Mon 12th August

Well hello there. 

Ok well I'm not 100% but I'm well enough to get up and write this plus I'm bored of lying in bed. 

Right then. On with the beach report. 

Now before I start I would like to make it clear that I'm not being negative in this post I'm being honest, & I would actually be being untruthful if I buttered up my experiences on this trip. 

Now then, we left on the bus from the hospice at 9:30pm on our 6 hour drive to the beach. Now I had said that I would prefer to go to a beach that was only 2 to 3 hours away but they wanted to go to see a Roman Catholic Temple so that's where we went. Now 6 hours is tough when you have good roads but most of the roads were uneven & pot-holed & with the added bonus of a driver who thought he was in an episode of The Sweeney & Indian music blasting out like we were in a nightclub (this is standard practice on long journeys here, especially on public buses) getting any sleep was an impossibility. Plus I was starting to feel unwell. 

So after 6 hours of immense discomfort at 3am we arrived but sleep was still impossible as some loud noise would happen just as I was about to drop off or a group of people would gather right outside the window where I was resting where we were parked to have a very loud conversation. By sunrise I was feeling really unwell & literally had no sleep at all so we went to find a room where I could get a couple of hours sleep. Now there were no rooms available as everyone was on pilgrimage to the temple but a room was found in the end, but in an area that was only one step up from a slum. The room was the grottiest I  have ever stayed at in my life. The toilet was a hole in the floor with a urine stained jug to 'wash' yourself with. There was no bed as such, just a concrete slab to lie on, with a filth covered pillow. The 'walls' didn't go all the way to the corrugated iron roof so you could hear conversations like they were in the same room. The iron roof absorbed the 40c heat, intensified it and cooked you like a chicken in an oven. Sleep again was impossible so I gave up & just sat outside. 

Right then the Temple. Again I was baffled by this. As a Christian I understand why people want to go to church but why do some Christians want to go on pilgrimage to crawl a mile on their knees to pray to a statue? I just don't get how they cant see & will not except how blatantly explicit the bible is that this is forbidden.

Anyway the church was very pretty again. 

Here's a quick video (and pic) of what it was like inside with all the people queuing up to pray to their idol;

http://youtu.be/W8uRRTdJ5hk

So then finally at 4pm they decided we could go do what this was actually all about. Take the kids to see the seaside for the first time in their lives. This is where things actually came together & went well. 

Now there was no rain, even though it rained most of the way there & back (thanks to God for answered prayer for that) and the kids absolutely loved it! Here are the video links of them seeing & playing in the sea for the first time; 

http://youtu.be/3uHc7E_8Nac

http://youtu.be/Tjjxs7iHj2E

So I'll leave it there, as you really don't want to know about the 7 hour drive back. At the end of it all I had a really hard time, except for seeing the kids play on the beach for the first time in their lives & knowing I was a part of making that happen, which was actually quite a moving experience for me. But everyone else really enjoyed themselves & had a great time and that's what the trip was about- not me but them, and in the end that made all the grief I went through worthwhile. 

I still really think we should have gone to the closer beach though.......... ;)

Stuart :) x