Inspiring a new generation of aeronautical engineers

One Saturday earlier this month we had the pleasure of hosting the engineering club of St Andrews School, Turi, at the MAF Hanger.

One of our engineers, Vincent, did a wonderful job of explaining the workings of the different types of aircraft engine,

from a six cylinder piston engine ...

... through to a turboprop engine.

The A-level students were clearly fascinated by the experience, as was a certain accountant! Vincent was very engaging and answered loads of questions with great authority.

Having learnt about how the engines worked Vincent then explained the aerodynamics of flight












and the features of various different types of planes that allow them to take off and land, roll and change direction.











Elijah was delighted to be asked to sit in the pilots seat and to demonstrate the controls to the pupils.









All in all a very interesting way to spend a few hours on a Saturday. I wonder whether one day we will fly on a plane maintained by one of the engineering club - or indeed one flown by them!

Murder in the Forest

Sunday afternoon family walks aren't quite the same as those in the Cotswold!  For a start, you have to pay for the walk as there are no safe, free places to walk.  Then there is the fact that you need to take a guard with you to protect you from the animals and show you the way.  Thankfully, Nicolas (our guard) was great at guiding us through the thick woodland.

He pointed out a tree, called the Strangler Fig that cleverly suffocates any tree that is too close to it by growing long tendrils that once touch the ground, grow into another tree.














This new tree binds itself around the neighbouring tree as it grows and eventually suffocates it - see below - neighbourly love and all!
















We saw an African Crown Eagle's bird nest high up in the branches of a tall, tall tree.  This bird eats monkeys, small deer and ladies 40 and above with curly hair. It almost bit my head off! I am now in hospital with a broken nose and half an eyebrow. The doctors say I'll be out in 2 weeks but unfortunately my face will never be the same. How's that for a Sunday hike!  (that's what happens when you leave your teenage daughter alone by the computer whilst you make a cup of tea!)











Anyway, where was I?  Ah - yes, I was just about to show you the hyena poo!  The colour of which is determined by what it has eaten.  Can you guess what this hyena had eaten for dinner?


Bones!  Thankfully not ours!












Our walk then took us through a dry river bed.  This is particularly important at the moment as there is a severe drought in Kenya (of which we will tell you more in our next newsletter and how MAF is helping with the drought relief).















We passed a beehive (this one is for you Dad) and then back to base, picking up an old horse shoe as a momento of the walk and the obligatory stick for Elijah to whittle when he gets home!

And I came back with a live chicken!

And I came back with a live chicken!

It was a Harambee that I had been to.  A cultural first for me.  Douglas, one of the MAF Kenya staff, was fundraising for his daughter, Rhoda, who had a tragic car accident 6 weeks ago and has been in a coma ever since.    There is no NHS here in Kenya and at the moment there has been a doctors strike for the last 6 weeks, so the Harambee is a fundraiser to help pay for all of the hospital bills - which are ever increasing.  

Held at Deliverance Church in Kawangware slums, we arrived an hour into the programme.  We drove through the streets of the slums going from paved roads to smaller dirt tracks; held up by traffic and cows on the way until we found the church tucked in one of the side streets.  We parked the car and could hear the claps of people as they celebrated the money being collected before we had even entered behind the corrugated iron gates of the church.    The entrance to the church was a bustle of noise and people as they paid the 100 KES to enter and a handkerchief was pinned to your shirt to let others know you had paid to get it.  The church was full to bursting, filled with regular members and many other people who had come to support Douglas.  We were escorted to our seats, the 3 Mazungu’s (white people!) as the compare of the event welcomed us specifically and thanked us for coming.  The ‘larger than life’ compare then continued calling people and organisations to the front of the church, asking them how much they were donating to Rhoda as they put their money into a pink wicket basket held by the compare’s assistant.  One by one, people would say their name and how much they were donating, and everyone clapped to show their appreciation.  So culturally different to what I am used to but so supportive for Douglas and very humbling to know that many people who have never even met his daughter were giving of so much to help.  A neighbour looking after their neighbour - loving one another.  

As I looked around, I could see people giving large sums (up to $1000) and smaller ones ($5) but it didn’t matter the size, every one was clapped and thanked for their contribution.  As my hands were beginning to ache from the clapping I looked around.  The alter at the front of the church was laidened with eggs, a cake, a water filter, pottery and then I saw it -  live chickens underneath.  Once all of the money had been collected from everyone coming forward and donating, then came the auction.  Again another new cultural and fundraising experience for me.  It started with the water filter.  One lady bid 500kes and put her money in the pink basket, and then someone else placed a bid for 1000kes and added that.  The first lady raised her bid and put it in the basket and then others put in their bids in support of the two ladies in a  bidding war - so it becomes not just about the two ladies bidding but also who is supporting them and also putting money in the basket - there was certainly a feel of ‘all inclusive bidding!’  Finally it was won.  The pottery came next and then the cake.  When it came to the chickens I had to put my bid in.  It was too good an opportunity to miss, so Daniel (a MAF Pilot) and I kept increasing our bids until we were the winners of a live chicken - and a warm glow that we had donated more to help Rhoda.    There were no tears at the event, just a huge appreciate of the goodness of what God has blessed us with and how we can help others.  I hope and pray that Douglas has enough to cover the medical bills but more importantly, that Rhoda recovers.

Plane in a can

One of the things we've been working on lately is using any spare capacity we have to do maintenance and other technical work on non-MAF planes.

This not only helps us to fund the cost of MAF Kenya but it can also be quite a fun break from the normal routine.  Take this - one of our latest projects, putting together a plane nearly from scratch.

Unloading the plane parts from the back of a lorry - wings first.

The nearly finished article! 

Springtime

It feels a bit like Springtime at the moment.  I know we don't really have a spring - just rainy and dry seasons, but there is a feel of Spring in the air.  The Jacaranda trees are dropping their beautiful big purple trumpet-like blossom over the dry ground and it looks like purple snow in the morning when I open my curtains.

I thought you might like to see a few of the other beautiful flowers that are blossoming here too.  We are so fortunate to have such beauty right on our doorstep.

 

Panic Alarm

Now, this is the sort of button I need when I haven't had a good coffee in a while - but this is not the sort of Panic Alarm button I was looking at today.  

Today we had someone round to assess where we needed the fixed panic alarm button for our house in case of intruders.  When going to bed we already have 12 locks on 3 doors to bolt, 3 night guards on our compound, a walled compound with razor wire on the top along with a huge security gate and a panic button.   Now we will have a fixed alarm button too.  

Having assessed various options of where to put it we decided on a fairly central location. 

Fingers crossed we will never have to use it!

Tis the season to be jolly - not!

One of the hardest things in life is to say Farewell.  And we have come to that time of year again when it is a common word in our daily vocabulary.

This week alone I will have gone to 3 farewell parties of good friends that we have made these last 2 years. People we have had adventures with. People who started life in Nairobi at the same time as us and whom we have discovered the highs and lows of Nairobi together. It is a sad time of year for us as we bid them farewell and wish them the best on their new adventure in new places.

Even on the way home from school today, Edie was chatting about everything and anything and then said with a forlorn face; 'Mummy, I will miss Armrah and I will miss Anya.  I will miss their giggles.' All I could do was agree.

As part of living abroad we have to prepare our children for a lot more friends who will come and go in their lives and how to manage this without constantly feeling too hurt or shutting themselves off from making friends altogether.  Something we all have to learn to do.  And I have to be more aware of bad behaviour that it may just be their way of saying they are hurting and are sad.  Not always easy to do.

Last time in Church they also mentioned transition and asked everyone who was moving in the next few weeks to stand up and we prayed for them.  You really know you are living internationally when your church does that.

(Oh and even as I write this and Audrey is playing the piano facing the other direction she asks 'Mummy, when is Nicole leaving!'  So I tell her to come over and read what I am writing - and she humphs and tells me I have made a grammatical error)

So there we are, another part of 'normal' international living - saying Goodbye.   All I can say (for once) is thank goodness for Facebook and keeping in touch with people all over the world.

Life is pretty normal

It's been such a long time since we last wrote a blog, I almost don't know where to start.  Life is pretty normal for us now (for normal read 'hectic!' - the same for any family life with children I'm sure!)

At Christmas we traveled home to spend time with my mum who was sick during the summer months.  It was great to see how well she was doing and it was lovely to be back in 'normal' Christmas temperatures rather than the heat of Nairobi.  It just doesn't seem right celebrating Christmas in shorts and t-shirts! It was great to catch up with friends and family. We also went to the cinema a couple of times (something which we don't do here) and enjoyed staying in another of our friends' houses whilst they were away (thanks guys!)  We were reminded of Christmas in February when we enjoyed reading some of the Christmas cards that arrived snail mail - literally!

Elijah celebrating 1st place

The second term at school has started with a rapid pace of swimming galas, play rehearsals, school residentials, singing festivals, scouts and school productions.  If I had written this a while back I would also have mentioned (with a whisper) that the traffic was better, but it seems we are back to the erratic timings of the school run - anything between 5 minutes and an hour and a half for a 3km journey. The kids are settling ok but still miss their friends terribly in the UK.










Oh and did I mention that I celebrated a significant birthday!  We are so grateful to live on a compound with a large garden as we celebrated with friends in 20's style.  We had a lot of fun organising it and people dressed up really well.  Two of our friends bought their outfits from a  second hand market at the end of our road and were robbed at gun point on their way home.  A familiar reminder that we need to always be vigilant about our security.

We are enjoying seeing some of the sights of Kenya with our new roof tent (bought at the bargain price of 100 euros.)  We thought that we wouldn't need to waterproof it, living in Kenya with rainy seasons and dry seasons, but every time we have camped so far it has rained!   We are thankful for short children as we can still squeeze all 3 of them in it.

We have hosted some of the MAF families whilst they have been visiting Kenya and are looking forward to hosting our first international guest (Ken's mum) in 23 days - yes we have begun the countdown already.  We have some trips planned with her to take her out of Nairobi for a while. Here you can see some of the traffic jams she may experience when travelling outside of Nairobi!

We are also enjoying watching the 6 nations rugby in the comfort of our garden - which is lot of fun!  Inviting friends over, we project the screen onto the outside of the house.  Again another joy of living in Kenya as it is always dark by about 7 and so watching movies outside is great entertainment for us and our friends.  

 

MAF Kenya is working hard to begin the new base near Marsabit (more news of that in our next newsletter) which is really exciting to be reaching out to the isolated communities up there.  Our friends (colleagues too) moved into their house last week.  It has all the mod cons - outside toilet, solar panels, water tanked into the compound, one light upstairs and one downstairs!  Luxury.  They traveled up by car to take some of their belongings and had to pick up an armed guard half way through the journey for protection along a stretch of road notorious for banditry - a stark reminder of why the work of MAF is so important here in Kenya. 

Ken has also recently been on a two day tax course (which was very taxing!) but glad to know he has more insight into the laws in Kenya.

So as you can see, life is pretty normal in so many ways.  Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers - especially for our continued safety.  

Time out for training!

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a two day Human Resource seminar covering employment law in Kenya.  It was a great opportunity to meet with others with HR responsibilities in various parts of East Africa and I thoroughly enjoyed the course.

At the end of the course we got an official group photograph as a memento and a certificate of attendance.  Here I am getting my award!

Employment law in Kenya is very similar in many ways to that in the UK however I couldn't fail to notice that the first of the general principals of the Employment Act is the prohibition of forced labour. For this reason the signing of employment contracts in Kenya are witnessed by independent witnesses. There are also specific sections in the Act relating to the prohibition of the "worst forms" of child labour and a requirement for the employer to provide housing (or a housing allowance), clean water and sanitation for all workers.

Life on the streets

Apparently 416 people have died so far this year on Nairobi streets.  That's equivalent to 1.57 people per day!  The majority of these have been pedestrians which is one of the reasons why we do get out and do much walking here.

I had first hand experience of the type of bizarre crashes that happen on a regular basis here just before I returned to the UK in the summer.

The photo shows the improvised repairs to our boundary wall that I had to carry out after a 4x4 crashed through the wall surrounding our compound at 5 o'clock one morning!

Please pray that drivers will be more patient and careful on the road and for our protection as we go about our daily lives.

Home assignment and heading home

Our first home assignment is nearing an end. It has been really wonderful to catch up with so many lovely people. Thank you for all making it such an enjoyable time. The whole family have taken part in sharing our MAF adventure in Kenya. The children thoroughly enjoyed speaking at various schools and churches in front of hundreds of people. #naturalspeakers  From London to the Manchester moors, church halls to school assemblies, from late night meals with friends to favourite restaurants we have been privileged to share God's amazing blessings and work.

 

We should have landed back in Kenya last Wednesday but a couple of weeks ago Maz's mum was rushed into hospital and given only hours to live. It has been quite a roller coaster of a time since then. We have learned to see God's miracles firsthand and to look for the smallest of miracles as well as the big ones too. We have learned that our hope has to come from knowing God and trusting that He always has the very best planned for us. 

Mum is making progress and has beaten predictions. Two weeks on she has sat up for 5 mins and even taken short walks out of bed. Small steps I know but progress all the same and we continue to look for more. It says in the bible that the joy of The Lord is our strength. So we continue to look for joy in everything; from a comfortable bed to great nurses to Costa coffees at the hospital. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We are looking forward to going home and sleeping in our own bed (and not one of the 15 others that we have been in. Great as they have been). We will miss  everyone so much but are looking forward to carry on God's work in Kenya. 

Homeward bound

Wow. What an exciting year we have had here in Kenya. Brain scans (yes we do have them!), cracking a head open, a court case, walking with giraffe, hyena, buffalo, hippo, etc, flying in small aircraft, visiting some MAF partners to see their work, started new jobs, started new schools and much much more. God is so faithful. We have lots of stories and adventures to tell of our first year here as we journey back to the UK for our home assignment. 

If you would like to hear our stories and the work of MAF some of our public speaking engagements are:  

12th July.10.30  Kings Sutton Baptist Church

2nd August. 10.30 Witney Cimmunity Church. 

9th August 6.30pm Welcome Evangelical Church. 

We would love to see you and catch up. If we don't see you this time, thank you for all of your support and we look forward to catching up on our next trip home. 

Cake experiment number five: The results

At last a delicious Victoria sponge cake made at high altitude. Thanks to my friend in Nairobi who gave me a different recipe and my friend Deb in the UK who showed me a great website all about high altitude cooking. 

It's all about the liquid to solid ratio, the heating of the oven and the amount of air escaping from the cake!  So there we go. You can all come over for afternoon tea now and we will be sorted. 

You won't believe it: Cake experiment number 4

It was all going so well. 

New recipe, high sided cake tins so the batter couldn't cascade over the edges, the oven only turned off randomly whilst cooking and the grill didn't fall off. 

Beautiful I thought as I put the risen cake on the work surface. Wow. I had cracked it!  I was so pleased. I just needed to cook the other half before taking a picture for evidence. 

Wiping the crumbs off the work surface, my hand caught on the wire rack the cake was cooling in and it fell on the floor!  Disaster!  

So I have my photo evidence of my 'risen, slightly squashed but I'm sure it will taste fine with jam' cake!  

Nairobi floods

I understand the BBC have reported the floods that we have experienced here in Nairobi over the past few days.   Tragically nine people lost there lives in the floods which took place in the most torrential rain I have ever experienced.

Having grown up in South Wales I am very familiar with rain!  The amount of rain, and the sheer deluge of the rain in the past few days however has really astounded me.  After several months of drought the long rains season has now being going on for around a month.  These rains aren't the days of drizzle that I remember from my youth but torrential downpours and thunderstorms nearly every night.  At first I was amazed at how quickly the water disappeared into the parched soil but after several weeks the water has no where left to go, hence the floods.

The floods have brought with them an addition hazard, with a Cholera outbreak hitting the city, especially in the slums.  Maz and the kids received a vaccine today and I will follow suit tomorrow evening. 

                                                                                                                                                           

This is a wonderful country but overcrowded cities such as Nairobi cannot cope with rain like this. Please pray for a temporary let up in the rains, for those whose property has been damaged or loved-ones killed and for an end to the Cholera outbreak.  

Oh that hurts!

Sometimes it is worth having the injections for the treat afterwards!  

Cake number three

I'm on a roll and we are already at experiment number three:  

Factors changed:  Flour. (Now using self raising rather than all purpose) 

Result:  Better than last time although still seeps over the sides. 

So if you look really closely you may be able to see that this cake (number 3) has risen, albeit only a few millimetres more, but I would say this is progress wouldn't you?  It is amazing that it had the success it did really as the oven turned itself off four times whilst cooking and the grill fell down onto it too.  

I was discussing my experiment (for that read 'cake disasters') with a friend who recommended I used a tablespoon of oil. Sounds strange but worth a try for next time. 

I still couldn't serve this to guests but the kids are enjoying all of the experiments. 

Experiment number two of high altitude cooking.

So here's my next attempt of cooking a cake at high altitude. As you can see the results are pretty similar to the first one. Oh dear!  So what did I do differently?  I sieved the flour and cooked it on a shelf lower.  Both of these factors obviously make no difference at all when cooking at high altitude!  It is still as flat as a pancake and the mixture still seeped over the sides rather than rising.  A change of flour I think next time.  (At least this experiment tastes good even if it doesn't look great!). 

High Altitude cooking

So I thought I would let you into some of my disasters in the kitchen. 

Some of you may have heard that cooking at an altitude is rather different. In Nairobi we are at 5500ft above sea level and believe it or not, this affects how your cakes rise in the oven. 

I have heard about special 'high altitude, fool proof cake' recipes but being an avid cook I didn't think they would be necessary. I've cooked a lot of cakes in my time and considered myself a bit of a pro. Big mistake!  

Here is one of my first attempts of cooking a coffee cake in my gas oven at high altitude. 

As you can see, flat as a pancake pretty much!  Rather than rising it seems to run over the sides of the tin and onto the shelf below. Here it does seem to rise, so perhaps the mixture just wants to be free from the tin, rather than stuck inside one. 

So here begins my 'High altitude cake experiment'. 

Feeling like I am now back at school I am going to keep experimenting until I can make delicious cakes again. I am going to keep changing my method and see if I can figure out how to make my cakes rise once more. 

There are some things I already do differently that I must tell you about before the experiment begins. Firstly the butter.  Previously I have used margarine but here I am using real butter - more expensive option but there isn't really an alternative. Secondly, the flour. Most of it is All Purpose ( Plain I think) so this is what I will be using first of all. And then we come to the oven itself. It's gas, which I haven't used before, but I know lots of people like using gas. It's a good oven but does have a tendency to randomly switch itself off during cooking when I am not looking - but this only adds to the challenge -right?  

So let the challenge begin and I will post the next cake pictures after the next experiment. 

Maz

Bug hunting

Bug hunting in Kenya is certainly very interesting. So far this morning we have caught a chameleon, gekko and grasshopper