Agnes Family in Africa

Christmas 2011

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Bethanie decided to keep her main party for 5 1/2, so that she could invite her friends that she would make at school. However, we couldn't not mark the occasion so Chris and Beverly kindly let us sneak a birthday cake into their Christmas Eve party, and even a couple of games for the kids :)

(From L to R) Quinn Killoren, Hannah (nanny), Thomas, Chris, Jonathan and Bethlehem Crowder

Learning how to play Pass the Parcel is always tricky...

Bethlehem loves her new Christmas dress from her Nanna

Bethanie in her party dress and with her new Hello Kitty cup

Christmas carols, hunt the school and Nairobi scenes

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Looking like a Christmas Carol Concert to you? This is Karen Blixen's house (Out of Africa) as not so many people see it...

Always good to have a picnic in the evening sun before your Carol Concert. Here we are with our friends Nate and Ginna Killoren, plus Quinn and Liam (not in photo - on bouncy castle). Their church puts on this event as an outreach to the neighbourhood. Nate (from USA) was leading the band and had the challenge of learning the British version of many of the carols (many white Kenyans of British descent live here) - it's surprising how many are different!

You can see the Ngong Hills in the distance

And as the sun sets the place fills up - the later photo of everyone holding candles didn't come out so well but the atmosphere was magic!

Clearly, this is the school for our kids!

Actually, we truly felt it was, and not just for the helicopter! Little Scholars Academy (great name!) is a Kenyan-run, British-system, Christian school with only 45 pupils (only up to Yr 3) and a lovely family atmosphere. It seemed a perfect bridge between the intimacy of home-school and the big school environment which is very likely to come next.

We'd forgotten how fun African rain can be!

It's not holidays yet - school is still in!

Nairobi - colour, new buildings, new designs, and no health and safety!

Lunch with the Nairobi office team at an Ethiopian restaurant. All those along the wall are now elsewhere, although it wasn't the colour of the wall that scared them off! That just leaves Chris (far left) and us, plus 5 wonderful Kenyan staff.

Another peek into the office - this is the 'blue room' where all things logistical (flights, supplies, guesthouse) are managed from. I would hate it but they love it! They work miracles in here - they got one of our team out of the middle of nowhere in South Sudan and halfway around the world to Arkansaw in around 48 hours, so she could be with her dying father. What a blessing!

Early December - we finally arrive in Nairobi

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At Heathrow airport, waking up and waiting for our flight to be called...

Didn't take long to get back to our favourite juice bar to rehydrate after the flight!

We had a friendly, if slightly scary, welcome from a giraffe and a super-lion

And Baby Bethlehem is now big enough to play with, which is fun.

It's fun to explore on foot...

... as the roads have only got MUCH WORSE in the last year!

We're trying not to forget Christmas is coming, which means... cooking some treats

Finding a tree and getting it ready

Nice work team!

We did pay a visit to the office but generally we're in hiding from work until the New Year (things like school and house to sort out first)

This is Bethanie and I on our way to church (Uchumi supermarket in the background)

A multiple baby dedication was fun - I think there were 6 including one set of twins

Having mourned the loss of living in the land of blackberries (which Bethanie LOVES), Beverly comes to the rescue with a pot of Blackberry Jam, found in Nairobi - what a lovely gift!

Crowder family invite Agnes family to hang out with them at Jaffrey's Park - with a running track for the boys and a very nice (for N'bi) red and white playground.

Bethanie enjoys the slide

Thomas Crowder can do it sideways!

Late November times with family and friends

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So we're all getting quite good at packing...

Cousins get together at Grandad's 65th Birthday Party (we missed you Becky & Max)

Deborah's sister Tracy and her lovely Luke

Deborah's sister Alex, brother Jon and niece Esther

And the birthday boy himself...

The girls in their camp

How do you get a cake this good when it's not even someone's birthday?! Thank you Sivasundarams!

now it's time for some serious eating (nice colour-coordination by the way boys!)

Our beloved Brices - Pippa, Hugo and James

Caleb gets a lovely hug from Laetesha

Smiles from the Brook family + 1

mid November in Normandy, France

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Here are some highlights from our week in Normandy with Justin's parents, Robin & Eileen, and youngest brother, Matt

Harvesting the last of the pumpkins from the vegetable garden

It was a bit chilly!

But we still had a fun game of petanques

A beautiful day out at Mont St Michel - I couldn't decide which photo was most magical, so pick your favourite!

There were a lot of steps to climb to the abbey at the top so we were grateful for this bench

The streets below the abbey

Back at the house the fun continues - Uncles are great!

Early November

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Family fun day out at Knockhatch Adventure Park

Johnathan, Hannah and Austin come to visit

and Austin loves the hydrotherapy pool!

We meet up with Deborah's Aunty Joy and family (minus Maria and Anna - we missed you!) at The Lookout in Hampshire

and couldn't get enough of Austin so popped in on the way home

Scotland, England, Wales, England - in October

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Justin and Caleb drove 16 hours up to Scotland one weekend to be at the wedding of Justin's cousin Nathan, marrying the lovely Gillian - they had a great time!

We had a week away in Deb's family holiday home in Wales, but stopped off to see friends on the way. Gavin and Sarah's chicken farm (www.oxfordpoultry.com) was lots of fun and they really look after their chickens, should you be looking to buy your own fresh-egg layers!

Their twins, Bodie and Elise help collect the eggs too (Bodie far left)

In Stroud we caught up with old friends Jon & JuAnn Wren, and Caleb made a good friend in Charissa

We loved our walks in Wales

Exploring an old silver-lead mine...

..with it's own post-box?!

The beautiful Ystwyth valley

This is not meant to be a promotional blog but just because we like sharing things we know are great - you can stay in our cottage too, see www.welsh-hideaways.co.uk for more details (beautiful inside as well as out so you don't need to worry about the rain!)

Then it was back to England but we had to keep walking - well Caleb was doing more climbing on Harrison's Rocks (below)

And Scotney Castle is stunning with autumn colour

Our ballet dancer and sprinter are ready for the church's Wapzone Party - much more fun than trick or treating!

SIM in September

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September also saw us being (re) orientated for going overseas at SIM-UK's headquarters in Suffolk. The main benefit for us was getting to know a great group of people, some staff and some going overseas very shortly. Neil (far right) is actually now in Doro, Sudan!

Caleb and Bethanie practice building a new home ;)

They have their own programme thinking about different places and different peoples, all loved by the same God, who is with us everywhere we go.

Bethanie is always happy on a trampoline (so is Caleb!)

SIM-UK's beautiful grounds

Annie was a special hit with Caleb and Bethanie - Ecuador, we hope you know how lucky you are!

Two brave adults on the children's table - Robin also hails from Cambridge and is now in Africa - but the wrong side for us :(

More members of the SIM family blessed us this month. Rob and Emily were in Doro with us and baby Rhoda has since joined them - a real cutie with a possible talent for opera (she can certainly hit the high notes!)

We have been so blessed living in the beauty of Burrswood (www.burrswood.org.uk) - back where Deborah grew up.

A goodbye meal for Deborah's sister Tracy and her family just before they moved to Norfolk - not (quite) the middle of nowhere but not the village next door either.

September family times

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September started with celebrating (great) Gran and Grandad's 60th Wedding Anniversary - well done G&G!

Deborah's Grandad and two of his great-grandsons, Max and Callum

Four generations of the Sansom family

Of course in September, school starts again - back at home again as we hope to be on the move again before term is out...

Uncle Matt, Manna and Daddad came to distract us for a little while - how did Matt make Caleb so small?!

A day out at Groombridge Place - apparently inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle

There is something magic going on here...

These two look fairly normal....
...but what is going on with this creature below?

Caleb and Bethanie with their Uncle Matt - always setting them a fine example - muh ha ha ha!

Deborah's Mum and Dad came back from their walking holiday just in time for Mary's birthday - celebrated in the environment she loves best - a sunny beach!

Hastings is really quite beautiful in places - and it has the added attraction of being Alex's home whilst she studies at Uni there

Hastings Old Town

August - the Jersey bit

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Coming into the harbour at St Helier

Picture-perfect at Portlet Bay

Justin's sister Fiona and her family - Jacob, Joseph & Jamie

The boys would have happily stayed on here all day!

But it's too beautiful an island to stay inside - so out you come cousins!

Happy as sandboys (or girls)

Ever ready with a cheeky grin is our Jacob!

Pizza with a perfect panorama

A very happy evening...

...on beach number 11 (started counting on return to UK)

Next day it was on to Plemont Beach (D's favourite)

dramatic thunderclouds happily passed us by

A sunny tea with Uncle David, Aunty Sue and Justin's cousins

The family beside Gorey Castle

Bethanie's favourite fruit - blackberries

Watching the sun set at St Ouen's beach

Jacob, Jojo and Caleb explore the gun emplacements at Noirment

Climbing and bundling in St Andrew's Park

Caleb and his dad visited the Jersey War Tunnels

Icecream whilst we wait for the ferry traffic to disperse back at Weymouth

Cool shadows

Classic English seaside - donkey rides and all

Arundel Castle and river at sunset on the drive home

August - the English bit

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Caleb the scientist

playing with Josh and Noah (I think Noah is the engineer here)

Bethanie's good friend Sophia, on the All Nations trampoline

Then it was goodbye to All Nations and on to some great family time down in Kent at the end of the summer holidays.

Cousins Bethanie and Esther - are pink tops and flowery skirts genetic?

Sister-in-law Ruth and brothers Jon and Paul

A rare sunny day at Camber Sands (lots of reminiscing about colder, windier times!)

And a very special day all together, when Tracy's sister Tina and her three children came to visit

Tina, Deborah & Tracy - now it's their kids' turn to make camps in the Burrswood rhodedendrons!

July 2011 - Road trip to Scotland for Tuckwell Family Reunion

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After an afternoon with the Vikings in York we stopped for the night in Scarborough, inspiration for one of Bethanie's favourite books - 'The Harbour'

Then it was onwards for a night with Aunty Jean, Uncle Peter and Granny Elizabeth in the Borders - the three kittens were an unexpected bonus!

Our holiday home in Scotland by a pretty 'lochan'

Findhorn Bay

Are they second or third cousins?

Hog Roast in Bill and Sue Mohr's beautiful home that they built for themselves (this is just a marquee though!)

All the Tuckwell Clan who made it to Reunion 2011

In spectacular, if soggy, Scotland

Ever wondered what a 'flea circus' is?

The answer is 'lots of fun

On the way home, a lovely time with Uncle Bill and Aunty Caroline

And back to the fun at Jean and Peter's

Back in England - which one is the Angel of the North?

July 2011 - time with friends

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A Cambridge picnic with the lovely Sivasundaram family

Bethanie and her two good friends, Sophia and Asher

Back to May 2011 - Canterbury Cathedral and Windsor Castle - not bad going!

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Visiting Kitty & Michael Fulljames in Canterbury - we get a tour of the Cathedral with an expert guide

And look what Caleb found outside!

You can punt in Canterbury too (but we didn't)

A cafe in Windsor with Justin's little brother - Matt...

...and this was our view

then we had fun messing about in boats

and ended the day with a BBQ in Cobham, with cousin Austin, Aunty Hannah and Uncle Johnathan

Bethanie and our godaughter Anjali at Hugo's First Communion

June 2011

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Cheering on our team at the All Nations Volleyball tournament (no you can't see a photo of Mum playing!)

Debs (behind the camera), Barney and Katie Burrell come for a visit

Tutor Group punting trip - John Kim, Emmanuel Modi, Jan Barlow, Karen Salmon and Fred Jupe - a happy moment

Happy Fathers Day - that cup is for the "Best Daddy in the World" and Caleb bought it with his pocket money xxx

The half-birthday girl - 4 and a half today

Parachute Party Games

Hugo leads the troupe up the tree

My brother Jon's ordination - a very special day

Yes, you look lovely in a dress Jon!

Celebration picnic supper in the park next to Ely Cathedral - (L to R) Aunty Philippa, Uncle Chris, Steve Midgley (our/Jon's vicar), Grandad, Mum, Jon and Gran.

And our graduation day from All Nations Bible College
(L to R back to front) Ruth Wall, Oli Rundell, Cat Rundell (top of head just visible!) Emmanuel Modi, Collins Nyawade, Justin Agnes, Mike Wall, Karen Salmon, John Kim, Francis Kivuva, Jan Barlow and Deborah Agnes

May 2011 - Weekend Away on the Isle of Wight

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A hotel by the sea...

Clear blue skies...

No kids...

Pretty as a picture...

So peaceful...

Wonderful walking

Cooling off tired feet

Colourful Cliffs

The Needles as at the sun goes down

What a treat! And the kids had a great time with Granny & Grandad too :)

May 2011 - All Nations Fun Run

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Spurning the children's course, Bethanie and Caleb set out on the 3 mile grown-up run...

Asher and Bethanie made it all the way - no carrying!

Daddy was meant to run with Caleb - he thought he'd catch Caleb up once he ran out of puff - meanwhile who is to protect him from these strange characters?

Justin never caught him up - Caleb did 3 miles in 32minutes, running all the way!

May Days

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Great Granny Elizabeth comes to visit

Deborah and her LITTLE brother Paul

Sunny enough for a picnic supper

And some clouds for Christiane xxx

April 2011 - London sightseeing

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First excitement of the day - waiting for the train!

We've seen lions in Africa - but this one is BIG (Caleb thinks it is friendly though)

Time for some culture at the National Gallery

Countdown to the London Olympics 2012

Iconic!

Underground...

Riding the buses...

Is it fairyland?

Palace fit for a princess...

South Bank Cool

we even found a beach!

The Wobbly Bridge

April 2011 - Royal Wedding weekend

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It was a weekend for communities to come together - we watched William & Katherine's wedding along with Mum & Dad's homegroup.

Then it was out into the sunshine for a walk in the beautiful bluebell woods

The rhododendrons and azaleas in the Burrswood grounds were also at their peak

The cousins had fun doing an Easter Egg Hunt

Happy days with Esther, Joshua and Noah

Honfleur - April 2011

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The last treat of our Normady holiday was a day out a deux in Honfleur, just half an hour away. The sun shone and the town was as picturesque as ever.

Paris - April 2011

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APRIL 2011

We took advantage of being only an hour and half's drive from Paris to introduce Caleb and Bethanie to this beautiful city. To start with we met up with some friends in Le Jardin des Plantes and Matt enjoyed soaking up some rays.

Jonathan, Luke and Liv were on good form but sadly Jonathan's wife Ingrid wasn't well and we missed seeing her - next time Ingrid!
The kids got on famously

Bethanie found a bear in the Jardin's zoo

And a boat with her name on it (spelled correctly too!)An afternoon stroll along the Seine was the perfect way to see some more of this wonderful city.

And a fun ride on a double-decker train got us to our next destination!

The kids were amazingly patient waiting to go up the Eiffel tower (unlike their daddy!) and didn't even complain that it was way past their bedtime by the time we got down... and we still hadn't had supper! Some more train rides later we got back to where we'd parked the car and enjoyed a Mexican meal out, before heading home to bed.

Les Fouillettes - April 2011

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APRIL 2011

Before we continue on our days out I thought I should show you some pics of Robin & Eileen's place - it's pretty amazing! They want to use it to bless others and it's been an act of faith on their part to take it on - they really need people to go and stay and support them in their ministry! See www.lesperance.eu if you're interested.

The guest lounge/meeting room (above) and original staircase (below)

A guest bedroom (above - tidied up after the kids had used it!) and Matt's amazing nettle gnocci on the new decking (below)

The view out back - kids paradise with space, slides, sandpit and cows!

A visit to Monet's gardens at Giverny - April 2011

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APRIL 2011

Whilst staying with Justin's parents in Normandy we had some fun days exploring. This unique abode is on the river in Vernon. We picnicked here en-route to Giverny and Monet's garden.

Monet's house and garden is characterised by the use of this bright green paint - looks OK here but becomes overwhelming when it's on all the many benches and rope chains that guide the hoards of tourists around the gardens.

We were there at a stunning time of year - tulips in every colour and plenty of blossom!

Somebody's favourite colour is pink!

The famous bridge (but it's not waterlily season)

And to update our family photo...

April 2011 - Caleb turns 7 in France

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APRIL 2011

Somebody looks happy to be starting this day with a waffley yummy breakfast...

Maybe it has to do with turning 7 today...

We're off in search of a pretty French town and some chocolate crepes - it involves crossing the Seine on a little car ferry

We found them!

And just to round off a day's good eating we finish off with a (slightly chilly) BBQ.
Happy Birthday Caleb!

March 2011 - Life in College

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MARCH 2011

No picture can do justice to the beauty of the daffodils all around us at All Nations this month...

This is a favourite spot for picnics and bonfires
At the end of term we enjoyed a very special Passover meal as a college community.
Over 20 different nations are represented amongst the student body and Wondimu from Ethiopia became a good friend.
This is the view from our living room windows (the only place we can get a mobile signal in the house, so if we're talking to you on the phone we're probably looking at this!)
We loved having Bethanie and Andy and their three great kids come to visit us. Bethanie is our Bethanie's godmother (names are not coincidental!) and Deborah is Naomi's (second from right) godmother.
Fun and fairies on the trampoline in a neighbour's garden!

Feb 2011 - Deborah's birthday celebrations

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27 FEBRUARY 2011

A delicious birthday breakfast of pain au chocolat courtesy of ma belle-mere (Justin's Mum Eileen, seen at end of table) who had been visiting from France for a few days.

The day had been looking bright and sunny so we'd packed up a picnic lunch for after church. We love going to the lakes and canal just near us.

However, in true British fashion we ended up picnicking in rather inclement weather and getting funny looks from passers-by - it was fun though!

After lunch my (Deb's) mum and dad arrived, plus her brother Jon and his family(Ruth plus kids Joshua, Noah and Esther - Bethanie and Esther in fairy dress below)

After some tea, cake and dressing up...

We headed out to enjoy the delights of our local garden centre - steam train ride anyone?
Esther and I particularly enjoyed the animals
And if it wasn't for these wonderful people I wouldn't be here - the best mum and dad in the world!

Jan 2011 - Visiting Cambridge with Christiane

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JANUARY 2011

After a fun couple of months catching up with family and friends back in England it was SO good to see a friend from Sudan again. Canadian friend Christiane was passing through on her way back to Sudan and was able to stay with us for a few days. Us girls enjoyed a special day out in Cambridge - slightly more chilly than our usual hangouts but the sun was shining!

This is the way you get tropical fruits round here!

Too cold for punting but an iconic sight all the same

View down Trinity Street

Kings College gatehouse
Punting towards the Mathematical Bridge

Looking up in Kings College Chapel (over 400 years old)

Deborah in Christ's College, 14 years after leaving it as a student

Having a visitor also gave us the opportunity to take a family photo. We're in our flat at All Nations Christian College - doesn't Caleb look smart in his school uniform?!

Village life

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This blog is nearly a year overdue but little changes in the pattern of village life and I’d love to share a glimpse of it with you.

Deb off on an adventure!

Two days and nights with no family responsibilities/housework; time spent in the heart of a Mabaan community; time spent with my good friend Christiane and with people special to her; time away from the SIM compound… I’m not sure what I was most excited by/in need of as Christiane and I set off to Gasmallah on a Tuesday afternoon in late October 2009.

Christiane

Gasmallah is medium-sized village (1000 people?) one hour’s walk from Doro along the Sobat River. Christiane was staying there 4 days a week for her first year, in order to learn the Mabaan culture and language.

Views from Christiane's tent

Pastor James Huroon and his wife Ama treat her as one of their children and she has many good friends amongst the church family there.

Ama preparing coffee

The church folk all live together, eat together and worship together every evening. The village is a community where no-one is a stranger; individuals are known and cared for; decisions are made as a group; children are raised by the whole community (they call everyone by their first names, including their parents).
People are mostly subsistence farmers, there are few formal employment opportunities. Those who have completed secondary school are a small minority but they are there and some families have children now going through university in Khartoum, Juba, Malakal or overseas. UNICEF built a primary school in the village and it serves around 800 children. However it only has 3 or 4 teachers, all voluntary. Pastor James is one of these teachers and he is also the overseer of all the SIC (Sudan Interior Church) pastors in the county. Pastors in Sudan don’t receive a salary, nor do the voluntary teachers, so he also has to make time to tend his fields and so produce food for his family. He is an intelligent, funny and humble man and it is a privilege to know him.

Pastor James (wearing checked shirt) - the lady behind him is the wife of the chief in a neighbouring village

There is much sickness in the village and if you’re feeling really poorly then you have an hour’s walk to the clinic to look forward to! It is hoped that in the next few years SIM can open small Community Health Centres in villages such as Gasmallah, using Community Health Workers we have trained. They would have basic treatments at their disposal and would know when referral to the Doro ‘hospital’ is necessary.
The village has a borehole for water and is also by the river so it is fortunate in that respect. The children love to swim in the river and many people have to wade/swim across the river every day (to go to the market/clinic/visiting) because their village is on the other side and there is no bridge!

At the borehole
When Christiane and I went down to the river we found an elderly lady having a seizure on the river bank with a crowd of kids watching her. We were able to put her in the recovery position and with her until she came round and was OK to sit up. Twenty minutes later she was up and wading across the river back to her village! It is likely that this is not an unusual occurrence for her as she didn’t seem surprised or scared by it and the children said that she was a ‘funny lady’.
For the women, their day involves much physical labour – carrying water, sweeping, washing, working in the fields, gathering firewood – but they also enjoy sitting together and drinking tea and coffee – some things are the same wherever you are! Coffee beans are roasted on the fire and then pounded, along with root ginger, before being heaped into the traditional gourd coffee pot and boiled on the fire. The coffee is served in small cups/glasses which are at least half-full of sugar! As they sit, they chat, laugh and may make traditional Mabaan bead bracelets. Through Christiane they have been selling these to visiting SIM teams and this provides some much needed cash in the community.

Lydia making a bead bracelet

Falita serving coffee

Since this first visit I have been back to Gasmallah many times and each time their warm welcome and loving community refreshes and blesses me. They love to see Caleb and Bethanie too and the title picture on our blog shows us all on our way to visit to celebrate New Year’s Day together.

meet some of our friends

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Before anyone gets upset for not featuring on this blog post, I would just like to say that these are our top pics from July and I noticed a theme of lovely people running through them, hence the title! There are LOTS more special people in Doro but we'll tell you about them another time...We try and find regular excuses to get together of an evening for a team pot-luck supper. We're currently blessed with many excellent cooks and we truly feel that we eat very well in Sudan. This month we've often been over 20 people on our compound (usually around 14 without visitors) - potentially stress-inducing in a small space with only 3 showers and toilets between us - but it's actually been a very happy time with each person bringing their own unique way of blessing the team.

We were very excited to welcome Ginny and Stephen Bracht onto the Water Project Team here in Doro. They are from the USA, although Ginny grew up in Kenya, and are here until December. They are both engineers and have come as part of Ginny's Masters in Environmental Science. So far we have appreciated their varied enthusiasms, gentle and fun friendship, and their pizza!

This beautiful little girl is baby Bethanie! Her dad, Joseph, is part of the Water Project and he already had a son called Caleb, so when he was blessed with a daughter he felt there was only one name for her! Deborah had a lovely day going to Gasmallah for her naming in church and we look forward to taking the children to meet her once the paths are easier to navigate.

Joseph, Bethanie, Joy and Caleb Jaden

And this beautiful girl is my friend Sandra (holding Bethanie). She has been with us in Doro for 3 months during her summer break from nursing school. She has been such a joy to have around and has encouraged us all to laugh, love, pray and play more - we'll miss her so much but Sudan is in her heart so I'm sure she'll be back one day.

This last month we haven't seen as much of Caleb as usual as he's often out playing with the boys around the village. This generally involves football but they find plenty of other things to enjoy too. Kevin (in the blue) was getting more help than he bargained for as he put up a new fence around our compound to reduce the number of four-legged visitors we've been having. Kev is our much appreciated compatriot and his dry Scottish wit and willing help brightens many a day.

Some local kids made these - aren't they cool?!

This photo could be saved for a Nairobi blog (as we are clearly not still in Doro) but Liz was a big part of our 2009 Doro experience and we have so enjoyed time this week with her and her husband Andrew. From meeting in Sudan, to getting engaged by Lake Geneva, to getting married in their homeland NZ in May, they have come a long way in their relationship already! We managed to coincide our time in Nairobi with their passing through enroute to Khartoum, where they plan to spend a few months studying Arabic.

And to finish, here are two more people who are very good friends to each other :)

Grow your own

2010-07-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

My (farmer) uncle asked me a question about where our Sudanese neighbours get their food from and I thought I'd share my reply for those who are interested... (or you can just look at the pics!)

Local fields
Sorghum growing

It’s a busy time of year right now - the rainy season is well established and everything is growing vigorously. Every family in the village has their own 'garden' (small field) to tend. Sorghum and maize are the staple crops in the area we are in, with both drying well and storing (up in the trees-see photo below) for food throughout the year. The few months before the harvest is ‘hungry season’ as food stores from the previous year run low, prices rise in the markets and little can be found in the wild.

Most Mabaan meals are sorghum-based – the grain is ground into flour, which in turn is made into ‘asiida’ (solid porridge with consistency of play-doh), ‘badiida’ (drinkable version of asiida) or ‘kisera’. Kisera is by far the most palatable for us Westerners as it is a thin savoury pancake that is then used to scoop up any accompanying dish. It is the most work to make though, so it is not made every day. Grinding

Enjoying kisera

Meat is a rare luxury (goat is the most common) and every part of the animal is eaten – we just try not to look too closely to what is swimming in the soup! Cows, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens are kept by most households – all having the free reign of the village but having distinctive ear slits to show ownership. The Sudanese do an excellent line in fried liver (kibda)and it is one of the treats we look forward to when we visit the local market – Caleb and Bethanie love it too!

Preparing the stew

Anyone hungry?

The most common vegetable accompaniments are okra (cooked to slime) or kudra – a leafy, spinach-like plant that also makes a good, slimy goo. Kudra grows wild and the children are sent to pick bunches of it. Not many vegetables are planted by the local people – pumpkins and okra are the main ones. Sesame is also grown. Tomatoes and cucumber (though not looking like the English variety) are also available in the market and we’ve had success in growing our own. Courgette, melon, beans and carrots are also doing well in our garden this year.

All help out in preparing kudra

The Water Project is branching out into ‘trial gardens’ in partnership with local churches in several villages. The aim is to encourage a wider variety of crops to be grown and to show how the growing season can be extended by simple irrigation techniques. We’ll see how they go – we’ve found in previous years that people are happy to try growing new things (eg courgette), but then don’t know what to do with them and so simply give them back to us – maybe we’ll need to run some ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ sessions too!

Caleb and his cucumbers

Once harvesting begins, everyone is very free in sharing what produce they have and several times last year Caleb and Bethanie came home after visiting neighbours with their arms full of something. Their favourite treat is roasted maize cobs, otherwise known as ‘pookin’ (most of the maize is eaten this way, occasionally it gets made into a porridge but sorghum is definitely the favoured carbohydrate). Rice and potatoes (sweet and ‘Irish’) are available in the market but most village households cannot regularly afford these.

Still beginners on the farming front, we appreciate the increasing variety available in the local market (even apples have been spotted on occasion). We also bring in dry goods/tins from Nairobi and enjoy the challenge of re-creating our favourite dishes under new conditions.

Back from Rom

2010-06-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

Justin had an interesting 5 day trip to Rom and Malakal recently. He went to help Dau install a water system for a clinic there, which they have been planning for many months. But they only had two and a half days to complete the work! The first water emerged from the sand filter and trickled into the final tank, even as our taxi was revving its engine wanting to leave! Here’s a selection of pictures:

Explaining what we were going to do...

... taking in the surroundings...

... washing sand and gravel.

Digging trenches and laying pipes...

... showing them how to pump...

... finaly it is full – and the overflow works!

Dinka sunset and village

The finished system

Back in Malakal for two nights, Dau took Justin to church...

... to see the town...

... and meet his Mum at last

Justin’s first view of the Nile.

Celebrations

2010-06-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

The story of our first borehole reached the end of an exciting chapter this weekend. Just over a year after my first visit to the village of Lokaji we were able to celebrate the opening of their new borehole with them.

Going back a couple of weeks, this is how it looked after I returned to Nairobi and the concrete stand had been cast. Protus (left) is the Kenyan who has done all the hard work, and Joseph (right) is a water project worker who has helped us with community relations.

We then had the fun of installing the pump. Here’s the bit that goes right down at the bottom and pumps the water (this borehole was drilled to 30m and the cylinder shown here was put at 24 metres).

A lot of manpower is required to carefully lower each pipe down the borehole before holding it in place and connecting the next one – if we were to drop them, it might be goodbye for ever!

And here is the top part finally being fitted. It is a great moment when the first water is pumped out – and it only took 5 minutes before we were surrounded by buckets waiting to be filled.

So, once the community had made a fence and the borehole switched on for good (OK, there is no switch, but there is a crucial component you can remove until you are happy with the fence!) it was time to visit for a celebration. The rains had come, just the week before and the blue truck had got stuck in the river, so it was back to bikes for the journey.

We were very happy that the churches at Gasmala and Tomaji joined with us to celebrate, as the village of Lokaji has no church of its own. Here’s the Gasmala Sunday school choir giving it their all.

There was a great turn-out from the community…

… and Justin was able to entertain them with his dry tissue paper man, explaining Jesus’ words “whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst”.

At the end of the service we all went to the borehole to cut a ribbon and say a prayer - a proud moment for me and Joseph.

We enjoyed a long afternoon of eating and drinking. Here's Deborah reading the Mabaan New Testament with some ladies.

And then it was back across the river and homeward to relieve the babysitters (thanks team!)

Robin & Eileen 2 - Return to Hell's Gate

2010-05-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since our last blog posting. We were having too much fun in Nairobi with Justin’s parents and then back in Doro with Robin.

A highlight of our time in Nairobi was 3 nights at Crater Lake in the Rift Valley, with a day in Hell’s Gate National Park. The experience of the holiday was walking down the gorge, which involved sliding down 10 foot high rock formations – well done Eileen!

We also had a memorable day at the David Sheldrake Elephant orphanage.

Back in Doro the kids were delighted to have Grandpa’s company for a few more days.

We kept him busy and lined up as many Mabaan cultural experiences as we could. A highlight was a one day conference for church leaders in Gasmala on the Saturday.

Wherever we took him Dad made friends with everyone and couldn’t keep his camera in his pocket. Here he is with some Arab men at the clinic…

He was suitably impressed on his tour of the water project’s activities (here he is with the drilling rig)…

And thoroughly approved of how much the Sudanese like to drink tea!

And here he is trying the local transport…

He quickly worked out the best way to relax when it is all getting a bit much!

Caleb's 6th Birthday

2010-04-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

First of all, down to the important business of opening presents....

...Bethanie thinks this is great fun too - "look what I've got!"
Celebrating one of Caleb's current favourite activities in Doro..

.. with a bunch of his good friends from the SIM Sudan team. This is Isaac..

We had a marvellous lunch at a Chinese restaurant where the food was very much a secondary attraction (although the adults enjoyed it). How can you give much time to eating when there are two play areas, a trampoline, a bouncy castle, face painting and candyfloss all laid on for free?!

C & B's first taste of candyfloss (or 'cotton-candy' if you're American)

Some great 'arm-painting' (one friend refused to wash his arms for several days afterwards)

Relaxing and playing with Caleb's presents at home afterwards

And when Manna and Daddad arrived we had another party - this time with our Doro family (all in Nairobi whilst elections are on in Sudan). Thanks for the cake Barb!

Easter

2010-04-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

Easter isn't made a big deal of in either Kenya or Sudan but we'd love to see this change and in our family we've been having fun celebrating the new life that Christ's death and resurrection bring us.

Here's our Easter garden...

..and our Easter egg collection (no choccy eggs in Kenyan shops)

And here is the food (the best pot-luck spread I've seen) ....

...and the friends that could be enjoyed at our Easter party.

HAPPY EASTER - CHRIST IS RISEN!

From Doro to Nairobi

2010-04-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

The evening before we left Doro we were given bracelets, a Mabaan sign of friendship, by two sisters from Doro church. Here Nafisa is tying on Deborah's. Her sister, Tabitha, cooks lunch for the team Mon-Sat and is the person Deborah most often learns new Mabaan words from. She's very patient with D's current mix of Arabic, Mabaan and sign language!

Below, Caleb and Bethanie wait on Doro's airstrip with 'the two Amys'. Two lovely nurses, one from Canada and the other from the USA, are both great with the kids.

.. and another good friend, Christiane, waits on the quad bike with some small Sudanese friends!

Our plane touches down in Yabus, en-route to Lokichoggio. Hallelujah climbs on board to greet us.

24 hours later (due to unscheduled stop-over) we are back in Nairobi - the land of ice-cream, fresh milk... and commercialism!

It's rainy season in Kenya which creates new play opportunities for the children living on our compound - a hot bath was needed straight after this!

We are staying in a new guest-house for SIM on a compound shared with other mission agencies. Here some of our new neighbours invite us to a BBQ - Isaac (front right) and Caleb have become good friends.

Family fun has included a game of mini-golf...
...and playing at our favourite place, Amani Ya Ju (thanks for the T-shirts Granny and Sandy!).

Christmas comes early to Doro

2010-03-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Deborah helped to give out 50 or so dresses that had been made by a group of ladies at one of the team's supporting church. Everyone was very exctited to get one, though the boys were disappointed not to be included - and kept having to be chased away!

Bethanie is modeling one in this season's colours...

Buffalo Bonanza

2010-03-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

It was an exciting day at the end of February when the long awaited borehole drilling equipment arrived from Kenya. The plane that brought it is known as a Buffalo and is the biggest Doro airstrip has seen in a long time - it was quite an event!

Unloading a 2 tonne compressor and drilling rig was hard work, but there were plenty of hands around to help (at a price!)

Hopefully it won't be long before you get to see some pictures of the equipment in action...

Friends & Fun

2010-03-06T03:24:00.001-08:00

Not long after we arrived back in Sudan in early Feb, we had the first of two surprise visits from friends at Yabus. The circumstances behind their comming were not happy (escaping tensions and sickness) but we were very happy to see them and the children really enjoyed having their friends in Doro to play with.

First it was Issac, Evan and Joshua Fader. Meal times involved a lot of giggling from Caleb and Issac...

Pizza supper on the verandah

Next it was friends Praise and Hallelujah (who was very sick, but made a good recovery)

Here's Caleb, Bethanie and Praise racing each other in their car-board boxes

Praise joined in school one morning when we made a volcano!

Hallelujah with her mum Victoria

While they were here all the boys taught themselves to ride Caleb's bike - who needs Dads?!

But Bethanie can still keep up with them with her push-chair!

... and needs a rest afterwards!

Sweet Waters Safari

2010-02-02T00:21:00.000-08:00

Three hours drive north of Nairobi, at the foot of Mount Kenya, lies Sweet Waters Safari Park. It made the perfect getaway for us after a busy week of SIM conference and workshops.
As we crossed the Equator on our journey, we paused to watch a demonstration of how water swirls one way down a plug-hole in the Northern Hemisphere, the opposite way in the South and straight down when you are standing ‘on the line’!
Entering the park, you enter a beautiful and varied landscape, with Mount Kenya and its snowy peak, forming a backdrop to many of the views. We stayed in luxury tents (hot water bottles put in our beds at night!) that we stepped out of to views across the park including any passing gazelle, zebra, giraffe or rhino!
Caleb and Bethanie loved the game drives, heads out of the open roof of our vehicle looking hard for animals. Sweetwaters has the highest concentration of game per square km in Kenya, and the country’s largest herd of Black Rhino. We also met a hand-reared White Rhino named Max, who was the same age as Caleb and obligingly let us tickle his rough hide.
On the way home we stopped off at the “Trout Tree” restaurant – a restaurant built in and around a huge tree, with 33 trout-breeding pools below it. A fun experience but the camera had run out of battery by then so you’ll just have to imagine that bit!

In and around Nairobi

2010-02-01T23:35:00.000-08:00

Some pics to give you a flavour of the last few weeks we've spent in Nairobi

Praise, Caleb and Isaac take conference by storm in their yellow T-shirts

Fun up trees...

... and on the ground

" Look what I've made you mummy!"

Deborah and Christiane (Canada) enjoy a relaxed chat in the sun

Caleb and Thomas get some drum practice in

Caleb takes on the big guys!

The beauty of Brackenhurst conference centre

Fun in a playground

Deborah and Abebech (Ethiopia) - the kids' other mum!

Avery's (in the brown dress) 2nd birthday party

Andrew and Liz's engagement party

"I'm still eating"

2010-01-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Our New Year's Day was one to remember... We went as a family to Gasmalla, 30 minutes away on the quad bike. It is the first time we have travelled any distance this way - and it was great fun! (Bethanie was so comfortable she fell asleep on the way home!)

Amy came with us and Chris and her sister were already there, so it was nice to spend the day together, enjoying the hospitality of our Sudanese friends in the village.

After sitting with the grown-ups drinking tea and coffee we got down to some serious play with the village children: football, singing ... and Bethanie's pink puppet, which we're not sure what they made of!

I don't think the grown ups were having nearly so much fun...

We took the kids to see the river (it's too far from Doro for them to get to see it there).

We came prepared with a sheet of black polythene which made an excellent slide into the water - much enjoyed by Caleb and lots of children from the village.

They gave us a generous meal back at the village on our return, which the children were quite happy to eat. When the lady took the platter away Bethanie was not impressed: "I'm still eating" she said, much to all of our amusement. A sure sign that they are getting the hang of life in Sudan.

Happy Christmas... again... and again.... and again..!

2009-12-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas is almost over - but not quite! They really know how to make the most of it here: it is traditional for each church in the area to take turns hosting all the other churches for a service and celebration meal. So each day between Christmas and New Year, the people travel from one village to another, enjoy a long service and kill another poor pig!

We involved ourselves in the local celebrations as much as our strength allowed, making sure there was time for some Kawaja (white man) celebrating too. Here's a picture of our team celebrating a more familiar Christmas eve meal.

On Christmas morning we braced ourselves for a long day and headed to church once things sounded like they had gotten off the ground (you could hear 20 miles away thanks to the PA system on hire for the event!) We finally emerged in the open air again 5 hours later - and the children sat through the whole thing!

Justin had agreed to be the preacher, but definitely didn’t know what he was letting himself in for! The church was crammed full and in true Sudanese tradition, every person arriving led to shuffling of chairs as they made sure the most important people got the most important seats. This led to some concern as the row of chairs for dignitaries on the stage started to grow across his visual aid! 5 minutes into the sermon, the commissioner arrived along with an entourage of about 20 men! Of course everything had to stop for a major chair shuffling exercise and Justin’s visual aid almost disappeared from sight.

After the service the expected community meal didn’t materialise, so it was back to the compound for a picnic lunch (thankfully Rafik, who was staying with us on the compound had brought with him some lovely feta cheese, olives, bread and tinned meat). Bethanie and Deborah had packet noodles – how about that for Christmas lunch!

There wasn’t much time to rest after that as we were hosting Bethanie’s party at 5.30pm. We did find a few minutes to open some more presents, but the majority had to wait to be opened over the course of the next few days.

We had a lovely time at Bethanie's party, hosted on our brightly decorated veranda. Deborah did a truly fantastic job of the food: mini pizzas, cup-cakes, jelly, and a Christmas cake which was as good as any I have tasted.

Bethanie is very chuffed to be 3 and had a lovely time at her party. She was thrilled with the presents from the team – including a glitzy purse and sunglasses (how well they know her!)

The following day it was our team Christmas, which began with the capture of the Christmas dinner and a long discussion about who would kill and pluck it! Here's a picture of the chase in full swing, Caleb and Bethanie playing an active part (they watched all that followed - Bethanie is quoted as saying "Its like taking his coat off" when the chicken was plucked!)

The team did a really wonderful job of decorating the dining hall and preparing the meal, making it a truely special occasion.

Before we could eat we had to take the chance for a team photo...

It was time to get the party clothes out again on Monday when Doro was hosting all the other churches. Even Christmas day hadn't prepared us for this! There must have been about 800 people on the church compound, and this time the unfortunate preacher was interrupted by the arrival of TWO commissoners, and a 30 minute interlude while they introduced their entourage and made speaches and then the people honoured them with gifts and traditional dances. Caleb and Justin were on the front row and became completely caught up in the action!

Here's a picture of the two commissioners speaking - note some of Justin's visuals from Christmas day which have been used to decorate the pulpit!

Well, here's the Agnes family wishing you a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Water conclusion

2009-12-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

It has been a big couple of weeks for the water work. With Dau leaving on the 14th we have been working hard to complete a couple of projects. The team has also grown with the addition of Joseph, one of the CHW graduates, and Abel, a local lad who kept coming to the compound asking for work!

We returned to one of the communities Justin visited back in April to talk with the leaders about how we could help them, showing them some things that could be added to the river water to make it safe to drink.

Setting off

Chief Lunga
Justin teaching
Explaining a sand filter

This last week we succeeded in completing the water supply to the clinic. We installed the valves in the chambers and connected up the pipework to the tanks on our new tank stand.

Installing valves
Connection to water tower
Rear of tanks

It was a great moment when we turned on the pump and after a short wait water began to pour into the tanks! It was great that Dau could see the completion of this project just before he leaves.

Celebration

Posing for the camera

To conclude our time with Dau as part of the team we also made a return visit to Nalgan to teach the community and show them how to use the things we brought for them. We began with a visit to the river to collect some ‘fresh’ river water – beautiful to look at, but not to drink!

River view

Collecting water

The people listened attentively to some Bible teaching and seemed to enjoy and appreciate the health teaching. We tried a couple of new things – a sort of drama showing how germs spread, using flour for visible germs, and a game involving throwing a water balloon around. Hopefully both helped to make the teaching more memorable!

Attentive audience
Demonstration
We took them two barrel sand filters and hope to return next week to show them how to wash sand and finish making them.
Overall, it was wonderful to see all that the team had accomplished in the 2 months since Dau arrived. It has been a great encouragement to Justin to have Dau working alongside him.

It is very gratifying to see the team grow and how everyone has a part to play. From left to right: Joseph (CHW graduate from Gasmalla), Leman (labourer from Yabus), Justin (Kawaja), Dau (construction diploma from Nairobi), Abel (apprentice from Bunj).

Pick of the Best

2009-11-14T05:20:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the blog silence this past month. We have been having all maner of computer problems which have severely limited our use of the internet...

To allow us to catch up here's a pick of the best photos from the last 6 weeks, which will give you an idea of what we have been up to.

In early October the district Commissioner paid us a visit in the compound, to show his thanks he sent us a goat, which we enjoyed as a team the following week!

Here's a cute picture of Bethanie playing on the swing outside the compound beside our house.

We were all thrilled when Dau (our Arabic teacher in Nairobi) came to join us in Doro, once his construction course had finished. He is working for the water project for 2 months. It is so lovely to have him around and he is working hard and is enthusiastically soaking up all the experience he is getting.

Soon after he arrived we went with the kids to a "Global Handwashing Day" event organised by one of the NGOs. We were the main attraction! We also found ourselves running a quiz with 20 minutes notice... very African!

We continue to find creative ways to play and enjoy our free time. One hot Saturday we built ourselves a swimming pool - we were the envy of the compound!

At the end of October we had to say a sad farewell to our British team mates, Rob and Emily Hinton. They have been a great example to us in how they spend time with the Mabaan, and a meal was held in their honour by the village.

Justin and Dau have had a couple of interesting trips into the bush to show two churches how to use a hand pump to irrigate their fields. The pumps are being hired to the churches for a small fee and can be onward hired as a source of income. We'll wait and see if it is a success.

One of the trips was in conjunction with the CHW students who were heading to Gasmalla to undertake a anti-natal and growth monitoring clinic. We had a great time, with 13 of us piled into the Toyota Landcruiser!

A visit to Gasmalla the following week with the kids wasn't so successful. The truck got stuck in the mud within sight of our destination, so we walked the rest of the way! Once we had sat for an hour and some of our friends returned from the fields we managed to get it out, but then had to rush a little girl with cerebal malaria back to the clinic. Not quite what we had expected!

At least we got to introduce them to the children and allow Caleb and Beth to see somewhere a bit different.

A highlight for Justin has been four Saturday mornings with local pastors following a course on teaching the Bible. They have all really enjoyed it and it has been a great opportunity to get to know them and understand more of the issues facing the church.

Normal life has been interrupted a couple of times the past week or two by bush fires that have come a little too close to the compound for comfort. Thankfully with some help from friends in the village there were no serious consequences.

Dau and Justin have enjoyed getting stuck into a project to provide a piped water supply to the clinic. Here's a picture of Dau looking justifiably proud of his brickwork!

They have also been spending time fixing up an office and store at the old building that used to be used for the Basic Education course. They are sharing its use with the HIV project and another pastors training project, and everone is very pleased to have a clean and attractive place to work, with working lights and fans!

We had an 'office opening' yesterday, inviting friends to drop in for a soda and find out about our projects. Justin enjoyed demostrating some of the water projects water treatment and testing equipment, making a bucket of river water safe to drink (he's still feeling OK this morning...!)

Enough for now! Hopefully you won't have to wait so long for the next one...

Deborah's parents come to Doro

2009-10-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 19th Sept we set off from Nairobi's Wilson airport for the 6 hour journey to Doro. All went smoothly and obviously the first thing that the English do after a long journey is to take a cup of tea! Here we are enjoying the view from our veranda - the grass has grown taller than us in our absence.

Our first whole day together was a Sunday so our family got to meet our church family and enjoy several hours of singing in Mabaan and Arabic. The highlight for Dad was the goodbye greeting line, a way of making sure that everyone in church has shaken everyone else's hand.

Monday was the feast of Eid, marking the end of Ramadan, and a public holiday. The team took the truck into town and enjoyed exploring the market together and a meal in a market stall "cafe".

Grace buys some okra

What to choose?

The butcher's shop

On Tuesday we took a tour around Doro village and the different SIM activities there. Here, Mary and Gareth are standing in the "waiting room" for the clinic and looking towards the construction site where a new ward is taking shape.

On Wednesday we paid a visit to Pastor John Kaiya and his family who live just a few minutes' walk away in Doro.

His wife, Elizabeth, prepared tea and roasted corn for us...

... followed by sugary, gingery, Sudanese coffee. Cheers to a wonderful time in Doro! (Dad was heard murmering, "It's hard to believe that this time next week I will be sitting in a board meeting..")

On Thursday, Gareth spent time with SIM's 8 trainee Community Health Workers and taught some principles for Christian health-care (which the CHWs were tested on the next day!). Mary helped Deborah with the week's washing and had it done in record time.

Sadly, Friday was the day that the plane came to take Mary and Gareth back to Nairobi. A few tears were shed but many more happy memories were cherished. There was a good turn-out at the airstrip to wave them off!

Reaquainting & Reminiscing (R&R) in Nairobi

2009-09-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a great 3 weeks in Nairobi, catching up with old friends and even making some new ones. It has been a good time of refreshing and re-supplying for Sudan. We have been very happy staying at SIM-Kenya's Rose Avenue compound, in a lovely 3 bed house, where the children have had a big garden to play in and friends to play with. The highlight was the arrival of Deborah’s parents on the 15th. Here’s a selection of pictures:

Caleb outside our house

First stop supermarket, to buy goodies we missed most when we were in Sudan!

Being reunited with Reuben and his wife, Veronica, in Nairobi

At friend Liam's 2nd Birthday party

New friends Josi and Josh of SIM-Keny, Caleb spent hours creating things in the sand-pit with them!The SIM plane is nearly finished!

A fun day out at Kitengani Glass, makers of mosaics, stained glass and recycled glass products - very creative and inspiring

The highlight for Deborah was their rope bridge with views over the wilderness beyondTaking Gareth & Mary to our favourite restaurant

Exploring Lavington where Mary grew up

The church she attended

The house she grew up in and where Gareth and Mary first met in 1970!

Moving in to Nr 4

2009-08-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

A week before departing Doro for 3 weeks rest in Nairobi, we were very happy to move into our new home!

We spent the rest of the week finishing off various things and trying to get organised - making window shutters, setting up solar systems and putting up shelves. By the time we left it was feeling very much like our home. Here are some photos of how it looked as we left.

Firstly, the new extension - Mum & Dad's bedroom:

The re-modelled living room, with newly rendered walls:

The children's bedroom - with separate beds at last!

The new veranda, including kitchen area at the far end

Water being delivered to our new water tanks...

Showing Liz the architect before we were whisked away on the plane that brought her back in!

Goodbye Reuben

2009-08-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

The two weeks since our last blog entry have really flown by. They have mainly been taken up with continued work on our house extension, but as you'll see from the selection of pictures below, it isn't all we have been doing!

The first project to reach completion was the beds we were making for Caleb and Bethanie. For our first few weeks here we had both their matresses balanced on a single rickety bed frame, with sheets that didn't fit properly. Now thanks to Deborah's fitted sheets and Justin's new bed frames, putting them to bed is much less stressful than it used to be!

The house has raced through its different stages of construction - week 3 was spent on the ring beam, trusses and fixing the zinc on the roof. Here's a picture to prove that I have done some work (though I think I only slow things down when I get involved!)

As you can see, by the end of the week, the extension looked substantially complete.

There has been plenty more action on the sand pile too. We had great fun one Saturday making a sand fort, complete with draw bridge and river crossing. We finished up cooking fish (leaves) on our camp fire...

I was able to return to Gasmalah to preach again two Sundays ago. It was good to make some time for this in the midst of all the building work. The rain kept me guessing about how to travel and whether to take the family - in the end it was just me and I got a lift on the quad bike half way there and walked back in the blazing sun - 1 hour 15 minutes, phew!

This is a lovely picture of an old chap reading his Mabaan bible after the service.

And here are all the men talking and eating, which is what they like to do...

Caleb has enjoyed a few good times playing with the children in the next door compound (which belongs to Joseph our night guard). This picture was taken at the end of a session colouring in sticks and stones with chalk.

Week 4 on the house saw Rob and Emily move out and us bashing big holes in the original house as we moved doors and windows around.

Meanwhile, Deborah continued to do a fantastic job of doing school for the kids, keeping the tukel clean and organised, and keeping us amazingly well fed. Here's them busy with school, making music with Pepsi bottles (I'm a Coke man myself...)

Deborah has nobly taken on organising Lunch Club while Vicki is in Nairobi. Here's a picture of her helping a stand-in cook prepare lunch one day last week.

The house has also gained a rather lovely kitchen verandar somewhere in the past 2 weeks - we think it will be a real bonus to have this space outside.

The cildren have kept Daddy company quite a lot as he works on the house, making concoctions out of sand, mud, cement and anything else they can lay their hands on. Caleb has built his own little brick house and has been having a go at plastering along with Reuben and Leman. Here's Bethanie enjoying an improvised see-saw!

Sadly we had to say a rather sudden goodbye to Reuben last Sunday. Our flight schedule has been severely disrupted by one of our main carriers being grounded, so we took the chance to get him on a flight a few days earlier than planned. As well as doing a brilliant job on the house, he has been a much loved addition to our family these past four weeks. We will all miss him very much.

To celebrate the near completion of the house and thank Reuben and Leman for all their hard work, we ate out in the market on Saturday - my first experience of eating at a genuine market stall. It was very tasty!

The same flight that took Reuben away also brought a much delayed Birthday present for Caleb - thanks Jon & Ruth and family, we got it in the end!

Animal Magic

2009-07-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

As well as making everything beautifully green, the rains have brought some interesting creatures along. Here's a sample of some of the things we've seen this past week or so...

There are thousands of white, yellow and purple butterflies around, particularly after we've watered our seeds

This one gets the prize for being the most bizarre creature we have seen, an armour plated praying mantis, which moved like a robot!

We found this moth in our tukel porch one morning last week. It was in no hurry to leave and stayed around for the rest of the day.

And this toad had made himself comfortable in the ashes of our charcoal stove!

There are lots of cute little birds around, enjoying the insects around the compound. Our favourites are these bright red and chalky blue ones.

And its not just animals we've been enjoying - the rains have brought out some interesting plants and flowers

And last but not least, our least favourite visitors - snakes! Only scroll down if you are not squeemish...

This one is the tree climbing variety, watching us closely from the fence!

Extending our house - end of week 2

2009-07-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Work on our house is progressing at a good pace. Reuben, the Sudanese builder we brought with us from Nairobi, is doing a fantastic job - he is hard working and competent. By the end of our second week we have the ground slab poured and the walls up to the height of the window cills. Here's a selection of photos to show you progress.

Leman, our local labourer, digging the foundations

Concreting the foundations

Caleb helping to mix concrete

Filling wth broken bricks before we cast the slab

Preparing to concrete the ground slab

Compacting the concrete

John Maruti, Kenyan foreman for the clinic construction, casts his critical eye over proceedings. The walls are now higher than Bethanie!

The children make good use of the sand pile over the fence - 'welcome to our desert island!'

Getting to work

2009-07-09T01:28:00.000-07:00

Caleb and Bethanie enjoy being able to be part of the work their daddy is doing. They have helped him to make some concrete covers for the new clinic borehole. They often go down to see how the work on our new house is progressing or for a longer walk we can visit the clinic construction site.

Making concrete slabs

Riding on the quad bike
At the clinic construction site
Testing Daddy’s brickwork on the borehole
Burning the rubbish with Sarah and Christiane
Caleb also does an hour of school each day and here you can see him learning about dissolving, solutions, saturation points and how to make crystals. I think the main thing that he learned was that you get more sugar to dissolve if the water is warm and then the mixture tastes even more yummy – good thing we weren’t using copper sulphate!
Mummy’s work at the moment is focussed on keeping us all provided with clean clothes, a clean house and healthy food. A lady from the village called Grace is available to do a few loads of washing each week which just leaves a few for Deborah. As a team, we all eat lunch together and another lady, Tabitha, cooks this meal for us. This is great as each meal takes a couple of hours to prepare when there are no convenience foods and you are cooking on a charcoal stove.
Shopping at the market
Sometimes it’s not only the clothes that need a wash!

Back to Doro

2009-07-09T01:16:00.000-07:00

Doro is looking greener than when we last saw it as some rains have come. They are not enough yet for the crops to be doing well but the grass is at least bringing some fresh lushness to the landscape.

Doro from the air

We are temporarily housed in a mud-house, called a tukul, at the other end of the compound to where we stayed before. We have a beautiful view from our breakfast table out across the countryside. Inside it is quite dark but relatively cool and we have made it feel like home. We are very glad that we won’t be all living in one room for the longer-term but we are coping OK for now.

Our tukul

Inside our "porch"
Welcoming guests to watch Disney’s “Cars” movie
The kids’ bedroom (behind the sheets)
The “donkey man” filling up our water butt by the bathing hut
We have some electrical power thanks to our solar panels – enough to run the laptop for a couple of hours a day and fans/lights when necessary. Our bathing hut is just a few metres away and the toilet and kitchen are only a minute away. Deborah enjoys spending her afternoons cooking in her kitchen tukul and is even learning to use the charcoal oven (fine tuning still required!).
Much of our living is out of doors which makes the limited space easier to bear. Sometimes we even eat our supper outside and then sit and chat under the stars

Friends in Nairobi

2009-07-09T01:12:00.000-07:00

We thought you’d enjoy meeting our Bible Study Group in Nairobi – we had a 2 day retreat together just before we left N’bi and it was a special time. They prayed for us and “sent us” out from them and we value all we learnt from them.
Caleb and Bethanie had a lovely group of friends at the Kinderuma Road apartments (where we were living) and would spend several hours each day outside playing with the gang.

Happy Holidays

2009-06-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

We’ve just come to the end of a very happy 3 weeks with Justin’s parents, Robin & Eileen, visiting us in Kenya. It was their first time in Africa and they both loved it. We knew miracles were happening when Eileen said towards the end of their stay, “I think I could live here”. A couple of years ago she would never have even wanted to visit!

To celebrate their 60th birthdays we went on safari in Nairobi National Park and there was so much to see and enjoy. We had the thrill of chasing down some lions that we were tipped off about by another vehicle. They sauntered down the track ahead of us for a good 10 minutes and happily looked as though they weren’t hungry (we were in an open-topped van)!

The scenery was beautiful and it was so peaceful to be away from the noise of city traffic. Our quote of the day was when we took a walk with an armed ranger to see whether we could spot some hippos in the river. The ranger pointed out some crocodile snouts peeking out from the water and we showed Caleb saying, “there are some crocodiles but they are still in the water”; he replied with, “can we shoot them anyway?”! We honestly have not been encouraging that approach to wildlife appreciation!

A week at the coast felt as though we had stepped into paradise. The house we were renting was so tastefully furnished and you can glimpse the beauty of the surroundings for yourselves.

(this one is for my brother Jon!)

A cook and a maid were all part of the package and the daily rate for 6 of us was less than one person staying in a hotel – it couldn’t get much better! We could have happily stayed lazing around the pool all day but we did get out a few times to see the local sights.

Gede ruins, the foremost archaeological site in East Africa (according to our Rough Guide)

Kipepeo butterfly project

Midas Creek mangrove swamps (and their very own "Indiana Jones bridge" - very scary!)

Our final week together was back in Nairobi and we enjoyed visiting all our favourite places. We found a cheetah who looked very like Caleb in the giraffe park and Robin even got a kiss from Daisy the giraffe…

Finally, we thought you may also enjoy seeing the "family Top Trumps" Caleb made. All categories and scores were decided by him - it's nice to see we're all good at something!

Little Friends

2009-06-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

Caleb and Bethanie have enjoyed being reunited with various friends who live in Nairobi or were passing through at the same time as us.

How about this for a troupe of happy monkeys?!

A girly birthday cake for Evelyn (turning 2)

Lots of party fun :)

Highlights from our last week in Doro

2009-05-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

We arrived back safely in Nairobi last night after our 3 weeks in Doro, and are now enjoying the wonders of clean sheets, running water and fresh milk! Overall it has been a positive time, once we made the necessary adjustments and began enjoying our new surroundings and friends.

As you can see, the children were getting quite comfortable with life in Sudan by the end...

Though there are occassions when we are a little concerned about the effect it is having on us.

In our last week, Deborah was able to join Justin for a return trip to the village of Gasmallah, where he preached again, this time telling the story of Naaman and his cleansing from leprosy. (If you are wondering why I am wielding a sharp implement in the picture, I was using it as a symbol of Namaan's pride as a soldier, which he had to set aside when he accepted God's terms for his cleansing).

Afterwards, we were separated, Deborah to sit with the ladies, and Justin with the men, in true Sudanese tradition. Justin had to drag Deborah away after her 6th cup of coffee, so that we could relieve those looking after the kids (who hadn't missed us at all!)

On the water side, Justin was able to finish his experimental sand filter, and the clinic seems pleased to have it for the use of the patients as they wait outside the clinic.

He was also able to spend another day visiting another village outside Doro, where the again take their water directly from the river. They brought a delicious sample for us to drink on our arrival...

This village even boasted its own semi-tame monkey which they were proud to show off.

It was sad to say goodbye to all our friends, but we hope we might get to go back one day. We left Doro mid-morning and after 5 take-off and landings (taking in Yabus, Kurmuk, Malakal and Logichoggio on the way) we arrived back in Nairobi in time for supper! The kids were amazing, sitting happily through the whole thing.

Here we are waiting in the departure lounge at Kurmuk airport

We even got our first glimse of the Nile when we landed at Malakal...

How to play in Sudan

2009-05-13T01:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things Caleb & Bethanie like doing in Sudan:

Climbing trees...

Making friends....

Racing....

Making things in the dirt..... like a train track...

... and a bridge....

Feeding the cats...
Playing with sticks...
Watering seeds...

Having tea parties with friends...

and helping Daddy make things out of concrete...

Exploring Opportunities

2009-05-12T00:53:00.000-07:00

Last week provided me with a couple of good chances to explore opportunities for the water project in the Doro area. On Tuesday I went with Pastor James (form nearby Gasmalah) and Christiane (SIM) on a tour of villages south of the river where there are concerns over their access to water. It was a long day of cycling and walking in the sun, but fascinating to get away from Doro into some more remote communities.

Each village was interested to understand why we were there and quick to point out a prime location for the borehole they so obviously wanted! We made no promises of any help, but asked questions about what they currently do to get water, what health issues they experience, how big the communities are, so as to be able to decide where we can best help if we do come back to the area. I also logged the GPS coordinates and took some photos.

In our last village we were brought a huge chunk of boiled pork (50% of which was skin and fat!) which was promptly cut into small pieces for us to eat before starting the long walk home.
The river (which we had to wade across) was particularly beautiful.
On our return to Gasmalah we were not permitted to leave for home without eating something.
On Thursday I joined SIM’s Community Health Worker training school and spent an hour with the 10 students telling them about the water project and the recent project completed in Abwong. I think they found it interesting and it was good to be able to add to some of what they had been learning in their lessons on water and sanitation.

The next day they joined me to try and make a community sand filter using an old diesel barrel. We had a fun afternoon, though it was surprisingly time consuming to wash the gravel and sand! It was a learning experience for all of us, and definitely something that could be applied in communities in future.

All togther now!

2009-04-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

To get a feel for family life in Doro then put on enough layers of clothing to work up a good sweat, throw a handful of flies at your computer screen, lift your feet off the floor (to avoid camel-back spiders) and read on…

This blog entry is going to be full of superficial observations as, having been here just a week, that’s the level we’re adjusting to at the moment. We look forward to getting to know people and getting a deeper understanding of Sudan from them but at the moment we’re just finding ways to cope with daily practicalities.

BUGS are a lot more exciting here. We’ve not met any mean and nasty ones yet but there are plenty of others. Scratch that – an evil camel-spider just ran under my table – argh! Ants are everywhere and today they have all grown wings and one is landing on me roughly every ten seconds as I write this (there are 6 on the screen). For the first 2 days Bethanie was hysterical at even the flies. This was challenging when Mummy was travelling alone and neither kid would let her out of their sight – she spent the overnight stop in Lokichoggio ‘sleeping’ fully clothed and unwashed with Bethanie sprawled on top of her to make sure she couldn’t leave her side. Caleb was very good and brave as he’d have really liked a cuddle too but couldn’t have one. Now the kids are much more accepting of the bugs and we all like our lizard friends that eat them up for us. I wasn’t so keen when I got jumped by a lizard this evening as it had been hiding in our laptop case – but I think he was more scared than I was!

THE WEATHER has so far done BOILING day and night (over 100F), an electric storm that went on for hours, wind that made us wonder whether our roof would lift off, and torrential rain that sent a fine spray through the joints in our corregated iron roof all night and caused the foundation trenches for the new clinic building to need some re-digging. We’ve had one blissfully cool day (Sunday) after the rain, where even at 2pm the weather had only reached 80F. It’s tiring weather but not as hard to cope with as I imagined – you just get used to drinking constantly and we have fans for at night.

FOOD has been good so far – A local lady, Tabitha, cooks for us at lunch and makes rice, lentils and beans pretty tasty. We join together in “kitchens” for the evenings and we’ve got some great cooks in ours. It’s hot cooking in a tukel over a charcoal stove – but I’ve come round to thinking that back home we pay good money for a sauna and here I’m getting one for free! In the team dining room we have a big chest fridge so we can generally have cold water and cold Coke which is a huge blessing.

DAILY LIFE is so far just trying to do normal things in a less-than normal situation. The team’s day starts with devotions at 7am and we follow this with breakfast and around 9am I do an hour’s school with Caleb. Today I then spent 2 hours handwashing a bucketful of our clothes (only about 3 days worth) with Bethanie helping, whilst Caleb and Justin built wooden moulds which the concrete support columns for the clinic will be poured into. After lunch is always siesta time and then it’s either time to start cooking or to wander towards the dining hall to see who is around for a chat/play. John, the Kenyan foreman has made good friends with the kids and Caleb is very proud of the Mabaan bracelet Christiane has made for him.

Dinner is around 6pm and then it’s a race to get the kids into bed before too many night creatures come out. Evenings are generally spent sociably in the dining hall. We are very grateful for our brick house – it only has two rooms but we have a separate kitchen tukel and dining hall spread across the compound so it is not too claustrophobic.

I’ll stop here as there are now 8 bugs on my screen, several down my back and it’s time to retreat under my mosquito net!

Advance guard

2009-04-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Well, my first week in Sudan is already at an end and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my family tomorrow! I have had a great time so far. It took me a little while to adjust to all the changes in Doro: lots of new tukels in the compound, a new brick church just outside, a new borehole, and the army no longer camped around the clinic all made it quite disorientating! The team are in great form, engaged in a great many different activities: running a clinic, building a new ward, a nutrition village for malnourished children, community health worker training. They gave me a great welcome and it has been great to have the Congdon family and their 3 boys here this week. A total of 16 people has meant a busy dining room and lots of fun in the evenings!

The flight in was amazing, particularly the second leg over the south of Sudan. The pilot knew of a place to see migrating Cob (little impala?) and we spent 10 minutes chasing them across the plain at 100 feet. There were literally thousands of them, running in all directions, and flocks of birds taking flight. It was a sublime experience.

After settling into my tukel I quickly got busy supporting Rob Hinton (another Engineer) who has been overseeing the construction of the new clinic. He is glad to have another Englishman around! He has been making good progress given the huge logistical challenges, with lorryloads of materials having to come hundreds of miles from the north. The foundations are dug, the columns starter bars are in place and the latest challenge has been to find good aggregate so that concreting can commence. I helped set up some big water tanks for the construction work and have been making column formwork, amongst other things.

Rob has been developing good relationships with the other NGOs in the main town Bunj, Relief International, Mercy Corps, etc. I have joined him on several visits and am getting to know some useful people; the NGOs are good at helping each other out in different ways. We also managed to meet the commissioner in his office yesterday morning and had a pleasent chat for 10 minutes. We are working hard at getting his backing for a borehole to be drilled for the clinic by one of the NGOs.

The team work so hard at the clinic and nutrition village. Emily, Rob Hinton's wife, is apparently the only practicing doctor in the county. They have a stream of people waiting to be seen at the start of each day and typically see 60+ people in a day, with only one small building and 5 old beds, with no power or water. The new building is going to be a maternity ward with a small operating theatre. (Picture below is of patients waiting outside the existing clinic).

We have Liz Lee here who is an Architect from New Zealand, so between the three of us there is a good team on the job. We have a fantastic Kenyan foreman called John with us and we all admit the project wouldn't be going anywhere without his help. He does an excellent job of managing the Sudanese work force (picture of him below teasing local kids).

I am grateful to God that I am meeting some of my other objectives too. I went to church at a village 45 minutes cycle away, where one of the team spends 4 days a week learning language and we have a good relationship with the church. I went prepared to give a talk and Pastor James who I had met earlier in the week was keen to let me. I told them the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and taught that Jesus was fully God and fully man - using 2 passports - and that Jesus has power over death. I made a 6" door frame from bamboo to represent death, but managed to cut my finger when I pulled it apart to show how Jesus had defeated death! It made shaking everyone's hands after the service a bit tricky... They seemed a really mature and committed church - apparently they meet most evenings in the week to sing and pray. Quite unusual by all accounts.

I am beginning to get a better understanding of how the NGOs work and of the water needs in the area. Pastor James has offered to take me round some villages where he is concerned about their access to safe water. The fact is there is a queue outside the government's tent where such things are coordinated, of people asking for a borehole for their village, so there is plenty of need. The challenge is to see how SIM can fit into the picture effectively.

Tomorrow will bring big changes as the Congdon famliy, together with Rob and Emily leave, and my family arrive. We will probably be moving into Rob & Emily's house, which is well set up and this afternoon I made a sandpit (and cover) for the children just outside and identified two trees that can take Deborah's hammock - so hopefully everyone is going to be happy!

Pick of the week

2009-04-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had a fun day at Nairobi National Museum.

We particularly enjoyed their collection of stuffed mammals, and the various glass sculptures in the gardens. Caleb chose to eat Kenyan style and quite enjoyed his beef stew... at least, that's what we were told it was.

We even saw our first Nile crocodile!

Continuing the meat theme, we returned to the meat restaurant in Nairobi on Saturday night to say goodbye to our friends Taylor & Allison, who have been living above us with Avery their daughter ever since we arrived in Nairobi. They are finally moving to Malakal and we will miss them. Who knows though, we may become neighbours again one day!

On Monday SIM's resident builder finally began work upgrading the water tanks and pump outside our flats. Hopefully this mean we don't run out of water quite so often! Fortunately, the water was off for three days at the start of the week, which made the job easier!

On Wednesday we had our last Arabic lesson of the 'term'. Dau was delighted with the study Bible we gave him as a thank you present. The first complete Bible he has owned.

Caleb enjoyed his first Birthday treat on Thursday when the Congdon family (who we stayed with at Kijabe) brought him some chocolate doughnuts. Is it just me or do his eyes look even browner?!

Also brown, Caleb was impressed with the colour of the water after he washed his feet that day!

A Sudanese church experience

2009-04-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we visited our language teacher’s church. It is a Sudanese congregation (predominantly Dinka tribe) that meets in a large suburb on the north-east edge of Nairobi, near to his home. On one hand it was a hot, tiring, bewildering and frustrating experience (what happened to the timetable?!) but on the other it was interesting, touching and very special. We knew it was an event for them to have us visit and right from the outset we were given such a warm welcome and hospitality.

We arrived by taxi and were met by Dau at a suitable landmark, before being escorted to the home of one of the pastors for lunch (their service is in the afternoon, as they use a building owned by a Kenyan church). We were greeted with smiles and handshakes all round, and desperately tried to work out which children belonged to who, and which wife with which husband.

At the same time the women were active with the meal preparations, cooking kisera on the balcony (see photo below), and other dishes in the kitchen and Deborah enjoyed being given some cooking lessons – now she can make a lovely intestine stew!

Meanwhile Justin and the kids coped with a steady stream of traffic through the living room and a strong dose of kerosene fumes from the stoves. It was mostly women and children to begin with and Dau soon had to leave us for a meeting about the use of the church building, so we were left to fend for ourselves.

More men began to appear, including an elder, evangelist, and pastor. They mostly spoke reasonable English so Justin was able to talk with them. A Dinka New Testament was produced and Justin had a go at reading it! It is incredible to think that this large people group still does not have the Old Testament in their own language.

The service was supposedly to start at 2pm, but 2 o’clock came and went and there was still no sign of lunch! The dishes eventually started to appear on the table, and we were brought a soda each, which was very welcome by that point (we had arrived at 12pm).

At 2.45 we were suddenly ready to go, and headed out into the sunlight for the 10 minute walk deep into the warren of houses to find the church. When we got there the service had already started, which meant we were separated and led straight to our seats near the front, and not given much time to prepare ourselves for standing up and greeting everyone!

Deborah was subjected to a welcome dance (which she had to join in!!) and then Justin showed them some pairs of pictures of English and Sudanese food, homes and weather, but only one of Jesus - the one thing we have in common is the same saviour, Jesus! He shared briefly from 2 Peter 1v 16; “we didn’t follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty”. Our shared faith is rooted in a historical happening, when God came to earth as a man 2,000 years ago.

He gave each child 2 sweets, saying that they could have one for themselves and should give the other away – like Peter we shouldn’t keep our knowledge of Jesus to ourselves but tell others!

We did our best to follow the service, though only Justin had the benefit of a patchy translation (Deborah was sitting on the women's side). There were a few songs accompanied by drums only, some set prayers, and there was a short sermon on two New Testament passages. It was very hot in the tin building and it was noticeable how few resources they had. We later learned that they were being told they couldn't keep using the building because they couldn't keep up with the 1,000 shillings (£9) a month rent, but with the intervention of higher authorities they were told it would be OK if they contributed to the 10,000 shilling refurbishment of the building - that's £90 in our money - but a major challenge for them. What a different world.

Lost Sheep?

2009-03-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Today we had the pleasure of a visit from Rachel, our SIM-UK mobiliser, whose joy it was to guide us through the application process and find a suitable placement for us. She is here in Nairobi along with 160 other SIM leaders from around the world for their annual conference, but thought she'd drop in and check we hadn't got lost along the way. It was lovely to see a familiar face from the UK, and we were especially grateful for the cache of goodies she brough with her: art supplies, suncream, chocolate, and the new U2 album!

We left her to sleep while we went to church (please don't be overly concerned about the calibre of our leaders - she had just arrived after an overnight flight!) Justin had volunteered to help teach the lesson in Caleb's class at Sunday school, which became something of a family event - with Bethanie's cuddly sheep making a star appearance hiding in the rafters. Reunited happily with a deighted Bethanie they gave a perfect introduction to Jesus' story of the lost sheep!

After telling the story to a noisy chorus of 'Baa's, we each made a "God loves..." personalised sheep, complete with cotton wool. We couldn't extract a name from one child, but we got round that by writing "God loves... me"! It was a brilliant chance to teach the foundational truth that God loves all of us irrespective of whether we are good or bad. And to emphasise how pleased God is when any one of us turns to him to be his friend, we had a little party at the end, as per the story. Complete with balloons, pop-corn and 25 party blowers - what a din!

On our return Bethanie was pleased to show Baa-bie to Andrew our guard, who was suitably interested, and supportive of the idea that we capture it on camera...

Socialising American and Kenyan style!

2009-03-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

We have had a sociable weekend, enjoying getting to know some of our new friends better. On Saturday afternoon we went for a 'cook out' (what we call a barbeque!) at the home of Nate and Gina Killoren - the SIM pilot and his wife, and their son Liam. Taylor and Alison Martin and daughter Avery, who live above us, joined us too.

Once we finally got the barbeque going we enjoyed the novel taste of barbequed sausages previously boiled in - well let's just say, it wasn't water - together with roast chicken and tasty side dishes. Once we had relocated inside the children enjoyed having stories read to them by Taylor. With them all getting over excited, we hastily drew the evening to a close and whisked them away to bed!

We have recently joined a Bible study group that meets before the English service at our church, and today we joined them for a social at one of their homes. It was a lovely occasion and very special for us to feel like we are making some Kenyan friends. It was our first experience of eating typical Africal food: beef and goat stews, rice and chapaties - and the children tried it quite happily (though Caleb commented at supper that 20 bits of goat had got stuck in his teeth!) The photo below shows them with their new friends Rodney and Adrian.

After food the children took themselves off into a bedroom and played noisily, while the adults played their own games outside. Daddy ventured inside a few times and found Caleb and Bethanie happily bouncing off the walls with the best of them!

The grown-ups had as much fun, playing a forfeits game (Justin preached his first and shortest sermon in Africa!), Deborah won a competition for who could laugh the longest, and a strange game that involved passing a bowl of flour round the circle and marking each others faces! A more helpful game involved having to go round the group remembering everyone's names.

Birthday Fun

2009-03-08T12:38:00.001-07:00

Fri 27th Feb

OK, so it’s a week later but I had thank-you letters to write! My ideal day involves enjoying beautiful natural surroundings in the sunshine – we’re not short of the sunshine here but the green spaces are not so abundant. I chose to revisit the Arboretum as my favourite green space discovered so far – I was also hoping that we may see some monkeys this time and I was not disappointed. Thanks to my new Guidebook to East African Wildlife I can tell you that they were Black Vervet monkeys and there were also the ever-present Black Kites circling overhead.

It was then back to the delicious lunches, beautiful gardens and playground at Aamani ya Juu – I am now being greeted like an old friend there and I can’t imagine many cafes in the UK where you’d get a hug on your third visit… I love the fact that it all started thanks to the vision and prayerfulness of 3 women who were needing a new start after fleeing their homes because of war. Now over 50 women from similar backgrounds are employed there and they share with one another God’s healing love, as well as creating tangibly beautiful things for others to enjoy. I got given a few of them by my birthday – I now have my very own Aamani bag, eat your heart out Giorgio!

Sat 28th Feb

We have now been in Nairobi nearly 2 months but not been into the middle of town (or ‘downtown’ as it is called locally) so we felt today was the day! We started at City Square which has the impressive Kenyatta conference centre overlooking it and the Judicial Courts taking up another side. The Square itself was full of schoolchildren attending a Scripture Union convention which created a noisy and colourful atmosphere. Heading into the maze of tall buildings and skyscrapers in the heart of the city it still felt like Africa on the pavement level. A gleaming commercial bank might tower overhead but cupboard-like shop fronts line the street and souvenir vendors try and persuade you ‘not far that way’ to their store.

Looking for somewhere to eat our sandwich lunch (ever the Brits ready for a picnic!) we headed for Janjavee Gardens which was NOT a good destination – more mud than grass to sit on; no free benches that were in the shade; and to top it all a Black Kite swooped from overhead and stole Justin’s food! We retreated to a café for a soda and found it had a bouncy castle out the back which cheered up the kids. Biashara Street is the street of fabric shops so we took a quick reccy in case we need to buy curtain material/get clothes made in the future. Clothes seem very expensive in the shops but we’ve yet to try the open air markets where apparently bargains can be found if you’ve got the jumble-sale-rummaging-knack – not sure I have but we’ll give it a go! Our time and energy levels were starting to run out so we started the hunt for a taxi (looking for not too many dents and working seatbelts..) and were soon home enjoying collapsing in the cool.

I had organised for my female team-mates in Nairobi to go out in the evening for a birthday meal – my American friends were a bit surprised I was organising my own birthday party but fortunately I didn’t know it wasn’t the done thing until it was too late – and no-one was going to say ‘no’ to a fun night out anyway! We went to a Japanese restaurant where I’d been told they had big tables and the food is cooked in front of you. We were welcomed with the sounding of a gong which set the tone for a very different and very impressive evening. The food was amazing but watching the chef in action was even more so. We had lots of laughs and it was good to build friendships a bit deeper.

Caleb & Bethanie - A day in our life

2009-02-25T09:43:00.001-08:00

We thought our friends might like to know what we get up to in a typical day.

We often start the day with pancakes (which Daddy cooks) - they are our favourites! This morning we tried chocolate ones! It is funny not having cereal anymore, but we don't miss it too much.

When we have got dressed we usually we have school next for an hour. Caleb is learning his letters and numbers, and we both enjoy painting!

Sometimes we go shopping with Mummy - they have little trolleys which are fun, but best of all they have trolleys with cars that we can sit in and drive!

After Bethanie wakes up from her sleep we have a snack and often like to watch a DVD. The sofa is one of our favourite places. We love playing with the cushions when Mummy isn't looking!

We also like to go and play outside with our friends, or if Mummy & Daddy don't let us (because it is nearly supper time) then we just shout at them from our balcony.

Some days we get a parcel in the post from England. We love it when we get books and chocolate and a letter - thank you!

Other days we have visitors and sometimes small people to play with. This week Mummy & Daddy's Arabic teacher brought his Auntie with him. She was very nice and is from the town in Sudan where we might go and live.

Nate's Aeroplane - Animation

2009-02-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

We used our art lesson last Friday to consolidate what we learned on the school trip. Enjoy!

All artwork - Caleb
Animation - Justin & Caleb
Acknowledgements - Nate, our inspiration!

School Trip - How to Build an Aeroplane

2009-02-18T11:14:00.001-08:00

Yesterday (Tuesday) Caleb enjoyed his first official school trip, to visit the SIM aeroplane currently being built at Wilson Airfield. (Its the small grey one behind Caleb that looks like an Airfix kit!)

SIM has purchased a small Cessna 206, which arrived in pieces in a container last year. It is now being patiently stripped and re-assembled by Nate Killoran, SIM-Sudan's pilot and various engineers in the AIM hanger. Nate gave us a tour of the hanger and told us about various other things of interest, including the Samaritan's Purse DC3 which filled the hangar and dwarfed our little plane!

Some of the things Caleb learned about our plane are:

- It's skin is twice the thickness of an aluminium drinks can

- It is 8m long and weighs about 1 tonne

- It takes off at 70 mph and flies at 150 mph

Nate and the team have already finished the plane's twin that also came in the container, so hopefully it wont be too many months before it is available to fly us into Sudan!

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Aero Club - Caleb was almost as impressed with the climbing frame as with the planes!

And we also liked the Zebra plane over the fence!

Caleb has been inspired and has been working on a design for the SIM plane when it is finished. If only...!

2009-02-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday evening was special, if slightly surreal, as we ate pizza followed by a most delicious Sudanese soup with Justin’s Aunty Anne and Uncle Ray. We are still in Nairobi but the soup was a gift from a Sudanese neighbour and I want the recipe! Together we watched the DVD of Justin’s grandfather’s/Anne’s father’s funeral service as this occurred just after we arrived in Kenya. It was special to see the fruit his life as a Christian had reaped both in his own and future generations. We then said our farewells to Anne and Ray who are now back in the UK on furlough. Even in their absence they are blessing us as we look after a good collection of books and DVDs for them!

On Thursday Deborah had lunch out with some girlfriends at Amani Ya Juu. This is a women’s cooperative who make the most beautiful crafts (and lunches!), providing employment to at least 50 women from all over Africa who have been affected by wars and ethnic conflicts. It was so good that we had a return visit on Saturday which enabled Justin to do a bit of birthday present shopping!

Our Saturday was very special as we met up with a friend, Zillah, who was training at All Nations with us and was in Nairobi for a few days before going on to Uganda. She introduced us to another British family who are on their way to Madagascar but waiting in Nairobi until the political situation there has calmed down. The kids were very happy playing together (which meant the grown-ups actually got to have whole conversations!) as we explored the Arboretum and then the playground at Amani Ya Juu.

Sunday was also very sociable as we enjoyed church and lunch afterwards together with Zillah; hosted our first impromptu visitors during the afternoon (which made us feel we really are starting to belong) and then enjoyed an informal time of singing, Bible study and samosas with our upstairs neighbours/team-mates in the evening.

Just so that you don’t think it’s all play… Monday we were back to individual Arabic study, water project meetings, doing the washing and shopping, teaching ‘tricky words’ in school, and having Arabic conversation class in the afternoon. These are fun things too though and our local supermarket actually has more of the cool ‘car’ trolleys (mums of small kids will know what I mean) than Tesco in Cambridge – just a shame they don’t take 2 passengers!

Rift Valley Weekend

2009-02-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we enjoyed a trip out of Nairobi, to Kijabe (an hour and a half drive north west), to stay with the Congdon family – Rob Congdon is the SIM-Sudan doctor who shares his time between Sudan and Kijabe hospital. Unfortunately the taxi that dropped us off was taking Rob back to the airport to fly to Thailand for a medical conference, but we were at least able to enjoy the company of his wife (Nancy) and three of his six boys for the weekend! We had been told that their back garden was the Rift Valley, but were totally unprepared for the incredible view of the valley stretched out below their home.

The family live on the hospital site, which adjoins the campus of Rift Valley Academy, the largest international mission school in the country (500 pupils from 25 countries). It makes for an interesting place, with a strong American influence. To give an example, soon after arrival we were watching a field hockey match, with amazing views of the valley in the distance!

After the match we played in the playground of the “Titchie Swot” infants school (I kid you not). We joined the family for a friend’s birthday party in the evening and enjoyed our next cultural experience of the day: 74 year old Ace (American pathologist) can only cut his cake after all the visitors have processed around the house banging pots and pans!

The next morning we went to church at the Academy church and enyoyed yet another cultural surprise: a full orchestra played our first two hymns. It was great to be surrounded by so many young people and to know that their families were all serving God around East Africa.

After lunch in the cafeteria we went home for an afternoon where we variously enjoyed drawing, trampolining, sledging and reading. Justin got close to his idea of heaven sitting on the veranda drawing the view, with a coffee and a chocolate brownie for company.

Caleb had a great time sledging down the Rift Valley – who needs snow?!

It was a fantastic weekend, much enjoyed by us all. Nancy gave us a lift back to Nairobi on Monday morning. Caleb and Daddy counted 51 churches on the way home – but probably missed half as many again! It has not been easy choosing 5 photos out of the 300 Justin took – there are a few more on our Picasa web album if you are interested!