London

Well London Is the last stop on my round about way to Africa. After having a few problems with phones I met up with my friend Colin who I had just met at Gateway and we headed back to his place where I was staying. He lives in probably one of the nicest parts of London, in Wimbledon with a nice big part near by and almost like a smaller town sort of vibe. On Saturday we headed into town to Hide Park where we met up with some other friends of mine I had met on the ship, Grace, Hannah and Natalie. We had a picnic lunch together and then just hung out and walked through the park and stopped for a cup of tea (so British). We eventually headed our separate ways and Colin proceeded to take me on a quick tour of all the touristy sites. We went past Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (Colin's favorite), Parliament building, Trafalgar square, the London eye and a few others. We then walked down the south side to Waterloo, to this little hole in the wall cafe that Colin knew about where they were having an open mic night and had some really good musicians and singers there. The thing that surprised both Colin and I was the amount of Christians in this place, it seemed like almost everyone we met and talked to in there was a Christian. So we had a great night listening to good music and having some great conversations.

The next day we had a bit of a lie in and then went to see Colin's parents as it was mother's day in England, we then just hung out for the afternoon before going to church. Then on Monday Colin had to go to a course for his work all day, so I decided to head over to Gerrards Cross to a place called Bulstrode Manor which is where the office for the mission organisation called WEC my parents work for and also where some friends of mine used to live is. It was a bit wet out that way but it was good to be able to see the beautiful old building and the surrounding grounds again, the last time I was there was when I was 5 so I didn't remember too much.

On Tuesday I decided to go and visit my friend Jon up north in Preston and stay the night up there (Yes yet another last minute travel arrangement change). So I caught the bus up there it was a bout a 6 hour trip and then met up with Jon and just hung out for the afternoon/evening it was great to catch up a bit. That night we went to one of his friends houses who is a Film student and had access to some movie that wasn't even out in the Cinemas yet so we watched that. Its called Geneva and is a bit of a strange movie because as far as I could see it didn't really have any story line and no real ending, but you can't complain when its free I guess. The next day Jon roped me into helping him out with handing out some fliers at his university for an upcoming event the Christian university group was putting on. It actually turned out to be good fun once I got the hang of what to say to get people to take the flier, but defiantly a new experience for me. Then in the afternoon we met up with a bunch of Jon's friends and went to the local Chinese buffet and stuffed ourselves. It was pretty good food although I must say only in England with you find a Chinese buffet that does fish and chips.

I then caught my bus back to London and hung out with him for the evening. then this morning we said our goodbyes as he went his course and I stayed to start packing before catching a train to the airport, which is where I am now writing this so the next time you will hear from me I will be in Benin (well hopefully at lest).