Exodus

Well this is my last blog post about my year abroad! I arrived back in the UK two days ago after a very weird week of packing up and saying goodbye.

There are lots of different emotions I felt at leaving but I guess all I can say is that it has been a good year (7 months). The first three months were crazy and disorganised and I felt so in-transit the whole time that it was almost as if I wasn't actually treating my flat as my own space, my own home. But these past few months of living with Dora made me realise how much I needed someone to live with.

There were visits around France and Europe which allowed me to see good friends and reminded me of how much there is I haven't seen on this continent, let alone in the rest of the world.

I said goodbyes this week to the other assistants I've met here which also is a little weird because it seems like only yesterday we were all meeting for the first time and we had absolutely no idea what was in store for us for the next seven months – school-wise, accommodation-wise, socially...

I couldn't have asked for better friends this year – the ones that let me crash on their sofas in Paris, the ones that came from all over the place to visit me when I was having my blue first three months and the ones that simply stuck by me, especially my dear Dora – the flatmate I never knew would become my best friend here. 

I also couldn't have asked for better colleagues – they did everything they could to welcome me to the school, ease me into the life of teaching and made me laugh a lot too, it has to be said. They are great and I hope I'll see them again one day:

I couldn't have asked for a better location, really. I know it's not in Paris, but the business of Paris (and expenses) can be so overwhelming that sometimes it's nice to retreat to the old “banlieue”. I am fairly certain that I couldn't have had a better year abroad – not in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Réunion, Guyane Francaise or the Cote d'Azur...those places will always have a magical quality about them I'm sure but this year it was important for me to experience reality too.

And most importantly, I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful family of Africans that welcomed me into their home – literally. Church this year has been in an apartment, no-one wants to have to cram into an apartment and hold a church service, but in their case they didn't even have a building and they hardly had any money to rent one.

Two weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, in the relatively small apartment, they proudly announced that they have found a room in a building in Viry-Chatillon (mid way to Paris – my place) which they will be able to have church in from now on. They don't really have money to rent it and there are about twenty five of them maximum who actually turn up, but in their own words: Hallelujah!

We have been in this together all year. Everyone has come again and again every week, the pastors, families, kids, etc. and instead of giving up and saying they'll never get their building for church, a place to actually play musical instruments and a place where lots and lots of people can come because there is space – instead of giving up on this ideal, this African family held their faith. They held onto their faith and in the end, they were blessed with the building they wanted.

The whole experience made me believe that God is at the centre of their faith and if they can't trust anything else, they hold onto God and they are blessed by it. This is what all faith should be about – not religion nor rules nor arguments about songs to play in church services nor disagreements about other things that Christians don't see eye to eye on. Faith is exactly what happens when there's a group of you fighting for the same thing – church building, maintaining your community against the odds and trusting in God, one hundred percent.

Well that's really it from me and from my year abroad. It seems like just yesterday that I was writing my first blog post – from McDonalds – and I was tearful with frustration. But at the same time, that was light years ago and so much changed in the space of six months. So I guess that if any of you reading are about to embark on an adventurous journey into the unknown or simply moving to a new city, don't worry yet. If you set your heart on really doing it, you can't let those worries get in your way.

And now I think that it's time to take a hiatus with this blog. This year was the perfect opportunity to start a blog and I think that it's been a great project for myself. But the next step with writing for me might have to involve something completely different.

So readers, until then!