london

Two hot showers, chocolate, washer and dryer, chilled white whine, toast on whole wheat bread and water I can drink directly out of the tap! I have arrived back in the occidental world. Taking a hot shower last was so refreshing. This morning, surrounded with all the conveniences of life from a television, comfortable mattresses and a refrigerator, I became almost emotional. I didn’t think that I would be so affected by the sudden change in environment. I am a man who adapts quite easily. The sudden onslaught of conveniences that I have desired and longed for over the past 12 months. I kept finding myself saying… oh my god, I haven’t had ….. in the past 6, 10, 12 months. These certainly weren’t conveniences, luxuries and tastes that I couldn’t live without. The comforts found here in London, however, were a small taste of home. It has been raining quite a bit in London, and it is quite chilly here… more feelings I haven’t had for the past 6,10,12 months.
I am staying at marisa’s flat, a friend who I met in Zanzibar who has a shared love for African music (she is a music producer for rough guide music.) She lives in the oldest part of London. We are down the street from the jail where Charles dickens father was held. We are also blocks away from the oldest church in London.





I have just come back from spending the day walking about. Well, most of the walking about was indoors as I was visiting two different Anglican churches. Even when on a slight vacation, I can’t seem to avoid religion. It is really interesting coming from a land where Christianity has only been present in many areas for about 100 years, to visit churches where there ahs been continuous Christian worship for the past 1700 years. Today I visited the cathedral of southwark and St Paul’s cathedral. St Paul’s church was designed and constructed by Christopher Wren after the great fire destroyed London. It has the 2nd largest dome in the world behind the Vatican. The architecture was simply stunning. I attended the evensong prayer service there. It is remarkable how close even the office of prayer is to that of the catholic churches. I have already experienced this within the Episcopal church of course as I worked at St. Lukes. I really have stepped into another world though. I am now getting to explore british pub culture afterall.