It’s 16h52. Nick and I are doing the bulletin – he just finished his sermon about 20 minutes ago. What a relief to have that done, finally! Instead of starting over, he continued with what he had started preparing on Thursday morning. It took a long time though, between the interruptions of phonecalls, visits to our house and a splitting headache today. We slept quite well last night. After breakfast and a shower (and it was nice to use my own shampoo again), I wrote the Chronicles. Jenny and Harry arrived at about 9.30, for Nick and Harry to pray. We first had tea and chatted, and then Nick and Harry went into the study. Jenny chatted to the boys while I hung up washing on a clothes airer – it had started raining. I’m so used to being at home where my washing line is under cover and it makes no difference whether I wash in the rain or shine, that I was quite surprised at this turn of events. Definitely a down-side to living in the country, which a lot of people complain about! Anyway, Harry and Jenny were ready to leave at about 11, and then Nick continued with his sermon prep. I kept moving the clothes horse between the inside and outside – the sun came out, but then the wind knocked it over so some things got dirty again. This has been very annoying. I think I read a bit and the boys played, then we had lunch of sandwiches with a yeast extract I found in the cupboard – similar to Oxo but much stronger. After lunch Nick’s head was so bad that he went to rest. Oh, throughout the day I’ve been photocopying reports for tomorrow’s AGM. I still have to print and copy the pastor’s report and then the bulletins, so I’m trying to install Steve and Maureen’s printer now – had to hunt around for the driver disk which I found. Anyway, we had arranged to meet Teddy at our house at about 2 pm, so off we went home. The boys were very excited to see the mess and wanted to go everywhere and play on the piles of rubble. Two policemen were also there at that time, photographing the debris and damage, so we had to be very careful in restraining the boys, having been reminded by the stern bobbies that our house is officially out of bounds. I went into the church for the first time and even though I had seen through the window, I was horrified to see what it actually looked like. It is very sad and quite unbelievable. The offering table has been smashed and there is a huge hole in the wall, looking out to the sky where the schoolroom roof has been demolished. Truly, it looks like a bomb exploded in there. Pews are broken and there is a thick layer of dust covering everything. I didn’t walk down the aisle because there was so much debris lying over the steps that it looked a bit dodgy and unsafe.
We couldn’t go into the schoolroom at all – that we could see was dangerous because the metal sheet roofing was hanging down and flapping in the wind. All I could see was lots of sky. Fortunately I had enough time and liberty in our house to pack a lot of groceries from the kitchen, pantry and fridge (had to throw away some fridge things – Nick had already disposed of the broccoli, such a waste), and some things from upstairs. I even crept into the bathroom and removed the wash basket with the dirty laundry I would have washed yesterday – now covered in dust – to bag it and bring it here. I first had to warn the boys to move into the lounge though in case the bathroom floor collapsed, as they had been directly below the bathroom making a tower from the chunks of plaster and rock which shot out of the passage wall. Honestly, the things kids do to amuse themselves. I also packed away the ironing I had done on Thursday morning as it was getting dusty from the ceiling. Meanwhile Nick was packing up all his and Tammy’s music and studio equipment, to be able to drop it off at Tammy for safe-keeping. Home again at about 4 pm, time for a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate and a choc-chip cookie, and then I hung the washing properly on the dryer outside as the sun had come out. Packed away all the stuff we brought, using some available counter space in the kitchen for our supplies.
We couldn’t go into the schoolroom at all – that we could see was dangerous because the metal sheet roofing was hanging down and flapping in the wind. All I could see was lots of sky. Fortunately I had enough time and liberty in our house to pack a lot of groceries from the kitchen, pantry and fridge (had to throw away some fridge things – Nick had already disposed of the broccoli, such a waste), and some things from upstairs. I even crept into the bathroom and removed the wash basket with the dirty laundry I would have washed yesterday – now covered in dust – to bag it and bring it here. I first had to warn the boys to move into the lounge though in case the bathroom floor collapsed, as they had been directly below the bathroom making a tower from the chunks of plaster and rock which shot out of the passage wall. Honestly, the things kids do to amuse themselves. I also packed away the ironing I had done on Thursday morning as it was getting dusty from the ceiling. Meanwhile Nick was packing up all his and Tammy’s music and studio equipment, to be able to drop it off at Tammy for safe-keeping. Home again at about 4 pm, time for a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate and a choc-chip cookie, and then I hung the washing properly on the dryer outside as the sun had come out. Packed away all the stuff we brought, using some available counter space in the kitchen for our supplies.
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