Tuesday 4 September

I got to help out at the Primary School with Marie. Wow! Things are so different but functionable. I loved seeing the kids pray before lunch. It was really simple, something like, "Dear Lord, thank you for the food. Amen." Marie is great with the kids. I tried some of the food and Marie drove me to the train station. I will miss her and her family greatly!

I slept on the train a bit, but it was hard with all the lovely scenery. I even saw sheep and golfers in the same fields!

Alana found me just fine at the station. We filled up the oyster card that Amy had given me and headed to Tooting. She lives in a terraced house on the street directly in front of the hospital where she gets all of her physio training. Sica: if you want to, you could come to school here in South London. London is so awesome and Alana would take good care of you.

Alana gave me a hot cross bun and some running pants and a t-shirt and we went to play football with several other girls. I had forgotten how much I like playing. Yes, Tanya, the competitive side of me kicked in. I didn’t like being the keeper too much, but I amazingly stopped a few attempts and we rotated that position. One of Alana’s housemates, Suki, had a killer kick so I always got scared when she approached. I was sliding all over the place in my shoes that were definitely not made for sports. I finally just took them off and played in my socks. Surprisingly, I slipped less in my socks than I had in my shoes. Despite all the sliding trouble, my teammates seemed to be a bit impressed with my mad football skills. I guess they weren’t expecting much, which is good. I heard one of them say, “Well, she’s American. They’re good at everything.” I don’t know how sarcastic she was being, but it was really fun. I had a few good assists and some goals. We didn’t keep score, we just played and played until we couldn’t move anymore. Everyone invited me back for next week. Alrighty! By then I could borrow some better shoes and have even more fun.

We had baked chips, peas, and something else that I can’t remember that was good. Suki was staying over at a friend’s, so I slept in her bed.