M and M

Easter weekend we decided to visit the Guppies up at Eldama Ravine. Having family close by is not something we are used to, so having family in the same country is very special for us. They live 3-4hrs away, north west of Nairobi. It was our nieces 11th birthday, and she had a safari party, which was lots of fun. It was nice to walk around the farm they are living on, and breathe fresh air, and for the kids to see farm animals again. After a false start on a safari to Baringo, we towed one car back and half of the group went on. On their boat trip they saw crocs and fish eagles going for the same fish, apparently very cool. They had a good day. Meanwhile Max was hanging about waiting for ... read more

Murrays travel schedule kicked off again in February. As you know, he loves to write about it, not! So bear with me while I try to document his trip. His first trip was to North & South Kivu in DRC for a final evaluation of the WASH program there. One of the highlights was seeing a gravity fed water scheme under construction, the women from the village were so happy that they would spontaneously break into song and dance. Another highlight was seeing positive results from a Sanitation and Hygiene program in Tongo. In January, 42 people died from 1 village. The people thought it was witchcraft, a study showed it was a malaria and cholera outbreak. Our organisation did an emergency intervention together with another agency. They set up a medical clinic to treat the ... read more

We hope you have a very Happy Christmas and we wish you all the very best for 2012! We enjoyed a week at the beach before Christmas, with some friends. It was lovely being at Tiwi Beach again, by far my favourite Kenyan beach so far. Although the scorpions and other creepy crawlies tried to ruin our holiday. I really am a beach person, and loved watching the kids enjoying the beach and watching their swimming progress. Charlotte is now trying to swim unaided and is not worried about water splashing on her face (big improvement there), and Hayley is swimming with arm bands by herself. It is probably not where their swimming should be, but we find Nairobi too cold to swim, so this week at the coast was some precious swim time. We had ... read more

It’s been 7 years since we said our “I dos” and it’s been a great 7 years. We have lived in 3 countries, called 7 houses homes, had 3 beautiful girls, and Murray has had 3 different jobs. We have both grown immensely and although it’s been a tough year for me, we are doing well as a family. As we reflect on the last 7 years, here are our stats for our actually anniversaries. Wedding day – both in NZ :) 1st wedding anniversary – Maldives together after being told to leave Sri Lanka due to elections (we’d been there a couple of months) 2nd wedding anniversary – I was in NZ, Murray in Sri Lanka. I was pregnant with Charlotte and had some morning sickness only NZ food could fix. 3rd wedding anniversary – ... read more

In Afghanistan we have been working on a household water treatment, and community sanitation project, using a market driven approach, that focuses on using marketing techniques to create demand for water treatment and sanitation products, and then equipping local tradesman with the skills and tools to meet the new demand. The program has been highly successful and has attracted a lot of attention from UN who are now promoting this approach across all of Afghanistan. We have also worked with the Afghan government to amend its national policies to include household water treatment and community led sanitation, as acceptable strategies for meeting the water and sanitation needs of the country. In this latest trip I went to evaluate project progress in Jawsjan province in the north, and Kapisa province near Kabul. After flying into Kabul and ... read more