Getting here was a bit of a mess... the Italian Air Traffic Controllers union had a strike, and our noon flights from Palermo to Milan to London were all canceled. Fortunately we were at the airport early enough that they were able to find us seats on a late flight. So we sat around the airport all day reading, but eventually got here at around 11:30 pm (plus a one hour time zone difference).
As for what 'here' is: We are staying at A Rocha UK in Southall, a suburb of London. A Rocha is a Christian environmental organization working to preserve and rebuild natural environments around the world. See http://en.arocha.org/home/ for lots more information!
So Claire and I are helping out here at "the Center", a couple of adjacent apartments which have been converted into offices and shared community housing. There is a big shared kitchen and we eat with the rest of the team every day for lunch - usually a dozen people at the table, and with a smaller group for dinner. We have our own room upstairs, and have been having fun meeting lots of people and helping out. In the three days we've had so far, we have stuffed and stamped envelopes, done some cooking, cleaning, gardening, and organizing. Claire has also done some data entry in the office, and I've done some handyman work like fixing doorknobs and moving curtains.
We haven't taken any pictures yet, sorry!
This weekend we will probably have a Saturday trip out to Oxford to do the "Tolkien Walk" and see the sights. Then on Sunday afternoon we will visit one of Claire's cousins in London for dinner.
We are also putting some time into figuring out how to hit the ground running in Seattle/Kirkland when we get back... car rental, hotel, etc. and that should be all planned by the end of the week.
Thats it for now. We are looking forward to seeing everyone back home in Seattle and Vancouver soon!
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