Driven by sheer boredom

Today Ralph & Paula left for home. They ought to be back by now.

I had planned to go out in service this morning with the folks from the West congregation, and I woke up at 7 am, got dressed and everything. At 8 am, I woke up Joel and asked "Service, or sleep?" He replied "Sleep" in a tone that I knew meant I would never be able to wake him up. I really wanted to head out, but I was thinking that if I did go out, I would never be able to meet up with Joel, since there is no phone at Chloé's flat. Now that I think back on it, I should have gone out anyways, since he didn't end up waking up until 1 pm. So instead, I went back to sleep too.

We woke up and bummed around the 9eme a bit, poking around aimlessly. Basically everything was closed since it is Sunday. We walked up near our old flat and I had a patented Jason-Kim-crazy-idea.... I suggested that we ride our bikes back down to Thierry & Ghislaine's, tell them we were super bored and want to take them out to dinner.

So we got our bikes, rode down and arrived at their place around 6 pm. Turns out that Thierry is engaged in a major project-- he is tiling his backyard stoop. Well, we told him that we are super bored and ask if he needs help, and he accepts. So we spent the next 4 hours or so with Joel helping him tile and me helping Ghislaine clean up their little garden and shed. They are getting a whole bunch of projects around the house finished, since they will be moving away in a month.

Afterwards, Ghislaine made us some supper. Joel and I felt a bit embarrassed, since we hadn't come by to try to scam dinner, we were just sincerely bored and doing some work was actually enjoyable. But, they insisted and so we stayed.

It was nice spending time with Thierry and Ghislaine. We got to know them much better than yesterday. Turns out that Thierry's father is also in the truth. He moved from Guadeloupe to France and had his family there. He wanted to serve where the need was great, even though he had a family, so one day he asked the branch coordinator where should move. The branch coordinator told him "Guadeloupe". He was a bit taken aback, but his desire was to be of help, so he moved. Not long after moving, he was told that there was an even greater need in Martinique, so he moved there. It seems that he was a well-known brother, since Thierry mentioned that he served as an assembly overseer. Thierry's mom and dad still live in Martinique. His mom is in Paris to help with the move, and will actually stay with them for the first month in Qatar.

Tomorrow we made plans with Thierry and Alberique (his son) to go out in service, and in the evening, after his family study, to go out for dinner. This actually works out great, since I just got an email from the Niels saying that their dad is staying an extra week because the chimney repair is taking longer than expected.

Tuesday we will probably help the Thomas' out some more with their yard work, then meeting in the evening.