The past few weeks have brought a flurry of visitors through Nairobi.
Firstly we had Ed Moulding who works in South America normally. He was passing through Nairobi and had an eighteen hour lay-over between planes. Ed was one of my housemates in 2002-3 at university in Aberystwyth. I had not caught up with him since perhaps 2005. It was a pleasure to take him out to the elephant orphanage and on for some Ethiopian food. The conference he had been attanding was a very interesting one too by the sound of it. It was run by Foundations for Farming, a Zimbabwean NGO. I appreciated hearing Ed talk about the four foundations as I saw that they could be applied to my office work as much as to the labour of farming.
After Ed's visit my parents came for two weeks. We managed to squeeze together two single beds into an impossible gap and make our second room large enough for them to survive their two weeks. Visiting Aboseli National Park was a highlight. For those of you you don't know where Amboseli is, watch Madagascar II which seems to be set in the park with Mouth Kilimanjaro as the backdrop to the film. It is an incredible thing, after turning off the Mombasa highway at Emali, to see something white high up in the clouds that looks slightly out of place, and then as the journey progresses to see the rest of the snow-capped mount come out of the blue haze. We saw many wonderful animals such as elephants, gazelles, zebras, hippos, crowned cranes, hyenas and camera-shy lions. This was my second overnight safari in Africa and it was a treat to be staying inside the boundaries of a park - no long communte back to a tent outside the park at the end of the day. And later after dusk, the sight of an elephant grazing several meters away from our lodge was very special.
Perhaps the second major highlight of my parents' trip was visiting
the Church on the Rock school in a slum known as Reuben in Nairobi. They
have been partnering in some of their lessons with a school in London.
As part of a special assembly my parents exchanged letters and greetings
cards from the kids in the UK. We then went round each of the
classrooms to be introduced to the kids and encourage them in their
work, which in my experience seems to be the tradition when visiting a
school in Kenya. At first it can feel awkward as you're expected to give
something akin to a rousing speech about how they should work hard.
After a few classes it does get easier. It was an eye-opening visit for
my parents and it gave them much food for thought about what is the role
of a school in the UK in shaping the way that a school in Kenya
'develops'.
For now I'll leave this here. I'll have to find some time to add more in the next few days.
Firstly we had Ed Moulding who works in South America normally. He was passing through Nairobi and had an eighteen hour lay-over between planes. Ed was one of my housemates in 2002-3 at university in Aberystwyth. I had not caught up with him since perhaps 2005. It was a pleasure to take him out to the elephant orphanage and on for some Ethiopian food. The conference he had been attanding was a very interesting one too by the sound of it. It was run by Foundations for Farming, a Zimbabwean NGO. I appreciated hearing Ed talk about the four foundations as I saw that they could be applied to my office work as much as to the labour of farming.
WE HAVE TO PRODUCE FAITHFULLY AND MAKE A PROFIT GOD’S WAY OF MAKING A PROFIT.
EVERYTHING WE DO MUST BE DONE:
1. ON TIME (Plan ahead; Prepare well; Start early; Never be late!)
2. AT A HIGH STANDARD (Do every operation and detail as well as we can, no shortcuts, be honest and honourable in all we do!)
3. WITHOUT WASTING (Don’t waste time, soil, water, sunlight, seed, nutrients, labour, energy, opportunity etc.)
4. WITH JOY (If you do these first three things faithfully without self pity, complaining, blaming others, making excuses, but with a THANKFUL HEART, God will take away any fear and hopelessness and give you hope and the joy, which is your strength.)
After Ed's visit my parents came for two weeks. We managed to squeeze together two single beds into an impossible gap and make our second room large enough for them to survive their two weeks. Visiting Aboseli National Park was a highlight. For those of you you don't know where Amboseli is, watch Madagascar II which seems to be set in the park with Mouth Kilimanjaro as the backdrop to the film. It is an incredible thing, after turning off the Mombasa highway at Emali, to see something white high up in the clouds that looks slightly out of place, and then as the journey progresses to see the rest of the snow-capped mount come out of the blue haze. We saw many wonderful animals such as elephants, gazelles, zebras, hippos, crowned cranes, hyenas and camera-shy lions. This was my second overnight safari in Africa and it was a treat to be staying inside the boundaries of a park - no long communte back to a tent outside the park at the end of the day. And later after dusk, the sight of an elephant grazing several meters away from our lodge was very special.
Perhaps the second major highlight of my parents' trip was visiting
the Church on the Rock school in a slum known as Reuben in Nairobi. They
have been partnering in some of their lessons with a school in London.
As part of a special assembly my parents exchanged letters and greetings
cards from the kids in the UK. We then went round each of the
classrooms to be introduced to the kids and encourage them in their
work, which in my experience seems to be the tradition when visiting a
school in Kenya. At first it can feel awkward as you're expected to give
something akin to a rousing speech about how they should work hard.
After a few classes it does get easier. It was an eye-opening visit for
my parents and it gave them much food for thought about what is the role
of a school in the UK in shaping the way that a school in Kenya
'develops'.For now I'll leave this here. I'll have to find some time to add more in the next few days.
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