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

BIG news!

Hey all,
Here's the latest from Dan and Rach in Kenya...

We're gonna have a baby! Rachel's currently 10 weeks pregnant and all seems to be going ok but obviously it's still early days. The baby's due on 13th October and whilst we'll be coming back to the UK for a couple of weeks this summer, we're still unsure whether the baby will be born here of back in England. Unfortunately, due to us living at altitude, Rach has been hit pretty badly for the last couple of weeks with morning sickness. Wow we're not sure why it's called 'morning' sickness though as it's pretty much most of the time... She's also pretty low in energy but trying to keep going til the end of term.

Other than that, we've had a couple of days back of school after an extended half term over elections. Praise the Lord, things have been peaceful til now but it's not over yet and Raila Odinga, the main opponent to President, has begun an appeal to look back into all that went on, essentially asking for a second round of voting. We just hope and pray that peace will reign and it won't unsettle the nation again.

We've had to change our Easter plans a couple of time due to different reasons but are now going on safari to Samburu National Park, north of Mount Kenya, with some friends. It's crazy that we've got more holiday time just around the corner but we're going to make the most of it while we still can.

Well that's all for now. Please do let us know your news and hopefully we'll catch up with you all soon.

Much love,

Dan and Rach xx

February already?!

Hey all,
Just wanted to send a massive apology for the delay in blog update.
All's well here though we've had a long half term and are pretty exhausted. We've got 2 and a bit weeks left now and then it's half term which they've moved so it falls at the same time as the elections.
We're still trying to work out what to do over the half term holiday as we're not sure how stable the country will be during the time, but we hope and pray it'll be ok and that we'll enjoy a little rest.

There's not much news here other than that we had a fab Christmas and New Year with the Joneses and have been working hard to prepare kids for exams, competitions and Viso weekends.
We're looking forward to a weekend offsite next weekend and then the following weekend Rachel's string quartet (4 pupils, not me!) are competing in Nairobi against other British schools, which she hopes they'll do really well in. House Music kicked off recently and all the houses are learning James Bond songs for a sing off. We've enjoyed coaching them on Goldfinger, the Man with the Golden Gun, Diamonds are Forever and Live and Let Die, which has been entertaining as a lot of the kids have never heard of James Bond and are far too young to understand the lyrics, let alone to watch the films.

We're looking forward to the Easter holidays, when we're planning to do a road trip round north Tanzania to visit the Ngorongoro crater, the foothills of Kili and the coast at Tanga or Dar possibly. This'll be our first long road trip so we're excited and have had lots of work done on the car to ensure we'll at least make it into Tz!

Well anyway, I'll love you and leave you but hope all's well in chilly Britain.
Do let us know your news too and hopefully catch up soon

Love Rach and Dan xx

Christmas is coming...

Hey all,
Hope you're all well wherever you are and enjoying the build up to Christmas. Well I'm trying to think of what to share with you since the last post but it's been so busy it's hard to think where to start...

We had a busy build up to the end of term at school. Christmas carol services, Christmas dinners, nativities and lots of musical activities kept us entertained, if a little exhausted.  We enjoyed a wonderful time with our friends the Blakeleys who came up to visit from Likoni where they are involved in the 'Education For Life' mission. We managed to introduce them to the Rift Valley and spent a lot of time sitting by the fire with them drinking mulled wine and eating good food.

After we had finished for the 'holidays' we took 19 kids to London for a music school trip for a week.  We had a wonderful time seeing Stomp, Wicked, The Lion King and Matilda as well as squeezing in trips to the museums and a National Children's Orchestra Concert.  They all had a great time despite the cold but, as much as we enjoyed it, we were delighted to be safely back in Kenya where we are now sitting at the beach, sipping cocktails in the scorching heat having shared another lovely day with the Blakeleys.

On Friday we will celebrate our 3 year anniversary here at the coast (time flies doesn't it?!) before heading back to school for christmas and returning to the coast again with Dan's family for New Year which we are very much looking forward to.

As we look ahead to next term we are aware that upcoming elections could be a tricky time for the country so are trying to work out where would be safest to be during that uncertain time.  Watch this space and please pray that we might have wisdom about what to do.

Please keep us informed with your news.  We always love to hear from you all and hear how life back in the UK is.

God bless and speak to you soon.

Dan and Rach

More adventures down south...

Hi all,

Hope you're well and enjoying the gradual build up to Christmas across the globe.
Just a little update on what we've been up to.
We've just had a week's half term break here at Turi. The first half term as houseparents was absolutely exhausting but enjoyable too. We've had a great time getting to know the kids, providing them with entertainment and laughing and playing with them. The 13 hour working days have been a bit of a shock though and so the half term holiday was a welcome break.

So where have we been and what have we been doing? Maria, Rachel's friend from Sheffield came out to visit and we've been to Kisumu, Nairobi and Naivasha. We spent the week banana-boating, swimming, enjoying beautiful sunsets, going on walking safaris amongst buffalo, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest and enjoying really, really good food.

It has been such a blessing to have a fun, restful holiday with close friends in beautiful places. We now have 7 weeks of action-packed term before Christmas holidays hit. Orchestral weekend is next weekend and so that will be fairly hectic... We look forward to some good performances with Dan conducting an orchestra of about 150 kids from British schools across Kenya. Then we'll start work on Nativity stuff and before long we'll be in London on our school music tour.

I think that's enough for now. I'll pop some photos on facebook soon and we'll try here too. Do keep in touch - we'd love to hear your news too!

Loads of love,

Dan and Rach xx

Back to school...

Dear all,

Hope you're all well and enjoying the beginning of autumn in the UK. Hope you're not suffering too much from post Olympic and Paralympic blues and that September is bringing you joy wherever you are.

We're both well and enjoying the beginning of term so far. We did our first ever teacher training session the other day - coaching some of the other music teachers from British Schools around the country and also chatting through the musical diary for the year to plan events and prepare ourselves for the year. It was a fab day and everyone left encouraged, we think, about the year ahead.

We're enjoying the challenge of house parenting whilst also finding it a little exhausting. The kids seem to really value us and we've had some lovely evenings with them in the dorm, singing songs, dressing up and rehearsing for the chapel service next weekend which is led by the Junior Girls. We've chosen the Armour of God as our theme and are looking forward to dressing up the smallest child in the dorm in hockey goal keeper's clothes to demonstrate the point... We'll take photos!

This weekend we've enjoyed some time off at Island Camp in Lake Baringo. (http://www.islandcamp.co.ke/index_en.htm) It was a place we haven't stayed at before so was really good fun and we've got to know some other members of staff through going away with them, which is fab. The sun was hot and it was fun to watch the crocodiles circling the island and be woken up early in the morning by weaver birds cheeping away. I'm pleased to say the only things found in our tent were lizards and spiders... another friend found a scorpion in his bathmat this morning!

Well anyway, I think that's enough of an update. We hope you're all well and would love to hear from you soon. Sorry if we've been lax at communication but we'll be in touch again soon...

Much love,

Rach and Dan

Kenya believe it's year 2?!

Hi everyone!

We arrived back to school just over a week ago and here's a taster of what we've been up to...
We arrived into Nairobi at 3.45am on Thursday last week and after having dealt with immigration etc we set off for Turi in a taxi at around 4.30am. It was a beautiful drive and we felt so happy to be back in this beautiful country (though Rach was unconscious for much of it...) It was fun though having a Christian radio station playing for the whole 3 and a half hour journey - occasionally Rach woke up to a beautiful Rift Valley view and the of 'In Christ Alone' -what a lovely way to be welcomed back into this wonderful place.

We unpacked and set up our new house that day and on the Friday, whilst also meeting the new staff and trying to help people feel welcomed and not too daunted. We've met some wonderful people over the last week and are really looking forward to working with and spending time with the new staff. We have a fantastic new music teacher in our department and are looking forward to really pushing on the department and making music more of a thing in the school.

The main thing that's taken up all our time since being back, however, is Junior Girls - the boarding house we're taking over. We've spent many days sorting all the admin work to prepare for the girls' arrival on Sunday and are pleased that it now looks good and like a fun place to stay! We've renamed the rooms after ice cream flavours and the colours of the walls match up with the dorm name.

Whilst it doesn't sound like a huge amount of work... many things have slowed down the work. Broken printers, ICT problems and changes at the last minute of who's joining the dorm and where exactly they should sleep have all meant that the work has been done, scrapped, redone and then scrapped and redone again... BUT we think we've got there now and are excited not just to be doing admin anymore but actually meeting all the kids on Sunday and acting out our roles as houseparents. (Please pray for us... this is all very new!)

We did managed to get away for Rachel's birthday on Monday temporarily though, which was something to look forward to. After tasty birthday breakfast with friends we went to Sunbird Lodge, which is on a lake just over an hour's drive from the school - http://www.sunbirdkenya.com/pages/index.html - we had a great time swimming in the tiny, freezing cold pool, eating tasty food, enjoying watching a storm over the lake and then going on a guided walk once the weather had cleared up. We had such a fun day and loved getting off the school site to have some refreshment and rest time.

We've now just got a day until the kids arrive. Please pray it all goes smoothly. Pray for the new staff to settle quickly - to get over culture shock and to love every minute of life here. Pray for the pupils and parents too - 3 pupils have pulled out at the last minute and won't reapply until after the elections in March 2013 (last elections were very bloody and led to many Kenyan deaths as well as pupils and staff leaving the school / country). We have no idea how much the elections will impact the school but we have developed a real love for this country and would love you to pray for protection over the next 12 months.

Right, I think that's enough for now but keep in touch and know we miss you and love you,

D & R
xxx

Hi all,

Just wanted to give you an update on what we've been up to lately...

We made it through the first year! After a very busy end of term with ABRSM exams, a little illness (exhaustion mostly and colds due to the rainy season) and packing up and moving our house, we headed off to Egypt for a couple of days seeing pyramids, climbing mount Sinai, quad biking and snorkelling in the Red Sea. We had an amazing time and would love to return there one day as the country, though it's reputation isn't great at the mo, is beautiful with so much history and so much to see and do.

We then arrived in the UK and since then have enjoyed time in Nottingham, Manchester, London, Aylesbury and Edinburgh. We've been trying to catch up with as many people as possible whilst also catching some of the Olympics matches - some volleyball at Earl's Court and the football semifinal at Old Trafford. We're so sorry if we haven't managed to fit you in much time or at all, but we will be back again soon - bringing 20 children to London at the beginning of December... so if you'd like to see us we're more than happy for you to help out with the trip!!!

We return to Kenya on 22nd August and have a lot to do before term starts again - sorting out the boarding house, our house and the Music Department so that they're all up and running before the kids arrive. Please pray that we won't already be exhausted by the time school restarts... It's a long term and jam packed with new things so we need a lot of enthusiasm right through to the end of the school trip on December 16th...

We'll update this again once we're back at school but we hope you enjoy the rest of the good summery weather and hope to hear from you soon,

Love Rach and Dan

xxx

May 2012

Hey all,


Hope you're all well. Would love to hear your news as we're feeling less and less in touch with what's going on in the UK.


We're excited that it's only about eleven weeks til we'll be back in England though, catching up with friendly faces again.


So what have we been up to lately? We had a fab holiday with Rach's mum and sister seeing lots of animals in Tsavo Safari Park and then heading to the coast for some chill time. It was lovely to see Lynda and John Blakeley and Sam Boyes and catch up on what they'd been doing at Education for Life for the last couple of months. We also spent a couple of days in Nairobi, which we've grown pretty fond of lately, shopping and visiting some lovely touristy attractions as well as enjoying a church service at Karen Vineyard Church.


Since then we've been back and working pretty hard. On top of all the teaching and school duties we've decided to organise a music trip for yr 7 and 8 to London in December to see musicals, a splash of ballet and orchestras as well as doing the necessary London Eye, O2 arena and London Dungeons. This week has been spent making budgets, posters and a letter for parents, so now we're waiting to find out about uptake.


Next weekend's VISO, when the parents flock from all over the world to see their children. Many will be performing their ABRSM grade pieces to prepare them for their exams and we're also doing a fundraising concert for the school's charity Turi Children's Project - http://turichildrensproject.com/ It should be an enjoyable weekend, though please be thinking of us - it's rainy season at the mo and the showers can be extreme. The parents and kids generally camp on the field and as it's a joint concert and chapel service between the 2 schools, it's all in marquees as no hall is big enough for everyone. Please pray we won't all get soaked as it could make the weekend very miserable!


Rachel's string group are looking forward to a trip to Nairobi to play in a music festival at a British school in the city at the end of half term, whilst Dan may get a samba group together to perform there too. We're looking forward to half term break when we're taking a group of year 7s to Zanzibar - an island off Tanzania. We're not organising the trip as it's a history trip but are very pleased to be the chosen staff. After that we'll pop to the coast again and then back to start the last half term, in which all children will take end of year exams and about half the pupils will be doing at least one ABRSM exam - all in a 4 week half term. Then to the UK!


Anyway that's all for now. Do let us know when you're free over the summer so we can catch up, and hope to see you in July, August at some point


Much love,


D and R
xx

Latest news...

Hi all,
Just a little update of all that's been going on this end...

We have one week to go until the end of Easter term and are looking forward to a wonderful holiday with Rachel's mum and sister showing them around the school, spending a bit of time in Nairobi and also spending a week at the coast in Mombasa after a two day safari in Tsavo national park.

This term's been pretty busy with lots of musical events, busy duty weekends, guide camp and cub camp, but we've almost got through it now. We're looking forward to a very strange school event this week called 'Dinky Safari', for which all the children have made cars that they take around the site, through the swimming pool, teachers' gardens, obstacle courses and mud baths... V surreal but should be fun!

We've finally had our positions confirmed for next year and Dan will become Head of Music and we will become house parents for Junior girls - years 1 - 6. We are looking forward to all of these things, though will be very busy. On top of all of this Dan will also be doing a PGCE international at Nottingham University and Rachel will play a juggling act working at Senior School whilst she should also be at Prep school doing house parent duties... Could be interesting!

Anyway, I think that's our main news for now. We're looking forward to catching up with the Blakeleys in Mombasa over Easter, as well as hopefully swimming with dolphins and resting a LOT!

Hope to catch up with you all soon.

Happy Easter and lots of love,

Rach and Dan xx

Back to school :o)

Hi all,


Hope you're all well and still enjoying reading our news. School restarted this week for the second half of Easter term, which sounds like it will be action-packed but filled with fun too. We're looking forward to taking 25 of our junior choir (years 3 and 4) on a trip to Nairobi to sing in a music festival in just over a week's time. Rachel will be going on another guide camp, and we are also looking forward to performing in the school's production of 'Toad in the Hole'... a version of 'Wind in the Willows' in a couple of weeks, all before Rachel's mum and sister arrive in about 6 week's time. (Please sort out your injections mum and Marian!)


We've had a wonderful week getting to know Nairobi, being proper tourists in the big city. We visited an elephant orphanage, Karen Blixen coffee gardens and some awesome bead and clothing factories. The highlights really though were going to a Vineyard church where we met some lovely people outside of the school bubble and eating out - a treat we cannot really have here as all the local cafes only serve chapatis and tea...


After that we returned home briefly and headed off to the Mara - 5 hours on roads that you'd probably not consider roads in England... The big hotels refuse to re-do the roads as they make more money if you fly in, which a lot of people do and you see planes landing fairly frequently - pretty cool!
We survived the journey though and had a wonderful time with some friends from school. We saw all the big 5 (elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo) and also 40 hippos - cute but dangerous! We celebrated our friend Jonny's 18th birthday there and loved every minute of the safari.


Now we're back to the real world for a bit but looking forward to this term and all the challenges we have ahead.


Hope you're all well and hope to hear from you soon,


Love Rach and Dan xx

February's update...

Hey all :)
Hope you're all well. We've had a hectic but rewarding half term, and are starting the break today, looking forward to some rest. The weeks have whizzed by with many many competitions, activities and slightly strange events, but the most important one was the Interhouse Song Competition which our house - 'Elgon' won. We worked pretty hard with the kids - learning harmonies and lots of words and actions, so felt very pleased when our kids won the trophy for best house song. If you want to watch the video it's on Rachel's facebook page for those who have access to that.

We're enjoying the dry season here at school at the moment - no rain since just before Christmas means the school is very dry, a bit dusty, and the grass has all pretty much turned to straw. It gets pretty hot during the days but due to absolutely no clouds in the sky, the moon and stars completely light the sky at night and we've had frost on the ground and car a lot, which is odd when you need to layer up the sun cream during the daytime.

We hope the snow's not been too frustrating for you all in England. I think it's caused a bit of chaos with travel as per normal, but I hope you've stayed safe and cosy in the chilly weather.

So it's half term and we're off to Nairobi for a couple of days to go exploring. We're looking forward to getting to know the capital city a bit more and getting our bearings. On Tuesday we return to school for a day at home before heading to the Masai Mara to (hopefully) see lions! We're going with some other teachers from the school and are really looking forward to seeing another part of Kenya.

Afraid we don't have much more to report other than that we miss you and love hearing from you. Thanks for the prayer support and encouraging words regarding changes to our jobs next year. We should find out in the next month what we'll be doing next year so we'll let you know when we know.

Lots of love and keep in touch
D and R xx

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

2 weeks to go...

Hey everyone :)

Sorry we haven't updated this for a while, but here is a little taster of what's been going on in the Jones household over the last month...

Life at school has been very hectic. We've had one weekend off so far since half term, which was pretty awesome really - we went to Lake Naivasha and Hell's Gate national park. We had a wonderful time with some friends exploring the place where Tomb Raider was filmed - pretending to be Lara Croft etc - and also seeing giraffes, zebra and lots of deer. But since then school's been pretty full-on. After Orchestral weekend, we began report writing and since then we have been preparing kids for nativity and Christmas carol services, along with and normal teaching and planning which have kept us very busy. We're feeling a little run down and ready for the holidays, but feel we're really getting to know the kids more now and  have got to grips more with the day to day life at the school.

Deer running across the road in Hell's Gate.

Climbing in the Rocks at Hell's Gate.

Kind of speaks for itself!

Rachel being a monkey...

Rachel has just returned from Guide Camp at a farm in Naivasha. It brought back many memories of Duke of Edinburgh as we put up tents in the rain, cooked in the rain, went for walks in the rain, cooked again in the rain, gave children medicine at 5 in the morning (in the rain) and wore damp clothes for 24 hours. The girls had a good time though and it wasn't all bad as we were entertained by monkeys, zebra, waterbuck, wildebeest and giraffes roaming wild on the campsite. Rachel's finally learnt the names of all 56 guides now and had a great time chatting and giggling with them.

Still smiling after a very wet weekend...

Dan's been put forward as head of Elgon house and head of the club committee, starting in September. Elgon is the name of the house we're in (all are mountains with the others being Kilimanjaro, Kenya and Ruwenzori). He'll have to organise inter-house competitions such as swimming, music, athletics and other stuff. It's encouraging that he's already being put forward for more authoritative  positions. Head of club committee means he has to organise the events for staff on Friday nights. It's where staff let their hair down a bit and catch up. So far we've had a Bollywood themed night, pub games, a jazz night and a pub quiz, but if you have any suggestions pass them this way!

So there's 2 weeks left before term finish, and we're gonna keep ploughing on til the end, with lots to look forward to over the Christmas hols. We're going straight to the coast - Mombasa - to visit Jonny Shaw and Sam Boyes from Dan's church in Nottingham. Spending a week down there on the beach and then on safari in Tsavo National Park. Then back to school for a slightly different Christmas from usual with other staff, eating together and then probs playing ultimate frisbee in the sun or something. Dan's family arrive on 26th and then we're off exploring with them.

We're sad not to be returning to England this Christmas but feel it's too soon and too expensive to do so right now. We have, however, booked our flights for next summer so would love to catch up with as many of you as possible in July and August next year. We'll let you know dates nearer the time but really looking forward to a trip home to see you all.

It'd be great to catch up with people over the Christmas hols though too. We have quite a few free days so will try to keep Skype on and see if we can catch people, and it'd be lovely to hear from you via email or facebook too.

Well that's all for now. We'll aim to update again in the week before Christmas but sending lots of love and warm wishes at Christmas time. Hope you have a fab festive season.

With love,

 Rach and Dan xxx