The final countdown...

Hi all,
Hope you're all well. Just a little message to say this'll probably be our last blog for now... We've just returned from a holiday in Lamu off the coast of Kenya and are about to start our last half term at St. Andrew's. We had a great time staying at a fortress in Lamu - swimming in the sea, going on boat trips, eating incredible seafood and soaking up the Swahili culture. Josh got quite sick with a cold unfortunately, which made our nights fairly sleepless but we're so pleased to have visited another beautiful part of Kenya.

We've had a fantastic three years full of amazing experiences and have loved all we've been doing here but it's time for the Joneses to move home and return to life on English soil. We've had great jobs, great holidays, looked after wonderful kids and even had one of our own, so it'll be sad to say goodbye to this beautiful country that's changed us so much but we're looking forward to a new start as well.

We have 5 weeks of school left and then fly home, landing on 9th July. Dan is looking forward to his new job starting in September at Ratcliffe College in Leicestershire as Assistant Director of Music and so we will look forward to a summer of catching up with people as well as setting up home in Leicestershire.

We'll be in touch soon but just wanted to send you all lots of love and we'll catch up soon.

Dan, Rach and Josh xx

This year so far..

Hi all!

Just realised I haven't written at all this year yet so happy... March / Lent / Spring! Afraid a certain new member of the family has made it a little tricky to keep up with blogging and emails - sorry about that.

We hope you're all well. We've enjoyed a fantastic start to the year spending new year in Amboseli with Dan's parents and having just had Rach's parents to visit over February half term. We've enjoyed exploring some new parts of Kenya and took Rach's parents to the Aberdares, which is a national park in central Kenya... and a bit similar to Scottish countryside! We stayed at Treetops, where Princess Elizabeth became Queen and even stayed in the suite they'd stayed in over 60 years ago... very exciting!

Unfortunately the place seems to live on its reputation for that and is in reality quite run down. We had a lovely time at the Aberdare Country Club, however, which is a lovely spa hotel with giraffe, gazelles and zebra roaming peacefully in the grounds and on the golf course! We also enjoyed one night in Nakuru park where we saw three lions and a leopard, which was amazing - we generally only see buffalo and the occasional warthog, giraffe or a hyena there so that was a real treat. Rachel's parents have had an amazing time and Josh enjoyed his third safari... at the age of 4 months, which is pretty impressive hey?!

We're back working pretty hard now and are looking forward to Easter, where we hope to catch up on sleep. Dan's parents are coming out for another short trip and we'll enjoy a rest. Rach has enjoyed taking on a few more pupils this term and has been helping with some string ensembles as well as looking after Josh, house-parenting and continuing with a theology course she started in September. Dan is being kept very busy with management duties, house-parenting, Music and Maths teaching and working towards a variety of events. He's very proud of his drum pupils who all got merits and distinctions for their exams in January, where the head of LCM was their examiner! Inter-house music, which was the week before half term, was also a massive success with the whole school performing a medley of Beatles songs, some lovely solo and group performances and even a group doing a Stomp-style junk percussion performance, which showed their innate African rhythm that British kids would die for!

Josh is growing well and keeping us very entertained. He has an amazing gummy grin that melts people's hearts and is generally a very happy, sociable chap. He's grown loads and loves his food... we've start him on baby maize, sweet potato, carrot and a few other things and he's managing to sleep through from 7 or 8pm til almost 6am - praise the Lord!

Anyway, better dash but sending loads of love to you all.

Looking forward to hearing from you as well and sorry again for the major delay. Looking forward to seeing lots of you soon - we fly back in on 9th July and will hope to catch you all in the summery months.

Love Dan, Rach and Josh xx

Season's greetings!

Happy belated Christmas everyone :)

Hope you all had a fantastic day filled with joy, laughter and fun with friends and family.

We had a lovely day here with a church service in the morning followed by Sunday lunch for 13 on the veranda of a friend's house and then pudding at another house in the afternoon. We ate incredible food and even managed cranberry sauce this year that Nai had brought over from England (she used to work here and has returned for the Christmas hols). No brussel sprouts still, but we did have fantastic turkey and ham and Rach was particularly proud of her tomato and red pepper gazpacho we had as a starter and the Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream Bombe she made for pudding... Turns out maternity leave has done wonders for her cookery skills :)

Josh seemed to enjoy his first Christmas. He enjoyed all his favourite things... milk, sleep and getting lots of attention. He wasn't very good at unwrapping his presents (they were all about the same size as him) but he's enjoyed them all so thank you Grandma Jan, Auntie Marian and Stitch.

We go away on Sunday to celebrate the New Year on safari in Amboseli National Park. It's famous for having hundreds of elephants so we're excited about that and hopefully seeing some cats too. Josh has still not seen a domestic cat so we're hoping he'll meet lions, leopards and cheetah first.

We've already had 3 weeks of Christmas hols and will be back in meetings this time next week. We enjoyed 5 nights at the coast at the start of the hols. We loved being back there in the sun, visiting our favourite places and trying to rest lots to recover from the manic term Dan had and a fair amount of sleepless nights. Here are some pics - the first is of Sails restaurant - our favourite place to eat in Kenya and the second is of Josh's first swim :)

Rach led a candlelit carol service here on 23rd December and really enjoyed working towards that, using some of the theology she's learnt from her Moore College Course. It's something she hopes to get into more in the future - possible chaplaincy work or children's work in a church, so she's gonna start pushing doors and seeing if anything opens up. She's looking forward to being back in the boarding house and teaching a few pupils this term but will still be mainly looking after Josh. Dan's enjoyed having lots of holiday time to spend with Josh, but also feels it's about time to get back to work. Hopefully this term won't be quite as manic as last but they definitely keep us busy here.

We're looking forward to Rach's parents' visit in February followed by hopefully a trip to South Africa in the Easter hols. I'm sure we'll do some work at some point too but holiday planning and cooking seem to be Rach's forte at the moment...

Love to you all. Hope to hear your news too and happy new year to everyone, wherever you are.

Love Dan, Rach and Josh xx

Home!

Hey all!
Just a small update to let you know we're home and well. We were a little daunted about taking a 3 week old baby on a flight but Josh was really well behaved on the plane, sleeping and eating lots, which kept him happy and quiet. The drive up to school was a little more challenging as he was more awake and demanding, but we made it eventually and are happy to be back. Dan's back at work today and Rachel's just enjoying catching up with friends and seeing all the kids. Everyone here was so excited to meet Joshua that we felt a bit like celebs when we arrived back. We hope that once the excitement settles down, we'll start to establish more of a routine and work out how to parent here!

Right, better dash but love to all. So good to catch up with so many of you over the past few months. Keep in touch,
Love Dan, Rach and J.J.
xxx

Baby Joshua Nathanael

Hey all,
Just wanted to give you an update of the events of the last 10 days...

Dan was due to arrive in on the morning of 11th October in time for baby's due date on 13th. I had not been feeling that well at the beginning of the week and so Dan asked for permission to leave a little earlier. He flew the night of the 8th instead and we enjoyed a day together before I started noticing signs of labour that night. Joshua Nathanael Jones was born on 10th Oct at 4.45am, weighing 7lb 5oz (3.3kg) and with awesome hair! If Dan had not changed his flight he would have missed the whole thing... We're so pleased school let him leave early!  

Here's a photo of our first day with Joshua

So we've had an amazing week learning the art of nappy changing, feeding and aiming to keep the baby happy. Many family and friends have managed to visit so we're feeling very loved and are enjoying our time in the UK catching up with people before we head home. We fly on 2nd November so please get in touch through email -`danojones65@hotmail.com or rachelclarejones@live.co.uk, Facebook or text if you'd like to see us before we leave and we'll try to arrange something.

Sending much love,

Dan, Rach and Joshua xx

What's going on...?!

Hey all,
Sorry it's been a really long time since last post but thought I should send a little update on what's been going on in the Joneses' lives over the last couple of months...

Baby Jones is due in just over a month - on 13th October - and after 'umming and erring' for a while, we eventually decided that he will be born in the UK. So whilst Dan's returned to Kenya, Rachel's currently flitting around staying with family and friends in England.

Dan's been working very hard at school, looking after lots of new pupils as well as guiding a whole new team of people through jobs in the Boarding House. He's got a bit more responsibility on management this year, which is fantastic experience for him and is keeping him very busy at Turi. He'll return in time (hopefully!) for the baby's birth and gets 3 weeks in the UK due to paternity leave as well as half term in October. It's all timed very well so that both of us will be here during St Andrew's Orchestral Weekend... which means Dan's got a lot to prepare before he comes home so that the weekend runs smoothly without either of us!

Rachel, meanwhile, is enjoying the calm before the storm on maternity leave with no child. She's enrolled herself on a distance-learning theology course with Moore College in Sydney and is also enjoying quality friend and family time with various people in England. The plan will be that baby's going to be born at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury so do get in touch if you'd like to pop by and see us all in October.

Do keep in touch - we love to hear your news as well and hope to see you soon,

Love Dan and Rach xxx

Nearly there now...

Hi all,
Hope you're well. All's fine this end and we're excited that 4 weeks today we'll be touching down in Heathrow. We've been working hard to prepare our pupils for their ABRSM exams and are now doing the final countdown to the end of term. All the musical events seem to have gone well and we're really pleased that the Music department seems to have improved this year. We have a VISO weekend this weekend so lots of music going on as well as a speech day service on Sunday morning. Rachel's looking forward to her pupils' string quartet doing their final performance of the year, which they've been working hard towards.

The baby is growing well and we found out last week it's a boy :) We got to see a 3D scan, which was very cool and impressive so looking forward to meeting the little guy properly in October. Rachel's much better now and is enjoying having a lot more energy without feeling so queasy all the time.

We enjoyed some time at the coast during half term, swimming and relaxing and enjoying the cheap rates in the low season. Rain-bathing and swimming in the rain were particular highlights and the food was delicious. The hotel we stayed at - www.swahilibeach.com - was incredible and we're hoping to go back again after we've been to the UK if all goes to plan.

Now we're just excited about catching up with people in England. Do let us now your holiday plans so we can try to catch up with as many of you as possible. We'll be darting round the country and so will hopefully be somewhere near you at some point.

Right, better dash but love to you all and hope to catch up very soon.

Many blessings,

Rach and Dan xx