A long absence

Shocking, I know. Almost two months with no word from us. Flimsy excuses such as having no internet connection where we are staying and doing A LOT of travelling in the last eight or so weeks since we returned to the UK but I am sorry that I have not updated sooner. First of all I should probably let you all know that there's no baby O just yet. 39 weeks tomorrow so we are standing by! The cutie in the picture is our new niece who was born at the beginning of August, a very real reminder of what we are waiting for!!

So, a bit of a taster of what we have been up to since we got back. We have LOVED spending precious time with our families and being spoiled by them all, vegging out on their lovely sofa's, raiding their fridges and watching TV; Visiting and spending time with our church family and friends all over the UK in Eastbourne, Horsham, Winchester, London, Preston, Bristol, Hove, Selkirk...; Eating a lot of really great food - roast dinners, fish and chips, Nando's, good pub food, Trevaskis Farm (amazing place in Cornwall); trying to get our house in Winch ready to be re-let (lots of painting and cleaning); Rich playing in a mixed netball tournament; trying to get organised for the imminent arrival of baby O; squeezing in a last holiday without Tiny in Cornwall and Rich getting to do some surfing; about a million appointments with midwives, doctors, ultrasonographers and people who want to take my blood...

Here are a few pics from our recent get away to our favourite place in the whole world - Cornwall.

Rich's brother and his family were also in Cornwall visiting family so we met up for a day at the beach. Top of the list of things to do was burying Rich in the stones!

Noah also found himself up to his ears - literally!

James and Anna, our wonderful friends who don't seem to be able to get away from us! Love the sunnies Jim!!

Rich was loving the surf and it just got better as the week went on.

Our favourite surfing beach - Godrevy. Not least because of the cafe by the car park where I can get a decent cuppa while Rich surfs on!

Surely it isn't possible for Tiny to get much bigger?!?

While we continue to wait for Tiny to make an appearance we are looking forward to being mostly in one place (other than a trip to Winch next weekend for a wedding...) and getting ready for the exciting day we meet our baby!

Guard Dog!

Our dog, Simba (which means Lion in Kiswahili) died unexpectedly on Saturday. We are not sure why as he was only 2 years old or so. However, as we are due to leave our house here for several months this weekend, we needed to find a replacement guard dog fast. I sent an e-mail to all the women ex pats I know here and got several responses about dogs and puppies they were trying to find homes for. Amongst the replies was an e-mail for this lovely little lady.

Fierce she aint but she is VERY cute!! As yet she does not have a name... Suggestions welcome, just hit the comment button and we will let you know the winning suggestion!

Shule yetu

As well as there being many adults who are keen to improve their English, the children here are also keen to learn it. When walking around our neighbourhood's the common cry is 'Mzungu! Good Morning!' whatever the time of day. Many of the children that live around us have the opportunity to go to local shule's but there are still many that don't; try being a fisherman with two wives and 11 children to send to school. Even those who do have that privilege, the education they get can be somewhat sketchy and although from secondary onwards all schooling is done in English, only a few students at one or two of the better schools (often set up and run by non-nationals) really get to grips with the language in any way. One of our team mates was helping a friend with her 'English' homework and was confused when asked where she laid her body! Apparently this is how to ask someone where they live...

In response to the fisherman's 11 children, Roxanne set up a 'shule' outside her house to teach some of her neighbours children English. Sitting on a mat and with a few resources (mostly her own children's toys, some pencils and exercise books and a children's Bible). I have been going along to help out and perhaps even steal ideas for the future. Here are some pictures of 'shule yetu' (our school).

Learning the colours of the rainbow with the 'Rainbow song'. Need a bit of help, but LOVE jumping around and trying to sing along.

Every lesson finishes with a story. We started with creation and are telling them about Abraham at the moment.

Every lesson we do some handwriting. It has been a challenge to get some of the younger children to have a go themselves, as the culture here is that you really can't make mistakes so if you can't do it you get someone else to do it. But with dotted lines showing the shape of the letters, the children are all really keen to have a go themselves now and we are seeing them learning to write themselves! Plus it helps that stickers are real motivators here!

There are 16 children who come at the moment and we have decided that with time, space and resources this is about right. However, there is a waiting list for shule yetu! Almost every session we have new children who have been sent along by their parents and parents who bring along their children. We explain to them that there is no space at the moment and we are collecting their numbers and will prioritise those who live locally and have limited schooling in the event that some of the current students stop coming.

One child's mother recently explained to Roxanne that her child is learning more in two hours than they did full time at school, when the sum total of the days work consisted of writing their name and date and waiting for the teacher to make it round to check what they had written. Encouraging for us, yet depressing as we start to realise the size of the problem with children's education here.

Dressing up local style.

Having recently purchased typical local clothing, we decided that we needed to get some picture of us all dressed up in the culturally appropriate way. Obviously this also included looking miserable/angry!

Trying to look miserable/angry for a long time is hard though so it was only a matter of time before we got the giggles!

When the local women dress like this we think that they look really stunning and elegant. Somehow we don't seem to pull of this look quite as well as they do. Plus it's SUPER hot in these things! Rich and I also got a picture of the two of us with me wearing the full face veil as well but so far I can't find it. Keep your eyes open and hopefully it will appear on the blog soonish!

Speak English please!

As things get going at the Vocational Training Centre, Roxanne and I have started a weekly English conversation hour. Encouraged to do so by the number of people who tell us that they would like to practice their English with us, while we would still like to keep practicing Kiswahili, we started up this afternoon 'drop-in' conversation hour where anyone could come and listen to and speak with genuine English (and American) speakers!

After 4 or 5 weeks and with an initial attendance of just 1 person in the first session, we are getting new people every week who come and talk with us about everything from what they bought at the market to what does it mean to be happy.

Here is a picture of us taken last week with some of our first students.

Ready and raring to go!

Visitors brought out a very special gift for Rich in preparation for the World Cup starting this week. A real life England football shirt complete with name and number on the back. Here he is wearing his new favourite shirt.

As I said, ready and raring to go! Come on you American's, let's see what you can do!!!

Family Photo's II

With Tiny's 25 week scan coming up we decided we should get some snaps of us to remember this time and what life was like pre children! Plus I suppose these are the first photo's of the three of us all together!

And here are the recent scan pictures!!! (The head is on the right of the picture and you can see her nose and mouth in profile). Tiny had his legs crossed so even if we had wanted to know whether to expect a he or a she we couldn't see anyway.

Tiny looking much more snug than before. Apparently weighing about 800g and about 30cm in length from head to toe.

A close up of Tiny's face in profile.