'I
am envious of people who have not yet been to Africa – they have so
much to look forward to'
Hi everyone
The
three of us have arrived safely! Yes, three. As we arrived back so
did a new baby – at The Rock.
We
called in to say hello to the nurses and missed the birth by five
minutes – a healthy 4kg baby girl – as yet unnamed. Mum allowed
us to take a photo whilst she bathed and dressed ready to walk home!
Whilst
the school is very quiet without students, for The Bridge and The
Rock it is still business as usual. The Bridge are running a holiday
club and The Rock are treating members of the community and
delivering lots more babies. There were five births when we were back
in England and there are many more 'pending'. The Rock is proving
very popular for childbirth in particular as the community are
spreading the word that it is clean and affordable and the staff are
properly trained – sadly not the case in many 'health centres'.
Since
we have been back it's been all about preparation. There is lots of
maintenance work going on – painting, cleaning and (Stan's
particular favourite), latrine emptying! We are already planning
Activate and English lessons and a teacher training day. Charles is
currently in the north, signing up pupils for the new Senior 1 intake
this year. This is somewhat difficult in that students are unable to
attend secondary school until they can show they have passed the
primary school exams, and those results are not yet out, although
they will be 'quite soon' (no actual date though!). Same applies for
the O Level results – they 'may possibly' be released next week, so
again, until they are known, those students wanting to attend 6th
form cannot attend. Consequently the start of term – officially
Monday - is often a long drawn out affair and we may not have a full
school for a few weeks.
The
quote above was used by a young English man we met this week – he
said he read it somewhere, we can't find out where it came from but
understand it completely. Once Africa is in your heart a little bit
of you stays behind when you leave. Of course we miss home, family
and friends (although not the weather!), but we are happy to be back
to catch up with people we (and they we hope) consider friends.
Indeed there have been many 'Aiee's' of excitement as we have been
greeted!
Please
pray for the students returning to school on Monday (and on every day
for the next few weeks!) - always a difficult time – finding school
fees, getting away from the house and field work. We particularly
pray that the girls have managed to avoid being married off for a
bride price by an unscrupulous relative.
We
have been clicking the camera this week to show you that life and
work goes on here even when the school is closed - children at The Bridge, our 'to do' list!, Lilian the midwife with the new arrival, preparing 'dodo' from our garden (turned it into an African/Italian fusion with pasta, and our favourite biscuit name!
Love
and blessings
Sue
and Stan
