Deep Down Under the Sea

We could hardly be further from the sea than in landlocked South Sudan.

However, "Under the Sea" is the theme that Esther chose to celebrate her first decade! We set to work to transform our lounge into a deep-sea environment, so that her Juba friends could come and celebrate Esther's 10th birthday with us.

With a distinct lack of any ocean-based props here in Juba, Esther, Ben and Joel enthusiastically set to work to create sea-creatures for Friday afternoon's party. Much to the amusement of our South Sudanese house-lady, who has never set eyes on the sea, the children spent happy hours decorating our house, ready for Esther's Under The Sea party. Grace found all this decorating highly entertaining- so much so that she asked me to take her photo next to Esther's deep-sea frieze and under the suspended octopus (a creature Grace had never heard of):

Welcome to Esther's fishy birthday celebration!

Enter through the sea-weed doorway...

 ...deep into the ocean....

We began with craft, making fish to whizz around, hanging from our ceiling fans (Esther's idea!):

There was time for a bit of fishing, starting with the Birthday Girl:

In the background, the projector displayed the BBC's wonderful "Ocean Deep" footage from the "Planet Earth" DVD series onto our wall (with the volume on 'mute'). This meant that the entire party had a live aquarium effect, with real fish swimming along the wall, like a giant fish-tank: a fun back-drop for fishing-time!

Then it was time to avoid the shark, drawn by Ben, while running round the lounge in time to music. If the music stopped while you trod on the shark, you were out! Oops!

We fitted in a short swim session in the small MAF compound pool:

This worked up an appetite for a fishy birthday cake...

Esther had worked on the menu to make some Under The Sea treats:

They seemed to be enjoyed by all the guests...

 

Happy 10th Birthday to Esther!

Second Christmas

Our Christmas post has only just made it through to Juba!
After 3 weeks without any flights from Kenya and therefore no post, the MAF flight from Nairobi flew up again last Friday.

This is what it brought for us:




We had great fun enjoying a "Second Christmas" as we opened our Christmas cards and parcels over the weekend! :-)

And into 2016...

We welcomed this new year in at the fabulous "Renew" Brackenhurst conference, in Kenya.

As we set off on December 28th, from Juba to Kenya, our children climbed aboard a plane for their 10th international flight (and 14th actual flight) of 2015. MAF kids in Juba end up being very familiar with aeroplane travel!

We all enjoyed the conference- especially the children!











Beautiful Brackenhurst: our Kenyan conference venue:



Getting back to Juba on January 1st was a bump back into reality when we were woken at 02:30 by the sound of shooting. It was a rude awakening in the darkness of the very first night of 2016!

Two nights later, I was again woken, this time in the hour before dawn, by the sound of two shots being fired, then a couple of shots returned. Heart pounding, I waited. Thankfully, no more shots were fired- but no more sleep came to me either!

On Tuesday this week I took the children for our first swim of 2016 at a local hotel.
On the walk back home with my children, I got distracted watching a convoy zip past in their dark green jeeps. As I was watching the armed vehicles, an English lady overtook me, walking on my right, on the side of the traffic. I smiled at her- and she greeted me. She asked if I worked in Juba with Samaritan's Purse, so I told her we were in South Sudan with MAF. Her smile broadened and she replied that she greatly admired MAF and had flown with MAF in South Sudan last year.

At once, I realised who this lady was- it was Baroness Cox! She had flown with Andrew earlier in 2015 (see blog post last year!).  I told her that Andrew had enjoyed meeting her when he flew her and that we greatly respected her work with HART.
She shook hands with me and then each of the children, Then I had to turn off the street towards the MAF compound, as she continued walking down the road. What a pleasant and unexpected meeting on the streets of Juba, to launch us into 2016!