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Published: July 27th 2008
After two weeks with us in Kenya, the wild man from Waiheke, Paul, spent the last month working on a rainwater harvesting project. Murray went to assist him in Southern Sudan for one week. During the wet season people normally drink contaminated water from ponds. Many people get extremely sick as a result. Paul did an excellent job training the community on rainwater harvesting techniques and ferro-cement tank construction. The project was very successful and God even opened the heavens at the perfect time so the plastic sheet rain water harvesting technique could be demonstrated (see pics). As one community member said “We are coming out of war…we are happy to learn new ideas…we are happy to learn how to harvest water…I tasted the water, it was good, it does not make me sick.”
The day Paul left, Mum Findlay & my brother arrived from New Zealand. While on safari at Nairobi National Park we managed to see a lioness and her 3 cubs about half a metre away from the car. Charlotte had been great the whole safari, except when we saw the lions she decided to SCREAM!!! I was driving and trying to take pics and Daniel was
trying to take some pics, while Mum tried to sing to Charlotte missing a few crucial words to Charlotte’s favourite song “5 little ducks went swimming one day”. We also managed to see the usual suspects like zebras and giraffes, buffalo, and a hartbeast.
Then we headed down to Mombassa for a week. We popped into Tsavo West National Park on the way, highlights were an elephant family drinking at the watering hole, and a lioness and her 2 cubs eating their morning kill. It’s winter in Kenya and Tiwi Beach was a bit colder than usual, but we all enjoyed snorkeling and swimming in the ocean. Charlotte now runs everywhere and ran straight into the water, clothes and all. Charlotte has been saying more and more words, which has been really exciting. “Muma”, “Dad-dy”, and “No no no no no”, “Apple”, “pretty”, “baby”, and a few animal names and noises are her favourite words. She also has a shoe fetish, and loves to change her shoes at regular intervals throughout the day…gumboots or non-matching shoes are her favourite!
The day Mum & Daniel left, Peter arrived from NZ to assist with the annual Water, Sanitation, and Health
Forum which Murray is responsible for organising. The Forum ran for one week and was attended by 30 staff from Africa and Asia (mostly water engineers, doctors and other water and health programme staff). Murray, Peter, and a number of experts from the UK did most of the presentations. The Forum was held at Lukenya, which has beautiful grounds and wild giraffes, zebra and gazelles can be seen when walking or jogging around the grounds. Miriam and Charlotte joined us for the week. A number of delegates also bought their wives and children and Charlotte had a reputation for being the fastest little girl. There were 2 others her age, and she managed to literally run circles around them. They would chase her and then when they were lagging behind, Charlotte would run back and “talk” to them, and then run off when they would reach for her.
In the next few months Murray will be traveling a lot, starting with North Sudan, then Stockholm, then England, then DRC, then Afghanistan. I am supposed to start teaching part time at a school in September. So the next few months will be busy.
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Sarah
non-member comment
Thanks
Thanks Miriam and Murray, the photos are choice as usual. And looking at cute pictures of my darling Charlotte is much better than studying.