Hey again! I may be going on a communication rampage now that I can, so hopefully am not boring you with all the photos. Had to share these ones though - am sure you'll see why. Margaret, who works at the lab and who also provides a lot of support for the orphanage that Brigid works at, has her father and brother over from Australia to visit. So, to welcome them, the orphanage put on a shindig. The orphans, their guardians, the teachers and the Upendo mamas (women who support the orphanage both financially and practically) organised dinner and singing, and Margaret's brother performed a magic show which kept the kids thoroughly entertained. The kids performed some poems and songs they had learnt - from a 'welcome to Upendo' song to a poem about AIDS ... read more

UntitledKatherine Howell Hi all! Having a quiet day at home today catching up on emails and blog. The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur with long days at work trying to get enough done so that I can take a few days off when Dad and Liam arrive at the start of July. Hasn’t been all work though - we had a long weekend in Lamu a couple of weeks back. Lamu is an island off the coast of Kenya, which has been declared a UNESCO world heritage area because of its Swahili traditions. The island was settled by - and a trading port for - travellers from the middle east, merging African and Middle Eastern Culture to become what is now considered Swahili. The world heritage listing means that no ... read more

I love the prawn man... Africa » Kenya » Coast By Katherine HowellMay 30th 2007Katherine Howell ...it is a fantastic concept - local fisherman comes to your door with fresh catch... prawns $6AUD/kilo. Brigid and I managed to get through a whole kilo between us last night... sooo tasty, probably sooooo piggy too.... we just have to hope they're not dodgy prawns or we'll be really really sick. All good so far though - and apparently next time he has jumbo prawns, he's coming our way first... woo hoo! So anyway, this blog today is basically just to post some photos of the kids Brigid works with. I'd been meaning to take my camera down to the orphanage, but h... read more

G'day troops! Hope you're all well and not missing us too much! The title of this blog refers to my new name here - a tuk tuk driver (the driver of my new favourite tuk tuk, which is called "Awsome love of Jesus" and, yes, I know that's not how you spell awesome) thought that I said my name was 'One-and-a-half' when I told him it was Katherine. And, it seems the owner of the guesthouse was convinced my name was 'Owell. Lots of Kenyans are known by their surnames, so we thought he was referring to us both as Howell, but when he made out our receipt for payment to Owell/Brigid, we realised we were wrong... The wet season is well and truly in force here. It has been raining at night for a ... read more

Hi all! My intentions of keeping some semblance of order in this thing have gone out the window. Life getting in the way of all that, which is probably a good thing! A bit about the town to give some context to those photos - Kilifi is a pretty small town, with shops on 2 streets, and street stalls and the bus stop on a couple of others. The town then spreads out with houses, churches, restaurants, the hospital and the labs over a larger area. Most of this is on paved roads, but there are dirt roads that lead off to all the villages. Despite the fact that this is, technically, a tourist town (although there's really no detectable tourist presence outside the resorts which are some distance from the town centre), and that ... read more