Visa!

I got my visa yesterday! Thank you God! (and the Kenyan High Commission!) And tomorrow is the Kenyan meal and sale/auction of lovely handmade items and other things, it should be a good evening.

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:

Bournemouth with bare feet!

I'm off to Bournemouth soon, to do a TESOL introductory course (teaching English to speakers of other languages) for a week. I'm hoping this will give me some useful insights and will help me to be better at communicating with the children and adults at Mahali Pa Watoto. Although English is one of the official languages of Kenya, it may be their second or third language - I'm trying to pick up a little Swahili too!

After that I'm going to spend some time with my parents and Jon at Green Pastures and hope to have some rest, relaxation and quiet time listening to God in preparation for my time in Kenya. I know the second half of August is going to be quite frenetic with so many practical things to do, such as packing up my flat, so I want to make sure I take this time out first.

However, it's not all holiday - I'm planning to do a 'sort-of-sponsored' walk too! I'm going to walk from Sandbanks to Hengistbury Head - about 10 miles - with bare feet. This is because lots of the children in Kenya have no shoes. It's not as bad as it sounds as I'll be able to do a lot of it along the beach. I say 'sort-of sponsored' because I'm not going to collect sponsorship per mile or anything but just ask people if they'd like to make a general donation. I was thinking of even getting a t-shirt printed for it!

Here's the route:

If you'd like to make a donation just click on the Just Giving link on the top left of my blog. Even a little amount will be much appreciated, especially if you put an encouraging message on for me! I'm feeling rather out of shape at the moment so I hope I can make it!

Car wash!

We had a great day today washing cars, eating cake, drinking tea and raising money for Kenya! We raised a good amount and had some very happy customers. There's also lots of cake left over for church tomorrow!

Here's the church porch set up for tea and cakes:

And here are the young people hard at work...

... or something!

Behold, the finished results!

Shiny!!!

Thank you to everyone who came and to the young people for their hard work. Now I just need to have a bath and try to get the dirt off me!

Raising funds

Tomorrow the young people from my church are helping me put on a 'car wash and cakes' day. If you are in the Carshalton/Sutton area you can find us between 11am and 4pm at West Street Evangelical Church, West Street, Carshalton, SM5 2NR. We will be washing cars and laying on tea and cakes while you wait - or if you don't have a car just come and eat cake! All donations will go towards funding my trip.

In early August I am planning to do a barefoot walk - check back here for more details.