The Fellowship of the Coffle

A fortnight ago we jumped out the matrix of our London life in a bit of a rush. Von gave her last massage on the Wednesday. I left my job at Prospectus on the Thursday. Josh and Ellie said goodbye to all their Myatt Garden primary school friends on the Friday. We bought our Mosey-mobile motor home on Saturday. Packed up our house into it on Sunday. Then drove to Hull to start a 250 mile reconciliation walk back to London to bring a symbolic European apology as part of the bicentenary anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. As you can imagine, our little world feels a little turned upside down. But it feels amazing.

Eloise says
Its been tiring. But I have made some new friends. A family that lives in Washington state in America are walking with us and they have 3 brothers and 6 sisters. They are called the Lienau’s. To be honest, I haven’t walked much at all! I’ve been driving in my new friend Christof’s van. I’m being trained to look after him, I have to pray for him, hide my food when he is stressed , most importantly love him!!! He buys the food for our lunch, picks up people when they’re tired, hurt,or just can’t go any more. Oh, and he wrestles with the kids!

Josh says
Hi everyone walked 110 miles already! I’ve only missed on 29 miles! Almost everyone here has cried at least once!! We have seen some beautiful sights. Our Mosey Mobile Motor home has tonnes of secret compartments. Its amazing how we can fit a 5 story house into a 23x8x9 ft motor home!! We are now in Wisbech after 2 weeks of walking and days off on Sunday. We have to walk an average of 13 miles a day! Although we are away from OUR school we are teaching at other schools and everyone loves us!

Our new lifeline name is…THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE COFFLE. Coffle is the word used to describe a group of people in yokes and chains. Everything we do seems like it has some connection to THE LORD OF THE RINGS. David Pott, the leader of the lifeline expedition is just like Gandalf. I look a lot like Frodo, Ellie acts like pippin, Mummy is Arwen and dad is Eomer!!! Our group of 23 people from around the world can make a difference, and a very big one too! We’ve had media following us from the BBC and from Australia, Canada, Japan, USA, and Russia all interested in whether this apology and forgiveness thing can help mend their own historical wounds.

The Winter’s and the Lienau’s (our Washington State friends that live on Camano Island) are now staying at a wonderful little campsite. Michael and Shari (parents) have 3 sons and 6 daughters, Jacob [15], Anna [12], Bibianna [12], Joseph [11], Janey [10], Tatsi [9], Corina [8], Estee [6] and Josh [6]! Bibi, Joe, Tatsi, Corina and Joshua are all adopted from one native American family.