england: eastbourne
we arrived in england after warnings of bad weather (it is england, after all) but when we arrived the sky was blue and the sun was shining. perfect! and it pretty much stayed that way the entire 2 weeks we were there. maybe this "england = bad weather" is some kind of elaborate ruse? having said that, the moment we stepped out of the airport, we quickly learned that sunshine does not always mean warm temperatures!
anyhow, our gracious host mark appeared and whisked us away from heathrow to eastbourne where we would be staying, with his gracious co-host (and wife) susan. this is the awesome view out of his sitting room window:
england is such a fascinating place. our first impression is that its all oddly familiar - since they colonized kenya, lots of things we do are from england. style of building, electrical system, driving on the right, drinking tea - a myriad things remind you of home. a wierd kind of deja vu.
the next thing that impresses you is that in spite of the relatively small size of england its packed full of history. its hard to make a move without bumping into some building or monument from ages ago. driving along mark pointed out the 'long man' - a chalk drawing on a hill that some think dates to the 16th or 17th century. it is 70 m (227ft) tall, elongated so that it appears proportional when viewed from land. apparently in 2010 someone took some paint and in the middle of the night added some, shall we say, augmentations to the long man, but now hes back to normal.
the most english of things: a cup of tea. (we just wont mention that they dont actually grow the stuff in the country). we went out with mark and susan and sister lida (2nd left) who is amazing: she is a deaf sister who knows czech sign language, british sign language, english, czech...and now a bit of kenyan sign language. its fascinating how you can meet deaf from another country, not know their language, and be communicating in a few minutes.
heres the awesome thing about england: everything has this amazing history. this particular tea shop we went to was 500 yrs old that it was built when everyone was shorter and later they had to dig the floors out to get more headroom. then we walked out the door and this pub was across the road:
i loved how the pubs are all named: 'the lion and swan', 'the george and dragon', 'the rat and parrot' or 'the george inn' as below: in existence from 1397 (check out the sign). in kenya a building this old would be sooo famous!
close by to eastbourne is the beachy head cliff. the highest chalk cliffs in britain at 162m (530m). as you can see, we managed to combine witnessing with some sightseeing at this beautiful location. oh, and as an additional distinction, this is the worlds 3rd favorite suicide spot. second only to the golden gate bridge and some forest in japan.
in 1690, the english suffered a resounding defeat to the french (sorry to have to mention this mark!) when they lost 11 ships and the french lost exactly zero. as a result, the bank of england was set up to fund a better navy, the industrial revolution was started and england ended up as a world power.
the sign language group here have a pretty innovative witnessing method, especially at the coast which is pretty touristy. they prepare some sign language dvds and contact information and leave these at all the hotels as a gift package in case any deaf visitors appear. the hotels are happy because they are seen to be caring for those with special needs, and the deaf are excited to get some material in sign language and we are excited because some who might otherwise not be contacted get a chance to benefit from the bible. a win-win-win situation.
the light house in this picture was built in 1831. because of erosion, the whole thing was physically moved back 15m in 1999. now it is also a pretty little hotel.
a final point of trivia: beachy head was not named because of its beaches (especially since it has none) but it was from the french 'beau chef' - beautiful headland.
more to come...
