be right where I am at the moment and I think when I get on the plane and head home I'll be happy to be there as well. I am a planner but I'm getting good at just enjoying the moment and not wishing to be somewhere else because all too soon I will be somewhere else wishing I hadn't wished away the time I had here when I had it.

This door has nothing to do with anything. People love the pictures so I figured I couldn't post a new entry without a picture. I did find it interesting though because they left the door natural. It is the first natural door I've ever seen in Ireland. Doors are usually painted bright greens or blues or reds or yellows. They love bright colours for their houses and if you can't paint your house because it is brick you paint the door a bright colour. So in leaving the door natural they made up for it by painting the door posts blue. I like it. If I lived in Ireland I would want to do this to my door because I love the natural grain of wood but would want to keep with the traditional colour on the doors.

Another Week In Review

It's been almost a week since I last blogged. It doesn't seem that long when your days are not bursting at the seams with excitement. I haven't done much this past week. Just did some praying and drinking of tea and helping Johanna and Eva with stuff for camp. Both Johanna and Eva have been preoccupied with camp stuff so I've pretty much kept out of the way except to do the odd project. The biggest project for me has probably been the paint job. Johanna asked me to sand and paint this stick she was going to use in the "circus" this week at camp. I really don't like painting. I can't say I've ever liked painting, not even finger painting as a kid. But I said I would do it to help her out. I did manage to do the whole project without getting paint on myself or on anything permanent so I was very proud of that and found enjoyment in the process. Suffice to say I won't be signing up to be a painter's assistant any time soon. I also did a few other things to help them out but the weren't picture worthy.

On Thursday we went to Waterford for some business and afterword met up with Eva's niece and nephew. I have now met more family of my friend Rachel (who introduced me to Ireland in the first place) than she has. It saddens me, but next time she'll have to come with me so she can catch up.

Waterford is indeed where Waterford Crystal comes from. We didn't stop at the visitor center as it looked super busy and it was too hot to stand around in a queue all day but we drove by the building. I did take a picture of Waterford from the car.

It was a nice day although sticky and hot. While Eva was visiting with her family at the coffee shop I went next door to TK Maxx (it's like a TJ Maxx but this isn't a great store. The ones in Dublin and Belfast are better.) and was amused by this sign.

You will note the sign on the left that says jumpers. A jumper is what they call sweatshirts here but I guess they couldn't rely on people figuring it out on their own so they put the jumper sign on as well so people could know where to look. I mean the jumpers hanging on the rack under the heading Sweatshirts wouldn't be a dead give away that they were actually jumpers? After perusing the whole shop twice I didn't find anything I had to put back. (I usually gather an handful of items I'd like to have and have to talk myself out of buying them but not in this store) I then went and joined the others for coffee. Then we went to a second hand shop and I again didn't find anything except a child's atlas which I would have liked but figured in the interest of not having an overweight piece of luggage I returned it to the shelf from whence it came.

I went to town a couple times this week but nothing exciting to report. Sometimes I bought something for someone back home and sometimes I didn't.

Camp started on Sunday so on Saturday I rode up to the camp facility in Durrow with Liz and Johanna who were each bringing a car load of camp stuff. I came long for the moral support and to be the muscle. It took two hours to get there because I rode with Liz and her car was making a funny noise so she drove slowly. On the way back I rode with Johanna. We went through a town called Inistioge (pronounced inishteeg). It is an old town and very cute. I found this posted on a building and thought it was interesting.

 

 

This is the building it was posted on.

It's so cute. I could totally see a Methodist meeting being held here once a fort-night on a mid-week evening.

More pictures of Inistioge

There were some flowers around town.

People were swimming in this river as it was a pretty hot day. The movie Circle Of Friends with Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver was filmed in Inistioge and this bridge is easily recognized in the movie.

This Church and Clock Tower have an incredible feel in real life. *sigh* Pictures never compare.

I would have loved to see inside this clock tower because this building looks really old. Maybe next time.





Front View


                                                          Rear View

Two different views of the same ruined bridge. It was just a little piece of wall with a bridge crossing this waterway to the river. Undoubtedly all that  remains of a beautiful  ancient castle which overlooked the valley that was destroyed in some battle between the ancient tribes due to a desire for domination.

                                                                                                                      

That was an overview of my past week with the pictures being the highlight of said week. Inistioge is one of those places I'd love to go back to and just sit and enjoy for hours.

FYI: Chris O'Donnell does a terrible Irish accent. It was painful to watch.

Hurling

I spent most of the day being lazy. Then late in the afternoon Johanna asked if I wanted to go to town. She dropped me off and I was going to walk back but home but after walking around town for a couple hours I met someone I knew from church and she offered to give me a ride home so I accepted her offer. After I got home Johanna and I had dinner. I must interject here that dinner isn't just a meal. It is specific meal. It is the biggest meal of the day and depending on the time and the size of your meal it could be called anything from lunch or dinner to tea or supper. I don't always get it correct but I'm learning.

When Eva came home from work after a 12 hour shift she said there was a match down at the field and if we hurried we could probably catch the last few minutes of it. I grabbed my bag and a jacket and she changed out of her scrubs and Johanna drove us down to the field so we could see the end of it. When we got there the scored was tied and we had seven minutes left.

It looks like no one is in the stands but that's just the end. The sides were full. So the top team is County Wexford. Loch Garman is the Gaelic name for it. The bottom team in from County Kilkenny.

You'll notice the score is separated and neither teams have a score in the first section. Now I don't know much about the game yet and Eva, although she is indeed Irish, couldn't answer many questions I had about the game so I observed and figured some stuff out and what I just had to know I asked the man next to me. But he was there to watch the match so I didn't want to pester him with questions.

The game ended in a tie 0:19 to 0:19 so they decided to play extra time.

They played ten minutes and swapped ends and played another ten minutes.

So rather than post a couple pictures that wont do it justice I decided to post a couple videos that wont do it justice, but here they are anyway to give you an idea. From what I observed hurling is similar to lacrosse but different. They have sticks instead of poles with nets on the end.

The fans were really into it. I haven't heard so many f-bombs since game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
If there are any f-bombs on these videos please forgive me. You can't sensor a crowd of Irishmen during the county juniors hurling finals.

Instead of seeing five minutes we got to see a fair bit of it and we saw the end which is always the most important and it was a really close match. Wexford ended up taking the Leinster Cup. And scored one for the first part of the score. So appearently if you throw the ball through the goalposts above the net it counts in the second part of the score and if you get it in the net it counts in the first part of the score. I'm not sure how it works if you have a ton in the second part and the other team only got one in the net....but we won anyway.

It was a great idea to go. Come to find out Wexford hadn't won this cup in 10 years. So for our hope of seeing the last 5 minutes of a match and not having to pay for the whole thing we saw a fair bit, it was exciting, our team won and we got to see history in the making. Since it was the final, that was my last chance to see hurling without having to travel somewhere far away and it was quite memorable. This trip to Ireland is complete. I have seen hurling and the exciting end to a match as well. We walked home as the field is about a kilometer away and the traffic was nuts anyway. We finished our night with tea and scones and popcorn and the midwife show.

I'm a bit bushed so hoping for some good sleep as I have to get up early tomorrow because we are all going to Waterford. Nothing too exciting and it isn't for shopping its for business but it will be fun anyway.

FYI: Don't go to a hurling match unless you can handle the language from a R rated movie.

My Week In Review

Today marks a week ago that I returned to Ireland. It hasn't been particularly busy. In the past week I have: (in no particular order)

Celebrated American Independence Day
Had coffee with Eva at a new coffee shop
Attended a poetry reading
Gone to a Sky In The Ground
Gone to church
Taken the dog for a couple walks
Watched a show about a midwife
Walked to town and back
Gone shopping in town
Walked the Quays once or twice
Had coffee in the garden
...and a few other things.

It sounds like a lot when you list it all up like that but none of those things are particularly adventurous and when you spread them out over the course of 7 days it leaves a lot of time for sleeping in. I haven't been sleeping very well or feeling especially well this week so the time to just chill and rest and sleep in has been greatly appreciated. The weather has been incredible this week as well. I watered the garden last night because we hadn't had rain since I got here. It's beautiful. If you were to be in the sun and working hard you'd probably work up a sweat but there is also a cool breeze and if you step into the shade you probably need a jumper (sweatshirt)...well I do. The Irish don't seem to mind it. But it's been wonderful.

Here are some random photos taken over the past week.
(again in no particular order)






Here is a bridge in Wexford Town. I'm not sure why it has American and Irish flags on it, but I'm not questioning why. I'm just enjoying it.




















The boats by the Quay. Always a good photo.












While walking up the street the angles and perspective in this
view just tickled my fancy. I don't think the photo captures
how this really felt but its as good as it gets.












Here is Eva reading the newspaper in the coffee shop. I guess my company wasn't informing enough for her.

Here is a statue of John Barry. Born March 25, 1745 in Wexford Ireland and died September 13, 1803 in the USA. He was an officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later in the United States Navy. He is widely credited as "The Father of the American Navy" (and sometimes sharing that moniker with John Paul Jones) and was appointed a Captain in the Continental Navy on December 7, 1775. He was the first Captain placed in command of a US warship commissioned for service under the Continental flag.

After the war, he became America's first commissioned naval officer, at the rank of Commodore, receiving his commission from President George Washington in 1797. I piece of American history I missed in school.

 

 

 

 

A picture of a lily in Eva's garden (back yard).

 

 

 

 

 

I think this photo speaks for itself.

FYI: 21 degrees Celsius (69 degrees Fahrenheit) is considered a heat wave in Ireland. I call it perfect.

Back to Ireland

On July 3rd I got up at 0500 hours after sleeping fitfully for 4 hours. I retrieved my dry clothes from the washer/dryer, packed up the few things I had left out for the morning and brought my luggage downstairs. The sun was already up and so was Alex the Lion. He was quieter than he usually is but still sweet and cordial. He drove me to the Welshpool train station, bid me adieu and went back to bed. Poor kid.



The view from the prayer house in Welshpool Wales. An amazing place to do some praying. I could have just stayed there for days praying but work had to be done.

The train was on time and I boarded without a hitch. It was a 7 hour journey by train to the coast from Welshpool. It only takes about three hours by car but I had two changes and at one of them I had to wait over an hour as there weren't any trains coming by any earlier.

They serve Starbucks instant coffee on Arriva Trains Wales.
Which is rather nice after you haven't had enough sleep.

I'm not sure why but I really liked this angle at the station while waiting for my train.

I know some of you are dying to know more about the language Welsh. Suffice to say I think this plaque says it all. It is pleasant to listen to but a beast to try to read.

The clock tower interested me. So I took two photos.

 

Here is a picture I took of my jeans because I was bored and over tired. I was amazed that the focus worked so close.

When I got to Fishguard I got off the train and walked right into the ferry station (or what ever a place where you pick up your ferry ticket and check your luggage is called).

 

 

This is the ferry leaving Fishguard, Wales.

 

 

 

This is the upper deck on the ferry. You could land a helicopter on it if you had to.

 I take this to mean "you can't run around here because it isn't safe, however, you are allowed to run around on other decks should you choose."

This is the café that I sat in for most of the trip. Directly behind where I'm standing to take this picture is a widescreen TV. This is a picture of my chair. It swivels. This is where I sat for almost three hours watching "Parental Guidance" and then an hour of Wimbledon. Its pretty sad when you find tennis on TV interesting. I came so close to seeing Andrew Murry win live. We docked just before the last match.

This is a panorama of Rosslare where I landed. Due to not being able to put the gangway up for us they took us off in a shuttle and drove us around to where I met Eva, picked up my luggage and headed home. I was pretty well wrecked from over 12 hours of travel and not having a decent meal beyond a pretty crummy cucumber sandwich on the ferry that cost a small fortune. When we got home a received the biggest hug from Johanna and I felt at home. I was so happy to crawl into bed when I finally settled down from being over tired and having three cups of tea knowing that the order of the day for tomorrow would be sleeping in and doing nothing.


FYI: You know you've been riding Arriva Trains Wales a lot when you recognize the conductors even when they are out of uniform.

Camp Part II

Camp wasn't all hard work. It was mostly hard work but there was a little fun and a few games.

This camp is home to a hovercraft, a 100 foot water slide and a blob. I neglected to take a picture of the blob tower and waterslide that was constructed while I was there but I did manage to capture the hovercraft in use. Here Bill is taking it out for a test drive to make sure it's safe for the kids to operate.

This is part of the dock that the boys thought would be fun to use as a raft on the pond here at camp. From left, Josiah, Joel and David.


On my last day at Camp I was given the task of securing electrical outlets to the marquees. It was fun and it took a bit longer because I was working by myself but I just sang some worship songs and enjoyed myself and Holy Spirit as I was working. When I finished I went to find out what everyone else was doing. They were working on the water slide and the blob tower. It was drizzly and raining today so we were all a bit soggy and cold but we kept on working because heck, it was Wales and when it Wales you work in the rain. It was amusing to me that I ended up getting a mild sunburn the first two days at camp and I didn't even realize I was getting so much exposure because it was windy and cool.

Round about 1 p.m. we took a break and went to town for a hot meal. It was a good time being inside with the whole crew as someone else cooked for us. When we got back we had to construct another marquee, this time medium sized.

Here is the marquee in the beginning stages.

A bit more progress.

Looking good.

 A guy from town, named Alex, that we just met a couple days before showed up after work to give us a hand and it was a grand time.

Here is Alex the Muscle, as we affectionately called him, standing in for a tent pole, sorry, marquee pole, while we were in early stages of construction.

Now time for a bit of comic relief.

We had planned to cook out that evening and when we finally got the marquee constructed and couldn't find all the pieces to the second one we were supposed to build we settled in for some burgers that Alex the Lion had cooked. It tasted so good and not only because we were so hungry but because Alex the Lion is a pretty good griller.

Following the food I asked the group to pray for me as I was departing early the next morning and knew after supper we wouldn't all be together again. It was really nice and I felt super blessed to have been a part of all this. It felt weird to be leaving them all because it felt as though I had known all of them forever and it had only been two days for some of them. Bill said as much as we drove back to the prayer house. He said, "it doesn't feel like we just met four days ago. It feels like there wasn't a time when I didn't know you." I heartily agreed.

Me and my new besty Joel.

I was sad to be leaving them all but also excited to be going to back to Ireland. It felt like I was going home. If I wasn't so excited to get back to Ireland I might have cried as I left the group.

I threw some laundry in the washer/dryer and headed to my room to pack up. Poor Ebbi was exhausted but we talked for another hour again as I packed up my things. When I finally decided I had it contained enough I bid Ebbi a good night and put on Odyessey. I left to go to the bathroom and in the minute while I was gone Ebbi was out and snoring poor kid. I didn't fall asleep as quickly and having to be up at 5 a.m. I didn't sleep very much in the 4 hours I had.

As I tried to fall asleep that night I reflected on the past 4 days and how fast and furious they had been. At the amazing friendships I had forged and could feel building excitement for the future events that would come out of the contacts I'd made here. It was amazing the sense of destiny I had over this stop in my trip and how God's hand had worked to bring me here. Although my walk recently has been almost devoid of hearing God's voice, feeling this sense of destiny for the past four days was incredible and knowing God was with me even when I don't hear His voice like I'm used to it made me pay more attention to the other ways He speaks in my life. It's hard to put it all into words. Suffice to say that I learned a lot, even though it wasn't how I would have anticipated learning and truly God is in control. I also reflected on the fact that I managed to make it out of the whole ordeal with only a cut under my thumbnail and a strain in my hand. Nettle stings and breathing issues don't count because they only last a day. All in all, pretty good I'd say.

FYI: It is a weird thing the all-in-one washer/dryer. And although it isn't as efficient when you have to do multiple loads of laundry in a limited amount of time it is pretty sweet to put in a load of laundry and go to bed knowing it will be dry in the morning and you don't have to get up to change it over.

Camp

The second day I was at camp was a Sunday morning so we got up around 0830 and had breakfast. Bill, the guy in charge, had a devotion for all of us and then we hit the ground running. It was again an equally hard work day. We had to unload a container only to find a family of mice had been making a mansion all winter long. It was pretty disgusting and all the dust and mold effected my breathing resulting in not feeling well for most of the day. Given that everything was violated I had to sort through and see what was keepable and what was going to be binned (bin is the word they use for trash can). Everything that was kept needed to be bleached. It was hard work and at the end of the day it didn't look like I had done much because everything was either cleaned or thrown out but when I looked back and saw that I had dealt with 75% of metal freight container I realized that it was indeed a full days work. I can't say I felt super spiritual dealing with mouse left-behinds and struggling to breath with a sore throat from coughing but I knew that I was supposed to be here and that was a big deal.


From left Alex the Lion, me, Steve, who doesn't always
 look like that and Will, who always looks like that.

In this photo I have David on one said and David on the other. The right David goes by Dai (pronounced Di) which means Little David in Welsh.



I was pretty much spent come 5 p.m. but we kept on working until around 2100 when a car of new recruites showed up with stew. We went back to the prayer house and had the stew. Well they did, I couldn't eat it cause it had potatoes so ate some bread and cheese. Of the four people who showed up one was a girl named Ebba. She roomed with me that night and we found out that we had a ton of stuff in common. Even our love for an audio drama called Adventures In Odyessey so we talked until late and then listened to an episode of Odyessey.

During one of our water breaks a game of "no hands" broke out. That's what happens when a bunch of teenagers and people in their 20s who think they are teenagers are over tired and take a break.

 Seen here from left Josiah, David and Callum.

 

 

Ebbi and Joel have a go.  

But the winner is Alex the Lion!

The next day we had the task of building 10 marquees. It took a while to figure out just how they were supposed to go up. The top had already been constructed and the roof canvas was on most of them. After the first one we became faster at putting them up and round about the 5th one we ended up completeing a whole one in about an hour. We only made it to five because by that time in the day we had already had lunch and we were pretty much burned out on constructing marquees. So we turned out attention to other things and called it a day around 8 p.m. We headed back to the prayer house where Alex was making pizzas. He made me one with pesto sauce instead of tomato and it was fab. Ebbi and I listened to another Odyessey after we again talked for too long.

This everning I checked my email and got an email from my friend Lea saying that she had a car in France now and I could come over whenever. It was at this point that I realized that I wasn't supposed to go to France I was supposed to come to this camp and help them build, to meet new people and make new connections. Ebbi said before we drifted off "I'm so excited to see what God has for us together in the future and where we'll end up together."

　

FYI: Stinging Nettles are everywhere in the country side of Wales. Take care when you have to "go" in the woods or else sitting down for the rest of the day may not be a pleasent prospect.



Independence Day

 

This morning it hit me. More than I expected it to. I'm not prone to homesickness. I can't remember being homesick in over a decade. Even when I was nine years old at summer camp I wasn't bothered by being away from home and family. But today, my first July 4th abroad was a wee bit emotional. I can sometimes be sentimental but it usually isn't over a holiday. I've worked more July 4th's than I have celebrated with my family but usually when I'm working I'm on duty and the ambulance or firetruck either rolls in the parade or we are standing by and get to enjoy the festivities. And even if I can't make it out to watch fireworks (which is my favorite part of the holiday) I can watch them on TV with my Dad. Not the same but I'm with my dad so its all good.

Today, after being with a comrade from my home state for 4 days, who lived a town over from where I used to live, I'm missing home. I've traveled through 6 countries in as many weeks and I've come to realize how great my homeland is. I do know that we have flaws and the politics in my country almost never goes the way I think it should. We have laws I don't agree with, media that tells the populous what to think, we are ever so sneakily losing our rights and yet...we are still currently so blessed in America. We can hold church anywhere and any time we want. Our laws still aren't as restricting as most of the world. We have so much diversity in our one country compared to other countries its kind of crazy.

I love all the countries I've seen. I could see myself living in any one of them for a time. Each of them have so many qualities that are new and different to what I have back home in the good ol' USA but in traveling around I have realized that we have so many privileges that we take for granted every day. I am so thankful for the honor to be able to call myself an American and proud of my heritage.

This morning my Irish friend Eva brought me coffee and a scone and said "Happy Birthday America!" It was coffee I had brought from the states and she even put half & half in it (which they don't do over here. It's an American thing). Then she said she thought we might have Chinese food for supper in celebration of our 4th of July. It was really good.

I Facetimed my family back home this afternoon and they were making the usual summer food for a cookout. We caught up on family news and whatnot. We talked about parades and fireworks. Again I am accustomed to being away from my family for the holiday but what I'm not used to is being the only American on July 4th. It was something I'd never experienced before. Definitely another first on this trip.

This afternoon I was surrounded by some amazing Irish folk who were very supportive and wished me a happy 4th several times. The twinge of homesickness went away as I realized once again how blessed I am to be able to be an American and also be in the presence of God's people around the world. The past couple weeks I have been blessed to be with Christian brethren (and sisteren) in Europe and the UK and although we are all different nationalities we are one in the Spirit and the love that binds in the spirit is greater than any earthly designation.

 

Shout out to those serving or who have served in our armed forces. To those in PD, FD and EMS who are ever ready, thank you for your sacrifice.