Monday started off as a normal day - breakfast dishes as usual, even though I didn't eat a scrap of food because I always wake up at 7.45am and breakfast ends at 8am sharp. Eat a piece of cereal one second later and you get yelled it. But whatever. I'm used to 'serving' the community here; in other words, being their slave. But no more complaining. I'm over it.
So then we had our test review on the book about missions that we were supposed to read. I didn't read a page of that book because it was about communication, and 1. my major was communication, 2. I'm done with the whole studying thing and have been since I graduated 7 months ago. The test went okay; I just answered the questions with common sense.
Then our supervisor dropped a bomb on us - he told us we had to stay here on the base for the weekend, and that we couldn't go to London after all. That's already a disappointment. But here's more. The three of us clearly asked him for permission last week, and he laughed and said, 'sure, that's fine, have fun.' We all remember that scene like it just happened, but he claimed it never happened, which is a little fishy, because he told us his supervisor told him we had to do ministry right up til the 21st, the last official day of the program. In other words, it was like he 'forgot' about all that to save himself, and sacrificed us in the process. That was really frustrating.
Also, we'd already booked the coach tickets and hostel deposit, but apparently that didn't matter. They didn't care that we'd already spent the money. We have to stay here no matter what. It's like, the past 4 months we didn't get much ministry to do, and now, all of a sudden, when we finally want to do something for ourselves, we're needed. What. The. H.
So basically it wasn't even our fault. We did the right thing, asked for permission, got it, went ahead and planned the trip. But now they say we can't go. We were going to go from saturday to monday, but now we can only go on saturday and come back the same day. London is 3 hours away, for crying out loud! And that's from Birmingham, not from the base! So we're talking 8 hours of traveling JUST to go there for a day?? And then we have to forgo our hostel deposit and pay for another coach ticket?? These people are so irrational and selfish and rigid, it's completely ridiculous. I'm like, do you WANT me to leave this place with bad memories and negative emotions??
And the thing is, we don't even HAVE ministry to do over the weekend! Just a church service on Sunday and a lunch (hardly what I'd call ministry), and a Christmas party with the youth group on Monday (again, just a party). Plus we've already said goodbye to the church and they don't expect us to turn up again. So I just don't understand. Why are we wasting our precious money and time just to have lunch and go to a party?!?! And it's not like I'll ever come back to England again. It's not that great here. I just want to visit London once in my life. Is that so hard to understand???
So one team member isn't going to go anymore, and her money's going down the drain. Another team member's going to go for one day. And I'm going to ask for permission to go for two days or more. Because out of the five people in my team, one is going home on saturday (so he's not involved in this drama), one is not even going with us to London (so he's not involved either), one has already been to London, and one is staying here longer (so she has more opportunities to go). That means I'm the only one who's losing out since I'm leaving next week already. So hopefully the annoying staff member will be in a good mood tomorrow and listen to my explanation.
Anyway. That left me in a bad mood on Monday. Plus thinking about citizenship decisions again and what to do with my life... it's too stressful. I'm so tired already living here, with all the rules and restrictions, and it tires me out even more just thinking about the future.
But I got over it. And we went with the youth group in the evening to a gym that featured a Wii gym, complete with Wii sports like tennis, golf, skydiving, swordfighting, dancing, jumping... all kinds of fun stuff. It was so cool.
Their version of Dance dance revolution. More mats, more fun!
The hit-the-circle-when-it-lights-up-with-hands-balls-and-sticks game. It was a total workout, running back and forth in our teams, jumping and hitting the lights, and yelling like crazy. My team won 6 games out of 8. Yeah!
Wii Dance. First time playing, but oh so fun!
Today we went shopping in Birmingham (I will miss that place; it's become such a familiar place to us), and then we gave out tracts for an hour. Our last time tracting, thank God. I will not miss this ministry, simply because I don't think it's very effective, and it's always discouraging when you see tracts on the ground, crumpled up and torn. Plus I've never seen anyone come to Christ by reading a tract, so... it just doesn't seem like a very effective way of using our time to me.
We had dinner at our supervisor's place with his family, which was really nice, because they're awesome (most of the time.) Our supervisor is British, his wife is Indian (from Fuji), and their kids are the cutest 10 and 11 year olds ever. They're very hospitable, and I will miss hanging out with them. Plus the food at their house is always good; Indian curry, prata, rice, chilli that's actually spicy... oh we ate so much. And then we watched 'The Nativity Story,' which was actually really well-made, to my surprise. I thought it would be just another cheesy, poor quality Christian movie, but the cinematography, acting, dialogue, and everything was surprisingly good! And it gave the story a different perspective. I would recommend watching it.
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