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!