This weekend we visited Hadleigh Farm which is the location of the Hadleigh Training Centre, a facility focused on teaching people with special needs how to develop work skills safely. It was originally started by William Booth back in 1891 when he basically bought the entire hillside to host his vision farm. If you have ever seen the poster and cover from “In Darkest England and the Way Out”, “The Farm Colony” is Hadleigh Farm. And we’ve been there. End of history lesson.

In the office, we’re starting to get more and more familiar with everything Boundless. We and the other Congress volunteers have also been assigned to various jobs depending on our skill sets and interests. Jodi will be working mostly with volunteer services so the congress can function with ease and with the sponsored delegates for Boundless who are coming to the event on some form of aid or scholarship-like program. I will be split between International and UK Headquarters for the most part and my duties fall mostly into programming and logistics for visiting musical groups. I will also be helping the Congress Office with any video needs for the website and marketing.

Personally, we’re finally getting acclimated to the weather, time zone, jargon, and public transport system. We have umbrellas and travel cards now so we’re ready for anything! There isn’t much of a language barrier here but there are several words and phrases we have discovered that don’t always mean the same thing. Similarly, people react differently in social situations because, believe it or not, England’s culture is completely different from America’s. Life is hard without a Target down the road but we’ve managed to find stores that sell what we need.

-Mejee