Greenbelt 08 - "the year Jen got ill"

Categories: greenbelt

Tags: Greenbelt

Date: 27 August 2008 17:18:29

Yup - "Greenbelt 08 - The year Jen got ill", as the person who took v.good care of me was quoted. I vomited numerous times on Sunday night and during the day on Monday; made everything stink of sick (I accidentally only opened one layer of the tent door...); and spent a total of 5 hours in the GB medical centre. But thankfully I had Mr B with me, who cleaned up the tent; sat on the floor next to me whilst I slept in the medical centre; and forgot about everything he wanted to see on Monday so he could look after me. I'm now, just about, getting better. Yesterday I didn't vomit at all, but couldn't manage to eat v.much, so when I tried to do something I wobbled. Today I've been fairly lethargic, but have eaten most of a small lunch, so I'm hoping to get my energy back sometime soon. I was supposed to be working a night shift tonight, but I've rung in sick.

But, despite the sickness, Greenbelt 08 was still very good. Before the sickness, I managed to see a few talks, a few good music artists and saw numerous friends. And although I was physically sick, psychologically I was in a Good Place, which definitely helped.

Trying to see everyone I knew at Greenbelt was quite difficult, although the SCM / wib meets helped. Due to Mr B, I camped with people from my church in my New Home, instead of the SCM crowd, as I have done in recent years. This made trying to see SCM people difficult at times, not to mention friends from Manchester, Swansea, wibloggers and people with other random connections. And Mr B isn't exactly short of people he knows at GB. Too many people! I think I spent more time socialising in the Tiny Tea Tent / Organic Beer tent, then I did going to actual events, but I'm glad about that. It was good to see the people I did manage to see, and for those who I missed, I'm sorry.

For the first time in 6 years of GB, I didn't go to the main communion service. In fact, the only worship I went to was the one I was involved with leading, unless you count Beer and Hymns! This wasn't intentional, it just worked out like that. I chose not to go to the main service because we were meeting to set up everything for our service straight afterwards, so I preferred to have a quiet couple of hours at the tent. Our service... those who were there will be able to tell you it was, erm, different. I just hope that the message we were trying to give came through though. Its hard to tell when you know it inside out, and already know the point of x, y and z. It was long in the planning, and had many ups and downs, but overall I think it came through alright. Whether I get involved with a service of that style again is one for me to think about. I think next year I'd like to get involved with something else at GB, and stick to just planning the little services at church. But we'll see.