Planes, trains and automobiles (Does that include busses?)

What a long day yesterday was! We got up at 5am (in Bulgarian time) and reached home about midnight (again Bulgarian time. If I tried to include the three different time zones as we travelled you would be as confused as me!) So we had about 17 hours travelling!
We started in cars and Gordon and I drove from South Bulgaria to the capital Sofia (about 5 hours). The mood was a bit more sombre as Bobby had had a bad night with sunstroke (more like sun wallop rather than stroke, I think Bobby would agree). He was awake most of the night and, several times, other team members had to go in and tend to his every whim needs. Chuck was apparently very helpful, spraying Bobby's chest and stomach with water (whether he wanted it or not). Although, he did liken it to helping a beached whale, stipping it from dehydrating before it was returned to the sea! He also made numerous references to 'The Little Mermaid' or more accurately Sebastian the red lobster from that move! I think we were all guilty of singing "Under da sea..." under our breath at some point.

After the cars, we were on a plane from Sofia to Paris. Each step closer to home and Wullie got happier and happier. Another three hour wait in Paris Charles D Gaul airport(Whoopee!) We arrived in one terminal and after a conversation with a nice lady who was on a television screen (who we were not sure if she was real or a recording or a robot - she looked kind of plastic and glitchy but that could have been her french makeup and bored expression)we were directed to go to our terminal. This involved a trip on a train. We all piled on and as Gordon and I were at the very front we decided that Gordon should drive (there didn't seem to be any other driver) and although there is a possibility that the whole system was automatic Gordon put on a good show - the other passengers weren't looking very impressed though especially when he reached up to pull an imaginary horn!

We reached the other terminal which was a different terminal this time to the one we had been in before and when we entered it, we saw there were loads of shops and a food court and we thought "That's more like it!" (See the first blog for the trip out). We decided to go and look at the food court so we could plan our meal. The sign said there were four restaurants serving four different cuisines. Asian, Lebanese, Italian and, of course, French. We saw that the French one was actually 'Berts' that we had experienced on the way out, so we proposed to give that a miss. When we got there, however that proved hard to do. The 'Food court' was actually one small cafeteria with four windows to the kitchen. Each window declared it's nationality and branding and served a maximum of two dishes and two of windows were closed! In the end we were faced with a selection of sandwiches (£8 each) some ropey looking Chinese food (about a tenner for a bowl of rice with chicken & veg in runny gravy) or a slice of pizza that looked like it had been there when we set of at 5am!

Most of us didn't bother, but Chuck and Bobby re-mortgaged their house and bought a sandwich and bottle of juice between them. (Sorry you had to find out about it this way Terry and Celia, I figured they would take some time getting round to telling you!)

When the flight was called, we went to the gate and had to get a bus that took so long to get to the plane we thought the flight had been cancelled and the bus was going to take us home through the channel tunnel! We eventually got on a small plane and we heard that there were high winds in Edinburgh so we started to tease Stevie about the bouncy time we were going to have (he doesn't like flying). Are we bad? When we finally landed in Edinburgh, Wullie gave a cheer and if he had been allowed to, I think he would have kissed the tarmac. We sang a chorus of "We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here..." (Repeat ad nauseum) Sung to the tune of auld lang syne, followed by "Where are we?"," HERE!"I'm not sure the other passengers enjoyed it as much as we did though!

Mark had decided not to waste that water melon we had been given earlier in the week so he had packed it in his case. His almost empty case that had loads of room for stuff to move about case. As we watched all the cases coming round on the carousel, many of them broken, ripped apart and sometimes paced in plastic bags by airport staff, he got more nervous. We all started laughing and then we saw it! The case looked whole, nothing had broken on it and it wasn't even wet. So he grabbed it from the conveyor belt and opened it. By this time all the other passengers knew what he had done and we all gathered round. Inside was a pool of juice, sweet and sticky and an almost whole watermelon. It was split along one side and its insides were covering his clothes, his shoes and all the other contents so that the offer of a fruit salad, although possible, was not tempting. He lifted the watermelon out and closed the case and marched through 'Nothing to Declare' as if it was the most normal thing in the world. One Lady passenger said it was 'the funniest thing I have ever seen!"

So the trip is finally over. We did what we were sent to do and we returned almost intact. Mark got his passport back from his other Mama, Bobby got a lovely tan and Wullie got to come home. The Playground was built, the entire contents of the container(warehouse) were delivered and the recipients were very happy. We feel we have helped to look after the widows and orphans as we are commanded to do in the bible.

I leave you with two photos. The empty warehouse and the final locking of the door.

JOB DONE!

And finally...

So, that's it! That was the last day of work. Tomorrow we get up for breakfast at 6:45am and spend the rest of the day travelling home. There may be a final blog and there may not. That depends on how eventful the trip home is. For those of you in Scotland, come to Whitburn Pentcostal church on Sunday @11:15 to meet the team and hear first hand what's been going on.(See link at the bottom of the blog)

But before I go, here are the last few bits of news from the team:

Today, we emptied the warehouse completely. Every item has been distributed to a deserving home except some items that ended up in a mans garage. This man will distribute them over the coming months amongst villages in the mountains where there are no roads and where the population is nearly all older people as the youngsters move out to find work and never return to look after their parents and grandparents.

After the last deliveries,we split up again. Some of us went back to the town we visited last year. This was for four reasons. (Oh-oh sounds like one of Andrews' sermons. He always says there's three points but a fourth always seems to creep in there!)

1: Stevie woke up in the middle of the night and thought "I never screwed that last nut onto the playground equipment! Without it, the whole thing could come falling down!" So we went and bought another nut and bolt (cause the original one was stripped) and fitted it at the school.

2: We had to take back the van we had borrowed/hired as the tax expired today. We took it to the car wash (they are very thorough here - they washed the inside AND the outside!) and made sure there was a bit more petrol in it than when we picked it up.

3: We had more forced shopping to do - L_ kept that down the absolute minimum in case we got carried away

4: P_'s plants in her apartment needed watering (I suspect that was the real reason for the long trip!)

The rest of the team stayed here and played in the pool! It was another hot one and poor Beetroot Bob has burnt himself to a crisp in the sun. I don't think he remembered to put on sun block until he was already barbecued! At dinner tonight, we turned the lights off to bask in the glow! It's a real shame, because he really is quite badly burnt. The local cure here is to put yoghurt on the burnt bits (now there's a Blog I dare ya moment never to be captured on film!)but Bobby was afraid to do it in case Chuck tried to eat him in the middle of the night! Besides, Chuck, being the compassionate best friend that he is, said that there wasn't enough yoghurt in the dairy to cover Bobby!

Poor Mark has been very tired these last few days. He has tried coffee (and boy is that strong here!), he has tried Red Bull and Monster caffeine drinks and still his eyes keep closing every time we look at him. I can understand that when the synchronised scotsmen are doing their show (see previous blog) but even at the dinner table he almost lands in his potato salad. The other evening I came in to find he had fallen asleep on his laptop and when he woke up his forehead had QWERTYUIOP printed across it in mirror writing!

Monica has been with us again today. Did I mention that she is really pretty? I think Mark has noticed. In fact we are all suprised at how well they have been getting on. First the trips to the pool hall, then the swim in the pool and then suddenly at the dinner table tonight they excused themselves for a few minutes and returned to the table with a baby! Chuck says "the Lord made the world in seven days but Mark was almost as fast!" Here's the family pic - The mother in law is on the left, then L_, Mark, Monica and the baby. We asked Mark what the baby's name was and he said something that sounded a bit rude and we realised he had made a similar mistake to my mountain bike episode (see a previous blog entry), every one laughed and it turned out the baby's name was Joanna (although they don't pronounce the J here it's a Y). I can't tell you what the rude word he said was though.

That's all for now. Maybe more tomorrow from the airport as we have another 3 hour stopover in Paris CDG Airport.

Foot soldiers...

OK, I know what this looks like but, honestly, we have been working really hard and it came to the point today where four of us rebelled. We had been to church and then done a delivery to a local school (Chairs a desk and a table), we had eaten lunch in a rush (Meatball soup :ob ) and then we were to be driven an hour and a half away for a forced shopping trip (more below) so we decided enough was enough. While the bosses were away, we jumped into the pool.

It was a little strange for us as the pool is surrounded on three sides by tables with people eating their lunch at them. Not as strange for us as for the diners right enough, Chuck quite clearly heard someone say that after looking at us they decided they didn’t need that diet after all. We also heard “Cancel that order for the fish” shortly followed by “Cancel that order full stop!” I can’t think why. I am afraid I have to confess we were laughing almost non-stop but the laughing policeman was nowhere to be seen. The locals thought we were crazy as it was only 32 degrees at that time and they all had the jumpers on!

At one point we decided to have a go at a highland jig and we distinctly heard someone shout from the block of flats over the road that look onto the pool, “Mama, come and look at the synchronised Scotsmen!”

We attended the local church here this morning where we had delivered some nice chairs earlier in the week. They were so comfortable we nearly fell asleep during Stevie’s sermon (no change there I hear you say!) but we managed to stay awake. Gordon shared his testimony too. It’s a very different thing to speak in a country where next to no-one speaks your language and you have to stop every sentence for the translator, but there is something in this form of delivery that makes you listen more carefully. You also have more time to assimilate what’s being said as it’s being said that helps it to go into your head.

We had visited here last year and, for me, one big encouragement was that those people we had prayed for at that time had seen answered prayer. One lady was a teacher in a mainly Muslim school and she had been given the worst class to teach. She had asked us to pray that God would help her keep order in the class and that she would be able to reach these kids. She reported that they were won round and that at the end of the year they asked if she would be their teacher again this year! God answers prayer!

As I mentioned we were going to be marched off to do some shopping. This is not an experience I would wish on any of you, not because I am a man and you ladies will think I am being chauvinist here, but the way it happens is usually this: We have a short time to shop in between other tasks. We don’t know what we want to buy before we have had a look at the shops because we don’t know what’s there yet. L_ takes us to the shopping area and says “Whaddya want?” If we don’t know, she tells us what we want “If you’re buying for ladies here’s a handbag stall you have 5 minutes. If you’re buying for men they sell belts and penknives. You done yet?”
I went through this process the other day and so decided I wanted time off, Chuck & Bobby said their wives didn’t need anything, or at least weren’t getting anything after the ingratitude last year when they went out of their way to buy them a dust pan each AND gave them the soap and shampoo from the hotel! Mark said he wasn’t buying anything for his family so we went swimming. Although, Mark then got scared that his new mama would see his tattoos and give him a hard time, so he went off to play pool with that pretty girl I mentioned few days ago. We have corrupted him so much that he has defected to a life of debauchery. Sorry Andrew & Lois, I blame his new mama! She has renamed him after herself and he is now David Dimitrov and he must introduce himself to people as such or she sulks.

After swimming we drove to the town we stayed in last year to the Romany camp or ‘Mahala’. The children there were very happy to see us and we ‘did church’ for them in the open air under a tree for shade. It was very moving to see them all again.

I discovered today that when we arrived at the school to erect the playground on day one, the children that saw us arrive wanted to know where we had come from. They quietly asked P_ where we were from and when she said Scotland they seemed relieved as they had thought we had come from outer space! Looking at some of the team I can see why!

It was my turn for a bump on the head today (Stevie was having a day off). I was being a bit lazy and tried to open the curtains from my bed. The whole curtain pool came off its moorings and fell on my head. It was metal and had a lovely ring to it, or that may just have been my ears! Ouch!

Tomorrow we have one last push to deliver the final remaining items a and then it's pool for all of us! Expect red lobster faces upon our return for tomorrow we barbecue ourselves in the sun!

Blog I Dare Ya...

In Bulgarian, to say 'Thank You' you say 'Blogadarya'. Now that I am writing this blog, we have adopted the term for when something happens that really must be communicated because of it's humour value, but is also a bit dodgy and needs to be sensitively handled. When this happens, the team look at me and say 'Blog, I dare Ya'. For example at the table tonight, I was trying out my Bulgarian language skills. I told P_ that I have four bikes. That was good and she understood me. I then started to describe why and started with "I have one mountain bike" the Bulgarian for which is "Imam edno planinksi begach". Unfortunatgely I mis-pronounced 'Planinski' and P_ went very red and started to laugh.   A lot.     Apparently, I told her that I hade that part that men have and women don't, on my bike! "Blog I dare ya!"

In other news, we said goodbye to Doug Webber today. He told us we were all awesome (he does that about 5 times a day) and then tried to get us to buy his CD of songs called 'Amen'. He did give Bobby one as a gift so we promised to make copies to give to those people we really, really, don't like like.

We did a lot of trips today and have succeeded in almost clearing the warehouse. We took some stuff to the Romany village for the church there to use in educating and clothing the children. We will visit them again tomorrow afternoon for a church service. Last year we went to curch there and although it is a very small building everybody crams in and the kids play drums of different sorts and sing songs. We found it very moving to see people who have almost nothing praising God regardless. It puts our lives full of stuff into perspective. We saw some of the same kids we made friends with last year and for those of you who saw the pictures last year you will be very suprised to see them this year. For some reason all of the young men have grown mullets!

We also took stuff to a man who has built a church with his own money and is now using it to start a feeding program to feed the poor. So he was especially glad to receive a large oven amongst his gifts.

A lot of items went to a man who travels about the mountains, often where there is no roads (he goes cross country in a four wheel drive vehicle) to talk to villagers about God and also to help them in any way he can. We will meet him tomorrow morning when we go to church here in the town where we are staying.

Lastly, and most touchingly, we visited a lovely little old lady who is 78 years old called Fatima. She invited us into ther home that had no chairs, only beds. We gave her two comfortable chairs for her house and she gave us turkish delight. She really was delightful. Her house was very clean and she was very welcoming yet from the outside you would think her house might fall down in a strong breeze.

As for poor Mark, his (adopted) mother apparently nearly killed him yesterday, as the first rain for three months made the roads slick and she lost control of the car, sending it skidding towards the vertiginous drop on the mountain road. The guys following said they made a miraculous escape what with oncoming traffic and the drop. Thank you God that they were OK. She still refuses to let him go and, tonight when he told her boldly that he would choose his own food from the menu, she went in a strop and then, when he didn't like it, she said  "I told you so, you should always listen to your mama!". When L_ almost ran him over with the four wheel drive this afternoon P_ threatened her and said "Take care for my boy, if you don't I will snore all night!"
(Don't tell her, but while she wasn't here we let him play on the chute on his own, Tee Hee! I'm not sure though, he looked kinda scared what do you think?)

Friday!

Pastor Steve rides through the mountains on a tricycle on a Landcruiser for Charity!

There wasn't enough room in the car on the way through the mountains so Stevie had to ride on the roof rack. Don't worry Health & Safety in Bulgaria isn't the same as in the UK. So that means he was perfectly safe. (Don't try this at home kids!)

Today, we started off by assessing all the equipment that was left and we tied our contacts down and didn't let them move until they told us where everything large had to go, so we could ensure that we would complete our task. Then we delivered some stuff to an afterschool and holiday club. This serves 7 to 10 year olds and as well as playing games with them teaches them important things like road safety, looking after the environment etc. The lady in charge was very pleased to receive 'Extreme Kurling', ten pin bowling, filing cabinets ( to store snacks and books in) as well as a parachute. She was a little taken aback at first at the thought of the children jumping out of the window with a parachute (again, don't try this at home kids!) but we soon came up with some alternative ideas of what to do with a parachute and we all went outside and played for while. Yes, grown men all playing with a giant yellow parachute and laughing out loud! Happily the Laughing Policeman was there to join in the fun. (See post earlier in the week).

Then we refilled the van and travelled a short way to the pre-school that we visited a couple of days ago as we felt that the director there was especially deserving. She goes to Spain to pick fruit to earn enough money to run the school properly. This time we took filing cabinets, chairs, tables and assorted other items.

After this, we re-filled the vans and split up to deliver more equipment to the disabled children’s home over the mountains and to a church in the town we visited last year. The leader of this church had previously been very suspicious of our contacts and had even caused some trouble for them but today he apologised for the trouble and our contacts were in tears.

Mark, our brother with another mother, is still in P_’s grip. The following conversation was overheard in the restaurant:
Mark:“I may be the youngest member of the team but I am not a kid”
P_:“ Eat this!”
Mark: “Ok”

I don’t know, the youth of today has no back bone J

I forgot to say...

I forgot to say, Mark has been kidnapped. I knew there was something else I had to write but it completely slipped my mind. Dont't panic though. He has been kidnapped by our contact P_. She says she is his new mother. She has his passport and won't give it back so has has to stay here forever. She is feeding him up as she says he is too thin. The other day, in the resturant, she had cake, on a fork, and was flying it towards Marks mouth with a 'vrooom' sound. All very well until you realise that Mark will be 21 next month! Especially embarassing as we have been joined by a very pretty bulgarian girl, just a little younger than Mark and they get on well. Poor guy! He is taking it all very well but may 'break' soon!

We had a really loud thunder storm in the mountains yesterday. It was deafening! Bobby and Chuck couldn't decide if it was louder than their snoring though. Chuck said he was trying to get to sleep last night but Bobby had dropped off first and he was snoring so loud Chuck was going to hit him with his shoe! Bobby said it couldn't have been as loud as Chuck who woke the people in the next hotel with his snoring!

We had no water this morning so nobody could wash/shave etc. Doug suggested we all take our shampoo to the pool and get clean there. Chuck and Bobby wanted to flush their toilet but, of course having no water, they had to improvise. 4 litres of Coca-Cola into the cistern. It cleaned the pipes a treat but, when they flushed, it fizzed up and out of the bowl causing a lot of noise from BobbaChuck that we all heard. Thankfully the water was restored during breakfast. Doug could get his 'quaffee' so that stopped hime being more grumpy than usual and everyone else got washed.

Apologies to those of you who wanted to leave comments on the blog by the way. I have changed the settings so that you don't have to register with google etc first. Please be sensitive and do not post abusive blogs or anything that gives away exactly where we are and who our contacts are.

Lots of deliveries to do now so back later....

Thursday

It's Thursday already! The time is flying by.
Today we went over the mountains. Wow! They are spectacular! Steep sided, pointed and covered in trees, they cover a large area of Bulgaria and we hadn't even noticed them before! We set out in a convoy of four vehicles (yes, four. Count em!) The two contacts cars, the Mercedes Sprinter minibus come van and Doug Webber's hire car. The seats were down, the boots (trunks for you Americans reading this) were full and we travelled really slowly on the way there, along winding roads with vertiginous drops on one side. People have built houses up these mountains and there are no roads to get to them. Some of them use cables strung across the valley to get to their houses from the roads. I can't imagine wheeling myself across a wire in a bucket with my Asda(Walmart) shopping bags! (Not that they have Asda (Walmart) here (I think this must be the most brackets I have ever used in a sentence before, it's more like an Excel formula than English!))

There was one moment when we lost sight of the minibus, so we used the walkie talkies to say 'Are you guys in the minibus OK?' All we got back was static and then a scream. But it was just Chuck having a laugh (At least that what he said but later on he admitted that Gordon had come a bit too close to the edge for his liking so the fear we heard may have been real! Or maybe Bobby just took his shoes off?)

When we reached our destination (top secret of course) we delivered a lot of furniture (tables, filing cabinets) and childrens toys to a church who are doing a childrens club and also an old peoples club. Sometimes though, it is difficult for people here to get the idea of games and toys being useful for older people as well as children. So we think most of the equipment will be used for kids work. That's good too.

After that, we travelled a small distance to another place where a new residential home for children with special needs has been opened. Over 40 children live here and they all have varying physical and/or mental disabilities. The centre has wonderful staff all of whom obviously love their job and the kids we met all were happy and liked the staff. They were all excited to get new stuff to stimulate the children. We gave them an infinity tunnel ( a box with lights and mirrors in it with 2 levers the children can move to change the lights), assorted sets of flashcards (pictures of objects or actions to help word association and language development), toys, games etc. There was quite a lot of stuff. What got me was that one of the staff asked us if many people in the UK gave up their babies because they were disabled and I got the sense that's where the majority of these kids came from.

We have some great photos but unfortunately my camera is in Stevie's bag and he's gone to bed. So tomorrow I hope to post some more pictures.

Wednesday II

Did you know that Pastor Stevie Roy can do a passable impersonation of Shrek? If you ever meet him ask him to do it for you - he will be pleased! "Whit are ye daein in my swamp!"

We split into teams again today and one team went back to finish off the playground for the school. It was a more leisurely pace and not so hot after yesterdays broiling! Poor Stevie took the brunt of the mishaps today. When we arrived in Sofia he had managed to walk into a glass door that he just couldn't see and bent his glasses, and today he kept bumping his head on the climbing frame! "What numpty put that bar there!" He already had a headache so we let him drive to take his mind off it. "I canny find the right gear!" Some folk are never happy!

I have a great photo of the man from the council who tested the playground for safety...

The other team visited two pre-schools, one on the valley and one in the mountains. They took them filing cabinets, cabinets with pull out drawers for he children to use to store their work, hexagonal tables and other stuff. These places are not well supported by the government and in one school especially, the director and his wife invest a lot of personal time and money in the school so it's great to be helping people with that kind of spirit.

They also re-vsisted the school for disabled children and brought them more equipment. They couldn't use all of it because of space considerations but we will re-distribute.

It is interesting that in these towns the local muslim teachers teach that christians should be chased out of town but we are welcomed. In other towns christians are actively run out of town regardless of whether they evangelise or not.

Because Chuck and Bobby have been in different teams, they have been uncustomarily quiet until they meet up again at tea time and breakfast. Never mind lads, maybe tomorrow you can go out to play together!

Tuesday

40 degrees outside today and for half the team that's where we were - installing the playground equipment in the school grounds. Happily there was a tree and a pylon near where we were working that gave us some shade but it was hot work. It was also like putting together a 1000 piece jigsaw when you thought you were going to be doing a 20 piece jigsaw! The dismantling team had had to reduce the frame to much smaller peices than we thought and it was a challenge to work out from the pictures what went where. We also got a shock when we arrived and the Directort of the school suggested we install the playpark onto the tarmac surface. We would have need jackhammers to get through that! We were able to persuade her that, for safety reasons, we should install it somewhere softer. Locals asked us why we wanted to help this school - 'It's the worst school in the whole area' one said - 'All the more reason to help' them said Doug. Nuff said. The construction was mostly finished and we should complete it this morning.
The other team stayed a bit more local and sorted all the equipment for delivery and then started the deliveries later on. They visited a day care centre for disabled children (although some of the 'customers' were a bit older). The team were all struck by the sparse nature of the building. Basically, all the children were in one big white room. There was no stimulation at all and nearly all of them were just staring off into space. The staff were good people with little or nothing to work with and when they saw the materials that we brought, such as various noise making things like tambourines etc as well as visually stimulating things like the vortex (a tall pipe that's filled with water and small toys that swirls and stirs when the cildren a bid button on the floor, they were really excited. They knew that this would help the children to develop and to have fun.
Mark & Tim lost their room key and had to get another one made (not as simple as keycards in the UK!) and Chuck and Bobby keep getting into trouble form the Laughing Policeman. (We cannot always be as expressive as we would like, as the south Bulgarians especially take exception to shows of outward joy - I wish they would tell that to the delivery man who comes to the hotel at 5:30 AM every morning and shouts and laughs with the staff for half an hour!)
Need to go as the team have assembled ready for Wednesdays outings, more soon...

Monday

Beofre I start on Monday, I forgot to mention Bobby's other faux pas yesterday. We could see him being searched at the security bit of Charles de Gaul airport and the guard seemed especially vigorous with his checks. He even seemed to be checking in Bobby's mouth! When Bobby came through we asked what had happened he looked a bit sheepish and admitted that when the french accented security guard was patting him down, Bobby thought he had said 'tongue' so he stood there sticking out his tongue like some demented St. Bernards, waggling it around to the left and the right. Needless to say the security guard stopped the search and looked at Bobby like he was daft and said 'Turn' more clearly.

Monday then. We drove from Sofia to Kardjali and ate lunch at a restuarant we had frequested last year. We heard that the man with the van that we were going to use had heard it was for 'foreigners' and added a mileage charge that meant we would have been cheaper buying our own van! So were potentially stuck with no transport. So we asked the owner of the restuarant if he knew someone who could help. He did and after a few phone calls we picked up a minibus that had it's seats removed to give us a big van. (He had been impressed last year when we had told him what we had done and he was happy to help this year)

We then drove to our final destination further south and Tim (I) drove the van. It was another day of travelling and inactivity and I think we are all glad to be starting on a more active day today. Willie, Tim and Gordon got up early this morning (6am) to pack the van ready for an early start on the road and afterwards we had breakfast at the hotel. Four of us plus our contact are are about to embark on the trip to the school to install the playground the rest are staying behind and sort the equipment into piles for each of the destinations. Hopefully we will be able to cover some of those today using the smaller vehicles. More news later...

We have arrived!

It's half past 10 in the UK and half past midnight here in Bulgaria. We have been travelling since 9 this morning. Admittedly, the last couple of hours we have been in a resturant eating, but that's the first real food we've had all day!

Can I just say, Charles deGaul aiport is rotten for food when you are connecting flights? There were only two shops where we could buy food and all there was in them was a posh pot noodle (pasta in a box) or hot paninis (at a place called Berts of all things!).

Bobby's bag came open during transit and it arrived on the conveyor belt in a large plastic bag - it was a right sorry sight. Add that to the fact he thought he'd left his glasses on the plane (they were actually hooked onto his shirt under his chin) and he spilt some kind of chili sauce all down his front in the restuarant, it's not been a good day for him so far.

Tomorrow we have a five hour trip with a stop in the middle to visit our friends we met last year and also to view the school grounds where we are going to install the playground equipment.

We are getting a lie in tomorrow as we don't have to eat breakfast until 9 - oh wait ...that's only 8 hours away! Better get some sleep! Hotel is nice and caters to us soft westerners well. Tomorrow will be another adventure!

1 day to go!

Ok so we leave tomorrow morning - Wait...did i say tomorrow?
WE LEAVE IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS!  

But I haven't begun to pack yet, I need to do shopping for the family, I need to make sure I have everything I need... panic panic ;b

I discovered yesterday that all the nuts 'n' bolts (eventually sourced through multiple places thanks to Grace) plus the other stuff that could not go in the container, weighed over 10 KG and my total baggage allowance is only 23KG so it's buying clothes in Bulgaria for me! For the ladies reading this that would be an opportunity, for the men, what a hassle! Especially as we will be busy every day and stopping to shop is not really on the agenda. Maybe I can squeeze some more into my hand luggage?

I was at the Birmingham airport on Thursday and I watched as the staff made all the customers push their hand luggage into a small box which was the guide for how much you could take on with you. There was a wailing and gnashing of teeth moment when a family were told they couldn't take all the stuff they had, most of it baby paraphernalia, on the plane. The father was almost in tears as he ranted and begged but he was made to leave stuff behind! I thought some kind person in the queue would have said "I could take something if it helps" but they all just seemed at the delay. I must add I wasn't going on that flight or I would helped of course! At least I like to think I would!

Anyway, I don't want that to happen to me! I will have small hand luggage containing a book, a jumper and some gluten free snacks, but, of course, no drink as I have to leave that behind in case I threatened the staff with it(!) (Not that I am inherently threatening, it's the rules you know!)

We will be checking in online this morning and that's when there will be no going back. Can't wait to leave though - I've had enough anticipating!

The next blog should be at the airport or in Bulgaria!

Nuts 'n' bolts!

You may think I am describing the team but I'm not! Who new how hard it would be to source a few measly nuts, bolts and screws to replace all the rusty ones from the playground equipment? Today is the day of trawling round the local builders merchant (Screwfix, B&Q, Builders supply co.) to get a few from each place. It's good job I'm going there for other things for my house at the same time!

All plans are in place now and we are patiently(!) waiting for Sunday to come around. No news from the team to share with you - hopefully they'll be more talkative when we are away!

The container is unloaded!

The container finally arrived in it's proper location on Monday (Thank you Lord!) and immediately our contacts started to unload it into the storage area. Our contact said:
"Things seemed in good condition... maybe a little scrape here and there- but these things look great!"
Now they will decide where the items are all going and working out the final itinerary - I think we are going to be busy! 
It looks like our base will be in a town we visited for the day last year. Lovely hotel in a very historic little town not far from the Greek border and the food was great! I remember some of the guys asked for a kebab and we got huge swords skewering large chucks of meat like something from a medieval banquet! They served a mean Trout from the local river too (at least, that's what the menu said but the river through town was more of a burn so It must have been from somewhere else)! We'll need to watch we don't come home a stone heavier!

Two weeks to go!

Even more ARRRGGHH!

Only two weeks to go and most of the items on the 'Three weeks to go!' blog post are still outstanding!

Although our mission to Bulgaria is humanitarian rather than evangelistic, we do come into contact with people from local Christian churches who manage to exist alongside the almost totally dominant Muslim people. We also had the great pleasure, last year, of speaking to interested people about God and also praying for folk for healing etc.

We have a baptism this morning in church and it reminds me about last years trip to Bulgaria where we ended up going down to a local river and conducting baptism for a young man that Bobby had been talking. This young man had been attending a small church, run by some of our friends, for some of the Romany people who are treated like outcasts by most Bulgarians. Now, I have been to open air baptisms before, but most of them have been in Scottish rivers and lochs where hypothermia is a real risk, but this was completely different! It was a cool day by Bulgarian standards and there was quite a breeze but, compared to Scotland, it was a beautiful summers day. The river was warm and, after the baptism, many of us went for a swim across the river. (Some of you ay remember the 'famous' picture of pastor Andrew walking on the water?) We were able to dry naturally in the sun and wind which is something you don't generally do in Scotland unless you fancy losing extremities to frostbite!

Really looking forward to going now! I ordered my Bulgarian currency (Lev) on Friday and will pick it up on Monday. That's when I know it will become even more real. The smallest denomination in Bulgaria has a great name - "Stotinky'. It even sounds like something small that chinks in your pocket. Imagine children spotting money on the round and shouting 'stotinky, stotinky' in the way our kids shout 'a penny!'

Hopefully I will blog more over the next two weeks as more news arrives about the container and the team start to discover all those things they have yet to do!

The container has arrived!

I heard yesterday that the container has arrived in Bulgaria! It is still in the container port and there are some problems with the paperwork (who didn't see that coming?). Not sure if these are legitimate problems or if someone at the port just wants a bung.  I gather we have been asked to supply all sorts of extra information about what is in the container. Red tape!!!! Our contacts will have to visit them to try and sort it all out.

It still looks likely that the container will reach it's final destination the week before we get there. I was involved in the final day of packing that container so, if you are in Bulgaria helping to unload, please be careful when you open the door of the container for the first time! I don't want you to be squashed under  several metric tonnes of assorted children's toys and office furniture!

Three weeks to go!

Arrgh! We fly out three weeks today! Still to do:

1. Order all the new nuts and bolts to hold the playground together (Chuck's going to see if the council have what we need before we hunt through the builders yards)
2. Order the Bulgarian currency (Lev)
3. Get an itinerary - apart from the playground at the school, we don't know where we are going. Our contact is working this out and we may never find out the whole plan as we will split into smaller teams when we get there! Also, although our contact has the full list of what's in the container, it will have been difficult for them to comprehend the sheer amount of stuff.
4. Organise a hotel for night 1 in Sofia when we arrive.
5. Organise hotels for all the subsequent nights (until we know where we are going, we can't book the hotels but there should be no problem)
6. Organise transport for all of the team plus our contacts while in Bulgaria
7. Organise a big van (or two) to take the equipment to the various destinations (you can't just go to a van hire company like you can here in the UK!)
8. etc.etc.etc.

We also just heard that not only will we be joined once again by Doug Webber (last year Doug dug like no-one I have ever seen!) but also by Albert (also from Convoy of Hope). You'll notice I have already forgotten  Alberts surname - Sorry Albert!

Can't wait for the trip to start now!