I rode into 2020 on a camel...
So did Joel and also Ben!
We spent the final few days of the last decade and the first day of 2020 at Kenya's Brackenhurst, at the wonderful "Renew" conference. The camel came along to celebrate the new year with us!
The "Renew" conference has featured many times on this blog in previous years, so I will not add much. Suffice to say, we had a very special week away, catching up with old friends, making new ones, eating copious amounts of good food and drinking vats of Kenyan tea.
It was extra special that the volunteers leading the children's activities this year were from our church in London! It was so good to have time with friends from London on African soil! The children enjoyed their fun sessions. Whilst the younger generation were happily occupied, the parents were able to focus on the excellent teaching times during the conference, along the theme of, "Serving God despite.... fears/ character flaws/ problems in our work/ personal suffering." Inspiring and encouraging teaching.
With our London friends/ Kid's Team Volunteers!:-)
Driving to Kenya was just under 15 hours of driving each way, including the time for paperwork at the Uganda/Kenya border. Andrew did an amazing job of driving all those hours! Part of the way home, our odometer hit 1,000km. I think we did about 1,600 km in total! The odometer returned to zero at the point where we reached 1,000km:
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Before the conference, we had a quiet but happy Christmas at home in Kampala. I was unwell for a long period before Christmas, mostly due to an attempted switch in asthma medication which did not work out, followed by the nasty virus referred to in my December blog. This meant that we had a quieter Christmas season. On Christmas Day, we enjoyed a lovely meal at home shared with a Ugandan friend and a family from America who are good friends.
After the New Year conference, we returned back to the routine of school.
Esther was not impressed that the first day of the new school term was also her birthday! However, we celebrated after school with afternoon tea and some delicious cream cakes, a gift from a kind Swedish friend who was staying with us.
The birthday girl officially celebrated her 14th birthday with six friends that Friday afternoon.
With a mock Spa set up in our home, Esther and her guests (and even her Mum!!) enjoyed creating their own smoothies, making their own face masks from face-mask recipes, decorating themselves with henna designs, having pedicures courtesy of a Ugandan beautician who came to join us and taking crazy pictures in the homemade photo-booth. LOTS of fun!!
Here are a few photos for you to join in the fun too!
Has that camel got sunglasses on? Weather looks great. Look forward to many more blogs.Cannot remember being 14 ha! Helen x
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