Week ending 27 January 2013

It has been a wonderful week.  We have had time to get a lot done in the office with a little down time for President and Sister Brown.  They have had time to start projecting ahead to the influx of Sisters and now have a kind of game plan to start working from. 

I will have about 10+ flats to open between now and May and then hopefully not a great deal after that.  We will see what the summer months bring in regard to numbers coming out.  I am really learning a lot about Scottish law regarding flats.  It is illegal to lease a two bedroom flat to more than 2 people that are not blood relatives.  That makes having a threesome in Scotland illegal unless you have more bedrooms and an HMO  (House in Multiple Occupation) license.  Then one of the bedrooms has to be large enough to accommodate three beds since they all have to sleep in the same room.  When you have more sisters coming than you have in the field, you have to have some threesomes for purposes of training.  It is a very exciting time for missionaries and with that come the details to be worked out

It has been a snowy week again and yet as I write this, we see no snow out our windows. Today has been rainy and windy.  Yesterday was cloudy and sunny and the snow is gone in most places in the city.  We have forecasts for a high wind advisory for Wednesday according to signs along the motorway today.

 Yesterday we went to see New Lanark. This was the cotton mill village that was founded in 1785. 

 

 

As you can tell by the picture above it was built by a river to take advantage of water to power the machinery.  The location is actually very beautiful, it is right by the falls on the River Clyde.

It quickly became known throughout the world under the enlightened management of social pioneer, Robert Owen.  He provided decent homes, fair wages, free health care, a new education system for villagers and the first workplace nursery school in the world!   He did not believe in children working such long hours at such a young age but thought all children should be educated.  He is the first to start the progressive thinking that has led up to the system that we have. 

The school room was also used for dances and public lectures in the evening.  You'll notice the huge globe,

He wanted to make sure the children understood thier geography and how big the world really was.

Children went to school as soon as they could walk and would then be in school until at least 10 but could stay until they were 12. They had school uniforms that they put on when they got there. 

 

 

They were laundered at school and also the children were bathed at school. They learned reading, writing, math, geography, science, art and music. The teacher was kind. When your family needed the extra money and you were 10 you could go to work at the mill. The bell rang at 5:30 A.M. and you had to be at work at 6:00. You would work until 9:00 and then eat breakfast. Then back to work until 2:00, break for lunch, work until 6:00 p.m. and then dinner and school for those that wanted to learn or some kind of entertainment. This happened six days a week. Sunday was for household chores, laundry, scrubbing the stairs, and play. The store was opened late so you could do your shopping after work at fair prices. 

 

Deluxe housing at this time was having descent place to live close to work and one family having their own place which was one or two rooms depending on the size of your family. Ten people got two rooms with trundle beds under the other beds to pull out at night for the children to sleep on.

 

It was very interesting to see. He had a village store where you could buy everything you needed under one roof and you owned part of it and so at the end of the month you would get some money back on the earnings for the things that you wanted but were not needs.  Also some of it went toward the schooling.  The people called him a strict but fair man.  He disciplined by having a manager walk around and sees what you were doing and what your work looked like.  Then each person had a hanging block by them with each side colored a different color with white being the best and black the worst.  You were never punished but just given the look of pleasure or displeasure.

 

This is why they had people from all over the world were coming to see it.  Others felt that you could not provide a living like this for your workers and still make money.  Needless to say, Mr. Owen proved you could provide for your workers and still make a profit.