As World Racers, we consider our team lucky. We have a schedule to go by. And not just “let’s do this today” or “hurry up because we need you across town in five minutes!” This is a schedule that goes down to the minute. We are blessed. Our contact has been planning our trip for months now. Amazing. So for our schedule, Tuesdays are our days off. My family decided to go sight-seeing. We are so gracious to have Abby in our family, because she planned everything that we did. From the transportation to the places we eat, and all in our budget! We started by taking the bus to see a castle called Dunluce.
It is a beautiful castle, but we did not go inside of it. I did not feel like paying 8 pounds to enter, so we all snuck around and took photos all around it. (One pound equals to about $1.64 in American) Since Northern Ireland is so up to date, things can be even more expensive here than they are in America! After the castle, we went on to see the Bushmill’s Distillery, where they make their famous whiskey. It was started in 1608, and the Irish are proud of their whiskey. Only Adam, Tyler, Joe, and I decided to take the tour inside and see how everything is made. Of course, we went the day the factory was shut down, and the workers weren’t there, but it was still a cool experience.
After the distillery, we had missed our bus, so we had over an hour to wait for our next, which was when we decided to get some lunch and do our feedback for each other. Feedback is something that AIM has each group do every night. If you are ever feeling like you need to talk to somebody, confront them, or just lift somebody up, this is when you do it. My team leader, Adam, decided that since there are seven of us, we each can get a day, and decide on how we do our feedback. Mine was Tuesday, so I decided to have Super Feedback. This is something that you should do only once a week. It is where you go around to each person, and you have to say some type of feedback to them. It is pretty much a hot seat. There is no such thing as bad feedback. We call it constructive. You can say a positive, constructive, and then end with a positive, but you never sugar coat the situation. It is such a more polite way to talk to somebody, and your feelings don’t get as hurt as they do whenever somebody is yelling at you! So after super feedback, and our fish and chips, we went to this famous rope bridge. It was from the 1800’s, and the fishermen made this sketchy rope bridge from one cliff to another island cliff, with rocks and water below, and would fish off of the bridge. It is now open to the public, and is super crazy. I even made a video as I walked across it!
Ridiculous, right? But it was well worth it from the beautiful view we were able to see.
Wednesday was a hard day for me. I was sick all day. Even though I was not feeling well, I sucked it up and went to the first place where I was supposed to work. It is a “thrift store” called Hope and Gloria’s. It is pretty much a vintage boutique. There were about 10 people to work at the store, and only Abby and I were supposed to sew. This is when I thank my high school sewing teacher, as well as my Nana for teaching me how to sew. (Especially Nana for whenever I would come over at least once a week to have her fix something that I messed up!) Even though I was feeling sick, I tried my hardest to cut and sew, and I even made one of my famous headbands, which they now are considering selling in the store! Booyah. When we got back to the house, I decided to stay behind from our activities for the rest of the day, because I was so sick, and I needed to rest.
That night a few young adults from the church came over so we could all have some real worship with a guitar and not with the music on our laptops that we have been listening to. I had to worship. It was just what I needed.
Even though it is now Friday, I still feel a bit sick. So if you could pray for my sickness to go away and my team leader Adam to get better. He has been sick since we have been here, and it has been a struggle for him to get better.
PS, I only get internet every now and then, so I have been typing all of my blogs on Microsoft Word, and then I copy them to my blog whenever I get internet, so I apologize if you get three or four emails in a row about my blog updates! Also, I want to be as descriptive as possible, because many people have asked me to, and because I want everybody to know what is going on in my life, and how it has been changed in already a week.
Also, as the months go on, I will be able to find my comfort in typing my blogs. I want to try not to offend anybody in my writing, but I have already experienced some things that will be coming up in my blogs. I pray that you read this with open minds, open hearts, and open mouths to spread what is going on at this church, in this city, and in this country. It will blow your mind.
Phrase of the day: Instead of saying your welcome, they say… Cheers!!! 🙂
