Riding For Rwanda Day 3
HEART OF HOLLAND RIDE - DAY THREE - June 24, 2024
AFRICAN PROVERB PARAPHRASED
If you want to go slow go alone, if you want to go far and fast, go together (on an e-bike).
We are just a few days into life on the barge and already great habits are forming.
Many of them surround eating together. Whether it is our mid-day, wading in the North Sea picnic at Noordwijk beach or gathering around the table at the end of a long day of riding with table mates who have found the English words to say “we have the best table” these are the moments where we stop moving and are just present.
There is just something about a loaf of hearty bread and some head nodding, I don’t know what you just said, but I really like your company conversations, that make your heart glad to be alive and be together.
Everyone in our group is practicing their English, God bless them, and we are all learning together what Dutch symbols mean on various signs.
Marlene and I even learned last night that there are two beverage toasts in German. ‘Prost’ for beer and ‘Zum wohl’ for wine. We had much to celebrate at our evening meal thanks to our e-bikes that made it possible to stay with our group for the entire day! All of this is really being impressed upon my heart and has caught my imagination especially because we met up with “Sarah, our barge home” in Leiden.
The city that suffered a great famine in 1574.
As we walked through this beautiful city, after dinner, it was amazing to see that in this city that suffered a great siege and famine in 1573-1574, all of the patio restaurants were full (on a Monday night) and on almost every side street or in the boats making their way up and down the canal, people gathered together around food - in more than a few instances we could even hear singing.
Eating, singing, being together. In spite of language barriers, exhausted bodies, close quarters with no air conditioning, it is a sweet thing. I ended today thinking about that breakfast Jesus prepared on the beach for his friends - a few fish - was this to further emphasize he was fully alive? I don't know, I am not a theologian but this I do know. The Dutch love to eat together to celebrate life, in Leiden.
Other Random Facts:
Marlene and I will soon be buying e-bikes 😉
The term hodge-hodge originated in Leiden (herring and bread after the famine)
It is okay to hang flags and wear orange when your country is in the finals.
If your child is graduating this year you might want to hang their back-pack from the flag pole outside your house.
254 km for me toward my 1000km goal, Marlene's #km will come tomorrow
we have passed $20,000 in gifts raised for our precious charities Wellspring and UMOJA (bless you and thank you for joining on this great adventure for the families in Rwanda who will be able to celebrate new opportunities)
And finally, you are never too young, it is never too late, and you are never too old to try something new.
