From a Trans-Atlantic Nomad

I arrived in San Anselmo in Marin County on Saturday. I’m here visiting a lecturer at the seminary here called Sam Hamilton-Poore who is also an associate of the Iona Community. He and his family have been ever so hospitable. Sam and Terry (his wife) have three children, Ben, Eliza and Noah and it has been great staying in a family home after a pretty hectic week in downtown San Francisco.

 On Saturday four Students here at the Seminary took me out for dinner and to see another fellow student’s band play in a small town near-by called fairfax. On Sunday I went to a service at the aptly named St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. The preacher was trained as a baptist and we sang from the African American Hymnal so the style was very different to that of Morningside United. It was a racially mixed congregation which I’ve been told is not very common even her in liberal California. They were incredibly welcoming and they are very active on issues of social justice, in particular they help support the local homeless shelters in Marin.

After Church I was taken to wine country by Alexis, a student from the Seminary. It was incredibly hot, I haven’t felt heat like it since I was in the middle-east a few years back. It has been a very hot summer here which is part of the problem with forest fires. Since writing my first email I have discovered that it doesn’t rain in California in the summer months. Who’d have thought, it takes a wee while for a Scotsman like me to my get my head around the idea that it simply will not rain here. I’ve heard the weather in Edinburgh has been mixed so I shant mention the weather again so as not to rub it in! Anyway, Alexis and I tried a few wines and I bought a bottle as a gift for Sam and Terry and we had a lovely family meal that evening.

 On Monday Sam, Noah and I went to Muir Woods which is a beatuiful stretch of preserved forest named after Scottish born John Muir. Sam tried to convince the Ranger at the gate that I was John Muir’s great, great, great grand-nephew but she was having none of it. The Woods are filled with giant redwoods that have been preserved because during the California Gold rush most of the forests were chopped down to build San Francisco’s wooden houses. It is also that place of the first meeting of the league of nations in 1945. At the spot where it took place there is a picture of the world’s political leaders all sitting amongst these beautiful trees and wildlife. It must have been some gathering. We talked about nothing quite as important as we hiked a couple of trails, it was a great day out.

On Tuesday some students from the Seminary took me to Rodeo beach and I paddled in the Pacific for the first time. It was surprisingly cold. We had a picnic and took some guitars and djembe drums and we sang away to our hearts content. Then we hiked up some of the nearby cliffs and drove back to San Anselmo.

In the evening there was a book launch at the seminary which was interesting, I met lots of theologians, then I shared a whisky with some of the students in their student digs. I say digs rather sarchastically as the people I met live in this wonderful house called Trinity House (photo attached). It is by far and away the most beautiful student accomodation I’ve ever been in.

I have very much enjoyed myself thus far and now I’m heading south to San Diego for my final few days in California. Then its of to the bright lights of Las Vegas!

It is my last night in San Francisco (SF) and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. I have a done a spot of “touristy’  stuff in the last couple of days including visiting Alcatraz yesterday and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge today. Alcatraz was really interesting, the audio-tour is great with stories from ex-convicts and officers. They also talk a bit about the island’s time as a military fort, before it was used as a prison, and then when it was occupied by Native Americans in 1969. The Native Americans used an old law which states that any federal land which is not being actively used by the government may be reclaimed by indigenous peoples. The US government eventually managed to argue in court that the light-house on the island mean that the land was being actively used and then kicked them off.

I have just returned to the hostel after cycling accross the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really foggy and windy which made it a touch perilous but I persevered none the less and survived to tell the tale. I cycled to a very nice little town over the bridge called Sausalito and got a ferry back across the bay to SF. I met some other Scottish young people on the ferry ride which was nice.

I’ve bought a small guitar to take with me on my travels which is great as I find playing very relaxing. It has also come in handy as we had a sing-song in the hostel common room last night. Also I was playing in the park yesterday and I got chatting to a couple of guys which was nice. As I’m travelling on my own it is important that I meet others in the places I visit and the guitar is turning out to be a nice wee ice-breaker.

 After having mentioned the problem this city has with homelessness I got chatting to a couple of guys on the topic. One was a young man who was collecting signatures for a petition to reject a government proposal to cut the homeless budget by 60%. This would cut both the National and California budgets relating to helping the homeless. Given the scale of the problem here in SF this seems to be a counterproductive step regarding the problem. Furthermore, nationally there is a steady increase of families being made homeless by having their houses reposessed.  He told me that 40% of homeless people here in SF consisted of families with women and children and that 1/3 of homeless people suffer from mental ilness.

 The second guy I was chatting to was a homeless man who went by the name of Brother AL Cadilac. He said that he moved to SF as a hippie in 1969 and has been here on and off ever since. He said that he didn’t mind being homeless here but that he was going north as Jesus told him there was going to be an earthquake soon. He asked me if I had any drugs and of course I told him I didn’t. He was swigging from a bottle in brown bag during our conversation. Despite being accosted by this man and many other homeless people at no point have I ever felt unsafe as none of the people begging have been agressive in the slightest. Brother Al clearly has a great many issues not least alcohol and drug related and there are many thousands of homeless people just like him here making it a huge problem here.

Anyway, I’m off North to a wee place called San Anselmo tomorrow to stay with an Iona Community Associate and to visit the seminary he works at there. I’m looking forward to it very much.

 Blessings,

 Mark

From the moment that the customs officer winked and said have a nice day I have barely stopped smiling (except when my plane had to fly through a thunderstorm which was  a bit of a white-knuckle ride). I flew from Edinburgh to San Francisco via New York and I’ve now been in SF for a couple of days. I’m getting over the jet-lag and the sun hasn’t stopped shining since I arrived.

San Francisco is a wonderful place, it is very eclectic as one might expect and has a whole mix of people from different races, religions and sexual orientations. I have met with an associate of the Iona Community (I’ll be meeting a quite a few during my time in the US) and she took me to a few churches and showed me round her neighbourhood called Noe Valley. Interestingly at the local church Noe Valley Presbyterian Church I met a young woman from Oklahoma who knows Frances. What a small world. This morning I attended an Episcopal service at Grace Cathedral which was lovely.

On a more concerning note here in San Francisco there is a large population of homeless people , not unlike Edinburgh. The churches here provide a lot of help for this group of people but I’m unsure what sort of government strategies there are to help. There are some church services which specifically welcome homeless people so I am hoping to go to one and find out a bit more. Also although the sun is great for visitors like me there is a huge problem in California with forest fires at the moment so a day or two of rain would help. Outwith major cities here the fire service is made-up almost entirely of volunteers. They are quite rightly held in high esteem in the press, however I have not found anything in the local papers about homelessness. Both of these groups of people are in my thoughts and prayers.

I’m off today to some different neighbourhoods, the city is largely still split into neighbourhoods based on ethnicity. Tomorrow I’m off to Alcatraz with some lovely Irish travellers I have met in the hostel I’m staying at.

 I hope you are all well and I’ll write again soon,

 Blessings

 Mark