I believe in a thing called Love (week 5)

This week (check how my first sentence didn’t start with ‘so’ – my writing skills must be improving) our teaching was on relationships; with God, family, community and the whole who should you marry thing.

A strong emphasis was placed on using our identity and passion to come up with a creative response to a need in our areas. Suggestions on a postcard please (you have my address, or if you don’t then email/comment and I’ll send it to you. Not that I’d love a bit more of the old snail mail or anything. Yes, this is a guilt trip – I make no apologies). Speaking of which…

Heaps of thanks to the lovely ladies who sent me some mail this week. It’s great to hear from home and be reminded that it’s still there. Speaking of which…

The hostel has really begun to feel like home. My measure of home: somewhere I feel comfortable wearing no earrings. I have a friend who shall remain nameless, let’s call her ‘Sophie Edmonds,’ who once said that she’d feel more naked without eyeliner on than clothes. I’m the same with earrings. No make-up is easy, I do it all the time, but if you’re asking me to be seen in public with no earrings on then you’re clearly crazy/don’t know me half as much as you should to be posing such a question. So yeah, it was really sunny a few days ago (sorry people that are stuck in the frozen wasteland that is In-ger-land) and to avoid strange tan lines on my ears (yes I am that vain, and yes it is possible) I took my earrings out without having a mental breakdown and chilled out, in public, on the sun deck at the hostel. I hereby dub thee YHA City Hostel, Sir Home of Rachel the Wise.

We had Friday off this week as on Saturday we all took part in a super cool event called City Lights. A few churches across Auckland come together for a weekend a few times a year to serve local communities. Different groups did different projects e.g. painting a Girl Guides hut, gardening in a local school, helping in renovations at a women’s refuge. I was in a group that went to a home for young/expectant mums to do craft activities. Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t like babies; I can cope when kids are old enough to talk in grammatically correct sentences but not before then. I’m being serious; I’ve only started talking to my brother this last year as he’s only just learnt basic English grammar. So when I found out where I’d be all day I spent the next hour holding onto my seat to stop me running for the hills (which never seem to be too far away in Auckland). However I surprisingly managed to survive the day, probs because there was never more than one baby in the room at a time. It was a bit awkward at first: ‘hello, we’ve come to spend the day hanging out and making Christmas decorations.’ Cue the speedy exit of mum and child. Not that we actually said that but that was the general reaction after we entered rooms. Or maybe it’s because we smell or something. The afternoon was a lot less awkward. I think my love of putting PVA glue on my arms and then peeling it off when it’s dry definitely got me branded as ‘that weird girl who kept putting glue on her arms’. Makes a change from ‘that girl who sat there and said nothing ‘so I guess you could say that it’s an improvement. One thing I realised from the conversations that we had was how complex their stories were. (Insert appropriate comment blaming the media/Rupert Murdoch and his agenda for world domination for encouraging our stereotypes).

All in all it’s been a tiring few weeks, I’ve never had my beliefs about God challenged on such a consistent basis and as a consequence my brain has melted. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good thing, the only problem is (I really don’t have the time, I’ve got one night only, one night only…) that I somehow need to reform it, like a phoenix emerging from the ashes. I’m looking forward to what the next few weeks will bring.