Monday, March 31, 2008

Enjoying the African sun!

We hope you all had a good Easter. Our Easter was very different this year. While news reports came in of snow in the UK over the Easter weekend we were enjoying the beautiful African climate on the Island of Zanzibar, just off the coast of Tanzania! Well with just a few months until we return back to the UK we thought it’d be such a shame to be so close to this beautiful paradise and not go!

We have confirmed our leaving date as 2nd July and the realisation has hit us that this isn’t all that far away. It hardly seems a few months ago since we arrived wondering what we were doing leaving UK to live in a village in Uganda. We have made some amazing friends, been inspired by an incredible team and loads of fun with the boys, so we have mixed feelings about returning back, sad to be leaving all these people who’s lives we have shared but at the same time we can’t wait to be amongst family and friends back home again.

When we get back we will be nomads for a few weeks as the Gregory tour gets into full swing. Our tour will take us to Winchester, Walsall, Derby, Yorkshire with other locations to be announced! In the mean time we have plenty to be getting on with and much we want to achieve to ensure we use our remaining time well.

So we are in a bit of a funny place at the moment with so much still to do here but having one eye on our return. My place at Wycliffe is all sorted and Jen has been looking for work in Oxford. She will be doing 2 days a week working for RETRAK on fundraising and support, this will be based in Warwick just 40mins away from where we will be living, she needs to raise her own salary. We have got a house sorted but are trying to organise furniture to use, so if you know anyone who is getting rid of any old stuff then we’d love to hear from you.

The boys continue to make us giggle and laugh, a high number have moved on recently back to their families or placed in foster families which is really exciting as that is why the project exists, to help street boys have the opportunity to belong to a family again. The job still continues to be very rewarding as it doesn’t take much to put a smile on the face of a child who has so little. In reality they have so much to give and we continue to be humbled by their attitudes to life when life hasn’t given them the best start, when they have been treated so badly in the past they turn round and treat you with the greatest respect, sometimes it can really blow you away!

Thanks for all the support you give to us which enables us to support them.

N&J