Thursday morning I was in full-on couch potato mode after such a busy week. I chilled out, ate my huge breakfast from the BnB and skyped Mum and Dad for ages. I eventually pulled my lazy bum out of the house to walk into town to meet Martin who was giving me a ride to the Graveside Service for Father James McMenamin, a Priest who died exactly 100 years ago to the day at the Battle of Messines. The Service was being held at Nieppe Communal Cemetery, a small town in France. It was so strange just driving from Belgium to France in 5 minutes. The only physical sign that we had changed countries was that the road signs were now in French, if it weren’t for that I wouldn’t have had a clue! We arrived early to help set up and I was asked to give the Ambassador a wreath to lay down during the ceremony. I hung out with him while we waited (you know… as you do) and by the end, I didn’t realise he was the ambassador after a while. I don’t know why but I always imagine that well-known people are different from you and me, but they really aren’t.

The ceremony was a nice quick one, a few speeches were made, I handed over the wreath and that was that. A mass later that night was held for Father McMenamin also. Afterward, we attended a communal reception where the Mayor and Ambassador exchanged gifts. It was a bit hard for them to communicate with the language barrier but also amusing to watch. I talked to mainly French people there, it felt good to speak it again, even though I still struggled with it a bit. In fact, there is this one-word “l’histoire” that can mean history or a story. I asked one of the men about his l’histoire in WW1 and he ran off and came back with a brand new book. It turned out he had written a book all about the town’s history in WW1 and he signed it and gave it to me! It wasn’t what I asked for and I was pretty baffled and confused at first but who am I to complain!

After lunch, Martin took me back to the NZ Memorial for the Missing so that I could lay a wreath for Cyril. I added one of Mum’s crocheted poppies to the wreath and also a cross. I decided that each poppy represented a person in our family.

That night we went to the Mass in the Church of Messines held in Father McMenamin’s honour. I was allowed to sit up with the organ player which was pretty cool, I had a great view of everything. Just before the mass started a chalice in a case (made by St Bernard’s Boys College out of NZ wood) was given to the church. The chalice’s arrival had been eagerly anticipated by the people of Messines because of its special history. It was the same chalice that Father McMenamin was presented by his parishioners when he went to war as a chaplain. It’s known as a battlefield chalice. He gave troops communion behind the lines and in the field. It was really special to know that we were having mass with the same chalice used 100 years ago in the war, just down the hill from us.
During the Mass, the Priest – Brian – gave communion with it. The chalice will stay in the Church for the next few months and will return to the Parish when the NZDF leaves for NZ after the Passchendaele Commemorations in October. It was also my first mass held in Dutch, there were English parts of course – they took turns – but it was a pretty cool experience. I can now say I have attended mass in English, French, and Dutch!

After the Mass we all went back to Ypres and had dinner together, I ordered a burger, but wasn’t allowed the bread because of my allergy so it looked quite strange without the buns:D Tonight would be my last night with everyone so we took a while to say our goodbyes, I would definitely miss them. It was such a great week. I said a final goodbye to Martin and then was taken back to the BnB at 12. Talk about a week of late nights!