Tomatoes!

Anybody that knows Lynda knows that she isn't too keen on tomatoes. Ketchup is fine but the actual squishy innards with the seeds floating about - she's not too sure. So, imagine my surprise when she said that we were going to lend a hand to plant some!

A bit of background first. Education for Life is looking for more ways of becoming self sustaining. One of the more practical ways in which it is looking to support itself is the planting and ultimately the harvesting of tomatoes. A great way to provide food for the feeding programme!


The Blakeley family decided to give it a bit of a go. Under the expert tuition of Mr Patrick, our family learned how to plant tomato seedlings. Mr Patrick has been very dedicated in training people to prepare the ground and implementing an impressive drip feed system.  The soil feels very sandy here so it needs a lot of water.  The boys loved getting even dirtier than normal and had a great time. It was a great learning experience as well as fun with our friends here.

Mister Patrick and his new students

Four Weddings but no funeral!

We were delighted to be back in Kenya in time for the weekend so we could join in the celebrations  at Tumaini.  On Saturday four couples from the church here were married and it was a very special day.  It was vibrant and joyful with great music and much colour. We have never experienced anything like it before so it was an amazing experience and we were very thankful to be part of this incredible community.

Nestling in the lush green valleys of Northern Ireland’s County Fermanagh sits a beautiful church. St John’s, Killesher is a vibrant place of worship and we joined them earlier in the summer  for a special service of confirmation. We had asked if we could attend the church in order to say thank you to the congregation for a financial gift that we had received in order to bless the community of Tumaini. We spoke for a few minutes explaining how the money raised had been spent and how the people worshipping at Killesher had had a special impact on the people at Education for Life. We were taken aback at the end of the service when we were invited back up to the front of the church where we received another financial gift to support the work of Education for Life. We left that church reminded that ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact on the wider world – and reminded of Mother Teresa’s words. “We can do no great things-just small things with great love.”

Summer Time...

We have been very lax with the blogs for which we apologise!  We have had some time back in the UK and are now preparing for our return to Kenya.

Although it was a while ago we wanted to blog about a very special day out that we had in June with the kids home at Tumaini.  When you have a family of 23 children it is quite a challenge to organise a family day out!  Thanks to a gift from a church in Ireland this was made possible so we were delighted to join Charles, Mary and the kids for a fun day out.

Mikey and David felt sad that they had been given opportunities to see African animals when so many of the kids who live in Kenya have never seen them so we visited Haller Park where everybody enjoyed seeing giraffes, crocodiles, hippos and many monkeys!  It was a great day out with fun on the matatus, tuk tuks and the ferry.  This family have meant so much to us during our time at Tumaini.  They have taught us so much about hospitality and made us feel so at home in their home.  We have shared much laughter and meaningful conversations.  We count it a real honour to have them as our neighbours and friends.