Happy New Year

Dear all,
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying 2012 so far. It was lovely to hear news from some of you over the holiday via skype, email or snail mail. We're very impressed that some post arrived here all the way from the UK and USA... sometimes the postal service really does work!

Anyway, we're back at school after a wonderful time off. We enjoyed visiting our friends Sam and Jonny in Mombasa before they finished their time with 'Education for Life'. We spent 3 days with them in Tsavo National Park, being chased at by elephants, entertained by baboons and warthogs, and sadly seeing as many T-Rexs and we did lions, leopard and cheetahs... We had a fab time there though - the animals really were incredible.

Three-headed giraffe?!

The elephant was checking us out, trying to work out how to get rid of us as we were in its way...

After Tsavo we spent a couple of days around Mombasa. It was really insteresting to see a completely different side to Kenya. Mombasa is HOT! We really aren't used to it at Turi - yes it gets hot but it's dry heat and at night it's pretty cold here. We always need our duvet here and fire on at night but in Mombasa we barely slept due to the unending humidity. We loved exploring there though, and are looking forward to going back to the coast with Rachel's mum and sister in April.

We spent Christmas at school with other members of the staff community here. It was different from normal as lunch was served outside in a marquee, but we had a really special day with friends and felt very blessed to be in such a beautiful place. We enjoyed leading the worship at the staff carol service and on Christmas day, and then eating tasty turkey, roast potatoes and even brussel sprouts (£8 a bag...) with friends.

On Boxing Day, Dan's family arrived and spent 10 days with us, visiting the school, Lake Naivasha and Lake Baringo. We re-did Christmas and then had a wonderful time showing them places we've got to know over the last few months. I think a definite highlight was staying in a hotel where you have to be escorted to dinner and back because hippos graze around the cottages. We got very close to them!

We went to Hell's Gat National Park with them, where we enjoyed a cycle safari and gorge walk. It was pretty hot there though and the cycling on the way back - which was all up-hill - was a bit of a struggle for all of us.


Another highlight of the trip has to be New Year's eve, when we were staying at a tented camp which had a Christian disco... V. surreal seeing people dancing to funked up versions of Christian songs, and our favourits lines from one of the songs has got to be 'Shake that booty that Jesus gave you, Shake it in the name of the Lord...'! Not sure those lyrics are hugely Bible based but it was pretty funny!

Have you ever seen so many flamingoes?!

We're now back at school, having had a fairly intense first week back preparing for house singing, ABRSM exams and re-adjusting to boarding life. Our friends who have been working here for more than a year have had to give in notices of resignation or confirmation of them staying now, which has given us more of an idea of whether our jobs will stay the same or change next year. It'd be lovely to know that people in England are praying for us for wisdom of what to take on next year. We'd like to be house parents but it's pretty full-on, so wisdom would be really helpful... 

A pretty cool African sunset

Please let us know how you're doing back in England and across the world.  We miss our friends and family lots and would love to hear your news.  We're already planning our trip to the UK in the summer so watch this space...

God bless and hopefully hear from you soon!

Dan and Rach x