Exciting News - New Jumper

One of the problems of being on the road is packing and trying to travel as light as possible. I have managed to reduce my 'wardrobe' to just the bare necessities, but I recently lost my one and only jumper. Without a reserve jumper I reluctantly had to visit our local shopping centre where I bought the item on the right. I'm not sure if the jumper looks like that on me!

As I right this blog I am packing my new jumper along with the rest of my wardrobe . We are travelling to Bournemouth once again for our second intensive 2-week TEFL course. In between the courses we have been studying at home and teaching Turkish and Hungarian women.

I hope I don't get any jumpers, socks or scarfs as Christmas presents this year as my suitcase is now full with essentials.

I do hope we will have more interesting news to share with you after our course. P

'All boxed up'

Surprisingly, it was 4 years last week that we shrink wrapped all our remaining pocessions into this 7ft by 7ft by 5ft wooden packing case before flying off to Bethlehem in the West Bank. It was all quite traumatic at the time, storing everything that felt so precious and so important to us. Now all these years later, I am not really sure what is actually in there; perhaps some Ikea furniture, a guitar , a camera.

2 months ago we did the same but in reverse. We flew home from Israel/Palestine with 2 suitcases, a rucksack and computer bag each. In 4 years I have learnt to live with less; admittedly we have left some non -valuable stuff in Nazareth but I am aware that we are shrinking as we go.

As we are travelling around the UK visiting our Churches and supporters we take a tiny 'snail shell' of belongings; mainly 'techy' stuff - computers, cell phone a few clothes. I have definitely learnt to be content with less. Jane

The Shires

We really feel that we are home after spending time walking 'England's mountains green' - and yes we also saw the 'Last Night of the Proms'.

This last week we have visited friends and supporters in the north of the country: the Lake District in Cumbria, the Vale of York, and the Derbyshire Peak District where we walked 'Lose Hill' (see picture). We are now returning to Somerset for a visit to the Georgian city of Bath before going on a retreat on Exmoor in Devonshire - the best of all the locations (I am Devonian so I am slightly biased).

What a great selection of places to visit - hard to beat anywhere in the world.

So far we have had sunshine every day - in between the showers of blessings. P

Habeebee

We have started our British tour with a couple of gigs near to our home - this means there is less work for our roadies.

Our first visit was a church in Bedminster, Bristol. It was good to hear the familiar Bristol (pronounced Bristle) accent. A non-romantic Bristolian term of endearment that is used for friends, or sometimes even strangers, is 'my lover'. An Arabic translation of this is 'habeebee', which is also used in the same context.

Our second visit was in a small hamlet in Somerset, where the church tower dates back to the 13th century. The church (in the picture) is surrounded by green fields and rolling hills and confirmed that we were truly back in England. P

Optical Illusion

We are just preparing for our final holiday camp for children. One of the fun things we are doing in the camps is learning about vision and how that sometimes all that we see isn't what it seems. We show the children some simple tricks, that they can learn, and we use some old trusted optical illusions that play tricks on the eyes by using different perspectives, colours and shapes. But there are also some new optical illusions that are better when seen on the computer screen - the flower petals are not actually moving!

More Cakes

Would you like some cloud-cake? This was the question we were asked after the Ascension Day service. We have learnt that to decline the offer of food is considered offensive in the Arab culture, so we smiled and accepted. To our surprise cloud-cake was one of the nicer cakes we have sampled, it wasn't too sweet, but nice and fluffy - like all cloud-cakes should be. We associate Christmas with certain foods, and Easter is synonymous with eggs; so why not have special foods at other festivals (see 19 April's blog for Easter cakes). We are going to Jerusalem tomorrow for a special Pentecost service at the cathedral, not sure what will be served at the after service refreshments. P

Just another day!

This week we had 'English Day' at school. Years 1 to 6 were treated to the delights of 'word bingo', 'boggle', 'word aerobics' spelling games and songs- including the perennial '10 green bottles'. The absolute favourite was 'Bingo'. Peter held the children in spellbound suspense at one stage with four of the groups hanging on with one last picture to go! It was a good day, with the the learning heavily disguised as a fun package. However during the breaktime there was a small fracas in the playgound resulting in a smashed window and a few minor casualites. As well as the delights of teaching English Jane had to use her nursing skills and administered first aid to two children and a staff member. All part of the rich tapestary of life here in Nazareth! J.