Home again

Back home again safely - thanks for reading and all the lovely comments.

This adventure is over.

Let the next one begin!

Out of Africa!

Holiday time! Dubai here we come!

We arrived at the Novatel hotel at midnight Dubai time - Woke at 6:30am - Been a long day

The temperature ranged from 37 at night to 43 during the  day hence we spent most of the day here....

This is the view from the tallest building in the world: the Burj Kalifa The boys are looking forward to making their new lego set when they get home. 

Dubai Mall - full of amazing things - waterfalls, aquarium, ice rink, live jazz ....

And then off to Sydney Australia!

More swimming- At Olympic Park Aquatic centre,

Sunday saw us at St. Paul's Castle Hill, an anglican church here that has an ongoing relationship with Nairobi Chapel, Kenya. We were warmly welcomed by Kath and son Caleb who had visited Nairobi chapel while we were there. Eric, one of the minister's and his wife kindly added us to their guest list for lunch and we had an amazing Aussie BBQ with their Bible group - more wonderful people to meet. 

Today is the last full day in Sydney - Off to Paddy's markets.

Tomorrow starts EARLY - We need to be on a 5:30 train to ensure we get to our 9:15 flight back to Christchurch. See you soon NZ!

Farewell Kenya ; See you again we pray one day

We spent the last 13 days in Kenya catching up and saying goodbye to many friends we had met…

Whtycliff!

Joseph, Rachael, Princess (4) and baby Peace (1month). We met Joseph at the Viral conference right at the beginning of the trip. They have a heart for Christchurch after news of the earthquake 5 years ago.
John and Jesse dropped them in the dark in Githurai - about 20km out of Nairobi - Night driving in Nairobi can be quite a challenge!

The dear Mugera family farewelled us with a beautiful meal outside and we didn't say goodbye til midnight! - Note even Emily was still awake!... She made a new friend that night - Mugai who was keen to have a lock of her hair - He was happy to swap some of his own - super cute - May be there will be cows given for a dowry in the future!

Jessica and Alan were our neighbours at the apartments - Americans who have worked in Africa for several years but new to Kenya. Alan was a FANTASTIC baker, mmmm snickerdoodles and Jessica grew up in a pizza restaurant so treated us to gourmet pizzas with Italian wine to finish...  wonderful evening.

Emily's friend Imane - and her Mum, Neby and house help Emily

We also had Teacher's Beatrice and Florence come to our house for afternoon tea - They are so lovely! Photos are on my Kenyan Sim card! Will retrieve back in NZ

Our second to last day in Kenya was yet another adventure into the outskirts of Nairobi to where Monicah and her family live in Mlolongo. Dear Monicah travelled 4 hours once a week to clean our apartment for us. (30km). She drew us a map to get us to just past the airport. We took a slight wrong turn but eventually met up with the man in the red scarf on the motorbike and followed him for another 1/2 hr over these dusty potholed tracks to her wonderful home. She and her husband had been building it together as money allows.

Pictured with us are John and Emmanuel ;Monicah's boys and a neighbour's boy Fredrick whom she often feeds and looks after as his family can't aford to go to school.

Emily and I enjoying our cups of tea :)

It's a work in progress.... and Monicah proud of her garden - This plant is called sukuma wiki, like kale - doesn't it grow high!

And of course a special goodbye with Daniel "Bigfoot" and his wife Jacqui

Special news this week was the birth of baby Kara... to our wonderful friends Joseph and Alice...She is tiny at 1.8kg and born by CSec at 34 weeks.... after an incredibly rough pregnancy. We were able to visit Alice just before she gave birth in hospital and pray for them. We are praying for this gorgeous family who are planning to move to NZ in January.

We spent the rest of our time visiting Beacon of Hope (Worthy of it's own post...see further notes below)...and malls and markets picking up last minute souvenirs... including Westgate (site of terrorist attack 2012) and eating icecream:) Oh and lots of swimming too!

 ‘Beacon of Hope’ is one of Nairobi Chapel’s frontline social justice ministries. This is ministry that has been set up by Jane Wathome to serve those who are victims of HIV/Aids in Ongata Rongai, an outlying suburb of Nairobi. John visited this ministry in 2007, and it is awe inspiring to see how this ministry has grown and developed since then. From a small medical centre, and rudimentary day care centre/school Beacon of Hope now includes a fully equipped Medical Centre and testing laboratory, a dental clinic, offices for administration, social services staff, a kindergarten and primary for up to 400 children, a youth resource centre, a vocational training centre (plumbing, electrical hairdressing, beauty, computing) and a conference centre and accommodation to help fund the project. Nothing stays still for long in Nairobi!!

Tutaonana Kenya! (see you again!)

Week in Rwanda

Pastors Paul 'Safari' and Rita Nzimbi

of The Nairobi Chapel church plant kindly hosted us for the week.

Trinity Chapel Kigali 

have a look at the photos for August 16

John was honoured to be asked to preach at the service.

 It was great to spend the week together as families.They have two boys, Benzi (11) and Ttei (4) and a girl Alika (10). Rita home schools the children and our boys joined in - shirtless as it was so hot! 

Below is their house. Rwanda was hot and humid, and very dry with a water shortage.

Finlay, Alika, Benzi, Ttei and Jesse 

Ttei and Emily, best friends for a week!!

Hanging out with church kids after the service.

Kigali central city - 

The city is about 2 million, but it is incredibly quiet and peaceful compared with the hustle and bustle of Nairobi. It is also incredibly clean, plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda. The city is extremely hilly. Rwanda is known as the country of a thousand hills.

Kigali has a strict building code requiring all homes to be built of permanent materials. 

bananas or tissues African style!!!

Meet Ashiraf, our World Vision sponsor child!

We had the privilege of meeting his family and having a look at The World Vision Kabuga development project, 

 New School built by partnership between World Vision and Rwandan government.

 World Vision Community greenhouse project run as  a co-op of 19 people in the Kabuga community, The tomatoes are able to supply a supermarket in Kigali, and the profits are able to provide Health Insurance for over 200 families within the community

locals from around the school. 

The Genocide Memorial Museum

We were also able to visit the genocide memorial in Kigali, it is a beautiful site, but sobering and difficult. The museum tells the story of the 1994 genocide in which over a period of 100 days around 1 million Rwandans (20% of the country's population) were killed, mostly with machetes and clubs by their fellow Rwandans. 

The country is still recovering from the trauma of these events. 

Please pray for the continued healing of the country and the people.

After a week of quiet streets, no traffic, and some space for reflection we landed back in Nairobi with a bang - a long drive from the airport along Mombasa Rd at rush hour and we were stopped alongside this bus - when one of its tires blew out!, the shockwave rattled the windows.

(the third most scariest moment of the trip for Connie!)

Welcome back to Nairobi!

A trip to the country - Muranga

This weekend we visited Muranga, a town 91 km northeast of Nairobi. John met Benard back in 2007 and stayed for a weekend with his parents Stanley and Rosemary. Since then Benard has married Perpetua and has two beautiful children; a girl Kelyn and a son Kamuel. They made us feel very welcome.

Stanley and Rosemary, on the farm, with granddaughters and one of their sons, who John didn't meet in 2007, as he was then is Southern Sudan. He now rides a boda boda around Muranga.

 Emily being welcomed into the family

 And on that farm there were some...

 and some...

An old tuk tuk, the backyard entertainment with the neighbours at Benard's and Perpetua's apartment.

Or nighttime football in the rain and mud!

 Baby Kamuel (3 months old)

 The church John preached in in 2007, it is now being doubled in size; this is the new part being built.

 The St James Cathedral, Muranga is famous for a series of five murals by Elimo Njau. Created in 1959, they tell the story of Christ's life in an African context. Above is the last supper.  If you are interested more info here. The article is by the lecturer of the course John took.

 Kelyn, Emily and Kamuel

St Paul's church,  in rural Muranga, about 15k out of town.

John and Benard, The service was in Kikuyu, the local tribal language, Benard translated during John's sermon.

 Walking to church

(Wherever there's a road in Africa there are always people walking)

 The scenery around Muranga: It's hilly and very lush. In parts reminded us of the West coast of South Island NZ. (without the banana trees and maize)

 Chatting with the local kids.