Week 20- Northern Ireland

Monday, 12 October, 2009 2:09PM Portadown, NI

My last host lived on the other side of Belfast, up in the country in the middle of nowhere, it was really nice. It took us about 30 minutes to get there, and on the way we had a police officer stop us because 2 cows had escaped from their field, so they said just to drive carefully past in case they wanted to jump out at us. It wasn’t such a strange thing after seeing it last week.

Our hosts had shower gel/lotion sets for all of us. They had bath bombs in them, but they didn’t have a bath. The girls had never seen them before so I told them we could do one in the sink so they could see how it worked, so they showered and had supper (a snack which is after dinner/before bedtime) and checked up on it every so often. It was really exciting for them, especially because it had glitter in it, so they were putting it on their hands and arms. They even woke up with a little bit still on their faces. They hosts were really great too.

So now we are back in Portadown. I pretty much know this town now. You always enjoy a place more when you can get around, it doesn’t happen much on tour, so it makes you feel that much more comfortable. Anyway, I’m with boys here for 3 nights before we head back to Larne.

These hosts have a dog and I am staying with Suprise and Siyabonga who both happen to love dogs. Only part is, they love small dogs. This dog is a shaggy dog, who is medium size, but looks larger because of all its fur. His name is Toby and he’s quite hyper. He loves to jump. So the boys ended up being quite scared. I felt really bad, but I wanted to do something because I knew they both were scared before. So I told them not to run away from the dog, he is just excited. If they stood still and told Toby to get down or go away and they were firm about it, then he would. So they immediate felt more confident about the situation and thanked me. It was really cute. So this morning they were really eager to see Toby and test it out, and it worked. They again thanked me.

Same day.... 11:11PM

Today went well, it was a school day, we reviewed telling the time, and I encouraged my class to ask whoever they stayed with to help them learn.

Our Toby situation sort of fell apart tonight :( Siyabonga was going upstairs to brush his teeth and Toby decided to chase him up and his reaction was to just run, so he got really scared when the dog chased after him. He didn’t even want to come down to say goodnight. I felt really bad, they put the dog away, and I assured him it was alright, he really didn’t trust me. I eventually got him to come down, but he told me before bed he was really scared, so I reminded him what to do and that he needs to be firm with Toby and stand still, if he runs the dog thinks he’s playing and he will run and jump. He asked that I close the door really tight, so I did :)

Suprise prayed tonight that everyone in the world would have nice dreams :) I told Siyabonga I would be with him in the morning and stand with him when he sees the dog in the morning. He’s a bit fearful, but willing to try again which is good. I wish the girls were as easy to work with, but some things you just can’t force on them. I’d say half the girls will run and scream, the rest will just avoid it usually. Puppies are a different story. I think most of the kids would react well/ have reacted well to them. Some of the boys are extremely scared of dogs too, cats as well. Most people will keep them away from the kids, but there are some who don’t.

I think learning to tell the time is more important than being comfortable around dogs, so we will go over it again in the morning before rehearsals.

Tomorrow is my day off. Jenny’s host is going to Belfast and said they could take us, there are things to do here, but we are learning Belfast, and like it. We might go on something touristy, since we didn’t get to last week.

Friday, 16 October 2009 8:12PM Culloden Hotel, Belfast

Hey everyone! So we just met The Supremes, we are currently in a 5 star hotel, everyone is dressed in black tie as they call it. We are performing for the UTV awards. The kids sang a song with them, I recorded it.

My day off went really good. Jenny and I got driven into Belfast which was really nice, and her host paid for our lunch, which made it that much better. We went on the Internet at the Apple Store and shopped a little bit at a gift shop. We wanted to do something touristy so we went on the Belfast Wheel, which is a smaller version of the London Eye, we also went to the top of Victoria Square and took some photos of the view, it was quite nice. Good relaxing day.

On Wednesday we had a concert in Belfast and after the concert we were on our way to Larne to stay all together, only to find out the battery on the bus had died. We couldn't get it charged up. We tried many things, finally a guy came and gave us enough power. It takes a lot to get a big coach going. It took almost an hour before we left, but we got it fixed in the end. Our bus now has a new battery and a charger with it, so that makes things a bit more comforting.

Yesterday we had school while we were staying in Larne, and I re packed my suitcase. It felt so good. Took me a while, but I got rid of a lot of things I didn't need and got organized. My friend is coming to visit, so I am sending a lot home so I don't have to pay baggage fees.

Tonight we are all staying in a hotel, and tomorrow we are talking the ferry to Scotland and then driving to England, we will be there until December. I'm really excited to go to a new country. Even though we have been there before, we didn't spend much time there.

Anyway, we are in between concerts here for this show, so we gotta entertain the kids for a while.

Talk to you soon!