Belated Easter news!

 For the week leading up to Easter, including Easter weekend, we had our second "R and R". We went down to Nairobi again and had a restful and interesting week. It seems a while ago now, but here are some photos from last month's R and R!

We took the children to some of the attractions in Nairobi which we had not explored during our 6 months there last year.

This was our first tourist outing:

 At the Kazuri Bead factory we had a tour to see the employees at work, using clay to make the most stunning jewelry. This lady had been working at the factory for 40 years!

After seeing how the ladies shape the clay into beads, we visited the workshop where artistic ladies paint the beads with intricate designs:

We were shown the kiln and marvelled at the amazingly hot temperatures that it uses to blast the clay. The kiln heats up to temperatures of 1000'C, which would make Juba seem positively arctic!

It was fun to end up at the factory's shop, where we could see the finished product close up!

The factory was started in the 1970s as a community venture to provide employment for local ladies and has gone from strength to strength. Their products are sold world-wide! (For more information, you can see their website: www.kazuri.com/ )

 On the Wednesday, we set off at a dark 05:45 am to drive to Nairobi's National Park and see some of the 4-legged locals. We arrived just after the gates opened at 6am and enjoyed a drive around the beautiful African park.

 The strange thing about Nairobi National Park is the urban back-drop! African National Parks are usually situated out in the bush, but this park is surrounded by high-rise buildings and busy highways! We snapped this odd-looking bird surveying its surroundings with a vista of city life spread out in the distance:

The children also learned the unhappy truth about ivory smuggling as we stopped at the park's monument, built to condemn ivory poaching. This stone monument explained Kenya's stance against the illegal trade:

The pile of burnt ivory below is one of several heaps of ivory which has been seized from poachers and smugglers and burnt as a sign that the trade will not be tolerated. It was good to see this point being made, but sad to know that each pile of burnt ivory tusks represents hundreds of dead elephants, butchered just for their tusks. The children were upset by the facts- it was a very real way of comprehending how the ivory trade does so much harm.

We came out of Nairobi's National Park for lunch and the children were delighted and amused to find some wild warthogs who had wandered out of the park and up the road to the cafe! It was amazing to be able to get so close- but we didn't want to go any closer, in case they woke up (they can be aggressive) and because of their rather horrible smell!

We ended the day with a visit to the Animal Orphanage outside the National Park. It was fascinating to see big cats close up...

This cheetah seemed agitated and unhappy, with his limping leg- what a shame that he has to be cooped up and has not been able to be free in the wild.

I have always wanted to see a leopard:but I would rather see him in the wild than locked up in a cage. I felt uncomfortable and sad to see so many majestic animals ending up caged in an animal orphanage because their parents had been poached or illegally hunted.

Ben and Esther got to feel the weight of the antlers of buffalo.... heavier than you think!

Joel preferred to look at the blessbok antlers, rather than carry the heavy buffalo antlers!

  We ended our week with our Easter Day meal, in the MAF team house where we stayed. Joel's preschool teacher Carolyn was in Nairobi with us the same week and joined us too: 

New School

We're in the new classroom!!

Monday morning saw us setting off to start the new term in the new school! :-)

It was good to get back into lessons, but this time in the wonderful new learning space.

From the far corner, looking towards the door:

Photo from the door:

Esther took this shot from the far end:

As Juba temperatures climbed through the South Sudanese day, the new air-conditioner in our classroom proved its worth. This is a machine that is VERY much appreciated!

Last Friday saw Joel and I shopping for office furniture to furnish the school room. We found just what we needed. The carpenters finished off this desk for us while we waited on the street.

It was a hot wait, with sweat plastering our hair to our heads and pouring off all of us- even Joel! But it was definitely worthwhile. One week later, we have completed our first week in the new school room and have thoroughly enjoyed the new space, the new furniture and the new air-conditioner!

Kindness

I have recently been overwhelmed by the kindness of others. From small gestures to a large project, we have been so blessed to have much kindness shown to us...

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew opened the front door to go and fill our jerrycans from the compound water-tank for our kitchen water-filter. He was surprised to find this on our doorstep:

 A lovely friend from America had left this with a kind note, saying that this was a Mother's Day gift for me, to make my Juba breakfasts much more fun! Such a thoughtful gesture :-) It made my day- and my breakfasts for over a week! What great break from Weetabix!

About a week later, we heard the noise of a loud truck arriving in the compound in the area outside our front door.

 On the back of the truck was a folded-down pre-fabricated building, ready to be lifted off by the crane and assembled. But this was not just any building: it was to be made into our new School Room!

 Esther, Ben and I interrupted our lessons in our front room and rushed outdoors to watch! We saw the workmen as they operated the crane controls. The crane lifted the building off the lorry and onto the concrete foundation that had been prepared a few weeks ago.

Then the workmen began the work of "unpacking" and creating the school room from the flat-pack:

 Less than 2 hours after the lorry's arrival, we had our completed school room!

 Inside, work was soon underway to install electricity points and ceiling lights:

This week, further work is being done to install the air-conditioning and to move the school furniture and materials over to the place that will be our new school...

It is a very exciting time! The new building means that we now have a place to go to out of the house: we have a place to call "school"!
It helps Esther and Ben to have a specific room to see as "school", a proper learning environment that does not blur so easily with playing and relaxing at home and gives more structure to school times.
It means that our front room can now be the office space that Andrew can use for his flight planning and work-related tasks, instead of doubling up the bedroom with the office space.
It means that I will actually get out of the house to go somewhere, instead of spending the majority of my time, 5 days a week, in the house. It is quite normal for me to spend some days here without going out of the front door, but this is about to change and I think it will be much healthier all around!
It means that we have a physical and mental space between school work and home and a place I can go to plan lessons when Grace is working here or when Andrew is home, without the constant interruptions that happen at home when you live on a busy compound and when you have 3 energetic children! I can leave the doorbells and visiting children and noise of play and have a place where I can actually concentrate!
All this is possible because of the kindness of St. Michael's Church in London: an overwhelming and incredible kindness. It is hugely appreciated. What a difference it makes to us; what a huge practical help and encouragement here in South Sudan.
Soon, we will have pictures from inside as the classroom itself takes shape: but right now, I must sign off. I have some boxes of books and some children's desks to move, with my team of willing helpers, aged 4 up to 9...