The German Visitors
"See you in 9 hours!" was the cheery email from Rev Jan Petersen on
his departure from his home in Joldeland near the German border with Denmark.
He was travelling with 16 teenage confirmation candidates and co-leader, Anne,
to spend four days in Swaffham Prior where he had been curate eight years ago.
We had spent months in email contact organising the trip and everything was
planned to precision.
Fourteen hours later we collected the exhausted group from Cambridge Bus
Station! -nothing could have accounted for the plane delay -but there was never
time during their stay for exhaustion to set in. On Thursday morning at 8.45am
the group met at the primary school to spend the morning teaching German and
taking assembly. They ate their packed lunches in the now very user-friendly St
Cyriac's and spent the afternoon bell-ringing and brass rubbing in the two
churches, and rehearsing for the bi-lingual Family Service planned for Sunday.
A fish and chip supper for guests and hosts completed the day -fish in batter
was a strange concept for most of the visitors!
The group caught the bus to Bottisham Village College on Friday where they
learned a lot about our secondary school system -and had a school lunch! -and
taught about their school system. Then it was off to the host families to
experience everything Cambridgeshire life had to offer; apparently shopping in
Primark was a favourite pursuit!
On Saturday, Jan took the group to Cambridge where Elisabeth Everitt led a
tour, a punting race was held and shopping again featured prominently. Back to
the village then for a sausage supper on the scout field and impromptu football
games with visitors and hosts mingling well.
Sunday morning saw 30 youngsters participating in the Family Service -quite a sight to see that number of "silly sheep" performing in the sketch; the Germans coped brilliantly with everything the director threw at them! It was a wonderful service - the church was full - and was followed by an excellent bring and share lunch in St Cyriac's. We almost spent too long taking group photos and it was a mad rush to get to the airport bus in Cambridge -but we made it with 1 minute to spare! Huge thanks to everyone who hosted visitors - the White, Doe, Freeman, Lewinski, Jordan, Everitt, Wilson, Kingsmill, Wade, Oliver, Reeks families (and extended families) who gave generously of their time and resources, and others who helped to plan, finance or run particular events - including Alastair Everitt, Elisabeth Everitt, Brenda Wilson, Kate Child, Mandy Kingsmill, Francis Reeks, Steve White, Tim Doe, St Mary's PCC, Churches Conservation Trust and all at Swaffham Prior Primary School and Bottisham Village College. Jan and I are hugely grateful for the support you gave and all involved greatly enjoyed the experience -one to be repeated, I think!