Work and Play

Throughout the week we had been hearing about remodeling work at the Kingdom Hall, and Thursday after service we stopped by the hall to talk with the brothers.  They told us they would start at 7:30, and that's when we showed up Friday morning.  Right away we were greeted with a cup of tea, something that would be repeated many times.  The early jobs were just miscellaneous prep so we could do wallpaper later, such as moving bulletin boards and taking radiators off the wall.  They use plaster board instead of drywall, so after repairing any defects we got to spend an hour sanding the walls smooth.  The work slowed late morning, and to fill the time we had about 3 more tea breaks. (In an hour. -Eric)  We did get to meet brothers front the other 2 congregations, so the time wasn't wasted.  Lunch was lasagna and a whole lot more.  We started putting up the paper right after we ate.  This was different than the other times I've helped this crew; usually the paste is applied when the paper is cut, but here we put it directly on the wall.  Not a big problem, just had to learn and more of a pain in my opinion.  We were working on the second school, which for some reason had all sorts of fun corners and small sections to navigate.  While there i meant a brother named Drew who had just arrived back from the Congo on Sunday, working as an International Volunteer, which is what i want to do.  Only got to talk a little, but hopefully will see more of him soon.  We worked till 5, with a few more tea breaks thrown in for good measure. (I have never done wall papering so i wasn't much help with that. But i did get to paint some cabinets. -Eric) Afterwards we went back to get ready for the show.  Sister Elkington was cooking curry for the Saturday meal at the build, I've never seen such a big kettle in my life. (She was cooking two smaller pots of curry as well. -Eric) We grabbed a quick shower to remove the plaster dust that covered us from head to toe.  After that if was off to Turnham Green again, and we used our newly acquired underground skills to zip into town.  We arrived a little earlier than expected, so we walked around town for a little bit.  The show was at 8, and we got to the theatre around 7:40.  We had fifth row middle seats, and the show was called Stomp.  For those not familiar, they are a group that does rhythm based performance on everyday items such as trashcans, brooms, matchboxes, buckets, just hands, etc.  It was a high-energy, fun show for sure.  They had it broken into sections, each with its own skit intertwined into each performance.  I highly recommend going to see it if you ever have the chance.  It lasted about 2 hours, afterwards we could have checked out London at night, but were too tired from all the work and play so we went straight home and fell into bed.