delivered safely to the home I will inhabit for the next while. Sandra
had been anticipating me anxiously and greeted me with a warm smile
and a lovely hot meal -- prepared just the way my father cooks –
overdone. (Never had associated this with the British way before. But,
hey! Who's complaining? Not me!) She had waited patiently for me to
arrive so we could eat the meal together. It tasted so good.
Afterwards we chatted a little -- enfolded in her Bargate cottage.
(More about that in a later entry.) I was mostly a zombie – I'm sure
you know how it is. It had been a long, long day.
I fell asleep to the light sound of cars whizzing past my window (in
case you don't know, that is a sound I like – a LOT!), a slight chill
to the air (as the British Isles have been having a cooler and wetter
summer than usual), inviting me to snuggle down into fresh sheets and
a cozy duvet-comforter.
Unknowingly I slept for eleven and a half hours. I awoke to the sound
of birds and rain.
First thing, Leah rang up -- to see that I had arrived okay. How
delightful to hear a familiar voice, so enthusiastic and welcoming,
made me feel very wanted. She is very excited for her family and me to
be all together. Me, too! One especially fantastic thing is that she
shares my desire to spend a day soaking up Olympic atmosphere in
London. (No one around here seems to care or have a similar desire to
go.) And, they have a car! It is one of my main goals for the summer.
I am very thrilled to see this goal will get realized. I was beginning
to despair after getting the same ho-hum response. As part of our
conversation she asked, "Are you sad" (about leaving loved ones
behind)? I returned, "No, not yet. It is still all so new. It hardly
seems real yet. It is only my first day here. Give me some time for
reality to set in!"
Went walking downtown shopping with Sandra. I had asked her about
thrift shops before I came, said I really liked them. She said, me,
too; however, I'm not exactly sure where they are. Turns out there are
more charity shops in Grimsby than you can shake a stick at. I was
just using the wrong word! There is also a large one-level mall (with
many department and variety stores, like any other mall -- everything
from their version of Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond to the one
pound store) they refer to as the precinct, or by its actual name,
Freshney Place. (The Freshney is the local river that begins where the
massive Humber Estuary peters out.)
Another thing that became more clear later on was when we went past
the market and Sandra remarked, "Oh, no, it's closed! I was thinking
it was Tuesday, but it's Wednesday." The market is open only on
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I asked her how could this
be possible (that it is closed) when it was the more important store
above all the others, when it comes to peoples' basic needs. She said
just not enough shoppers come on those off days to make it worth their
while. (What?!) I learned later in a conversation I had with a new
friend, in McDonalds of all places, this market was a sort of farmers'
market -- stalls of every sort from green grocers with fruits and
vegetables, bedding plants (you should see the variety of flowers that
are available to drop in your soil), cut flowers, bakers, butchers,
incidentals, etc, etc., as opposed to the more modern concept: the
supermarket. These are all independent sellers in one big space out of
the rain – Market Hall. Then it all made sense! (In the meantime,
you've got your Tescos and Sainsburys, akin to Smiths. Whew!
Thankfully, the modern market system goes on. The great thing about a
large town like Grimsby is that it has its own version of Home Depots
to Walmarts -- to mention only a few. Just as Leah assured me before I
came, you can get any and everything you need or want here in England.
Indeed, you can get anything you want right here in Alice's
Restaurant! Probably really didn't need to pack in all those huge
bottles of multivitamins, Calcium, vitamin D and extra toothpaste and
floss to last a year!
Speaking of getting anything you need, and sometimes in unlikely
places, what Richard told me about McDonalds really turned out to be
true: you can get free wifi! Wrote my first email saying, "Yes, I'm
here! Safely!" A young cinnamon-colored haired young woman, Lindsay,
with a dear little copper-headed, blue-eyed three year-old son, helped
me get all set up. Used her number for the set up and received the
code as a text on her phone. (Yes, I'm online!)
Though you would rarely find me in the halls of McDonalds previous to
this change in my life, it is my new best friend. Here's a funny thing
that happened to me there: they have this really cute family-oriented
bathroom. Everything in it is child-sized – miniature toilet, sink,
even the McDonalds garbage bin. Very much like some they have for the
nursery at some churches I've been in. So when I was finished, looking
around for the flusher, I saw this red cord hanging down from the
ceiling. Now when I used to visit with my friend Chris Shelley's mom
in England, she had an old fashioned toilet where the waterworks of
the toilet were suspended and you pulled a chain to empty it out and
create the flush action– works by gravity. So seeing nothing else, I
pulled the red cord. Bad idea. Immediately heard an alarm go off. I
had activated the "help-child-in-need-in-the-bathroom" sensor – for
who knows why, but nevertheless I had done it. When tearing out of
there as soon as I could get my pants zipped. Heh heh. Soorry,
accident!
Around dinner time the missionaries came over to paint Sandra's fence.
She has gone out with them on splits on several occasions and has seen
how R&R is a very needed thing. All you returned missionaries will
know what I mean. Once she was the catalyst that kept them from
receiving a beating. Anyway they are encouraged to give service
wherever possible. They asked Sandra what she needed and she
discovered the new fence needed painting. She watches them in their
skivvies and sees how relaxed they are goofing off with one another in
an unprotected moment. Then she feeds them dinner. Afterwards they
gave us a spiritual thought and we talked about our different
baptisms. It was nice to see the work of saving souls conducted out in
the mission field, a place I often have not hitherto been. The report of more
spiritual experiences to come from my first Sunday in England. Stay
tuned.
