Home thought from abroad

I missed church yesterday in both senses of the word, it's a big wrench being away from my community on the day when we celebrate our faith. The journey is very hot but the meal we eat in a massive canteen is delicious. We pass the Anglican church in Adan which looks like someone picled up a village church and parachuted it into the centre of the town. A bit of Adan which shall remain forever England which looks quite frankly a bit bonkers.

The place we are staying for a night makes up for it a bit. A resort hotel in elephant bay, Adan, gives me an air conditioned room and a door that opens onto the beach. It is very beautiful and rests us ready for Soqotra.

Waking up early on the day of our flight I listen to the prayers which are accompanied by a chorus of crows who have also woken early... Not sure who woke who up but at the moment the crows are beating the prayers in volume in a weird dawn chorus.

It is five o'clock and I have home thoughts from abroad.

Tony asks every person we meet where are they from... Nobody is from where they are now but each has a village somewhere that is really home, a tribe which is really their people.

Maybe that's why the British when they were here built a church that looked like home, a tribal reminder that they had a home somewhere.