Saturday June 5 we walked to city centre to enjoy some shopping and time in a cafe before heading to Aunt Sandra’s Candy Factory for a tour and some delicious samples! The two of us along with a birthday party of 10 year olds enjoyed hearing and seeing about how lollies, hard candy, and honeycomb are all made “the old fashioned way”. It was delicious and educational!
Sunday we headed off to church in the morning and on the way back took our check to our new temporary home, The Parador Bed and Breakfast above the pub. After packing and watching some tennis, we moved into our room above the pub where we are still residing.
Monday, Lucy led the Morning Prayer for the community before the team meeting, focusing on an article by Shane Claiborne. After the prayer, we continued the morning with team meeting. This Monday was atypical because usually we have a rest day, but this week Lucy and Faythe organized a dinner for the “friends of the community” that reside in Belfast. So, people that used to work for L’Arche were invited to dinner. This meant the majority of the day was spent preparing food, cleaning the kitchen and setting the table. It was a lovely dinner and a great way to get to know contacts for the future!
Tuesday began with Neil’s review. We had a meeting to talk about Neil’s strengths and weaknesses at work. Pretty much Neil led the review and the rest of us just supported him in his self-analysis. After the meeting, Micah went with Maria to visit an office space in North Belfast. Due to the fire, the main office is moving from The Ark to Maria’s office and Maria’s office is probably moving to North Belfast. Pretty messy situation right now, but L’Arche seems to thrive in chaos. Tuesday evening we continued our weekly tradition with Thomas of a dinner together. Since we have no kitchen yet again, we headed out to the Parador (our home pub) for dinner. Thomas loved it since he had a burger and horse racing was on the TV.
Wednesday we spent a day perusing the shops and enjoying coffee during the day. The evening was spent babysitting Scott and Megan’s three kids: Noah (11), Octavia (4) and Aodh (19 mo). It was an enjoyable evening of Star Wars, playing outside and bedtime stories.
Thursday was a day in the office. Micah spent the morning emailing and the afternoon going over details of Root Soup with Maria. Lucy spent the day with Faythe finally making a few decisions about volunteers! WOO HOO!
Micah took Rosie (the community car) to her MOT appointment on Friday. The MOT is a government mandated yearly check up to make sure the car is performing as it should with emissions, brakes etc. Rosie failed. She had a headlight out. So she has to get that fixed and then get retested. Micah spent the rest of the day at the allotment with Cami and Matthew. They ate the first fresh strawberries and didn’t Lucy any!! Lucy spent the afternoon and evening at the Ember. She made dinner with Jillian and Larry: huevos ahogados! And the moment we all were waiting for happened in the afternoon...the WORLD CUP STARTED!! Our community has filled out world cup brackets and has been looking forward to this beginning!
Saturday, we were present in the Ember all day. Lucy helped Jill in the morning and they headed off to Michael’s (a fruit and veg store) to get some groceries. Micah took Rosie to get her headlight fixed first thing in the morning. After we both returned Fabio, a volunteer at L’Arche Kilkenny from Brazil, came to visit for lunch. The afternoon was spent doing laundry, cleaning of the house and the car as well as watching football and horseracing. After a delicious dinner of pancakes, sausage and fruit salad, Lucy, Thomas and Jill took off for a long walk in the lovely evening weather. The rest of the community got set up for the rivalry, USA vs. England, which was cause for a party. Luckily for the community, it ended in a draw so peace was restored.
Sunday we were on rest. We lounged around most the day. In the evening, Larry invited us to go to the pub with him and James. So we enjoyed some time out with Larry and James while watching Germany thrash Australia.
Today Micah led prayer in the morning. He used the song, “I Saw God Today” by George Strait. Afterwards we had our team meeting. In the afternoon, we headed out to some charity shops, Common Grounds for ice tea and a smoothie, and the park to enjoy the sunshine. Then we headed to dinner at Cafe Naz, an Indian restaurant. The evening was spent with the World Cup (of course) and Phase 10. It was a great rest day!
Life has felt a bit unsettled. The Ark has not made much progress as of late. The cleaning is finished, but nothing else is done. Also, the landlord is underinsured so nothing will be replaced above the offices (aka our bedroom). It wasn’t what we expecting. Hopefully the smell will leave the carpets before we move back in. Life in the pub has been better than we could have ever expected. The owners are very friendly and caring. They have been so welcoming to us, but we are again living out of a suitcase, which is unsettling in and of itself. Please pray for our patience as we continue to wait to move back home to the Ark.
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