setting up tents in the dark.

Sept. 12 2o1o

We moved from the tea-room to a taxi owned by a man with a sweet disposition and a brogue I can’t quite understand. He has a wagon and has crammed all of us in. It is now 9:30 p.m. and pitch black as we climb a hill with chariot, packs and kids in tow. An older couple with a broken down R.V. are ahead of us occupying all of the caravan park attendant’s time so we get to our campsight by ten and then I grab the kids and haul them into the bathroom while Rob sets up the tent.
In the dark. Without tentpegs. (Guess what happened to my toothbrush holders?)
Without a flashlight.
Oh, and guess who dropped his one and only remaining soother on the way to the bathroom?
Screaming, crying tired kids, frustration and anger, we were all beyond our worst and I pity the poor people trying to tent near us.
And then the rain started.
Tonight was the most stressful experience I’ve had since…well, Paris to Scotland, or being homeless in Edinburgh was pretty bad, or maybe the train to Taize, or how about…never mind. Is there perhaps a travel theme here of biting off more than we can chew?
In the depths of stress beyond understanding God had pity for on the way back from taking out my contacts which had turned to stone, what did I see twinkling in the moonlight?
Cam’s solitary soother. Whoever is struggling with the concept of divine intervention, there’s your answer.

Bus to Oban......is that a woolie cow?

Friday Sept. 10

Cameron decided to lose both his soothers behind the bunk-beds that are nailed to the wall at 6:00 am. Luckily the cartoons were in English. After showers and packing up we went downstairs for dormstyle Scottish hostel breakfast. We are getting good at this one night stand-pack your luggage in the AM routine. Note to self: don’t order coffee in Scotland (especially if you have spent the last few weeks in France).
We left at 10 am and wandered in the pouring rain to get bus tickets. If you are trying to get places in Edinburgh we highly recommend the tourist office on Princes St. Often it has a huge line but they can book anything you need anywhere in the country-very knowledgable. We discovered through them we could travel for 35£ per person (we paid tickets for Kathryn because they were 1/2price and kids under 5 free) anywhere we wanted for 3 of 5 consecutive days with Citylink. Enough time to get us to Iona and back.

Since our bus didn’t leave until 3:00, we bought Kathryn a new raincoat and a sleeping bag and then went for fish and chips at a very cool pub that even Tolkien would be proud to frequent. We then went on a fruitless search for toques because Scotland is FREEZING!

City link bus route- Edinburgh-Perth (or Glasgow)-Oban (4.5hr)
To go to iona- oban ferry to (isle of Mull) Craignure(50min)-bus Craignure to Finnphort(45min)-Finnphort ferry to Iona (15 min)

On to the bus headed to Perth. Cameron slept on the sleeping Robert, Kathryn slept in her own seat and Simeon talked to me non-stop for two hours! Then we boarded the bus To Oban and I am now seated with the under-the-weather Kathryn who is requesting stories from when I threw-up when I was a little girl. Sim is telling Robbie that he wants to climb all the mountains we are passing and Cameron has switched from yelling “Moo” out the window to “Baa”…we are in Scotland after all.

Carry your own @#$@# luggage....inspiration to travel light.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if all you had on earth were the possessions you could carry with you? What would you keep? What would you get rid of? This trip has been a living lesson and our answer.......take less. Enjoy.

Late Late and more Late

This is the theme of our trip from Madrid to Zambia. We nearly missed every flight and every connection. The flight from Madrid to Heathrow was actually forced to sit on the runway till we could haul 3 kids from one end of the airport to the other.....Never fly IBERIA. However, 3 flights, 3 trains, a bus and a car ride and 24hrs later......Ndola airport.

Fortunately we had a bit of reprieve in the Kerr pool. They took us in for the weekend. Now some more humble dwelling at the Transafrica Theological College.

We had an awesome time in Spain biking the hilliest country in Europe. We could not believe how challenging and rewarding it could be....I don't want to give it away, because we will be blogging about it shortly.

After Europe Zambia is a bit of a culture shock. In our first 2 days we were faced with the death of 2 people via Malaria. It is hot....we are dirty, the shower doesn't work, the kids are sleeping in a tent because there are no mosquito nets, but we have already begun building, networking and kate is teaching English. There is a huge crunch to get some plants in the ground here too because there are 3 weeks till it rains.

More to come soon.

R

See you in Geneva

Wed Aug 25th 3.30pm

See that luggage. That is the luggage sitting on the high-speed train platform at Macon Loche. About 2 minutes before the train stopped we had 3 exhausted, sleeping children. I said to kate, ‘quick wake up the kids.’ I ran upstairs where most of our collection of luggage was strewn over 3 different racks. As the doors flew open I threw the stroller on the deck. One two, three black bags flew onto the platform as I run up for more. By this time the kids have been rudely awoken and are all somewhere between crying and screaming. The chimes sound for the doors to close and I still have 2 trips upstairs to get more bags. I have visions me screaming ‘I love you’ to my crying kids from the window on the second story of the train as it moves along to the next town- Geneva, and my kids left crying lost in France on a train platform in Macon Loche.
This could be a good time to bring up the fact that when you are in an eddy in life, a place where people and things are moving along around you at high speed and you are sitting still, you are in constant worry of being a casualty of speed. As the train prepared to move along, at its normal speed, it was about to rip my children from me without realizing it. Be warned you could be causing casualties of speed.
This is thankfully not the end of the story. A nice old French chain smoker stood in the doorway, saying nice things to the conductor in French , as I make a dash for the last of the bags……or so I thought. We actually forgot the diaper bag on the train.
As we sat as casualties of speed trains on the platform, huddled and hugging each other till the crying stopped and Sim realized he had to pee. A nice French woman helped carry our luggage to the bus station and translated for us and we sat waiting for our 1hr bus ride to Taize. Yes, the day had not finished….there was more to come-there always is.
Thank God for people who care, who notice and who pick up speed casualties like us.

Don't be confused. We are publishing past stories to get people caught up while we are in spain. enjoy.