Prague

After finishing debrief with the team, they headed back to the land of Oz while I hopped on a plane to London to spend 36 hours. It was great to go back to friends that I lived with there years ago, and it was as if the 9 years had never been - just sitting up all night talking, enjoying good food and wine and catching up on life. Having lived in London for a while I never actually did many of the touristy things so I decided to use my day there trying to take in all the sites. But the queues (and the fact that Buckingham Palace was closed) got the better of me so I just walked as much as possible around the centre and going back to some favourite places when I worked in Nottinghill... It was nice to walk down memory lane... as well as a packed Portobello Rd.

And now, welcome to Prague. Home to cobbled pathways, winding streets, castles galore, classical music and ice-creams on every corner. The Gulf seems very far away s I'm surrounded by greenery and water! I have 5 nights here in total which has been ample time to take in all of the sites. Probably too much time but it's been a great excuse to have long lunches in cafes and watch everyone else race by, to walk along the river or enjoy reading in one of the many parks in the afternoon sun. I can see why so many people rave about this city. Not only has it been able to keep it's old world charm but there is so much history here in terms of music, architecture and religion and I would definitely tell friends to come here.

After having spent a month, 24/7, with people it's a little strange being on my own but I'm taking it as a good chance to rest up and enjoy it while I can!

A slightly better update

So, for those who haven't been able to read more elsewhere, I thought it was about time I give out a few more details about some of the things we've been doing for our month in the Gulf.

For the most part we've been spending time in one main village, B, teaching English and building relationships with a lot of the locals. It's been an amazing time with them and we've found that we've been able to have relationships that are much deeper because we were there last year too. While locals were always friendly and happy to have us there last year, this time it's gone way beyond that as we've gone into at least 5 homes, shared meals, heard stories... it's been above and beyond what we expected.

Some things have changed here (mostly the landscape with heaps of cranes and construction happening around the clock) but others, the heat, the generosity of the church here, the great food... they're all as good (well, maybe not so much the heat - but you get used to it) as I remember and I'm happy to be back.

The team has been going well and have been throwing themselves in to all aspects of life here. It's hard to believe that we only have a few more days here before heading to D for the debrief time. And then holidays for me!!!

I can't wait. Almost 3 weeks of alone time and exploration, first Prague and then Ireland before some time in Scotland for some ministry conferences. I'm looking forward to all of it!

repenting in dust and ashes... well... mostly dust...

I'm sorry. Bad Bad BAD Blogger... been a crazy month but I'm now safe and sound on the other side of the world. It's great to be back in the Gulf and I'm loving spending time with new friends and old and being able to go back to one of the villages in particular that we were at last year.

For those who want something to look at, head over to my you tube channel to start getting some visual updates.

More later
x j