To lime or not to lime…..

maz felt very welcome!

 our last day in Grenada is upon us so before depart to the most eastern of the Caribbean islands, Barbados, tomorrow we thought that we’d give you all and update on our last week here.

the title of this post has connections to the local phase which has become a bit of a mantra for us since arriving in the capital ‘St Georges’ last Monday. 'Liming' or to 'Lime' really means to chill out, relax with friends or to do nothing in particular other than enjoy yourself.

street vendors make use of all available space

so we're pleased to report that over the last week we have been mostly 'Liming' at the cricket, a match at the national stadium between the West Indies and England which, as with normal test matches, took place over five full days so therefore there was plenty of time to ‘Lime’.

we arrived in St Georges to stay with a couple who we had literally ‘bumped into’ on the beach, we suppose you could say that they were 'Liming' on the beach when we got chatting to them and told them our story about staying on the YWAM base and working for a charity in  South Africa. we also mentioned that we had yet to secure accommodation nearer to the cricket ground, and to cut a long story short they invited to contact them later in the week, where they kindly offered us a bed.

maz liming

we couldn’t have happened on such a wonderful couple as Richard and Angela who have not only made us welcome in their home, but made sure that we have eaten well and caught our local bus into town each morning.

it seems that Richard has had a varied career, he currently does some training sessions locally and leads worship at the local evangelical church, he also hosts a weekly radio show, where we even got a mention last week, he's the sort of person who everyone knows with many contacts and a never silent phone! 

buses (think south african taxi) at the terminal

Angela heads up a local charity (called New Horizons) working with the poorer communities around St George, they focus on helping adults learn to read and write as well as ensuring that the older people in the community have their health needs met.

it’s funny how God connected us with people with a similar passion, we suppose we shouldn’t be surprised as He has proved before, 'He has all things in His hands', although at times we can be too busy and miss those opportunities we are so glad to have made contact on a remote beach miles away from Richard and Angela’s’ home for such a time as this!

but when the sun shone it really made for some good lime time

as we said most of our 'Liming' has taken place between 9.45am and 6pm each day during our time at the cricket, it has to be said that both teams are at a low ebb at the moment but to see the support given to the England team from their fans and supporters who are commonly known as ‘the Barmy Army’ is a testimony to the ‘never say die’ attitude of an English sports fan. it was a little disappointing to see a low turnout from the local’s, however they were probably 'Liming' somewhere more interesting.

that said the local support was nothing but a riot of colour and music with a steel band, exuberant drummers and dancers attending each day and even as England hit the winning runs late in the afternoon of day five they were still singing and playing their rhythmic, if not somewhat repetitive, beat!

yellow bakkie!

one of our highlights of this trip has been the friendliness of the people, our days started early in the morning with a local bus (think South African taxi) journey with up to 15 other people into the bus terminal, again think of Cape Town’s taxi rank with literally hundreds of Toyota mini buses jostling for custom and position, all fitted with extra seats to cram as many people as possible into these projectiles which thunder along the tight and very hilly roads which cover the whole island. it has occured to us that the only people on the island who aren't 'Liming' are the bus drivers and how there aren’t more crashes no one knows.

queues at the public bus terminal 

once at the terminal we have had the pleasure of walking away from the hustle and bustle of the town of St George along a road with busy little shops and market stalls on one side and the beautiful Caribbean sea on the other. traffic is noisy with horns beeping but the fans travelling to the ground are busy chatting away with the expectation of the days play on their lips.

bring on the covers, again

the National Stadium is quite an impressive structure, which was rebuilt after hurricane Ivan ripped through Grenada in 2004 , and has great stands on three sides of the ground, our seats are  perched high with a good view of the scoreboard and replay screens, which operate on an adhoc bases, and with no local radio coverage this was one of the things that made it harder for Maz, who was attending her first test match, to follow the proceedings.

barmy army celebrate joe root's century 

the first couple of days were very very slow with some unexpected rain halting proceedings on a number of occasions, the local's blamed us for bringing it from England! however it was great to see little Joe Root hit a wonderful 182 not out, coming on St Georges day when we were in St Georges was equally special.

maz engaging in a five day test!

Maz continued to make a real effort to engage with the game and has, via the use of her newly purchased binoculars, a hearty knowledge of the intricacies of Johnathan Trotts interesting antics before he readies himself to face another ball or Shivarine Chanderpaul’s crab like stance (neither of these performed too well during this test and we would be surprised if Trott is playing when we see them again this coming Friday) and she was equally vocal as Jimmy Anderson literally turned the game on its head on the fifth morning with a performance with the second new ball on a lifeless pitch.

the local people sitting around us were so welcoming, allowing us to try lots of their home made food, each day more and more on offer as they encouraged us to ‘Lime’ with them. we also met up with some great English fans as well and to cheer on the side with lots of local banter was great.

maz enjoying some local fare..

we will be very sorry to leave this wonderful island, full of colour, flavours and smiling faces but we will be back, soon we hope, however as we have been enjoying ourselves we are very aware that the world has been hit by some major disasters since we last updated our blog, so we know that everything isn’t all as rosy as life here in Grenada is for us, so we send our thoughts to those affected by the earthquake in Nepal, the avalanche on Everest, the unrest in Burundi and the continuing issues the plague those escaping Africa for the ‘dream of living in Europe’ and obviously South Africa (on their 'freedom day' today especially)

so as we finish this section of our journey we are already planning our next trip where England are due to play the West Indies in February and March 2019, if you wanna join us 'Liming'  in 2019 then you’d best start saving now!

amazing sights....

maz waiting for the fisherman to take us to our desert island!

well tomorrow we leave our home here in sauteurs (grenada) where we have been staying on the 'YWAM' (youth with a mission) base with sharron, josh and their team and move onto the capital st georges to take our place at the second test match which will start between the west indies and england on tuesday, however as we're uncertain of our internet access we thought we'd better update our blog on our last weeks highlights before we leave here.

you may notice that we have updated our 'books we're reading' section, on the right hand side of this page, with those that we have now completed, we seem to be racing through some fiction, biographies and also some spiritually challenging books which we are loving having the time to do.

our desert island, all to ourselves!

we had intended to upload two videos showing a couple of our highlights from this last week but with the lack of avaiable data and slower internet connection here we will have to publish a link to them on youtube later on in our trip, so you'll just have to sit tight, wait and make the most of a few photos!

the first of the video was of us being left on our desert island by the local fisherman for the second time during our stay, this time we had the whole island to ourselves where maz once again spent most of the day with her head underwater enjoying the huge array of sea life which could be found on the reef which surrounds this wonderful little island called 'sandy island' which sits at the northeast of grenada.

collecting the turtle eggs 

the second video was taken this evening (sunday 19th april) where we had the awesome privileged of being able to see a leatherback turtle lay over 80 eggs on the beach not a mile from where we're staying. the whole event took place during early evening so there was quite a throng of local people watching this wonderful event with us, there were also the volunteers from a local research centre who measure and tag each turtle, our one was a new turtle who had returned for the first time since hatching at the same beach years before.

this younger adult was just about five feet (144cm) long but some adult males can measure over six feet and weigh in excess of 700kg!, unfortunately this turtle had laid her first batch of eggs too close to the water and as a precaution the research team collected the eggs which they will bury on a near by beach, far away from the high tidy line and away from the local dogs who could make these eggs a nice breakfast tomorrow morning!

job done now wheres the sea?!

this was a truly inspiring time and one that will be a highlight not only of this trip but of our lives, probably because it happened so naturally on a public beach and with out us needing to pay thousands of pounds (sterling) for the privilege!

a time to rest....

maz waiting for the public transport (south african style taxi!

well you best believe what you've heard, we can confirm that the Caribbean is truly beautiful, that said we have only spent just over a week on one island, that of the volcano inspired and mountainous Grenada, but from what we've experienced so far not only are the people friendly but life is VERY laid back! 

our walk home from the beach

the whole of the Caribbean is made up of over seven thousand islands, some big and some small, with at least 28 individual nations. we have actually visited two of those, Grenada as we said, and also a small island just off the north eastern tip which we got to via a short trip with a local fisherman to a place where Robinson Crusoe would feel right at home!

since we arrived we have been able to fully rest, although our time in the united states was indeed part restful, as you can read in our previous post we did move around lots and that was tiring in itself so to arrive at such a peaceful space has been amazing and we are indebted to sharron and josh (the YWAM base leaders) for them allowing us to chill and engage as much or as little as we wish with their team.

our robinson crusoe island view

we are staying in the northeast of the island, well away from the madding crowds arriving off of the cruise ships in St Georges, in fact we are as far away from the airport as we possibly could be, however on an island that's on 21 miles long and 12 miles across that isn't too far, but with the winding roads which venture uphill and down dale at an alarming rate it's far enough and we feel that we are engaging with the real Caribbean and it's peoples, who are very chilled out and friendly. we are walking everywhere as the streets are peaceful, which is a real bonus, and have already made some good friends.

strange fruits

the main reason we ended up on the YWAM (youth with a mission) base is because of our youngest son's, arron, connections, he spent over 10 months in the Caribbean after sailing across the Atlantic from cape town in 2011 and end up spending three months on this base, everyone remembers arron and it's great to met the people that he speaks so fondly about.

Grenada is known as the 'spice isle' and we can fully understand why, the flora here is amazing, just outside our little apartment are grapefruit, mango, orange (both sour and sweet, yes there are more than one type of orange!), banana and papaya, all quite familiar to us europeans, however a little more strange and only a short walk away we find duppy soursop and breadfruit. we have also seen cashews nuts growing under their strange red fruity flesh which is all very different to how we had imagine them growing.

coco pods

we also made a visit to the belmont estate, via local public transport (think taxi service if you are in south africa!), which is home to the grenada chocolate company who harvest the coco beans which go into making their delicious chocolate which can in fact be bought in waitrose stores in england, should you wish to try some, which is well recommended!

tim at the chocolate shop!

other than all the walking we have visited two church services, spent time on the beaches, watching people fly their kites (its a big deal here in Grenada, especially at this time of year around Easter) and spent lots of time reading, which we both love, we have probably finished over four books each so far and if you want to keep up to date with those that we are reading then you can find our reading list at the top right hand side of this blog site!

lets go fly a kite

this truly has been a time to rest and whilst we are really looking forward to the next part of this trip, which includes us watching England play the west indies in a five day test match, we don't want to leave this amazing space, so we are glad that we have over a week left here and we might have to chat up another local fisherman to take us far far away to sandy island again before we leave next monday!

the key to life....great days and wonderful beds!

maz the mermaid

it's just over two months since we left the village of hope for our sabbatical time and whilst we miss the project dearly we have begun to appreciate the time we have been allowed to travel to new places and see new sights. part of that experience includes moving around quite often so we have also met some amazing people and stayed in some incredible beds!

baseball!

our travels so far have extended over three continents, africa, europe and north america, into four countries, south africa, uganda, england and the United States and over many states and counties starting off with three in south africa the western cape, eastern cape and kwazulu-natal then onto the central district in uganda, two counties in our beloved england, those of buckinghamshire and the county of bristol and whilst travelling for the first time in america we have visited viginia, maryland, georgia, south carolina and this last week the beautiful sunshine state of florida. 

our mustang

by the way we also started our trip to the states in washington dc which isn't actually a state its a specific district, please see this link to wikipedia for the definition!

margaritatime

we are obviously travelling on a tight budget so whilst we have visited these amazing places we have had to do it as cost effectively as possible, therefore we have made use of beds provided in homes of our family and friends but when we have had to seek accommodation in new areas we have also made use of all our contacts and stayed with friends of friends, used the online airbnb network and even a domain called couchsurfing and that's how we have spent our last week as we travelled down from our wonderful hosts in augusta right the way down to the southern most tip of mainland USA in key west.

our own slick of paradise

seven mile bridge, rail road and automobile

last monday we picked up our first hire car in augusta, a very well equipped toyota corolla with an incredible leather interior and a huge engine fit for a supercar rather than a family run around, but hey we're in america where everything is big and the fuel is very very cheap. our first stop was just outside st augustine, a historic seaside town, however the weather wasn't kind to us and the sea fog stopped us enjoying what would have been our first views of the atlantic from the other side of the world.

tim at the drive thru ATM

open mike, USA style

bike to the beach, oh go on then

on tuesday we made our way to orlando to stay with debbie, a friend of a friend who made us feel very welcome, we also had the opportunity to attend our first real live baseball game which was fought between the atlanta braves and philladephia philles, we were cheering for the braves but the went down 3-5 in what has to be said was a very slow but intriging game. we wouldn't want to offend any of our american friends who love this sport but to say that we were seated right next to disneyland florida the game could have done with some spicing up from old walt himself. it seems that the pitcher (that's the guy that throws the little white ball incredibly fast at the batter, or hitter) is really in control of the game and unless the batter or hitter can strike the ball way out of the park there is little chance of getting a home run as all the fielders are wearing huge gloves which makes catching the ball, and therefore getting one of the batters 'out', so easy that i think my sister could catch one that was hit so high in the air that it had snow on!....maybe time for some water hazards, bunkers and moguls to make it a little harder, or even less fielders or heaven forbid take the large gloves off, that might make the game a little more exciting. that said we had a blast, the fans were friendly, none of the football chanting and swearing that we hear in england, and i (tim) even got to keep one of the many hundreds of balls that were used in the game. strike one!

by tuesday the sun had come out and just in time as we picked up our second hire car, a ford mustang convertible which we had hired via some air miles saved up from my time working in europe many many moons ago. this was the perfect car to travel down from miami to the truly stunning keys which sit at the south eastern tip of the united states, although the car wasn't fitted with the massive 5 litre (funny how they still used gallons under the imperial system but rate the size of engines under the litre and therefore metric system here!) engine that is available, however the 3.7litre engine was quite powerful enough to speed the car along at 55mph.....the only time we were able to let it loose was when setting off from the traffic lights, which was quite often cause there are loads of traffic lights here, when i (tim) could do my lewis hamilton impression with a 0-60 of around 5 seconds it only took a little under that to hit the speed limit!

the florida keys are an incredible strip of tiny islands which arc out into the atlantic and mexican gulf, with large bridges, one over seven miles long, which stretch over the aqua blue waters which hold host to many hundreds, if not thousands, of plant and marine life. it was a truly once in a lifetime experience to drive down the US1 which connects key west at mile marker zero all the way to the mainland 127 or so miles away.

the first night in the keys was spent in our first couchsurfing experience, we were hosted by the wonderfully attentive and inclusive kimberley and her partner and best friend in their home in islamorada, they made us very welcome, let us use their bikes to visit the local beaches with their warm waters and fish life, shame we got a puncture which slowed our progress, they even took us to a friends house for an early party jamming session. kimberly and her friend mary are great singers and later that evening we went to an open mike type event where mary sang and we all cheered her on.

by the friday we had to move on this time to a friend of a friends home in marathon which sits almost in the middle of the keys, jennifer was our amazing host and she also made us feel very welcome, along with her two attentive cats. we enjoyed suppers together, time at the beach and best of all we got to visit the local dolphin research centre were jennifer had worked for many years. she knew all of the dolphins by name and we must say that we're sure that those dolphins recognised her so well. 

on saturday evening jennifer had booked us on a boat trip with a difference, the difference being that we were going out with a group practicing their yoga class, all well and good we hear you cry but tim's balance and flexibiltiy isn't the best on dry land let lone when bobbing up and down on the ocean, however maz seemed to get on well and soaked up the zen with jen!

on sunday we made the extra fifty of so mile trip down to the bohemian town which is key west, key west has some amazing architecture like none we had experienced in america before and whilst on the trolley bus tour we were able to take in some of the sights, the different style of buildings and the homes of many famous people including ernst hemmingway (long since past). we also had time to sup a margarita or two however they still don't compare to gerry's down at zest in gordons bay, south africa and visit the most southern point in mainland america, all very touristy but one has to do it sometimes.

one thing we have noticed is the plethora of state parks which help to protect what is a very fragile environment, our best visit was to one called bahia honda which sits just to the south east of the famous seven mile bridge which henry flagler had had built as part of his railroad dream to connect key west to the rest of the united states, a feat that he achieved in 1912 just two years before his death and although the bridge has now been replaced by a hugely impressive road bridge parts of it remain open to the public and we were able to spend a few hours walking from marathon to pigeon key along it. our day at bahia honda was picture perfect, we found a couple of palm trees to sit under and enjoyed bathing, and maz as normal, upping her competition to become a mermaid, snorkeling as if her life depended on it.

to cap off our trip the the united states we couldn't pass by the oppertunity to use a drive through ATM (bank) but us being us we had to do it slightly differently, so we drove through on our bikes!

today we fly out from miami on the next stage of our adventure, a month at the YWAM base in grenada, where we hope to get some real chill out time, we know that sounds strange but since we left south africa we really haven't had that much time on our own and that is key to this part of our sabbatical so we hope that the guys are ready to point us in the direction of the beach and let us read, swim and further relax in preparation for our more reflective, retreat and reinvigorating times to come.

goodbye america we'll be back!

weddings, welcomes and further thoughts about the USA

robert and nicki welcomed us
at the airport

after leaving washington DC we made our relatively sort journey to augusta, georgia, where we hooked up with all sorts of people for what was to be the thembalitsha wedding of the year. we have so many friends who have visited us on trips, both short term mission and longer term individual volunteers, to the village of hope and it was truly wonderful to meet up with some of them at nicki and roberts wedding.

on arriving in augusta with it's unusally small red brick faced airport we knew we had arrived in the real united states, gone were the relatively familiar low level buildings and european city feel of washington DC, hardly surprising since it was designed by a french man named L'Enfant, and what welcomed us were huge expanses of land, mostly of trees, and wide lane freeways, traffic lights and shopping malls.

there seemed to be every conceivable drive through experience as well, not just the familiar MacDonald's that we have in england and south africa but Starbucks coffee, which we suppose isn't that surprising, but an ATM/bank drive through or pharmacy store drive through really!, there was even a drive and 'donation drive through' where you could drop off you unwanted but still use able donated goods which would be handed out to the poorer people who couldn't drive everywhere without even getting out of their car!

a visit with jon and regan

we had also arrived in 'the bible belt' and there seemed to be a plethora of huge churches with parking lots the size of some towns on every stretch of road, they even have traffic cops directing the cars as they arrive at these venues which seems like a great use of police time.

americans seem to have thought of everything however one thing that seems to be missing in this whole drive through and churchy culture is a drive through church!, we've heard that there are 'drive in' churches but our concept would be a drive through fast food style option, we could expand but wouldn't want to be heard as heretics so we'll leave the options to that idea open to your imagination, however if that ever happens to come true then you heard it first on this blog!.....thinking about it perhaps we should come over and start one just to see if the concept works!

we digress so back to the reason we were in augusta, we had made this long roundabout trip to come celebrate the wedding of some friends who had actually met on a missions trip to south africa where robert was leading a team who stayed at the village of hope. we were met at the airport by robert and nicki which was a real surprise and privilege given all the planning and sorting that they had to do prior to the big day later in the week. they shared a starbucks coffee and cake experience with us before settling us into our first home stay, we are thankful for them and the time they spent with us!

the happy couple

one thing we have learnt about people in the USA is that they are very welcoming and keen on making you feel right at home the minute they meet you, karla (garrard) had sorted out a whole schedule (pronounced very differently over here to what we are used to in england!) of people who were going to provide accommodation, cars and meals throughout the week and we are so blessed to have had her around to make us feel part of the family.

keith and mary were our first hosts and made us feel very welcome in their lovely home in north augusta, which is actually in the state of south carolina, and during our stay with them we had some lovely walks along the savannah river and meals both at their home and at restaurants, including our first experience of chick-fil-a a very southern thing apparently.

our first home meal was with melissa and matt, two people whom we have grown to love from their trips to south africa, we think the best thing that we have experienced so far on this trip is the home cooked meals and being able to see the real america that many tourists would miss by stopping in hotels, it is a true blessing to have made so many good friends and we thank God for that and those people he has drawn across our paths.

meeting up with thembalitsha friends

we had opportunity to talk at keith and mary's weekly home group, where we encouraged their friends, who all attend the In-Focus church in augusta, with stories from our lives in south africa, the group was very responsive and we hope that we inspired them to get involved in all that God is doing be that way away in africa or right here in augusta where there are still great opportunities to serve him and share in his kingdom work.

keith also lent us his car, a very luxurious nissan complete with a 3.5litre engine which we have driven around to the various events, including the wedding, it was quite strange to drive on the right hand side of the road, but one soon gets the hang of it and without the need to change gear it was really plonk your right foot down to accelerate and brake and make sure you followed the signs to ensure there were no accidents. driving at night was a slightly more scary experience with little or no lighting available even on major junctions and the lack of cats eyes and clear central lines made even short journeys a bit of an adventure.

on thursday we had quite an unusual experience, tim visited a hairdresser!, this was so rare that it was the first time he had visited since his birthday last august and also the first time he had let his luscious long locks surrender to the scissors for nearly six years. the result was a short cut which tim is quite happy with but maz seems the happier!

a hot chick eating chic-fli-a

it's great to see what God is doing around the world and we were privileged to spend some time catching up our friend john and his wife reagan who have purchased some land to start their own ministry, it would seem that human trafficking is as much a problem here in america as it is in the rest of the world and their hope is that they will provide some safe accommodation for young ladies and perhaps their children who have been trafficked, we visited the site and it was great to share some time praying and sharing ideas with them on their new adventure.

by thursday the wedding was looming large and it was great to joined the wedding rehearsal that even, thankfully the event was more than the english style rehearsal which normally involves a lot of standing around and getting people in position prior to the big day, this one included speeches and a meal afterwards. it was wonderful to meet up with old friends, both young and old and from all over the states including people from trinity church in dallas and shannon jones, a volunteer all the way from california.

don, patty and nathan

friday saw the day of the wedding and it was fantastic to be able to share this special time with nicki and robert as well as their families who had joined the party from all over the united states. the venue was stunning over looking some rapids on a wide part of the river, the sun came out and everyone was smiling but with a tear in their eyes on seeing these two wonderful hearts come together, they truly are a dynamic couple and we can't wait to see where their paths will take them as they set out on this new adventure together.

over the weekend we moved to patty and don's home which is on the other side of augusta, this couple seem to be on every mission trip that is sent from InFocus church and therefore have visited the village of hope on many occasions but to be welcomed their home was very special and we thank them for all the hard work that they had undertaken to make sure we had a good time with them, we met there wonderful boys including nathan who made us very welcome and kept us entertained during our stay.

wholehearted worship at infocus

we have really enjoyed our week in augusta and our last days were spent with a trip into the wilds to have dinner with brent's (karala's husband and pastor of In-Focus) mum and dad in their timber home on the banks of a very large dam, we went fishing, which confirmed tim's thoughts that the exersise is really just about drowning worms as we didn't actually witness a fish being landed, however we enjoyed another BBQ, this time cooked by pastor frank from our home church in somerset west, sorta home from home really!

we couldn't leave before attending a service at the In-focus church, our friend charl (ex-wholehearted) led the worship, brian, current lead singer of wholehearted played along side him, and pastor brent bought a good word. we actually attended the last of three services and we don't blame don and patty for rushing to a near by mexican restaurant afterwards for some refreshment on what is a weekly busy morning for all leaders involved.

bbq or braai

before we sign off on this part of the trip we must also thank tom and linda for the breakfast they provided for us on saturday morning, we did have some interesting things to chat around and for terra and her husband kyle for sharing a wonderful meal with us, and krissy and amanda from thembalitsha, last night. 

with all this hospitality we are sure to have put on a few kilos so this next week we will try to make the most of the sunshine and beach that we hope to find in florida to try to work off some of the excess weight!

Sorry that there aren't any photos on this post but our cell phones are on strike, we hope to have them back up and running to update this sometime during the week!

boulder couple plus thoughts on the US of A

view from the airbus 380

it seems that so much has changed since we last posted on our personal blog, our eyes have been opened to an american culture that we had only witnessed via the media and we know that there will be so many other surprises during the next few weeks but we thought we'd better get something down in writing before it all becomes a bit of a blur.

last thursday morning we made our first transatlantic flight, which just so happened to be on an almost empty british airways airbus 380 which was a true Godsend, boy those planes are BIG, and upon our arrival in washington we were met and then hosted by our 'boulder couple' kyle and sammar.

washington memorial

we met kyle and sammar on a boulder in camps bay, cape town, about eight months ago, they were in the middle of a round the world journey of a lifetime and minding their own business enjoying the beauty of their surroundings, the ocean to the left, lions head rising straight ahead and to the right the mighty table mountain which majestically sits a watch over cape town itself.

our first meeting was one of those moments when you realise that there is this divine figure orchestrating much of what we would see as random acts, this meeting and our further time with kyle and sammar is perhaps best seen by the post on their blog soon after their time with us, follow this link for their thoughts on the topic!

honest abe

we didn't have much expectation around our time in washington DC, we knew of some of the sights we might see but to be hosted by two people who have a very similar outlook on life and therefore sorta enjoy doing and seeing the same type of things it has been easy to let them guide us towards both the touristy things and the real life america that so many people who visit this nation would miss.

steps where martin luther king spoke

kyle and sammar live in a wonderful home quite close to the city centre, this neighborhood seems to be very up and coming but we are very aware that our local surroundings have a very different recent history and the city a much more of a world wide impact. last night we spent some time listening to around 20 drummers in what was unofficially called the malcolm X park and the race riots that followed the assassination of martin luther king happened only a few blocks away from where we're sitting right now.

vietnam war veteran by the vietnam war memorial

it's been funny to watch our own reactions to those things that we had only experienced on TV or seen on the movies, our first real american fire truck, or fire hydrant, newspaper stand, trashcan, even a target store and experiencing taco's,  black beans and cheese dip. but then there are the those things that we thought that we'd see which were so different to our expectations, the white house is so small and the theater where lincoln was shot has a modern facade that takes away the immemce history of the place.

the white house!

kyle and sammar hosting!

that said we have also had some incredibly semi spiritual experiences, the time spent wandering around the world war 2 memorial which sits between capitol hill and the lincoln memorial was very special and to stand on the very spot where martin luther king delivered his 'i have a dream' speech and thinking around the impact that that had for both him, this nation and even the world was so powerful.

a few bottles of bourbon later

over the weekend we had the opportunity to visit our good friend helen and her husband chaz at their beautiful home in maryland, it seems that americans live up to their expectations with food playing a huge part of the way they host and spend time. chaz fired up his gas weber bbq and cooked us some amazing ribs and real hamburgers, we also enjoyed some real bourbon over the meal. tim even got to watch the first grand prix of the season!

helen has visited the village of hope on five occasions so to spend time with her and also introduce her to kyle and sammar was very special, we certainly will be back!

maz and helen at the friary 

on sunday we attended church with helen, it was our first time in an american church and a catholic one at that, two firsts there!, the service was short, the music a little unfamiliar but the sense of God via His Spirit through His people very evident. the church wasn't just a church either it was set on a friary and was led by some of the monks that live there, thankfully they seemed very friendly and welcoming which bodes well for the rest of our trip when we return to england where we have a week at a monastery planned in july.

helen and chaz

we returned back from the countryside of maryland, which still had drifts of snow lining the roadside and hedgerows, to georgetown, a small and very upmarket part of washington where it seems the architects had visited parts of london for their inspiration, after a walk along the canal and river potomac we attended evening song at christ church in georgetown, this was also a simple service and although very different to the catholic expression of the morning captured the diversity of God who meets men where they are in whatever way He sees fit for them to engage with Him.

today we've spent our last day in washington where headed out to hike in the great falls national park, this was a an amazing end to this part of our trip, the snows had just melted so the potomac river was running very high over the falls which was a sight to behold. we also enjoyed a pic-a-nic overlooking some crazy guys kayaking and even paddle boarding around some rapids.

around georgetown

so tomorrow we head down to augusta to join nicki and robert for their wedding this coming friday so will hopefully update this blog sometime next week after that part of the adventure.

family time....

sunday roast with family!

well we have been back in england for nearly two weeks now and although we are still feeling very sad to have left one part of our lives in south africa we have enjoyed some wonderful times with family and friends who are obviously very important to us.

'a traditional english meal' with beth and alex
(curry!)

firstly we were welcomed back by our great friends trefor and mandy who have once again made their home available to us and although we are having to process the fact that we have passed on the batten of the village of hope and the wider work we were involved with via the thembalitsha foundation in grabouw to others their home is a place of peace for us and we are truly thankful for that.

tref and mandy left for a well earned holiday over the first weekend so we had free reign to invite family over for a sunday roast, which was a time for us to catch up with mum's and dad's as well as sisters and brother in laws, josh also joined us which was great.

qpr v arsenal at loftus road with josh

after a few open days of chilling, which included a meal with beth and alex and the feeding of the dogs and horses and a trip to watch the mighty queens park rangers play arsenal at loftus road with josh, we made our way down to bristol to stepped up to the plate of being parents and grandparents to our boys and grandchildren.

birthday skype with uncle arry

football fun with uncle ash

we don't think anyone can really appreciate the sacrifice that we had/have made over the last six full years towards our paternal duties, to be a full follower of Christ we are called to pursue him with our full hearts and sometimes that means forfeiting those duties that the world would hold dear. during the time we have spent in south africa we have had to daily put aside all those thoughts towards our own family as we shared God's love towards those children we were able to provide a home to at the village of hope and or to go beyond ourselves to serve the community in ways which aren't fully understood or seen by others. in a way its the lack of recognition that encourages us to follow God into his calling however it's only when one returns to the 'normality of life' that we see back in england that one fully appreciates all that our family have had to endure during our time serving overseas.

reliving our african adventure with the boys photo book

after a weekend of birthday celebrations, long walks, church services, family meals, playing table football, cuddles with babies, skype meetings with arron, fun in the water with the grandchildren during a balmy spring day and a sickness bug (less said about that the better!) we made our way to spend a couple of nights with our friend and mentor mal calladine who guided us through some of our further planning of our sabbatical which was welcome and we value his wisdom and kind words.

so tomorrow we're off to the united states for the first time, where we will be visiting our american friends who we've made during our time setting up and hosting volunteers at the village of hope, we are praying for a safe flight and simple entry into the USA.