Week 1- Portadown, Northern Ireland

Saturday, June 6th, 2009 Portadown, N. Ireland

Well, things sure have gotten busy in the last few days, most free time I have isn’t long enough for me to pull this out and start typing away.

Thursday was bag check day, so the children all got a new bag full of new clothes. I am responsible for 2 boys and 2 girls. (Sikhombuzo, Johan, Nompie, and Gabsile) Nompie is one of the smallest girls in the choir. She is so cute, but so forgetful. Everytime the children run out of toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, etc, or their clothing is too small, they must come to their bag check Auntie or Uncle and show them before they can get more. It teaches them to not expect things and to take care of what they have. I picked out some really cute stuff for them. I found one shirt with a football (soccer) on it and Johan got really really excited, I think he told me 3 times how much he liked it.

Last night was our first concert! It went rather well too! The little bumps along the way weren’t enough to stop us, and we pulled through for a great finish. One of my first duties is to make the housing sheet, so I get a list of the families that are hosting and I match up which children and chaperone will go to each home. It didn’t take too long. I have to photocopy the sheets, and the copier kept getting stuck, but eventually I figured it out. I’ve been told by the end of tour I will know the ins and outs of photocopiers, it’s most likely the truth!

One lady dumped a huge bag full of coins into the basket. I’m glad Julian came along to help, we had so much coins. They have more coins than we do, but I think I have learned them all now. They have 2 Pound coins, 1 pound coins, 50 Pence, (P= Pence) 20 P, 10 P, 5 P, 2 P, and 1 P. The sizes are all different. The 2 P coin is quite similar to the 50 P, although one is copper and one is silver. It’s not too too different, I’m just not used to the 20 P and the 2 P. There was quite a bit of euro coins, which we can’t accept, so we had to leave it with the minister. Euro coins are done in size, so they get smaller as they are worth less, they are also much much lighter. Pence is much heavier than North American coin. I was very unsure of what currency was accepted in the UK, I should have asked Heather earlier but it’s Pounds here. Most places won’t take Euro, so I might have trouble getting rid of mine (I brought a bit of both just in case) I might be able to change it when I get to Dubai. Currency is quite interesting here, the notes (bills) are from different parts of the UK. All the Pound notes are worth the same, but they look different depending on where they are from. Northern Ireland has their own, Scotland has another version, and England also has one. I’m not sure if there is any others, from what I remember their are just the 3 types. They have different colors on them, but I still have to look at the number. I don’t think I would know if they were real or not. I asked Julian if they ever get fake money, but he said he hasn’t come across any. (Euro notes get smaller as they decrease in value, the 5 Euro notes are so cute and little to me, it almost looks fake.) The Euro notes have clear security features on them like Canadian money, so it’s probably easier to spot it in theirs. Can you tell I prefer the Euro’s yet? Haha. It’s alright though, I will know Pounds and Pence like the back of my hand in a few weeks time.

I am at my first host family now. They are very very nice. It’s quite what I expected. The children get most of the attention, which is expected. They have 2 boys and 2 girls in the family, so my 3 girls are adapting quite well. The youngest girl is 5 years old, so she was playing a little bit with them last night. I’ve got a nice room to myself. The mother made me a great bubble bath last night with muscle relaxers in it, that was quite the special treatment. I was up until 1AM talking with the parents last night. I didn’t feel tired until then either. (I’m still getting used to it being light until 10:30PM) The children think we are changing the clocks and making them go to bed early. It’s harder for them to sleep when it’s light outside, but eventually they get tired and do sleep.

I was up quite late. The father is a marathon runner so he was talking about all his experiences and his friends experiences. He runs for local charities, the mother does a women’s breast cancer run once a year. But the father said he runs 8-18 miles every 6 days. He is quite intense and passionate about it. He has done 19 marathons in 10 years.

I’ve got another concert tonight, which I’ve heard is already sold out. Ray Barnett (founder of the organization) will quite possibly be there, so I am excited and nervous to meet him. I’ve heard he’s very nice and won’t make you feel nervous at all, which is good to know. I am nervous about the offering count if there is that many people. It might take me quite some time, hopefully I will have enough help. I’m sure its normal to have a lot of change, people like to empty their pockets/ wallets full of coin.

I just remembered, last night I was standing at the back of the church, and the children were introducing themselves and saying what they wanted to be when they grow up, and an older man got up out of his seat and came over to me and handed me a handful of money and said “This is for the children”, as tears were rolling down his face. It was so incredibly touching for me, I teared up as well. It’s like seeing them for the first time every time I see them perform. They looked soo cute in their costumes! I haven’t had a chance to take pictures yet, but I will get them eventually. I just need to make time for it.

The weather has been incredible this past week, everyone is amazed. There are a lot of sun burns. It started to rain on the way to the church and the children were quite excited. It’s a lot colder for them though, so they aren’t yet used to the cold wind that has come along this week.