Thanksgiving

So often I start to pray to thank God for the blessings of my life and realize that my prayer will last a very long time!  I'm blessed.  This past Thursday was a day that reminded me of that once again.

Returning to London a month ago was more challenging than I expected.  I really missed my family.  I love the Thanksgiving holiday and although I was excited to celebrate it, I wasn't looking forward to it being a typical day here in the UK. Yet through the gifts of several dear friends, I was able to book a ticket to Madrid with an American friend from London.  We went to stay with friends of ours and on Thursday, celebrated American Thanksgiving in Madrid with a total of 17 adults, from Cuba, Zimbabwe, Spain, and a few other countries as well!

The meal began around 2, with a proper feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, rolls, and even cranberry sauce.  We even had homemade apple and pumpkin pies!  In the wonderful manner of meals, we ate, conversed in English and Spanish, ate some more, drank our coffee...and deepened friendships.  Bruce asked us to each take a turn and share one thing we are thankful for from the past year.  My family has the same tradition.  It brought tears to my eyes to know that a few hours later, they would be seated around the table in Pennsylvania doing the same.  But it was also a beautiful reminder that I was still celebrating Thanksgiving with family, just not my biological family.

After we all shared, we held hands and sang the Doxology.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

The entire adventure to Madrid was indeed a blessing.  I laughed a lot!  Meandered Madrid on Friday, wandering the streets without any real purpose other than seeing the city.  Thank goodness Valerie and I share a strong desire to explore!  I didn't realize that Madrid was such a hilly city.  Its beautiful.  (Don't tell the French, but I like Madrid more than I liked Paris!)  Friday was the first day that the city's Christmas lights were turned on.  It added to the festive air of a Friday night in the city!  

Madrid did let Valerie and I down in one way.  We were hoping for warmer weather than London, and instead, we took the clouds to Spain!  Friday was at least not a rainy day, and we could still appreciate the sunset despite the cold air.

And now I'm back in London, almost ready to start another week.  Blessings to you all, and Happy Thanksgiving a little late!

homework club

Part of my weekly schedule at the community centre includes a homework club for primary school children.  In an area where many parents are learning English themselves, its necessary to have native speakers assist the kids with their work.  Tonight, I helped several little girls with their spelling and math.  After Fatima completed her schoolwork, she started drawing and kept hiding what she was working on.  At the end of the night, she gave me two drawings of the two of us, one of which is below.

The part that made me smile was the letter she included with the second drawing.  In marker, she wrote: "I like you because you helpt me with my work.  You ar my favrert.  I like you.  Amerycer is nise because my dad went there and he told me that it is nice.  That is your contry.  You were born ther.  I like you."

Clearly we need to keep working on spelling.  But it warmed my heart.

The second funny moment happened when the mums were coming to pick the children up from homework club.  Fatima and Muhammad were both looking to see if their mums had come through the door.  Fatima turned to Muhammad, who was closer to the door, and asked, "Was that my mum who just came?" Muhammad responded by saying, "I dunno. I don't know what your mum looks like."  Without missing a beat, he asked, "What color is her hijab [headscarf]?"

I chuckled, but it was just a good reminder to me that different cultures have different ways of recognizing familiarity.  In a society where a woman's hair is to be covered, of course a little boy wouldn't ask, "What color is your mum's hair?"  It made me consider my perception.  To me, a headscarf is an addition, more of an accessory.  But to this little boy, it was part of the identity of his friend's mum.  Perhaps the next evening, I'll be able to ask her how she views wearing the headscarf.  I'll try to remember to let you know :)

Transport in London

During my last three months in the USA, I got spoiled by just hopping in a car to get to my destination.  These first weeks back in London have had numerous moments to acclimate myself.  Last Sunday, I was going to visit a Zimbabwean church here in London.  I live in Northwest London, and the church meets in East London.  As is often the case, my line on the tube wasn't running because of construction, so I planned accordingly.  I emailed my friends who were going with me and told them, "I'll take the bus from my house to Wembley, catch the Bakerloo line, meet you at your station, then we'll switch to the overground, take the overground to Stratford, and walk from the station to the church."  All well and good, except when I checked TFL, the overground was also going to be having work done!  Replacement buses are a nightmare in my opinion, so we again revamped our plans.  In the end, it took me roughly two hours to get from my house to church.  Thank goodness for Starbucks to help me along the way!

  My second story with the joys of London travel happened yesterday.  I was walking to the tube station with my friend Sara.  The rain had been fairly constant all day and the wind was blowing.  However, a car drove by, perfectly hitting a deep puddle, sending a sheet of icy rainwater straight over both Sara and I.  We were drenched.  Absolutely drenched.  Literally from head to toe.  By the time I reached the station, I was shivering from the drops dribbling down my neck from my wet hair, down the collar of my wet wool coat, as I trudged along in my now wet boots.

I was not a happy camper.

Then I got to the station and hopped on the train where the heat was cranked!  I'm not sure that's healthy, but it was a welcome change.

And such is the day to day joy of public transportation in London.  But just for the record, I would never want to drive here!  I'll take the hassle of buses and tubes any day!