Leaving Lörrach

It’s my last week in Lörrach; I finished work at the school at the end of the school year in July and holidayed with my parents in Corsica for the first two weeks of August. These few remaining days have been spent packing up and saying goodbyes, reminding friends that they can always call on me in the UK and cycling through the forests and villages one last time.

Monte Cinto with the parents

Beautiful granite peaks 😀

Cow in cloud, between Bocca di Verghjiu and Lac Nino

I am probably getting worse at goodbyes. I never had particular problems when I was younger, but I suppose that was chiefly naivety at the world. I still had illusions about how easy it is to return to places and friendships. I dearly want to return to Lörrach and the beautiful countryside around here; I’ve made a home and built up a network of friends young and old. But I am aware that the carefree years are beginning to wane and I suppose I ought to be more sensible, realistic and dull. Think about a career, find a steady job, consider family and morph into one of those strange creatures called ‘adults’. Hmph. 😒

On the bright side, I will be leaving life in Lörrach with a host of new skills and relationships, a far better grasp of German, French and Arabic, and invitations aplenty to return and visit.

I know that I could fairly easily find jobs teaching English, working with kids, working in activity centres or mountain huts, or doing more admin-style work in Germany or Switzerland. I’m blessed with a love of things academic and practical, and the happy ability of generally making friends and enjoying life whatever happens. So, whatever God’s plan for my life is, I know I could come back.

As a sort of quick summary, here are a few statistics from my time here;
– 3,739 km cycled (total height : 36,213m)
– 7 pieces of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte eaten
– 116 laugenstange eaten (rough guess based on average in last months)
– 9 weekend trips outside Markgräflerland (eg. Freiburg, Paris, Bobengrün in Hof, Tübingen, Düsseldorf)
– 6 fruit crumbles baked
– 36+ postage stamps bought
– 141 tutoring sessions given
– 4 cycle rides in three countries

Here is also a pretty map of nearly everywhere I’ve cycled this year (courtesy of Strava and a nifty website). Given that I’ve only been out cycling at the weekend about four times, and the rest of the routes are detours home after my 8 hours, it’s fairly impressive!

At least it’s quite clear in which country I was living! (and those commutes…)

My brother arrived on Tuesday and has been theoretically helping me pack. In reality, his main help will be with my suitcase and bags when travelling back go to the UK. On Wednesday we went for a last visit to Lukas in Zürich, cycled around part of the lake, climbed the Freitag tower and made calzone and pizza. I also said goodbye to my bike which I am leaving with him, and picking up in September for my cycle with Zara – but that’ll be written about on our shared travel blog here – JoZa Travels.

Pizza!

Cycling: Zürich offers a free bike hire service!

Ice cream by the lake

We returned back to Rötteln close to midnight, and were somewhat surprised to see that Julian and his friends were still up enjoying drinks by an open fire; their plan was to set out at 5am to start the Westweg through the Black Forest. They woke and actually left a bit closer to 11am!! I had packed that morning, so after waving them off we cooked a sort of brunch with the left-over perishables in the fridge. Anyone hungry for Nutella toast with fried egg, followed up by a pork and veg stew?

Last quick trip round my castle…Burg Rötteln in the early morning 🙂

Packing up had been moderately stressful, given Eurostar permit just 2 large items and 1 handbag, but by the time it got to Thursday evening I was basically panicking about the fate of one singularly large watermelon, staring menacingly at me from the fridge. Whilst I happily nibble the odd slice once a year, this melon was a quantity too much for me to cope with, and I had no idea what I should do. Leaving it wasn’t an option; it was the wrong side of ripeness and would probably have sprouted legs within a week, and my conscience would not have permitted such an awful crime.. I tried gifting it to friends, asked Facebook contacts if they wanted it, and even wrote a little note to pin to it and then leave it in the street for a passer-by. Fortunately a neighbour happened to call in and drop off the organ console keys, and we were able to dispose of it with some semblance of dignity.. I wonder why my host family hadn’t taken it with them?

Can we carry these? I hope so…

Anyway, I’d better leave it here since I have a train to catch and a platform to find. Congratulations to those who have been faithfully reading each blog post; your statistics have not gone unnoticed! It’s been amusing writing a nearly-weekly summary of my life in Lörrach; I look forward to seeing how the rest of the future pans out!

Ciao x

Green, black and white – Eastertide

Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.
 He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

Psalm 130:7-8

Easter is a special time of year. For perhaps most people, it’s a welcome break to the work or school routine, when the garden and parks are beginning to wake up from winter and flowers start bursting forth. Especially daffodils. Who doesn’t love the cheeriness of daffodils?!

For Christians and church-goers, it takes on a far more significant meaning. Not only does the altar table go through a seeming-bewildering array of colours (spot the Anglican!), but there are services and extra Communions held to celebrate Jesus’ life, sacrifice and victory through the resurrection.

For the last 5 years I have met up with the wonderful Naomi N in Canterbury Cathedral on Maundy Thursday, attended the Evensong in the quire and then the stayed in the Vigil in the crypt until about 11pm. (*This last exercise may have been partially inspired by the Elham valley bus departure 11:20pm.) This year I celebrated Gründonnerstag, Karfreitag and Osternacht in Rötteln, and thought I’d take a break from my normal posts and write a bit about them.

Was ist eigentlich dieses  “Maundy Thursday”?
Put simply, Maundy Thursday services remember the last Passover meal which Jesus shared with his disciples before he was killed.
The Passover meal itself is a reminder of the escape from slavery in Egypt – think of the Bible stories of Moses, or that brilliant yet inaccurate film ‘Prince of Egypt’. Basically, the Israelites were under mass-enslavement in Egypt, God decided to free them and using Moses as their prophet-leader, guided them out across the Red Sea and through the Sinai desert. Pharoah was rather miffed that his work-force were hoping to walk out, so ordered to stop them; God sent the famous plagues and the upshot of it all was that his people were free. Jesus and his disciples were Jews who upheld tradition and partook in this meal, but his last Passover had a particular significance as he whilst sharing the bread and wine, he openly said he would be betrayed by one of his disciples and then put to death.
Another aspect of some Maundy Thursday services is the tradition of foot-washing. This sounds and is in fact rather weird; in Canterbury Cathedral, the image of the Archbishop washing the grimy feet of several congregation members is one few forget! But again it mirrors Jesus’ actions when he washed the feet of his disciples, displaying that he came to love and serve his people.

Canterbury Cathedral, my old village church and the majority of Anglican churches hold a simple, commemorative Communion service on Maundy Thursday, and it was oddly comforting to have the same in Rötteln. However, instead of using the pews, the 36-odd congregation sat in circles around a table; this alone gave the service a very different feeling. We were partakers, invited to sit at Jesus’ table – we were not just an audience or Zuschauern.

Good Friday or Karfreitag
Karfreitag literally translates as ‘grief Friday’ (old German ‘kara’ – ‘Kummer’ / ‘Trauer’). Yet the English name seems to be the opposite!
The reason for this Christian festival is fairly well known – it is when we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. In this respect both the German and English names sum up the days’ events – the grieving disappointment and deep mourning of Jesus’ followers at the time, followed by the great good news three days later, that he defeated Death and was resurrected!

1 Peter 3:18 tells us, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.”

Easter Sunday – Osternacht
It is becoming rarer for churches in the UK to hold midnight services at Easter, despite the continuing tradition at Christmas (priorities?!). In Canterbury, St Martins’ church lights the Easter fire at 5am or sunrise. In Rötteln, we began at 11pm on the Saturday in complete darkness – no lights, no candles, just pitch black darkness within the church – and the service took us through the entire story of human history; the creation of the universe and humankind, the rebellion of going against what God had said and subsequent enslavement and battles which the Israelites faced, and then the story of Jesus. At about 11:40 we lit the Easter candle and I carried it down the nave where it was distributed around lots of little candles, so that the entire church was lit up brightly with an orange tint. After the service some of the candles lit a large bonfire in the yard and we stood around, drinking wine and eating fresh bread until 4am.

It was a slightly different Eastertide to usual – I missed the Easter Monday Youth Pilgrimage which always happens in Canterbury – but it was really cool to celebrate it in German and grapple with the Bible texts, theology and liturgy auf deutsch.

Cakes, Cornishes and Karlsruhe

I’m a year older! I suppose one ought to grow mature, wise and sensible with the passing years, but that seems rather unlikely to happen any time soon. Perhaps in prospect of witnessing my sudden morphing into an adult, my parents drove out from the UK and so I celebrated with both of my families!

My parents arrived on Friday evening, just as I got home myself, so we ate together and caught up on news and information which had occurred since I last saw them properly at Christmas. On Saturday we had a chilled morning together around the house and then my parents and I drove up to Schönau and then took the bus up to Belchen. It was a very scenic bus route, although it took us up several different valleys and lasted longer than expected!

Despite intermittent falling snow over the last few weeks, Lörrach has basically moved on into spring now, but the villages higher up in the mountains were still very much snow-bound. Belchen was covered in people on skis, snow-boards and a group in snow-shoes, but some of the tracks were safe enough to gander around in walking boots, even if we did end up knee-deep every other step! It was beautifully sunny, sparkling white and felt warm. Here are a few photos of us enjoying the ridge and summit, and the fondue in the evening!

Belchen cable car

This bench is somewhat buried…

Interesting ice on the roof of the gasthaus

Belchen summit cross – ofc, the catholic south

Family selfie – minus 1 brother

On Sunday morning we went the service in Rötteln church and then I sped off to the Russian family for an hours’ English tutoring. On my return, we had lunch and went walking in the Röttlerwald until we were given notice that another missionary-translator friend had dropped by to say hello. Despite being in her late 60s, she commutes regularly between her parish in Schopfheim and her work in Cameroon and Indonesia. My parents have known her for years, and it’s good fun to chat to her and to hear her travel stories!

We went out for a birthday meal in a rather fancy restaurant in Egringen. There is sometimes the unfortunate stereotype that Germans don’t eat well, or that the cuisine comprises mainly of sauerkraut, sausage and spinach. This is simply not true, and I would argue that the German cuisine is one of the most varied in Europe. They are not afraid to cook simply; cabbage, potatoes and sausages do indeed feature heavily, but then they are also able to do excellent reciepes in fish, asparagus, schnitzel, spätzli, chestnut.. quite literally anything. The proximity of most Bundesländer to international borders means German food is also peppered with foreign influence (ha).

Monday was another lovely day; we had a typical birthday breakfast with two birthday cakes (German apple cake from Beate, and English coffee&walnut from my Mum!) and then wandered around Lörrach city centre. After lunch, we visited our friends in Bad Säckingen and got a short tour around the town before a lovely tea with a huge Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte, some apfeltaschen and different types of tea, which was very kind of them! I had visited them once before (here!) and they had showed me around the centre of the town as well, but it was nice to re-visit with my parents. In the evening, we discovered that Daniel had also procured some cherry gateau as an extra surprise for us… I was certainly not about to complain about having two lots of Kirschtorten on my birthday!!

My parents drove back to England on Tuesday morning, which was bit sad. I realised later in the day that I have a habit of only seeing them for three or four days at a time, so I will try to remedy that in May and August. We packed the car together, and then after the goodbyes, they left, dropping me off at Lörrach Hbf where I caught a train to Karlsruhe.

A misunderstanding had meant that I had Tuesday off work, and by very happy coincidence, Southampton University Concert Band were in my Bundesland on their annual tour! Naomi A and Lucy-Anne had asked if I might be able to join them, so I sat on a train and YARP-ed the hours away. Won’t I be glad when I have finally handed it in!

I have been to Karlsruhe before, in 2013, when visiting Marja-lena near Freiburg for the first time. On that particular day I had endured a 25 hour coach journey from London Victoria and had 2 hours to spare before my train to Freiburg. The centre of Karlsruhe is not quiet. Loud and disruptive tram works have been in place since 2002. You can read about the project in German here; http://www.diekombiloesung.de/kombiloesung/projekt.html . Put simply, the plan to place one of the biggest tram lines in the city under the main street has been a disaster; the time scales were either overly ambitious, or just wrong. The website promises that the open building site will only be visible for two years, and by implication, traffic problems will be eliminated after this time. Anyhow, from my experience of visiting in 2013 and again in 2016 (which is 3 years, even for a Humanities’ student), nothing seems to have changed, and the main road leading from the central station to the palace is dug up and impassable to anything wider than a metre.

I digress, and I’m not sure you’ll all be that excited to read about the ins and outs of the traffic problems. I met up with Naomi at Karlsruhe Hbf and we exchanged birthday presents and recent news before heading into the centre. We made our way through the Tiergarten and elephant cage, and arrived at the Karlsruher Landesmuseum in its imposing baroque palace. This was interesting to look around with different historical eras on different floors, so we naturally spent a good deal of time in the Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern periods… We also went up into the tower and got a fantastic view of the Fächerstadt.

Lake in the palace grounds

Karlsruhe Schloss

In the Karlsruhe Tiergarten

Karlsruhe was originally a fairly unimportant small town until in 1714, the Marquess of Baden-Durlach had a bit of an argument with his neighbours in Durlach and moved his capital there. He built the palace and arranged the city in a huge wheel-shape, with the main roads coming out from the Schloss like spokes. Thanks to Allied bombing, most of modern-day Karlsruhe is built outside from this radial design, but the original shape is surprisingly easy to see from the tower!

Southampton University Concert Band

The Concert Band were due to perform at 3pm, with a rehearsal in the Evangelische Stadtmission at 2pm. We marched across the city, grabbing lunch at a bakery, and ended up being too early, but that didn’t matter. It was good to see Lucy-Anne and some old friends there, including a girl who I had only once met before in Colchester, and presented her with a piece of toy train track! The concert was lovely; some cracking film scores and medleys accompanied by more classical pieces. I had been asked to translate for the conductors, and although it was fairly easy stuff, it was somewhat haphazard as no-one thought to tell me beforehand which bits they could say themselves, and which bits they wanted me for. Ah well! I returned home on a train which was full of heavily-armed French and Swiss military – the news of the Brussels bombings warranted higher security on public transport.

Osterlamm / Easter Lamb cake in the NmB

Lisanne made a super Biskuitrolle!

Wednesday was my only day at the school this week, and was good fun. I was beautifully surprised when one of my friends at school brought in a Biskuitrolle mit Himberersahne – a raspberry cream roll – and mid-morning, the Hausmeisters and the other kiosk workers all gathered round to sing; usually, German tradition dictates that the birthday person has to bring in food themselves, but I hadn’t had time to make anything. All of the morning tasks got done without hassle, and in the afternoon, Tamara appeared during the Nachmittagsbetreuung! The children were happy to see her and well occupied with Easter-themed activities – we had a short re-telling of the Easter service, followed by a meal of the Easter lambs – and all in all it was a splendid day!

Prayer Points

• Thanks for a wonderful time with my parents, that they had safe travel and could take break from work
• Thanks for the opportunity to see Naomi and Lucy-Ann in Karlsruhe!
• Thanks for a lovely day on Wednesday at school; that I have good friends there, that the children and staff enjoyed the afternoon and that the stresses of last week were gone.
• Prayers for all students on their YAs; after the Erasmus students in Spain were killed, and with the attacks in major European cities, that we would feel safe and turn to God with our concerns

Harvest Home

View from Tumringen back to Rötteln and the castle

Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home!
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home!

Another week over, and suddenly it’s harvest festival time! It’s a good old tradition which I’ve missed dearly at university.

Last of the summer blackberries

I am fortunate to be living in a medieval vicarage with a fantastic set of gardens and orchards attached – plus an orchard in another village – and the autumnal fruit picking season is a big task indeed. Apples, pears, plums, quinces, figs, grapes (both wild and wine), berries seemingly of every conceivable variety, late summer tomatoes, cabbages, rhubarb, onions, potatoes and carrots. I’ve probably accidentally omitted other fruit or vegetables, and I haven’t even started on the herb garden…

The Pfarramt kitchen these past few days has smelt of baked quince and the unmistakable tang of cinnamon, and due to the good weather we’ve been able to collect large quantities of fruit and make a start on the mass of cakes, puddings and crumbles.

I made an apple cake!

It’s all very exciting, picking apples and pears as the sun rises before work, and knowing that when I return from work I can help my host mother with baking and learn new recipes for preserving fruit! (And yes, I have successfully introduced my host family to the concept of custard on crumble!)

Yesterday there was the Kindergottesdienst which celebrated harvest and looked at the story of the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 6:8-23 who, with God’s help, turned a besieged battlefield into a scene for eating and drinking and celebrating freedom. We started out with an introductory discussion on war and how it disrupts lives, and then began acting out the story from 2 Kings. Half of the children were Israelites and had to build a city and make flames, and the others were the enemies who built weapons and chariots, and then we had a good ten minutes parading around the Friedhof and pretending that we were in the mountains around Dothan…

Kindergottesdienst

Eventually the Israelites were surrounded by the enemies in their city, so Elisha prayed and as the enemies were blinded, he walked out and guided them into Samaria where they were take prisoner. However, instead of killing them, he told the king of Israel to give them food and drink and then set them free; therefore we all marched down to the Kinderkirche enjoyed Kartoffelsuppe and cake!

The altar bedecked with vegetables and flowers

Underneath that there is a font!

During afternoon activities we got the children to decorate the church with the fruit and vegetables they had collected or brought with them and it looks absolutely beautiful!

Lots of apples and potatoes and veg…

Today we had a lovely Erntedankgottesdienst with the church almost filled to capacity – though that may have been more to do with the 31 confirmants and their families being in attendance as well – and 7 members of the Markgräfler Trachtgruppe (troope wearing traditional Markgräfler dress). The sermon was on the parable of the bags of gold from Matthew 25.

Post-service we had a Harvest Supper Hock in the church hall in Tumringen with lots of homemade vegetable soup and bread; the Pfadfinder were selling cakes and pastries, most of the congregation had walked across and it was a wonderful time of catching up with new and old friends. One new friend is returning to theology studies in Heidelberg, and I met another English-German family who were trying to shed their Englishness after yesterday evenings’ rugby game…

I found sheep in Tumringen!

Getting defensive over trees and bushes on private property

Prayer Points;

• Thanks for a brilliant children’s service and teaching yesterday!
• Thanks for daily provision of needs – for a wonderful host family, for lovely new friends, for a relatively stable working position and for the internet to wave at loved ones around the world!
• Pray for a continued dependence on our Father
• Pray that I would use what I have been given to help others and further the gospel

Argh is for Alemannische

Hi folks!

Time is weird. Really weird. It feels like I’ve been here for months already, but it’s not even been a fortnight!

Entrance to EuropaPark

On Saturday I went to EuropaPark with my host brothers and about ten other young people from the Gemeinde, as part of the KirchenTag helpers group. I don’t have an awful lot of experience with rollercoasters or such thrilling rides – I once went to Alton Towers with my school – but I’ve been told enough times to ‘make the most of opportunities on your YA’! Keeping that in mind, I ended up going on all of the big rollercoasters, including the third-highest-in-Europe and with an average ‘air time’ of 20 seconds – Silver Star. I ended up on that twice; the first time I don’t know how much I kept my eyes shut!

Christmassy atmosphere in German area

Despite the drizzly weather, there were
masses of people everywhere – I don’t think I could cope with such numbers on a sunny day. All in all it was a very fun-filled day, so thank-you KirchenTag for the free ticket, and thank-you to Jakob, Charlotte and Philipp for getting me onto the rides!!

Sunday was a more relaxing day; I spent the morning across the road in Rötteln church, and in the afternoon my host family and I walked the kilometer along the valley wall to Burg Rötteln. The castle has a fascinating history and was an important seat during the Reformation era, so I’m looking forward to doing a bit more research for my YA research project.

Family walk to Burg Rötteln

My host family appear to know every other family in the valley; every time we passed people with children, greetings and
pleasantries were exchanged and invitations to various children’s services. I am amazed at the number of British or half-British families here; I knew Basel was a major international city with literally thousands of foreign workers and their families, but I thought Lörrach was a bit more distanced. It’s great to see how all of them have attempted to learn a bit of German, however, and they all have ‘fully alemannische’ friends which is a good sign of integration!

Burg Rötteln

Important facts about Burg Rötteln;

– the southern keep has 77 steps to the top
– the northern keep has 84 steps to the top
– the resident cat is grumpy and vicious
– they don’t sell postcards
– from the top of the keeps you can see Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn

The start of this week at the school has also been good; I’ve been given a pigeon-hole in the staff-room, a work phone, a set of keys (including a magic key which lets me into any room in the school) and I am able to run the break-time kiosks on my own! (This doesn’t sound that impressive but it was quite daunting to suddenly have to sell large quantities of snacks and baked pastries at top speed whilst the children babbled their orders in a mixed of Hochdeutsch and Alemannische.)

Talking of Alemannische, I am also making progress with the local dialect. Proper Schwyzerdütsch is still incomprehensible, but I have daily practice with one of the Nachmittagsbetreuung teachers for Alemannische. She herself struggles to speak for more than a sentence in Hochdeutsch and points out that if she speaks in her strong local dialect to the children, it will help them understand other inhabitants and give them a stronger sense of local identity. Fair enough, though it meant for the first week I had no clue what she wanted me to do!

Orthanc lego; the metal smithies, the catapults and the army of uruk-hai and goblins!!

Final point; one of my host brothers has a fantastic Lego set…

Prayer Points;

• Thanks for a supportive host family and the friendship between them and my ‘real’ family in the UK
• Thanks for spending leisure time with colleagues and getting to know them better
• Thanks for an inspiring staff prayer meeting at the school, and for the little everyday conversations about faith and the Bible which are encouraging
• Prayer for missing life in Soton – special friends and events with SUCU
• Prayer that I would keep working at alemannische, even when it seems a little bit hopeless for a foreigner!

Border Controls and Wine

Hi folks!

Two days my Dad drove me the 700+km from the green fields and orchards of east Kent with all of my necessary belongings. It’s a bit odd packing up my life into a single suitcase and four other bags; I began to realise how much sentimental and useless stuff I have accumulated in my bedroom over the last two decades. Not including the books… I will need a dedicated library room if I ever afford a house of my own!

Lörrach is a small city in south-west Germany; close to the Swiss and French borders and currently rather warm. I left England at 6am in chilly autumn mists and arrived in a humid summer’s evening in Germany. Talk about going back in time… I’m fortunate enough to be living up on the side of the hill in the medieval village of Rötteln, with the beautiful 14th century church a few metres away. I’m staying with a host family and I have been given a fantastic room at the end of the house with stunning views in all three directions, including back into Switzerland and France.

Yesterday morning I finally worked out how to convince my phone that the wifi did exist and sent off my first YARP task. I should have finished it before I left, but I decided that it would give me something to do on the 7 hour car journey.. My father left to drive back to the UK about 9am so that he could drive back to Aire sur la Lys in northern France for the evening service, and I felt a bit sad so decided to go lizard-hunting in the back garden. In 5 minutes, I saw over 30 stripy lizards! The rest of the morning I occupied myself with emails and YARP work before we all went shopping in the city centre. I was glad to have remembered a fair number of the streets and shops from my brief trip in April, and I’m sure I’ll find my way around Lörrach quite quickly. In the evening I socialised with my host brothers, aged 10 and 18 respectively, and learnt a lot about Asterix and German football!!

Today has been beautiful – in the broadest sense of the word. I woke up and breakfasted with my host brothers whilst the parents were preparing for their church services (both are ordained) and then we went across the road for the 10am service. The church is very traditional – robed minister and sung responses to the psalms and prayers – but there were lots of families, and it was interesting to see how the liturgy is basically the same as what I am used to in the CofE church where I grew up. I liked the hymns and the prayers, and the talk (although only 14 minutes.. ) was very pertinent at linking Jesus’ commands of ‘Don’t be anxious’ [Matt. 6:25-34] to the current refugee crisis. In the afternoon, we drove to the next village for the annual Weinfest! Initially somewhat apprehensive, I very quickly realised that the wine festival was far more of a social gathering and an opportunity to catch up with friends and neighbours than an excuse to get hammered. That said, I am sure that the wine had plenty to do with the flowing conversation and the contented people wandering through the streets. Everyone paid for a glass, and then could go to each wine growers’ stall to get half a glass of whatever. Some were fairly horrible, but others were very good – and of course I have noted which so I get grab a bottle for my father later in the year!

This afternoon the temperatures have sunk to the happier side of 30’C and on returning to the house we began the massive job of bringing in the ripe apples, pears, quinces, figs and plums from the fruit orchards… Having spent my last week in Kent stewing damsons, crab apples and garden apples, I can only imagine that I’ll spend the rest of my days cutting up overripe fruit and tossing them into huge cauldrons!

Prayer points

• Thanks for safe travels – both here and for my father returning to the UK
• Thanks for a wonderful and welcoming family and a really good start to my Year Abroad!
• Pray that I wouldn’t be too nervous in starting work at the school tomorrow!
• Pray for good discipline in getting YARP work done alongside meeting new friends and exploring!