This past week, Act 4 was fortunate enough to be invited to Jersey to share its Star Citizen program in five schools across the island. For those who may only know of NEW Jersey, Jersey is an island off the coast of France. Here's a play-by-play of my week with Act 4 in Jersey.
Friday: To make the journey to Jersey easier for the team, I ventured north to Birmingham to spend the night with Lea at her university. We managed to have some fun before the hard work began and went to see The Hunger Games in the cinema.
Saturday: In order to make our ferry, Sam arrived at Lea's university at 6:30 am to drive the four hours down to Poole. Despite the fog, we managed to make it on time and the sun even came out to greet us! The ferry stopped at Guernsey before our final destination, Jersey. Total ferry time was around five hours. We finally arrived on the island of Jersey, only to get lost a few times before making it to our accommodations with Elaine and Graeme, Reverends on the island.
Sunday: After losing an hour (Thanks daylight savings time), we woke up to join Liz, a lay worker, at her church on the west coast of the island. We attended service and ate some lunch before a four hour rehearsal to finalize our program for the following week. When rehearsals were deemed finished, Liz came to collect us for dinner at her house, but not before a quick tour of the island. The night ended with a delicious dinner, a game, and a group of youth who appreciated my American background. :)
Monday: Day One! We arrived at our school early, only to find no one was around to let us in! Luckily, we didn't have long to wait and quickly began to set up for the day. Although I was nervous to be in my first ever Star Citizen Show, I enjoyed the children's reactions afterwards. The day was such a blur, with a few hours set-up, an hour long performance, tons of workshops, and a few hours packing up, we easily put in a ten hour day.
Tuesday: Day Two. We arrived at our school early yet again to find that we were the first in. Thankfully I wasn't as nervous this day, as I had already gotten my first performance out of the way. Things went smoothly, until I went into Year 1 and 2 classrooms to find that our trailer videos didn't work with the software! Thankfully, after seeing the videos more than twenty times before as they were once used in assemblies, I had a pretty good grasp on the themes. While it was even more exhausting after a second ten hour day, we finished packing up a little quicker than the day before and managed to make it to the beach as a treat!
Wednesday: Day Three. Another day, another school, and this time, someone was there to let us in! We quickly moved everything from the van to the hall, only to find that we had left a piece of equipment at our previous day's school! After a few frantic text messages, Liz had located our missing piece and promised to get it back to us in time for the performance. What a lifesaver! The rest of the day went off without a hitch and Lea and I found that even our puppet shows (one of the workshop activities) were amazingly creative and unique. Overall it was a good day, finished up by Liz stopping by and dinner at Billy and Pauline's house (a minister on the island).
Thursday: Day Four. Arriving at the school and getting into the building were no problem on our fourth day, although I have to admit I was hesitant about the hall. Lea and Sam spent a good fifteen minutes blacking out windows while I got started on my task, as a portion of my responsibilities have to be completed before the children come in. We set up in record time, posed for a few photos for Graeme (another minister and our host for the week), and received a few treats from Liz. The day went quickly, almost too quickly, as Lea and I ran out of time with our last workshop of the day! We cleared up and called Liz to go for ice cream as it was our last night on the island. When we arrived home, Elaine (our other host for the week) had cooked lobsters for us, my first ever!
Friday: Day Five! Sam, Lea, and I had to be thorough in the morning before heading to our final school as we didn't have time to come back to our host's before catching the ferry home. We arrived at the school without a hitch and were greeted by a friendly caretaker and Religion coordinator. We set up quickly, despite being distracted by Liz coming in to say hi, and the rest of the day just flew by. I was really impressed this day by the complexity of the raps the Year 6's wrote. At the end of the day, after all the students had presented what they had been working on, a few of the youth Liz works with came to help us pack up. We were done early and went to Liz's to hang out for a bit before catching our ferry back home.
Saturday: The end. We arrived in Birmingham around 3 am, while Sam continued driving until he reached home around 4 am. I spent the night at Lea's again before heading home the following afternoon, finally reaching Potters Bar around 4:30 pm. What a crazy journey!
I am really thankful I had the opportunity to experience such a unique and interesting place. Although we didn't get to see a few of the sights on the island, as we were working too much, I did enjoy all the connections I made with the people and students we worked with. Someday, I may just have to go back and visit!
