My Week in the South

Yeooo, so I can officially add another country to my list of places I've been (even though my passport won't show it). The ROI fared well for me, though I'll be honest in saying it definitely wasn't an authentic experience in that it was an Irish melting pot, with loads from all over the island of Ireland. I was able to hear some pretty neat accents, though! Even one from County Cork, which is almost as far away from Dungannon as you can get in a car.

During this past week, I was away at a conference put on by the Church of Ireland denomination called NewWine. While there, I was a member of the team, doing creche (nursery work) during the morning services and sessions for the 1 1/2s to 2 1/2s. And after spending four hours a day for five days with those Wonderful Wobblers (or so the room was labeled), I can officially say I feel quite a bit more confident in minding children--at least, for short periods of time. Each one had his or her own personality, and it was actually quite interesting to see them interact and choose their roles each day. One girl would even act as a mother to another who was obviously much smaller and younger, trying to catch her down the slide and kiss her on the cheek, and on the Friday when it was time for the smaller one to leave with her father, the motherly one started crying at seeing her "adopted" child leave her for good.

My schedule was probably the most consistent it's been since my arrival: wake up at 7am, be out the door by 8:30 to walk to the conference buildings, set-up/prayer, mind children from about 9:15am to 1:15pm, walk back to the flat, and chill until tea (dinner) then go to the evening celebration in the arena at 7:30pm. In the evenings, they had different events (one night was a kid and youth workers' party with snacks and chat, another was a table quiz night). So, though my schedule was very consistent and I had a lot of time to use at my own discretion, I also became easily wrecked as the slots of time were just short enough that I knew rightly if I laid down for a nap, I'd be out for the rest of the day and miss the evening activities as well.

This being said, it was still an absolutely phenomenal week. The Lord showed me a lot of things, and I'm still trying to sort through how I want to share them--if at all. Each of the speakers were brilliant, and I have notes from each night as well as loads of songs I want to learn to play on the guitar one day for my own times of worship.

Anyway. I'm burnt from the beach, burnt out from lack of sleep, and my laptop is getting a little too warm for my lap at the minute. Time to shut down and hibernate until tomorrow, I think.

xx