Wednesday, November 08, 2006
In Nantes
Well, what a trip out! Having just made the last train to leave the country, I asked our travel people to find me a hotel in Paris and relaxed into a nice meal as we went under the Channel. When we arose (as 'twere) on the other side (as 'twere), I called them back. They couldn't find me anything. Luckily, Micke (a colleague) had offered to help. He has a service from Amex where they do this sort of thing. No luck. It was by now 2300, and I was getting in at 2323, so I phoned an ERMC friend (very late at night!) who very kindly offered to help. He was having no luck...In the end, a guy in the seat behind me told me that he'd found somewhere, if I wanted it. He lives in the Place des Vosges (and here), one of the nicest squares in the entire world (I suspect he has money...), and had found me a place at the Pavillion de la Reine. €400 a night - but "petit dejeuner compris"! So I'd hope. Didn't care, by this stage, and I'm over supporting a client, so fair enough: they can pay.
People think that all this travel's very exciting, but by the time I got there - around 0000 local - I was just too tired to do anything but have a bath and go to bed. Got up in the morning, had a shower, got dressed, had breakfast, left. The hotel was rather wasted on me, but that, ladies and gents, is the way it works.
Got to Gare Montparnasse around 0830. Train strike. Luckily, trains to Nantes are running - a couple every three hours, and there's one at 0900. Try the electronic ticket machines. Broken. Queue. Get to front of queue at 0859... Next train at 1000.
And I've spent the day diagnosing a problem which:
- isn't our fault
- wouldn't have occurred if different people at the customer had talked to each other.
Had a lovely meal in the sort of restaurant where they don't ask you what you want for the main course: they ask you how you'd like it cooked. They _only_ do entrecote, and it was lovely. Sat next to a very nice woman from Burkina Faso who seemed keen to practice her English, which was certainly passable. She's studying law here in Nantes, and we had a good chat. She's the 5th of 15 children! Further quizzing led to the discovery that her father has three wives, that the oldest child is 46, and the youngest 3. Another may well be on the cards, because they're Roman Catholic and don't believe in contraception...
Hmm. One mo. Kind of checked on this, and she says that the RC Church doesn't mind too much about the marriages, as they're traditional marriages, not church ones. Certainly throws into relief some of the discussions we had about inculturation and contextualisation of mission at the ERMC summer school. And made me think, which was good.
anyway being away form home so much is not good and takes its toll- prayers for you all.
Fascinating stuff about the father with 15 children and certainly throws up some interesting issues regarding contextualisation. While we were living in Texas I was able to talk with some Mormon families who formed communities - one father/ husband and two or three wives- they would live together as a family unit- the women spoke of supporting and encouraging one another... poor guy what happened if he was in trouble with all three at once????
Having said that it is not something I would consider- living in community has its appeal but... as for a traditional marriiage set up my question would be how does that work?
Interesting as you say...
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