Taize at last

Sunday July 27

Hustled out of bed early, get breakfast and your bags to the street level, the buses come and we are loaded and on the road about 9 am. Two stops along the way, one included a lecture on proper behavior. The Bishop was awakened at 430 am by the desk clerks, who had received complaints about noise. It seems that some of the GNJ group were trying to sneak out of the hotel, or into each others rooms. Counselors did not get much sleep. It is unclear what the role of the Drewids is (are?) Are we supposed to step in, act as counselors? Or are we strictly hands off? We have had both intimated to us. It is a difficult edge to walk.

We arrived around 3-4 pm. Getting checked in was not easy. Sit here in this group, while Bob, the man with the money goes off to register us. Then Benjamin from Belgium invites us to sit there, and he orients us to life at Taize. Jeff is sent to the line to get meal tickets, and after a long wait is informed that no, Bob had to get them as he was the one who was paying. Bob did, but they were the wrong color, and would admit us to the under 30 feeding lines but not to the adult lines where they wanted us (and I wanted to be: 3000 under 30 and 500 over 30. No brainer.) Back to Bob and finally the correct ones were obtained. A spot of tea and cake, then off to our rooms.

We were told that we would be put into tents and barracks with people from all over the world, and that they might not speak English. This was not the arrangement. They placed the Drewids as follows:
All females under 30 (and their counselors, in the case of the GNJ group) in 2 tents.
All females over 30 (9 of us) in one barrack.
The two men over 30 in our group went into a barrack with 2 Italians and one German.
The under 30 men got split up, and placed with young men from other countries and/or the jersey group.
Bob and Margie were off in a family spot together.
So much for the mixing. Our dorm did get a woman from Rumania late this evening. She spoke no English, but had a friend who helped her settle in who did. So we learned her name (Lily) and where she was from.

Housing: the nine of us were in a barrack set up for 12. 6 bunk beds, 2 small desks, 2 small shelf units. One large window which opened and had no screen. But did have curtains. We were a little raised, so no one could look in the window. Which was good because it certainly was too hot to pull the curtains if you wanted to dress. Plain linoleum floor. The beds were a foam pad. You had better have remembered your bedding, because there was none here.

I will leave you here, as we settle in to these spartan surroundings, before we head up to our first meal at Taize.