Joni In Liberia: May 2012

The next few days following the marathon were focused primarily on exploring England together. I have to say it was a blast to be on vacation with my co-workers, housemates and more than that—friends. We have often said we wish we could experience a place outside of Liberia together, and we were able to do just that.

My co-worker/housemate/friend’s family is English, and has a house on the English Channel. Her family was incredibly kind and generous to allow the six of us to invade and call it our home for the next few days. What a blessing!

But we first had to get there.

We took a train out of London to bring us to the Southampton Airport, where we were going to rent a car for the next few days. Danielle, Bev and myself all had large pieces of luggage with us on the train. I knew our stop was not going to be a long one, so I had to be on the ball so that we could all make it off the train.

As we were pulling up, I stood up, moved my suitcase and waited for the door to open.

I was greeted by a man who appeared shocked to see a woman with a large suitcase wanting to get off the train. In my head I’m thinking, “you better watch out—there are five more behind me!”

I quickly got off and moved my suitcase out of the way and turned to check on the other girls. By this time (all but 20 seconds), the passengers had boarded but all five girls were still on the train with the door shut! I could see Danielle frantically trying to hit the button to open the door but it wouldn’t open. I quickly walked over to hit the outside “open door” button but as I touched it, the train started to move… with everyone in my party still inside! There we stood- me looking at them like “Hmmmm… this isn’t good.” And they were looking at me with the same look!

I had to laugh to myself because it was also raining outside. So there I stood in the rain, watching all of my friends slide farther and farther away. I made my way to the lobby to stay dry and keep an eye out for the girls, assuming they would just turn around at the next stop. About 45 minutes later I spotted them… wet and cold, but big white smiles appeared as soon as we saw each other.

Now that we figured out the trains and planes… it was time to drive to the house.

After I figured out how to put the car in reverse, that is.

We had decided that it was more cost efficient with the six of us to rent a car for our time in Sand Banks. Alisa and myself were the designated drivers of the rental car. Now if any of you know me, you know I love to drive. But I had never attempted driving anywhere where you drove on the left side of the road. We arrived at the rental office and received our brand spanking new Ford minivan. We stuffed all of us and our luggage inside and off we went! Well, ok we went about 40 feet…

I missed the exit for the parking ramp and wanted to reverse… but could NOT get that car to shift into reverse! I was already nervous about driving- everything is opposite- the fast lane is the slow lane, the driver sits on the opposite side of the car, you shift with your left hand instead of your right, right hand turns are wide and left hand turns are sharp.

I was a bit worried that if I couldn’t figure out how to get the car into reverse, the rest of my passengers would lose faith in me and freak out. So I’m trying to keep calm… putting the shifter in “reverse” only to have the car continually creep forward. I was so close to going back into the office with my tail between my legs to ask, “um excuse me… you know that brand new car you rented to me? How do you put in in reverse?”

I’m sure that would have instilled so much confidence in them.

Finally, we (yes, it was a collective effort) figured out that you have to lift up the silver ring below the shifter as you shift into reverse in order for it to work.

I pulled out on the road, constantly telling myself to stay in the left lane, and try not to get honked at. Instantly I had to pull into a busy roundabout where a van came speeding in to my right and honked like crazy- causing me to enter the wrong exit. Once I got us on the right road, I noticed how silent the rest of the car was. Of course I’m thinking, “Is everyone freaking out about my driving? Afraid for their lives?” I glanced in the rear view mirror to see Alisa, Danielle and Elizabeth completely passed out in the middle seat, and Taya smiling at me from the pile of luggage in the back. Phew. I could finally relax knowing they weren’t worried!

We finally made it safely to the house (thanks to GPS!) and settled right in.

It was amazing.

We thoroughly enjoyed spreading out throughout the house, sitting in front of the fireplace and enjoying a meal overlooking the narrows.

The next morning we ventured across the water to a place called Old Harry Rocks where we did some hiking and picture taking. The view was breathtaking- but maybe part of that was my fear of heights! There was one section where the path leading out was only 18-24 inches wide with a hundred foot drop on either side. I stayed away from that section-- -the thought alone of me getting blown over on a windy day was enough for me to stay in a safer area!

It surprised us that they didn’t have any fences at all to keep people back, but, we also decided that if you fell off, well, it was probably your own fault.

As we were getting ready to move to the next cliff, Bev set her camera on a knoll for a self-timed picture of the group. As she pushed the shutter and came quickly towards us, the five of us were going “OH NO!” Bev, thinking we were concerned about her coming too quickly on the narrow path replied, “You guys—I’m ok!”

It wasn’t until she reached us and turned around to smile for the camera that she saw her camera was not there. “Old Blue” had slid down the knoll and into the crashing waves below.

Although sad, the story could have ended up much worse—I can guarantee that if Bev would have seen the camera start to fall she would have gone after it- and this blog post wouldn’t be so funny after all!

So we moved to the next section, which was probably 6 feet wide, when Danielle gets the brilliant idea to build a human pyramid on this 6-foot wide section of cliff. No thank you. She thought it was the best idea ever… thankfully she wasn’t the only brain in the bunch! We talked her into coming away from the cliff and imminent death before we attempted the human pyramid!

Enjoying lunch at the local pub.

After enjoying the views and thanking God I didn’t fall off the cliff we headed off to Corffe Castle.

We entered the castle for our tour and noticed a white tent to our left full of costumes. Oh yes. We dove into those costumes faster than I prepare my mashed potatoes. The lady at the gate kindly volunteered to take our photo as we set up some scenes.

We. Laughed. So. hard. One of those deep laughs that just makes everything right in the world, you know?

I think the lady thought we were a bit crazy, but she also said she was having fun too. Out of all the visitors that afternoon, we were the only ones who took advantage of the costumes. I’m not sure why… :)