Funds, food and frenetic activity!

The countdown is on! It's only three weeks on Thursday until I leave! When I put it like that it makes me panic, but at the same time I know I've already done a lot and I will have done lots more by this time next week.

My visa application is being processed and, all being well, I should be able to pick it up this Thursday afternoon. That is as long as the raffle ticket I was given in exchange for my forms, passport, £60 etc entitles me to a visa and not to a bottle of wine, gift basket or other random prize!

I had a really good meeting last week with a trustee of a charity who may be able to provide me with some funding for my trip, so I am waiting to find out about this. Prayers and thoughts are appreciated!

Tomorrow the packing starts in earnest when the boxes arrive. I live in a little studio flat but I think I'm still going to be surprised at how many boxes I fill! I am not good at packing and will have to work very hard at not being distracted. I've found a 'man and van' who can do the loading, transporting to my rented garage and unloading for a reasonable fee.

Also this week I am organising a Kenyan meal and sale/auction of crafts and other exciting things, some provided by friends and others by local shops, at my church on Saturday. It should be a lovely evening and my wonderful friend Sue has agreed to be in charge of the cooking which is brilliant!

Hannah

I wrote this a little while ago and I thought I'd share it on here. It's just a picture in words of an experience I had in Kenya, and of a particular child's story. I think it goes some way to explaining why I feel so strongly about helping in some way.

Kenya. In the heat of the day we walk along a dusty, red road as the children dance around us, giggling and playing. They tug at our hands, demanding to be swung in the air, full of joyful energy. One of them looks intently at me, pointing at my eyes. I realise she is fascinated by her reflection in my sunglasses so I take them off and give them to her to try on. More giggles follow, and her friends come to investigate as we turn off the road and head towards a group of houses in the distance. Women bent under the weight of the bundles of sticks on their backs stop to watch us. Small children stare at us curiously.

A small, dark room. Concrete floor, corrugated iron roof, narrow bed behind a thin curtain. Firewood piled along one wall and across the rafters. Two smiling faces, one old, one young, Hannah and her grandmother. I smile and extend my hand to the old lady as she welcomes us into her home and shows us to the only place to sit. I hold her hand in my own, noticing the wrinkled and calloused skin that speaks of hard work and a difficult life. Her story isn’t unusual in Africa – her daughter died soon after childbirth and with the child’s father not around she was left to care for her granddaughter. She works every day collecting and selling firewood to make enough money to provide for her. 

Hannah. Cheeky grin, assertive personality, determined to be first in line for the new toys at school. Dancing, grinning, singing, skipping, never still. How is it that she is so happy yet she has so little? She is fiercely affectionate towards us even though she hardly knows us, claiming us as her own, gripping our hands as if we will leave her if she does not hold on to us. And then I realise… she has no mother, no father, both have left her. No wonder she stays so close, holds on so tightly. 

Sore feet!

Today was the day of the barefoot walk (as the title of this post suggests!) and I made it! Jon is staying down in Bournemouth too as of yesterday and he said he'd come with me, although he wasn't so keen to do the barefoot bit! It was lovely to have his company and an arm to lean on occasionally. Here we are at the starting point - the dunes at Sandbanks:

My 'I'm going on a barefoot walk' pose

I tried to update facebook every so often during the day and it was nice to have some encouraging messages to spur us on :-) We saw some interesting sights along the way, here are a few.

Herring gulls

Black-headed gulls and the outline of a cross in the sand

Canford Cliffs - look at the soil profile!

Beautiful patterns made by the sun under Bournemouth Pier

Here we are at Bournemouth Pier:

After lunch, Hengistbury Head seemed to be getting a little closer:

Then we saw some kite surfers and a cliff lift (one of three we passed):

We took some more, increasingly silly, photos of each other:

Can you tell which way the wind's blowing?!

My model pose (or something)

I'm the king of the castle *grin*

Finally we made it to Hengistbury Head, where the hardest part of the walk awaited me - the shingle beach was somewhat painful to walk on at times, hence my slightly less enthusiastic smile here:

There a very welcome and reviving cup of tea greeted us, as well as my parents who had popped up along the way and gone ahead to order the tea!

Post-tea smiles

Post-walk feet

And then I did the original silly pose again, to round off the walk, or something: