Savannah

The train arrived a little earlier than scheduled, always nice. Not so unexpected was the fact that the station is in the middle of nowhere. Still this time it shouldn't matter, I had a lift. The only question was, where was it? Needless to say my ride did turn up, it was a lady by the name of Darleen, or as she preferred to be called Tsebiah, her Hebrew name. I was Couchsurfing again but this time with a twist. I had emailed this guy called Ron, in his profile it said that he lived in a "community" with about twenty five other people but it was not a commune. I was seriously curious. Tsebiah drove us to the houses, they own three in Savannah but that isn't their only community. Apparently they have these communities all over the world, they even have one in Devon,England. The deal is that they believe in God, but not in a Christian way. For a start they don't call him God, they call him Yeshua. They don't have set services, and/or rituals, they just have a gathering twice a day where they say thanks for things and sing.Anyone can speak and there is no priest/leader per se. After a bit of supper I bedded down for the night in a room shared with Tsebiah and two other girls, one of whom Carolyn, was just visiting the community.
Despite the next morning being a Sunday I was up and ready to go at 8am to attend the gathering. People sang, said what they were thankful for and then they all made a circle with everybody raising their arms and said a "prayer". On Sundays in the community the men make the breakfast, so I sat and enjoyed. Then I set off into the day doing what has now become a habit for me in every new place I visit, I walked around the town. A couple of blocks away from the house is Forsyth Park, a huge park in the centre of what is now the historic district of Savannah. The first thing I saw was a memorial to the Confederate dead. The locals don't talk about the "Civil War', they talk about the "War of Northern Aggression". This is very cool, I am getting a whole different perspective on this piece of American history. And considering that most American history is fairly new to me anyway, makes it doubly exciting! I am having a blast!! I walked on down through the park and sat in front of the Forsyth Fountain and no sooner had I done so than a local sat down beside me and proceeded to explains why I should give him $20. I now don't know if he was genuine, but I thought so at the time as I gave him $10. He told me that he was a born again Christian and was trying to put together a book of poetry that he had written based on his experiences. I think I gave him the money partly because I was feeling blessed myself with my change in luck on the Couchsurfing front. I had had a place to stay in Charleston, now I had one in Savannah and I had another place lined up in Atlanta. Also he seemed to be genuinely trying to do something to get himself out of his situation, he wasn't just sat on some bench calling out and yelling at people to give him money. I have a hard time handling people who ask me for money on the streets, I want to acknowledge them, not just ignore them, but I don't know what to say. I don't want to give them money as I am selfish and on a budget and I don't know what they are going to do with it. If it's just going to go down their throats, I don't want to help with that. I can pour it down my own throat just as easily!
I walked down Bull St. towards the waterfront. Savannah is an incredibly green city, even this time of year. There are lots of palm trees and live Oaks, couple this with the fact that in the historic district there is a small square every two blocks. These squares are miniature parks in themselves. Some of them have statues and memorials to various people, some have fountains and others just have lots of plants and benches. It is a lovely idea and it's a great thing that so many of the squares have been preserved. It makes walking around the town very pleasant indeed. I can only imagine that it's even better in summer when you are trying to escape the sun and heat. I walked past a few Irish pubs on my way to the waterfront, I didn't know that Savannah had a large population of Irish people and/or liked Irish pubs that much. I did run across an English pub, complete with red telephone box outside, to balance things out a little. As it was Sunday I couldn't go into the City Hall and had to content myself with a photo. I walked down to the waterfront front, Savannah sits on the Savannah River and was the site of the sailing competitions for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The waterfront consists of a cobbled street, lots of souvenir shops and big hotels with a few bars thrown into the mix. It's not especially pretty as across the river sits the convention centre and another huge hotel. At least there is a boardwalk along the river so you can walk along side. I walked up to where a sailing ship was moored , the ship belongs to the community. They bought it off some Brazilian millionaire who had bought it for his son and then let it go to rack and ruin. The community bought it, restored it and now sail it, spreading their message.
I took the free ferry across the river, but there was nothing to see there. After writing a few postcards and almost getting blown into the river I caught the ferry back, but to another landing point further up the river. I walked beside the river past a statue called the "Waving Girl". I am not quite sure what she is waving at, but it's very pretty, I took my photo with her. On the way back to the house I went into the modern section of the Telfair museum, unfortunately it just confirmed that I neither understand or like modern art. I think it's my lack of understanding that gets in the way of me liking it. On the other hand it could be that with some of the works I think that "I could do that". I guess the point is that yes I am physically capable of making that piece of art but I didn't, someone else had the thought and put it into physical form. Maybe that is where the "Art" is in modern art.
That evening there was a dedication at the house. A member who had had her children before she joined the community was now asking that they be "accepted" into the community, she wanted to dedicate them. Again there was no set ritual to this, it was as the parents wanted it to be. Others stood and said what they thought and pledged their support to the family,stating that raising children is difficult (true) and that it would not be possible without the support of the community.It was a touching ceremony and warmer that a Christian Christening service. However I am biased against organised religion,I don't even know if I think that there is a god any more. I want to say that I thought there was a god when I was a child but I think I just believed what people told me. My parents didn't expressly tell me that there was a god but then they didn't tell me there wasn't either. Going first to a Catholic and then a C of E school didn't help with forming an independent opinion. I do know that even if I don't believe in a god that I am not automatically going to lose my moral compass, being religious doesn't automatically make you a good person. So being non-religious shouldn't automatically make you a bad person.