Jesus is still the reason

Merry Christmas everyone!


Well it's that time of year again and Christmas this year was a pretty quiet one. We had the usual family dinner on Christmas Eve, after which we tackled the presents and headed down to Knox to watch their Christmas production. The day itself was pretty low-key, Calvary didn't have a service (as usual) and I couldn't really be bothered finding anywhere else to go to. Plus I guess I didn't feel like I needed to go... Spent the afternoon around at home, both the boys were out with their respective girlfriends and later Dad went to his family's do, so it was a quiet evening just for Mum and me.

I don't go back to work until the 12th, and over the break there are a number of cricket matches at the Basin (Wellington vs Auckland on the 30th, vs Otago on the 2nd*, vs Central Districts on the 11th - plus the international vs the West Indies at the Stadium on the 7th). On the 2nd I'll be up near Turangi with some people from work doing the Tongariro Crossing. Mum wants to have a day trip to Somes Island some time when the weather is nice, which could be today going by the look of things. I'm making slow progress on the CKC planning, and I need to do some painting around the window frames of the house, so there's no shortage of things to do.

Coming into the new year, my schedule is even crazier than 'last' year, if such a thing is possible!!
14-28 Jan Beamtime at Stanford
8-12 Feb Conference in Dunedin
15 Feb Stu and I and one of his mates are flying up to Auckland for the day for Top Gear Live
18-20 Feb Mike is visiting IRL
21-24 Feb Mike and I tramping the Northern Circuit
25 Feb - 2 Mar Beamtime in Chicago
8-10 Mar Beamtime in Melbourne
24-26 Apr Beamtime in Melbourne
And sometime in April I am supposed to be planning a mini conference for the NZ synchrotron people...
And, in August/September Mum and I are planning on going to Scotland (for the Edinburgh Tattoo) and Ireland. By then there'll be more beamtime to fit around, so it's never ending.

Not that I'm complaining - rather I am amazed at all these amazing opportunities and so thankful that I was born in NZ, at this time in history, etc. etc. One of my constant prayers is, 'Lord, please never let me take all of this for granted.'

Happy birthday Jesus.

Christmas is coming!

On the ninth day before Christmas, I looked at my diary:
Seven people to email
Six tasks to do
Five days of cricket
Four important meetings
Three days left at work
Two Christmas lunches
And a pizza party tomorrow

Hey, at least I've finished all my Christmas shopping. Including for myself (can't resist a bargain) - check this out:



I know my hands often look huge in photos, but not this time. My new cute little Acer Aspire One arrived today. Since I've got that CKC pizza & games night to plan for tomorrow, I'm trying to resist the urge to play with it too much. I have 200 toothpicks to hide around the house (actually, I've hidden most of them - about 25 to go and there are not many hiding places left!)

In other news, the Kenya DVD is now finished and in the process of mass production (i.e. Al making 20-odd copies). By the way if anyone would like one, $10 each plus postage ($4.50 within NZ) with all proceeds going to Childfund. Just send me an email. For those who went on the trip, it'll arrive in time for Christmas, which is a bonus.

Three days left at work and then I am on annual leave from 20 December until 11 January (three weeks' break). Then the travelling starts again: on 14 Jan I'm off to Stanford for 2 weeks and once I get back to NZ we have a biannual conference in Dunedin. Anyway more about that later.

The Christmas production went. I won't say it went well, because it didn't, and I won't say it went badly, because it didn't. We messed up more than a few of the lines (I say 'we', because I had to stand in for some of the parts). But the main thing is all the kids had fun, and the dance was probably the best part.

Last trip for the year

I know as soon as I give a post this kind of title, something will crop up and I'll have to visit the airport again, but hopefully it'll hold true this time.

I've been at the Australian Synchrotron annual users' meeting this past week and at the time of writing this am helping a colleague with some synchrotron experiments. I'm leaving tomorrow evening so he'll be on his own for the last day or so of it, but I figured the Sunday school Christmas play was more important. Actually this Sunday it's only a dress rehearsal, but still - important.

The meeting was really beneficial, especially since I'm on a few committees now including the powder diffraction PAC (proposal allocation committee), the Foundation Investor contact group, and recently was appointed to the user advisory committee. The latter two each had meetings during the conference.

As well as all that I was offered a complimentary ticket to the conference dinner, which was held on the 89th floor of the Eureka tower complex. For a certain reason (not worth detailing here) a few of us arrived before the main bus-load of people, so I had a bit of time to wander around looking out the windows. What an incredible opportunity, and an amazing position to be in. I spent a few moments thanking God for all that He has done for me, particularly with regards to the synchrotron roles - no doubt about it, it is all His planning and doing. Simply amazing - who would have thought that I would be here.


On top of the world at the bottom of the world

How much wood...

I'm in Melbourne at the moment helping some guys from Scion (ex Forestry Research NZ) with some x-ray scattering experiments. It's a brief visit: by this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane heading back home. The experiments have gone really well. The initial plan was loosely founded on some experiments I did at Stanford earlier in the year, where each scan was taking about 10 minutes to run.

At this, brand new, undulator beamline, each scan is taking 1-2 seconds. Very cool.

As a result, we have a lot more time than we were expecting, so have been able to try some more things. Like watching the wood dry, in situ. It's in a different league to watching paint dry though (which we did on a visit to SPring-8 in Japan in July 2007).

It's been a pretty cruisy time, because the three beamline scientists have been here nearly all of the time, since they are still commissioning the beamline and finding (and fixing) problems with it. So I haven't really needed to do very much...

Travelling again

A couple of weeks ago, you may recall I was in a bit of a dilemma over the Lake Taupo cycle challenge and whether I would be able to survive 160 km on a bike. Well, it turns out I don't have to - shortly afterward I received an email from some collaborators, whom I'd offered to help with synchrotron experiments in Australia, to say that we're going to Melbourne from 25-28 November. Which means I wouldn't be able to get to Taupo in time for the 29th.

So now those dates are booked - in addition to the 1-6 December for the Synchrotron users' meeting which had been arranged a couple of months ago. Yes, it might have made more sense to stay over for those couple of days in between, but it's two separate groups paying for the two trips. So I just let it roll. Besides, it means I don't miss a Sunday kids' Christmas practise...

Already I have some concrete plans for 2009: 14-28 Jan at Stanford and then 8-12 Feb in Dunedin for a conference, followed by hosting a visitor who's coming over from the US. We'll take a few days to head up north and do the Tongariro Northern Circuit. Should be fun!


We'll be expecting views like this

Following in whose footsteps?

I was invited to attend the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science Awards Dinner last night. It was quite a pleasant evening, but one thing really stuck in my mind. Since I'm already late for work at the time of writing this I will try to keep it short and sweet.

The theme for the evening was Ernest Rutherford; it being 100 years virtually to the day since he was notified of his Nobel Prize success. Most of the speeches had something to do with him and there was even a guy in costume who 'recounted' stories of 'his time at the Cavendish laboratory'.

One of the presentations was a screening of the winning entry in the secondary schools' science DVD competition, and a short speech by three of the students who won. The theme this year was evolution, Charles Darwin, and the Origin of the Species (it being 150 years since it was published). The prize for the students was to travel to the UK and have a tour around Darwin's birthplace, university, etc., to, quote, "follow in his footsteps".

As they told us all about their trip, one mentioned how Darwin was a 'controversial figure who changed the world'. And I thought, well, perhaps, but he was still only a man. Did they have a realisation of futility when they visited his grave? There were also a few awards presented to people working in the field of evolution (be it computational, educational, biology). As sung by Dave Dobbyn I think, do they realise evolution is just "religion for scientists"? (It can't be proven nor disproven - one has to have a measure of faith to believe that all the complexity in the world around us arose from random processes. Personally, I find it much easier to simply believe that God created everything in six literal 24-hour days.)

Anyway, as I reflected on all of this, I knew there was only one person whose footsteps would be worth following in. And I've been there. I've been to His hometown, to where He started His ministry, where He was crucified, and I've seen His tomb. It's empty.

Cycling and the Christmas production

Two major things that have been going on at the moment for me have been preparing for the annual Lake Taupo cycle challenge (160 km solo or relay) and the church kids' Christmas production.

First off, the cycling: I signed up thinking 4 x 40 = 160 km, 40 km is not too bad (that's 25 miles for my US readers). A bunch of people are going up for the challenge (not a 'race'... the goal being to make it to the finish line) and stay at somebody's bach for the night. So it sounded quite fun. Then it turned out that everybody else was planning on doing the whole thing, so there was no relay team. So if I want to do it, it's 160 km or nothing. Or I could start and not finish, but what's the point in that?

I was given somebody's phone number who was apparently looking for another team member, but by the time I got hold of him he'd already found somebody else. So now it's back to square one.

Thinking back to when I did the 50-mile walk with air cadets (which is probably not that good an idea, seeing as it was about ten years ago), I survived that (just) with next to no preparation. Those 50 miles (80 km) took us 24 hours to walk: we started at 9 pm one night and finished at 8 pm the following night. Yes indeed, crazy. So is a 160 km bike ride in the same league?

Anyway the last couple of weekends I've been determined to try. Last weekend (long weekend because of Labour Day public holiday) I clocked up 43 km going up to Harcourt Park and back. A bit sore the following day, but otherwise fine.

Today I went to Harcourt Park and back. Twice. A total of 82 km, which took me just under 4 hours. And boy am I suffering now. It's mildly reminiscent of an event that happened in London: I had a soccer game in the morning, then had to bike half an hour to university where there was a badminton tournament, after that I still had to bike half an hour home. I had to default the last game of the tournament because I did not feel good at all, and was fully expecting to have to find a drain to chunder into on the way home. But I managed to make it back in one piece, at which point everything just gave way. In between lying on the bed and crawling to the bathroom (even after I got to the dry retching stage, I thought I'd better play it safe), I have never felt so far out of (chemical) balance and just wanting to die, not being able to imagine how things could ever get better or be normal again. And once things did get better, a couple of days later, I vowed never to let myself get into that state EVER again.

Anyway today is not quite that bad, but I do have a bad headache and can imagine it's because my brain is drying out like an old sponge. Ugh. And if that's "only" 80 km, how am I going to be able to do double that, in one day? Crazy, crazy indeed.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

On a brighter note (and one that doesn't involve retching) the kids' Christmas play seems to be going pretty well. We've had two weeks' worth of rehearsals (40 minutes each time) and have learnt the songs and next week should be able to finish learning the dance moves. I printed off a pile of scripts for all the kids, and then left it at home. Ah well - next week will be plenty of time.


Another amusing thing for this week: I got my power bill. Last month they did an estimate and this month an actual reading, so because my power usage varies wildly depending on how much I use the heat pump system, the bill for this month was a cute $5.19. I'm wondering whether to frame it and hang it on the wall.


I've also started to make some progress on the DVD of the Kenya trip (slideshows of everyone's photos, set to music, and I'll throw in a lot of the video clips that I took just to make things a bit more interesting). When we were there I said to everyone I'd aim at having it done by Christmas - thinking it would be finished much sooner - but it could be tight even to have it done by then. It's been quite difficult to find suitable music. I wanted to use some Swahili gospel music, so it's a good message even though they won't understand it, but it's very hard to find any. YouTube and imeem saved the day though.

School reunion

Over the weekend Chilton had its 90th birthday/jubilee. Now for those who know me - and you don't even have to know me that well - it won't come as a surprise to know that I was a loner at school, so it wasn't exactly a fun time full of good memories. So when I left my house to head down for the cocktail party on Friday night, I had a rather strange sensation of nervousness that came over me and didn't really go until I saw people I recognised, started talking and realised that after 11 years, people don't really change, but they do.

It's not an exaggeration to say I had no friends at school. Being brainy and a Christian made me an easy target. There was a rumour about me that started in form 2 that took until form 7 before somebody had the decency to ask me if it was true or not. In 6th form, I gave up on trying to fit in in the common room after only a couple of weeks (loud music and people 'borrowing' my homework) - much to the chagrin of the principal, who rang up my parents to ask why I was weird - and relocated myself to the library, where I was allowed to use the office as a locker room. In 7th form I guess people did settle down and start treating each other a bit more civilly - perhaps the responsibility of being on the school council helped with that. I had odd times for study periods so didn't have to compete in the common room so much.

But all that almost washed away like a bad dream at the weekend, as I caught up with people I haven't seen for ages, some of whom I got on with ok at school and others, well, not so ok - but everyone seemed happy to swap stories and hear what everyone else had been doing. It seems there's an unusually high proportion who have become teachers, most of them are married or nearly so, and a few have kids. Most have travelled and/or spent some time overseas.

School days are quite a tender time in a person's life. It's a time when character is developed, attitudes founded about how far you'll compromise just to fit in with the crowd, interests are piqued and self-discipline fostered. For me, being an outcast only made me the more independent. I never really cared what other people thought of me - this is the way I am. In those respects I haven't changed. But I have changed in areas of trying to relate to others; I hope I have become more patient and able to restrain myself from saying hurtful things.

So has my time at school shaped me, or would I have always turned out this way? I don't think it's possible to say. Certainly my faith is the foundation of who I am, and I sure didn't get that from school.

Update, and the election

The last few weeks have been pretty uneventful, hence the lack of posting. I helped out as emcee at Al's birthday party and was coming down with a cold already, so I don't think having to raise my voice helped that any. It's now almost two weeks later and I still have a cough.

Other than that I've been pottering around the house, following the rugby (Wellington is on a roll this year, having won the Ranfurly Shield earlier and on track to the finals - hope they don't choke like last year), trying to do a bit of bike riding in the lead up to the Lake Taupo cycle challenge, and spending way too much time on facebook. Oh, and for a challenge of a different sort I've tried to start learning Dvorak. Although I do run into trouble sometimes and accidentally hit the shortcut to switch keyboards, carry on typing in qwerty and get something like orm.ydcbi nct. ydcov

The election: well, I can't wait until it's over. It's pretty obvious who's going to win.

Now you're wondering if I'm referring to the US or the NZ election... does it matter? Except one of them I can do something about, and one I can't.

The CKC prize night... that wasn't

Well this week at CKC it was the end of term, which mean it was time for PRIZES!! The kids earn points every week for coming, doing their homework, knowing the memory verse from the week before, winning games etc. We have three prize levels: 50 points - chocolate bar, 100 points - eligible to come to a pizza/games night at my house, 150 points - I'll take them to the movies/zoo/10-pin bowling/science museum/etc. of their choice.

When we had the same system before at KBC, the pizza/games night was the highlight of the term for all the kids. There, the 150-point prize was also an aeroplane ride with me, and we had kids get to over 150 and insist that they couldn't ever miss coming to the games night, so they'd wait until they had 230 so they could do both (games night was 80 points in those days).

I'm not sure what it is - different kind of kids, I guess - but 5 of them had enough points to come to the games night and none of them wanted to.

I don't feel rejected (well, I do kind of) but I'm just wondering what to do, whether to persist with it or come up with a different prize. However, I don't want to get physical prizes because then they just end up with loads of 'stuff'; things they can eat or things they can do I think are better. Also there's the $$ to consider, knowing that the value kids place on things and their monetary value are often quite different.

Maybe playing games is not 'fun' enough for them - these are kids whom I've heard say, 'the school holidays are boring unless we go overseas'... must be terrible to be so hard-up. Back in my day going to McDonalds was a big treat, and you wore your best clothes to go to the movies. Can anybody else relate??

= = = = = = = = = =

In the meantime I had to laugh at this:

(The original, for my non-kiwi readers:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo )

Pulp Sport parody:
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=vVj-EnGNiic

Soccer: end of the season

It's a relief knowing that there are no more soccer games that might be cancelled or defaulted. But also extremely frustrating, that I played one game all season and broke my collarbone in the process.

I'm not sure what to do for next year - whether to take up another sport instead (badminton or maybe even go back to hockey) or go to another club. In the meantime I've registered for the 'Twilight soccer' tournament to be held at Fraser Park over the next few months...

By popular demand

I mentioned a while ago that I'd try and help all my American friends out by supplying you with a NZ word dictionary of sorts. The list is by no means complete.

(some) New Zealand words and phrases

chocka - full, as in 'my schedule is chocka today'

jandals - what Americans call flip-flops and Aussies call thongs

chilly bin - what Americans call a cooler or ice box and Aussies call an eskie

knackered - (1) tired, feeling worn out ('I'm knackered'); (2) kaputt, broken ('my car is knackered')

cheerio - (1) 'Goodbye'; (2) a cocktail sausage

tramping - hiking

strewth - actually more an Aussie word than NZ, an exclamation meaning 'wow', corrupt form of 'truth'

having a yak - talking, gossipping, gasbagging

footy - football. In NZ and Australia this means different sports: in Australia AFL (Aussie Rules) or rugby league; in NZ always rugby union.

rattle your dags - means 'hurry up'. Originates from sheep farming...

common as muck - very common, nothing special. 'Around Stanford, BMW's are common as muck'.

hard yakker - hard work

hit the sack - go to bed

making a racket - making a noise. Note that in NZ the word 'racket' is never used of a tennis or squash racquet.

fluffing around - mucking around, causing a delay. 'Sarah's in the bathroom, fluffing around'.

stonkered - full (especially with regards to overeating)

tucker - food

yonks - ages, a long time. 'He was away on holiday for yonks'

drongo - idiot. 'Stop being a drongo'

packing a sad - pouting. 'Whenever my brother didn't get his own way, he'd pack a sad'.

piker - someone who opts out of an activity. 'We went to the beach but Joe didn't go swimming, what a piker'.

pong - bad smell

skite - (v) bragging, boasting; (n) someone who skites. 'Tom was skiting about his new car'.

sook - wuss, wimp, piker, crybaby.

squiz - to look at something. 'I had a squiz at the menu.'

blobbing out - relaxing, chilling out.

spanner - Americans call 'wrench'. e.g. crescent spanner. Distinct from an Allen key, which Americans also call a 'wrench'.

put a spanner in the works - causing complication. 'We wanted to go to town but the buses weren't running, so that put a spanner in the works.'

Muscles I didn't know I had

The last few days I've spent down in Geelong visiting a friend, blobbing out between last weekend's experiments and this weekend's. Last night he took me along to rock climbing. I was trying to remember the last time I did any, and it must be at least 6 years ago.
Intellectually, I know what you're supposed to do: use your legs to push yourself up and your hands to keep from falling off. But when you get half-way up a wall and you can't see where you're putting your feet, it all turns to custard. There were some climbs where I didn't make it all the way to the top, and others that I did, so all in all it was quite enjoyable.

I'm paying the price for my efforts today though - although the good news is that my collarbone has given me zero grief over it.

On the way driving back to Melbourne, I had a slight detour to the RAAF museum at Point Cook. I thought it was excellent - well laid out and a good display of different aircraft and other exhibits.

Now I'm back at the synchrotron (internet access! yay!) and checking that all our samples and chemicals etc. we need for this weekend have arrived. The student will arrive sometime tomorrow, then it's all on. But if everything works, we should get some fantastic (i.e. immediately publishable) results...

When you can't agree to disagree

There's been an incident on a private Christian message I'm part of recently, concerning denominational doctrinal differences. Well, not specifically concerning that, but it's where my mind ended up wandering to.

It reminded me a little bit (in a very random sort of way) to the most recent time the JW's knocked on my front door. They started off by showing some articles in their latest magazine about Jesus coming back, and shared an obscure Scripture out of Psalms to bolster their point. I replied by saying, there are plenty of other Scriptures that you could use rather than that one - such as Isaiah 65, Revelation 21 etc. Which led onto a discussion culminating in them saying Jesus was not God but the archangel Michael.
I was labouring this point, and the older woman (she had taken over quite early in the piece, a comforting sign that they were a bit rattled) said something along the lines of 'We'll just have to agree to disagree about that.'
I replied, 'No, that's not possible - if you've got the wrong Jesus, then nothing else matters.' At which point she quicked thanked me for my time and literally almost ran down the driveway.

Coming back to the Christian message board conversation. The notion of Jesus being God, come to earth as a man, dying on the cross for our sins, a price that completely satisfied God's justice, and bodily rising from the dead - is central to Christianity. It is the definition of Christianity and the Gospel.

But branching out from there one encounters all the other doctrines: the Trinity, literal 6-day Creation, the Second Coming, once-saved-always-saved, the gifts of the Spirit, water baptism, etc. Each of these is determined by our hermeneutics (the way we interpret the Bible, from literal to allegorical). And our stance on the core doctrine of 'what is the Gospel' is likewise affected, although this is not always evident.

I don't know what the answer is to the question, 'How much doctrine do you have to have correct, to be a Christian'. Because in reality, none of us can truly grasp the notion of the Trinity, or the means of justification.

So what are the bare bones of Christian belief? Here are my thoughts:
- Jesus Christ is God (but this by itself is not enough, because demons believe this)
- His death on the cross and resurrection paid for my sins (but this by itself is not enough, because if we do not apply this truth to our lives, it means nothing)
- Jesus Christ is Lord of my life (now it's personal)

The implications of the last one are far-reaching... encompassing repentance, turning from sin, pursuing righteousness. If He is Lord, it will greatly impact how we live. Ultimately it will affect how we read the Scriptures (that He wrote), and the other doctrines mentioned above will fall into their rightful places.

Melbourne, again

I'm writing this from the synchrotron in Melbourne, our first set of experiments start tomorrow. Getting the samples ready in time was a bit of a rush, but we managed. One of those jobs requiring a lot of patience: transferring pinch after pinch of sample into a 0.2 mm diameter thin-walled glass tube and gently flicking it with your fingernail to make the powder progress to the bottom. I think we made about 12 in total; I couldn't get one done in anything less than about 45 minutes. So it has definitely been an exercise in patience!!

Will write more once our experiments get started, I may have some news by then.

What a difference a functional modem makes

I've been struggling with my internet connection ever since getting it set up, back in October/November last year. I learnt fairly quickly that it's useless trying to call the Slingshot 'help' desk - they always seemed to think there was something wrong with the way I was connecting it (no!) or something wrong with the phone line (no!). The actual problem was the modem THEY sent me.
Dad lent me another modem, which would take about half an hour to connect, but at least once it did the connection would stay up for about an hour on average - much better than the 2 minutes the el cheapo Slingshot modem would. But getting that connection was driving me nuts, so yesterday I splashed out $130 on a new modem/router - wireless too (why not).
It took half an hour initial set up to get my computer to talk to it, and now it is working fantastically.

What's on today: soccer at Kilbirnie vs. Marist (the team I was kind of asked to play for). The weather hasn't delivered the rain promised, so the only thing stopping things will be if we don't get enough players and have to default. Again.

UPDATE: Soccer was defaulted. And it's raining now, so it wouldn't have been all that fun anyway.

The kangaroo route

That's right folks, I've been home less than a fortnight and in 12 days' time I'm off again back to Melbourne for the next round of beamtime. The time was only scheduled 5 days ago which has not given me a lot of time to arrange everything... this time it will be measuring anomalous diffraction of Bi-2212 superconductors, and then looking at the formation of Pd (and/or Pd-hydride) nanoparticles in solution, in situ.
No more technical stuff, I promise. At least for this post...

Both experiments have been scheduled over two consecutive weekends. It works out more cost-effective to stay over there than to return to NZ in between. So I may be able to spend a bit of time catching up with friends...

Are you Olympic-ed out yet?

... because I'm not. Looking forward to Saturday, with so much NZ action hopefully we will come up with the goods. Also it's tri-nations rugby at 12 am so Mum suggested I stay the night... could be interesting with church and then rushing straight off to soccer, assuming it's on. At least it's at Fraser Park (i.e. across the road from my house) and not in Miramar or Waikanae.

Yeah so I got back home at 1 am on Tuesday, got some sleep and was at work by 10 am to try and get a bunch of stuff done. This week wasn't as productive as I would have liked, and it didn't help that I had basically all of Thursday doing PR stuff for IRL at the Vic science careers fair thing. It was fun though (playing with liquid nitrogen always is!).

Today I had a day-trip down to Dunedin, so that was a 5:30 am start. The visit was quite good value though; one of these projects introduced by someone else who doesn't communicate with us, so we have to now try and do something sensible on it.

24 hours in Melbourne

Howdy there folks, so for those interested in taking a little ride with me on a typical day here at the synchrotron, this is what we got up to...

9 am: hit the road, we don't have to be at the lab until 2 pm this afternoon so spent a nice Friday morning wandering along the promenade at St Kilda. Lunch in some non-descript place next to one of the fantastical bakeries with a 7-tier cake in the window that was obviously a 'photo opportunity' given the number of people who stopped to take pictures of it.

Drove back to the motel to pick up our stuff, then to the supermarket to stock up on food for the next few days' worth of lunches (and whatever meal it is that you have at 3 am). Sandwiches, yum.

2 pm: off to the lab, put our stuff in the fridge, head over to the beamline and discuss with the beamline scientist what it is we want to try to do. Some of it is feasible and some isn't, but we'll try our best anyway. Get introduced to a bunch of new equipment and a crash course on how to set it up when we change experiments tomorrow, since it's Saturday and she doesn't want to come in. (What a slacker!)

4.45 pm: we put our first sample on, the test scan looks ok so we try tweaking a few parameters, then collect some 'real' data. One sample down, 71 to go!

6.30 pm: the others (whose experiments start tomorrow) head off for dinner and promise to bring back some pizza for us.

Some of the samples give good spectra and others are just background noise. Some are really quite puzzling. But this is not the time for wondering why; because we are just here to collect the best data that we can and worry about the analysis later.

7.30 pm: pizza arrives, meatlovers, mmmmmmm.

At the supermarket we also got some party mix lollies and chocolate to help us through the night.

12 am: need some more chocolate. 35 samples down, 37 to go plus a new in situ experiment we thought we'd try, since we have extra time. Log in to facebook for the 10th time in the last 4 hours; nothing much has changed. That's because no sane person is awake in NZ right now. Mind you it is Friday night, so they could be...

Searching for some standard diffraction patterns to try and match our peaks. I have a suite of online tools for this; one of my favourite diffraction pattern databases is Mincryst - the first option it presents you with is English or Russian. But it tells us everything we need to know.

2 am: time to take a nap for an hour...

3 am: a little bit better. I only have to last until 9 am or so, when the others will be getting back. 15 more samples to go plus a time series.

4.30 am: bored but functional.

6.30 am: just spent the last 2 hours playing quizzes on facebook... with every sample chugging away for ten minutes, I'm open to suggestions on how to spend the time! Maybe I'll go and make a sandwich.

8.15 am: the others just arrived, we're still waiting for the beam fill to finish before putting our last couple of samples on.

9.07 am: all done for today - back to the motel for some much-needed slee...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I never knew I had so many 'friends'

That's right, I finally succumbed and signed up on facebook. Everyone I used to hang out with while I was at Calvary Chapel Mountain View was getting into it, so I'll blame it on them :)

As Al wrote on his blog a while back, it's a 'productive waste of time'. You can literally spend hours typing in names of people you used to know, and scrolling through hundreds of matches and trying to guess which 'Sarah Nicholson' you are looking for. Not that I'm looking for a Sarah Nicholson.

Still, I find the generic label 'friend' a bit off-putting, since I didn't have (m)any friends at school. And, I'm not clicking on people just because I recognise their name. As for the various applications and 'play against your friends' things, please don't feel offended if I decline your invitations... I'm trying hard not to waste any more time on there than I have to.

Arrived

Well I arrived safely back home this morning, managed to get to church with plenty of time to spare. All of the flights were on time or early, and my bag didn't get lost (although one of the wheels did get damaged, but that's not a big deal).

Thanks to everyone who was praying for my trip, I do appreciate it; and thanks and praise to God for keeping me safe all the way home.

Going home

I've been keeping track of what's going on with the weather back home; it's not much better here in New Hampshire but at least we're not getting the wind here, just incessant rain. It wasn't raining much during our soccer game yesterday (which I successfully managed to avoid injury in) but the grass was wet so my sneakers were soaked within the first 2 minutes.

Anyway I checked out the MetService website this morning, and found this waiting for about 12 hours before I'm meant to be flying back into Auckland:



Could be interesting... whether we take off from San Francisco if there's such severe weather waiting at our arrival. Or whether we will get diverted somewhere else... anything could happen, so I guess we'll just take it one day or one hour at a time (and try to find somewhere to take a shower at San Francisco airport!)

Thunderstorms in New Hampshire

Well the conference is less than interesting, I have a cold, and the weather leaves a lot to be desired. In short, I can't wait to go home...

My talk was ok, but I really should have looked into things (i.e. what the conference is about) and declined on the basis that it is outside my field. I feel kind of guilty that the conference organisers have paid for half of the trip and I'm skipping the sessions to do other stuff (or else staying in there and doing crossword puzzles because I'm bored out of my tree). There is a talk tonight on synchrotron techniques which I think is going to be the highlight for me. Anyway we shall see, and in the meantime I won't get my hopes up too much.

The place we are at is in the middle of NOWHERE. I walked 40 minutes into 'town' the other day (needed to buy some tissues and cold medicine) and got more than just glanced at by a couple of guys, if you know what I mean. I guess they don't get much practise at being discrete around girls. That was pretty close to where somebody had parked a pick-up truck with trailer on the back, 2 cows in the trailer. All rather amusing... but still I can't wait to go back home.

Bawston

I arrived in Boston yesterday, the flight was ok. Just the usual, neither good nor bad (apart from the fact I have to do it again next week, followed by another 12 hours to Auckland).
I'm currently sitting in a hotel at the airport, don't have to check out until 10 am to get back to the airport to go to another hotel which is where the bus will pick us up to take us to the conference site.
The good news is I practised my talk last night and it was exactly to time (20 minutes). The bad news is that they are forecasting thunderstorms this week...

The two days at Stanford were ok. Taking stock as I was on the way to the airport, I realised we weren't ever really going to get much done in two days. The guys seemed to pick everything up pretty quickly (it's not really all that difficult).
My American experience is now complete however; the only vehicle available at the rental car place was a pick-up truck. It's easily the biggest thing I've ever had to drive!

Next trip - starting tomorrow

I mentioned already that I have another trip coming up.

Tomorrow it's off to Stanford for 2 days before heading on up to New Hampshire for a conference.
This is my first taste of being an invited speaker. Exciting!

The conference program is rather interesting. Every afternoon we get 3 hours of free time (with organised activities). The one I am most looking forward to is the 'Europe vs. the rest of the world' soccer match. Other activities include kayaking, hiking, golf etc. The conference sessions are held in the morning and the evening, and there is an emphasis on discussion over merely presenting your results.

So tomorrow morning will be spent tidying up the house and packing...

About as useful as a screen door on a submarine

Imagine my joy at receiving this incredibly generous fuel discount voucher at the supermarket today.

Given that petrol (that's "gas" if you live in the US) is currently NZ$2.19 a litre (about US$6.50 a gallon), a 2c discount... yeah well it could save me on a single piece of toilet paper for this week perhaps?

Petrol went up 12 cents in 3 days a couple of weeks ago, which meant I had to fill up with it costing $2.12, less a 6c discount, grand total over $70. Then we hear on the news that every $5 per barrel that crude oil increases, means a 6c per litre increase at the pump.
But then crude oil fell by $5.39 today. I know because I saw it on TV. So surely we should expect the petrol price to fall too? Yeah... pull the other one, it plays jingle bells.

A few years ago, petrol companies would go up and down by a couple of cents a litre, several times a day. It was ridiculous. Now they've changed to doing big jumps every couple of weeks, without warning. Which is also ridiculous.

I've been having mixed reactions to the whole petrol price thing. I should probably try cycling to work... but it's cold in the mornings right now. I can't manage without the car, because I have to get mountains of stuff down to church for the kids' programme, plus public transport in New Zealand is rubbish. So I just grimace and bear with it, and keep track of how much I'm now having to spend on petrol vs. food.

Anybody else like to share how fuel prices are affecting your lifestyle?

Winter is here

So Sheba's new family came and picked her up on Friday night. I guess I'll find out at work on Monday how things are going. Saturday I did vacuuming and am now relishing having my house back to 'normal'. Definitely a lesson learnt. I was a little bit sad to see her go, but also very relieved that things have worked out as well as they have. So it was a dry-eyed farewell and readjustment period. Although Mum went out and bought a pot-plant for me, in the cat's stead... I suppose at least that won't leave poos in the bath.

We had the second week of church badminton on Friday night which was fun, although my shoulder still has a twinge of pain every now and then, if I make some sudden movement or try to smash. Anyway it feels good to be getting some exercise again.

Speaking of exercise our soccer game on Sunday was cancelled - it's been raining continuously here for the last 24 hours and the grounds are resembling a big duck pond. So it'll be another week to wait for my first post-recovery game.

This week being the last week of the school term, I'm organising the first CKC prize night, at my house - just like we had for KBC. There are 4 kids who have enough points to qualify, so hopefully it will be a fun time.

Two weeks to go until my next trip overseas: two days at Stanford for experiments on the way to a conference in New Hampshire. This is my first conference invitation, which means they are paying for most of the travel. It looks good on the ol' CV too! And it'll mean adding another state to the list of where I've been...

I made a mistake

"I've called her Sheba. Yes it is unusual to have a female ginger cat.

We got her from the Wellington SPCA, she'd only arrived a few days before (so that was a good deal for them, I guess!) and the reason she was there was her previous owners said they didn't have enough time for her. Which is pretty sad on their part.

So far she's been very good, only ever done her business in her dirt box, and eaten pretty much anything I've put down, and not scratched at the furniture too much. The first night she was a bit mad, running everywhere (it didn't help that I wasn't feeling well). But she is very friendly, and hopefully in a couple of weeks she'll settle down into being in a new house."

Sorry Sheba. I made a mistake in thinking I was in a position to look after you. You're very cute, and friendly, and you deserve better than me. I know you're still settling in, and I shouldn't mind it that you've been using the bathtub as a toilet, that you don't want to eat sometimes, that you leave hair all over the place. That's what cats do, so I'm told. To be honest I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe that's the problem.

I hope you'll be happy with your new house. Come Saturday and you'll have a real family to look after you, not just a loner who's hardly ever home.

You'll be ok - look how quickly you settled into my place.

The question is, will I? Talk about feeling like a complete and utter failure. But this is the best thing for you, and it's definitely a lesson learned for me. There are some things in life that you can't test-drive, and this is one of them. How do you know how much your life will change by taking on a new pet, like any new relationship? Simple - you don't. Unless you've been there before.

The shortest day

Tomorrow is the shortest day (in the southern hemisphere, at least).

Anyway I needed a title more interesting than "last week".

Big news from last week is, I went back to fracture clinic yesterday for another x-ray and consultation. While things are far from 100% it is slowly getting better, there is clearly bone growth. I'll always have a lump but they don't need to do anything else. And best of all, I've been given the all-clear to get back into sport!

That evening we had our inaugural badminton night down at church, which was lots of fun. My shoulder was hurting by the end but it is ok this morning.
They didn't have soccer training on Friday night so hopefully I'll be able to play if I just turn up tomorrow - assuming the game is on. The weather is supposed to be bad.

New addition

Sorry for being cryptic in the last post.

Here's my news:





I've called her Sheba. Yes it is unusual to have a female ginger cat.

We got her from the Wellington SPCA, she'd only arrived a few days before (so that was a good deal for them, I guess!) and the reason she was there was her previous owners said they didn't have enough time for her. Which is pretty sad on their part.

So far she's been very good, only ever done her business in her dirt box, and eaten pretty much anything I've put down, and not scratched at the furniture too much. The first night she was a bit mad, running everywhere (it didn't help that I wasn't feeling well). But she is very friendly, and hopefully in a couple of weeks she'll settle down into being in a new house.

One week back

Not much to report from the first week back after Kenya. It still feels like a dream that I was actually there. Apart from the malaria tablets that I still have to take, one a day until they are all gone.

CKC (Calvary Kids Club) is going well, we are working through learning about each of the days of Creation this term. At the end of the term we will have the first CKC Games prize night at Bridget's house so that could be interesting... there won't be any Fanta (my carpets are cream-coloured). Ice-cream yes, Fanta no.

Plan for this weekend is to get a significant addition to my house. I won't say anything more in case we can't find the right one but once it does happen I will reveal all.

Hmm what else. Work is going ok - I have two major papers that are in their final stages of drafts at the moment. Both have got about 8-10 co-authors and it seems just as the statistics about committees (that the more people you have, the less productive it is, and the optimal number of people on a committee is about 0.8) the same is true about writing papers. Everyone wants to throw their $0.02 in and sometimes they disagree. Annnny-way such is life.

Kenya trip diary

Ok so as you will notice I've updated this blog with the diary I kept while in Kenya. I've broken it down into bite-sized chunks, but because (at least the way I have it set up) the posts go from newest to oldest, you have to start HERE and keep clicking 'Newer post' to get it in the right order.

Or use the navigation thingy under June 2008.

More pictures here!

Videos here!

Enjoy...

Final impressions

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It’s difficult to put together a few summary thoughts, and I have already written about the biggest things that impacted me.

We witnessed the disparity of wealth in Kenya first hand, both extremes. We participated in some of the richness of African culture. We were treated very generously in Emali, by people who had next-to-nothing. They have an innocence and contentedness that is almost enviable. Yet there are still problems in some areas: AIDS, polygamy and child marriage, which mostly stem from a lack of education. It is a generational thing that will take time for a society to change. And just as we can’t solve all the world’s problems, we can’t solve them instantly – but we can make an impact for one person, one family, one community.

Childfund NZ home page

I love airports (not) (1-2 June)

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We met up with the others after showering and packing, checked out and headed to the airport. With two hours to kill we all dispersed to the shops and I managed to find a few things worth buying.

The flight from Johannesburg to Sydney was quite good: it was overnight this time and I got about 7 hours’ sleep. I also had a spare seat next to me, and the flight was not too full so we disembarked pretty quickly (for a 747).

At Sydney airport we farewelled Di and Colleen and faced another 3-4 hour wait for our final flight back home. Sam and I had quite a good chat about the air force and church etc. (and the trip, of course). Then it was goodbyes all around, as I was the only one going to Wellington and leaving slightly earlier than the others.

Half a day in Johannesburg (1 June)

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Both groups left for their respective destinations at about the same time. The taxi fare of 1100 rand return (about $200) was a bit of a shock; we discussed hiring a car for the day but by then the cab had already arrived. Paul managed to negotiate him down to 800 rand, which was better than nothing but still expensive.

Frances and I stuck together, Kate and Joy headed off and Paul kind of wandered around checking on us from time to time.

We didn’t really see anything we wanted to buy and only got a couple of things. So we ended up spending more to get to the markets than we did while we were there. Lunch was very nice though – I had salmon and pasta.

Flyaway home (31 May)

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Saying goodbye to our van and driver Lucas (L-R: Paul, Joy, Kate, Frances, me, Lucas)

We had a relaxing morning in Nairobi, as we didn’t have to check out of the hotel until 10. Getting across town took about 45 minutes. I got a few family gifts at the airport in Nairobi. The flight was not too bad; we even arrived about ten minutes early into Johannesburg.

We made our way to the same hotel as before, avoiding the opportunists. I got about US$100 changed into rand; which was possibly too much but anyway.

Tomorrow five of us are going to the Rosebank markets – apparently they are meant to be a bit more civilised, like the ones in Melbourne. The other five remaining (as we farewelled Neville at the Tanzania border, Ian and Beryl in Nairobi, and Jean and Vern going their separate ways from Johannesburg) are going on a private tour of Soweto.

Last night in Nairobi (30 May, part III)

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In the afternoon we came back to the hotel for a bit. I thought a lot about what had just happened and prayed for clarity… while washing my trousers in the basin. They were dry in plenty of time for dinner at the Carnivore restaurant, which is apparently in the world’s top 50. They start off by bringing you soup and salad, then they bring everyone a hot cast iron plate and start coming around with big skewers of meat and sliding a piece onto your plate. They keep coming until you surrender by putting the flag down. I had lamb, beef, chicken, ostrich meatballs, turkey and a sausage, but declined the pork and crocodile.


Dinner at Carnivore's

Earlier in the day while driving in the van we had come up with some ‘awards’ for everybody. After Paul said a speech Frances and I read them out, and I think most people appreciated them.

Most improved bargainer – Joy
Best prepared – Di
Best attendance – Marilyn and Bryan
Most cheerful traveller – Colleen
Man with the shortest stick – Vern
Best behaviour – Jean
Best packed traveller – Frances
Most decorative – Kate
Best team players – Ian and Beryl
Most creative – Bridget
Best Maasai jumper and daraja la kwanza kiswahili award – Sam
Did not complete – Neville
Man of the match – Paul

(Sam got two ‘awards’ as a kind of payback – earlier in the week he had been showing off by coming out with a new Swahili phrase every day. I’d picked up a phrase book in Sydney and between Paul and I decided to play a practical joke on him. On a piece of paper I wrote, ‘I had a nice time’ and ‘Nina uyabisi wa tumbo’, with the intention he would get up in front of everyone in Emali and say it. It actually means ‘I have constipation’. He didn’t actually do it, because his child’s translator told him it wasn’t right – which is probably a good thing in hindsight. Anyway it would seem he wasn’t told what it actually meant, because when we revealed all he said ‘Ok, this is war’ and later must have asked the drivers for phrases, and started saying ‘Bridget yada yada’, ‘Paul yada yada’. I figured it was time to call it quits so consulted the book on how to say ‘you too’ (na wewe) if he said it to me, or ‘him too’ (na yeye) if he said it to someone else.
Anyway that’s the background to the daraja la kwanza kiswahili award. Which again is a kind of joke, but perhaps a Biblical one, to bless when you are cursed. It means ‘first class Swahili’.

Postscript: At the end of the trip Sam told me what it was he was saying: ‘Bridget doesn’t understand what I’m saying.’)

Back to ‘civilisation’ (30 May, part II)

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From there it was another two-and-a-half hours drive along more dusty roads to Nairobi. We had been invited to the safari company owner’s house for lunch, but through some miscommunications ended up going to one hotel for a toilet stop before checking in at the other. By this stage it was 2:30 and everyone was getting pretty irritable. We made our way to the house, and there the fun began.

I am not sure how big the house was, nor do I really want to know. The parts that we saw were enough to make me speechless. First we were ushered into a room with a veranda and enough space for about five couches; in fact with fourteen of us plus the host and two staff waiters it was not at all crowded. After drinks and a brief history of her family, we were presented with gifts of banana leaf pictures of animals. I saw these for sale at the market in Nairobi and didn’t like them at all, so I guess mine will be on TradeMe fairly soon – with more reasons to follow.

After this we proceeded downstairs: through a room that had a pair of elephant tusks making an archway for its entrance, down some steps into the room set up for us. There were three tables set for six, and would have been room for another two. All of the rooms we saw were literally full of African things – gourds, statues, carvings, tapestries… The family was third generation Kenyan, of Goa Indian heritage. The food had been prepared by the cook and her assistant and was served by another waiter. There wasn’t a lot there that I actually liked, so that made me wish I had stayed back at the hotel and got something from the restaurant, but there was even more to it as to why I was upset about the whole shebang.

Once I got back to the hotel, I managed to put my finger on it. Basically, it wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that a safari tour operator could live in this ridiculous house, while the vast majority of the rest of Kenya were living in one-room shacks and mud huts. Now I know there is a dispersion of rich and poor in any country, but this was too much. In New Zealand I would estimate two orders of magnitude as the absolute maximum disparity in income (i.e. x 100 between poor and rich). In Kenya it is more like four (i.e. x 10,000). As for the house, ok in Beverly Hills, but not in Nairobi, where just down the road you have a million people living in a slum with no running water. Nor am I saying that everybody in Kenya should be poor, just that the level of disparity is too great.

Paul had said that he had staff members visiting CCF projects who ‘went a bit troppo’ when they returned back home and questioned the manner of their existence. Well I went a bit troppo today observing this. To top it all off, she asked our table what we had been doing in Emali. When we said we had been visiting our sponsored children, she replied, ‘Oh, we sponsor children too. Last year we took twenty children from our project to Las Vegas to sing, and advertise our tours.’ Excuse me?!

Anyway, back to thinking it’s not fair.
It’s not fair – if material possessions in this life are the sole measure.

I know some far richer people living in a small village Samuli in the hills behind Emali. Their treasure is in the next life: all they have in this one is faith in Jesus Christ and a steadfast hope in His return. But that is all that matters in the next life. And I am convinced that the mansions they will have in heaven (John 14:2) will be far better than those of most people living in luxury today.

Ok enough of that rant. I know not everyone feels the same way so I do apologise if anyone was offended by what I wrote.

Success in bargaining (30 May, part I)

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The morning started off ok; an early start and once again driving through the Amboseli park. Not far from the lodge we saw some lions so stopped for a bit to watch. They were near a herd of elephant, who really didn’t like them being so close – some of them went towards the lions, trumpeting, while the others made a tight-knit pack with the babies in the middle. The lions moved off and the elephants went on their way. We drove along a bit and again got to sit in awe while these enormous creatures silently crossed the road around us.


Elephant, and lion. Can you see it?

After that we had another hour driving to the edge of the park, then another hour to the border where one of the guys who was continuing on to Tanzania left us. This was pre-arranged at a rather large shop, so we all had a look around. I got some soapstone dishes and two small paintings for 1000 shillings ($20), after setting aside a banana-bark Africa-shaped wood ornament which I quite liked. (The assistant had been asking 1300 shillings for it - $26.) After I went outside he came with it and asked me what price. I pulled out five US dollar bills, and showed them to him. He muttered, ‘Too low, too low, my boss would kill me’ and wondered off. I quickly emptied my wallet of everything except another two dollars. Sure enough, he came back and asked what my best price was. Again I showed him the five dollars, then opened my wallet and pulled out the two and showed him it was empty. He sort of stood there for a bit and then said quietly, ‘Put this in your bag’ and surreptitiously took the money from me. So I got that for a quarter of his initial price, and the other stuff for about half. I was pretty elated given how stink I felt about the day before, at the Maasai village.

Tsavo to Amboseli (29 May)

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We were in the vans out in the park by 6.30 am, looking for, well, whatever was on offer. No geographic misplacements this time, and we saw zebra, giraffe, impala, kudu and rock hyraxes. No big cats or rhinos but maybe later. Then it was back to the lodge for breakfast and loading up the vans to head for Amboseli, across the Shetani (devil) lava fields. Of course, this whole area is part of the Rift Valley so there is or has been a lot of volcanic activity.


A zebra crossing...

On the way our van got two flat tyres within the space of about ten minutes, but they managed to replace them pretty quickly. At the park gate there were once again a bunch of people offering jewellery for sale. Some of the others bought things but Bridget just sat and hoped they would think she was a man…

Once in the park the animals were coming thick and fast. Amboseli is a lot more open country compared to Tsavo. We saw zebras galore, gnus, elephants; not so many giraffe though (there were not many trees), impala, gazelles of several different varieties, warthogs, baboons…

After a late lunch we made our way to a Maasai village nearby, which was basically a tourist trap. After we paid our money, they greeted us with traditional dancing and we followed them into the camp. The medicine man told us about some of the roots and herbs they use (for malaria, stomach-ache, and ‘man power’). The chief’s son told us about the layout of the camp, and two others showed us their houses. Then we were led out the back to where the women had all their wares for sale. It was quite annoying how they split us up and took us to each mat, saying ‘this is my wife’, ‘this is my second wife’ – i.e. please choose something to buy. I ended up with a carving, a set of beaded boxes, ten bangles and five necklaces. Then the bargaining started: 9000 shillings ($180) for the lot. I took out piece by piece and got confused about the exchange rate, ending up paying US$45 equivalent for one necklace, one box, the carving and the bracelets (which I had decided I didn’t want after all, but they gave me anyway). Oh well – I should be able to sell them on TradeMe and recover most of the money. It would seem these people have been spoilt by American tourists prepared to pay a lot of money. I wish I had walked away – only a couple of people did. We already gave them 1000 shillings ($20) each to go inside, which should have tipped us off from the start.

From there we went for our evening game drive and again saw lots of elephant, eventually coming across a solitary hyena and finally a group of about five lions off in the distance. Then it was back to the lodge for dinner, at which a discussion ensued about distributing photos to everyone. I’ve been lumped with the task, more by default than voluntarily (not that I mind), but I’ve warned everyone it could take six months to put the photos into slideshows and make DVDs from them. We shall see!


Elephant at Amboseli

The highlight of today was being out in the park and watching a herd of about 20-30 elephants cross the road in between two of our vans. They would have been less than 20 metres away, and for large heavy animals they moved very very quietly. They are indeed most magnificent creatures. God sure does have a good imagination...

See the video here!

On the road again (28 May, part II)

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Two-and-a-half hours later – the road was good – we filled up on petrol and entered Tsavo West. We were all suckered into buying a few things on the way from the roadside vendors – Joy bought a basket for 100 shillings and a carving for about $4. I got a wooden elephant for 200 shillings, which makes the other ones look like a rip-off! Oh well.

We checked into the lodge and had lunch, overlooking the waterhole where we could see giraffes, water buffalo, impala and baboons. After that we went on our first game drive. The van top was up and every seat had a pair of binoculars in the back pocket. We were driving towards the Mzima springs, on the way encountering zebra, warthogs, ostriches, giraffes, impala. At the springs there were monkeys, hippos and crocodiles. On the way back we saw some kudu but not very clearly. Each of the vans seemed to take a different way back. We ran into difficulty with a broken tree blocking the trail (thanks to the elephants), so we reversed and tried a bit of off-roading, which although we managed to get temporarily misplaced (otherwise known as being geographically challenged), led to us almost bumping into a herd of elephants, about 12-15, including a few babies. They are magnificent creatures – and despite their size can move very quietly, which is why we got so close without realising.

Once back to the lodge we had dinner, and a smaller group of elephants came to drink at the waterhole. It all felt quite surreal. Another day and a half of this and then we return home.


Game drive at Tsavo

Goodbyes are hard (28 May, part I)

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After the perfect day (with some minor glitches) we had a few more celebrity engagements. By 8 am we had checked out of the Kindu and were on our way to an early childhood development centre near Mulala, where some of the funds from our tickets – about $50 a head – had helped the people there to install a water tank. This was in the Kamba tribal area rather than the Maasai, and we were treated to a welcome by the women, who ran alongside the vans waving branches and trilling. When we got out of the vans to walk down I joined in with the branches etc. (a few other people were a but more reluctant) which was fun.

Once we were seated we were treated to some songs, and then the usual: prayer, introduction, then speeches. The children at the centre came and sang a song about the water tank, which was really cute. Then we were given the opportunity to look inside their classroom and take pictures with them. Finally it was time to ‘present’ the water tank and Paul did a very ok job. Then they presented all of us with gourds for drinking water (which I hope we can take back into New Zealand!). The generosity of these people is very very humbling.


The water tank - the people were so happy

Our final engagement was back at the CCF office to see our sponsored children one more time. Tom and his mother and father were all there and it was great to see them all again (his father was going to a pastors’ meeting afterwards). We had a few minutes to eat and drink and talk. The previous day Tom’s father had said they had given me a Maasai name because Tom had difficulty pronouncing my English name, so I asked what it was. Jacinta wrote it down for me: Naserian, which means a person of peace.

We had a group photo and then all filed inside for the very last speeches and once again were showered with gifts: bags for the women and ceremonial walking sticks for the men. Ian got up to say a teary word of thanks and so did Paul. Then it was back outside to say our final goodbyes and get in the vans. By this stage I was really starting to lose it, and apparently to cry is a sign of deep mourning in African culture. Tom just kept softly saying, ‘Goodbye, goodbye’ as I hugged him and blubbed something about growing into a good man. Then I gave Jacinta a big hug and told her, you are my sister, we will see each other again, if not in this life then we will in the next in heaven. She replied, amen. I said amen, then that was it – into the van, wait for the stragglers, then our driver Lucas took off with a hiss and a roar. I am glad he did actually; to have just driven off slowly would not have been good.

The bitter end to the perfect day (27 May, part VI)

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I promise not to dwell on this.

When we got back to Emali from visiting our children’s homes, we were taken to a building nearby to hear from a group of women who have AIDS. They sang for us and made the customary speeches, which were all interpreted.
Now I must admit that I was bored, but this is Africa and people must be allowed to express themselves. When we got to the end of the time, looking back I realised how important this was for them, to talk to us; AIDS awareness being one of the key activities of CCF in Emali. Having been exposed to this directly through initially sponsoring Maundu (who died of AIDS when he was just six years old), I knew how the disease was and is a big problem here. We weren’t there so much for us as for them. Eight of the twenty or so women there had children who were being sponsored.

At the dinner/debriefing table that night, two vocal groups arose. There were those who thought it shouldn’t have been done at the time, because it had been a long day and the primary reason we were there was to see our children. Then there were those who thought it was wonderful and powerful and were disgusted by those who didn’t. The ‘discussion’ actually turned rather ugly and I spoke up and said yes I was tired but I’ve come to appreciate the bigger picture, and it’s not about us but the community.

Now it is the next morning so we shall see if the dust has settled (ha ha). People were tired and cranky last night so hopefully it doesn’t cause a rift in the group – although I think nobody wanted to swap vans anyway.

Contemplation (27 May, part V)

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We drove back to Emali and met up with the others. It had been a beautiful day and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way from what we did. We laughed: for instance when Paul was being made an elder, the speech by the chief was translated as the women in their traditional garb ‘looking very ok’; so when it was his turn to reply he said how welcoming everyone had been and the women looked very ok and the men too. We cried: for some it was at the first meeting with their child and parent; I was so excited to have instantly recognised Tom that I didn’t cry until later, as I was telling his father how humbling it is that something so small in New Zealand can mean the difference between a bad life and a much better life in Emali.

One of the things that has really hit me over the last two days, in visiting the people today and listening to the people at the project offices in Emali and Nairobi yesterday, was how we are not just impacting the lives of individual children, nor their immediate family alone, but the whole village community. I would not be surprised if our letters are treated like the epistles of Paul and circulated around for everyone to read. I had not appreciated that before and I will definitely take more time to read the project reports we get about all the community work going on in Emali (which I tend to skim over as being less relevant).

The second aspect, which I was more prepared for, is the spiritual one. We have been told a few times and I have read in the past how CCF is not a Christian organisation with the focus on evangelising. (In fact, it started as the ‘China children fund’ and changed its name when all foreign organisations were kicked out by the Chinese government.) But many of the people here are Christians and it is wonderful to be able to share spiritual things with Tom’s family. As I said earlier, I am not sure how many of the rest of the group are believers, but I do count the relationship between Tom’s family and me to be special because of that bond. While the others are also told, you are part of our family, Tom and I really are brother and sister in the spiritual sense. Some of the people’s sponsored children and families are Muslim, for instance, so this just makes me all the more thankful.

All in all a perfect day and I praise God for it.

Tom’s house and family (27 May, part IV)

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We made our way back down to the vans and organised ourselves into them, one van per family to be visited. Ian and Beryl came along with me; I really felt for them because they didn���t get the same opportunity.

We passed Tom���s school (Sambuli primary) on the way to his house and once gain were greeted with a Maasai welcome by the whole village, about 40-50 people. Tom���s mother Jacinta (who writes the letters to me) was one of the first to greet me and I gave her a big hug. We all shook hands and danced our way back to the house.


Me with Tom's family in their house

They invited me inside to sit on the bench, so with Tom and his three brothers sitting beside me we took some pictures and I gave them their gifts. They loved the puppets (although one of the eyes was picked off within about ten minutes, so I hope they can fix it!) and I think Jacinta especially appreciated the Bible storybook that I had for Tom. After that we moved outside, with the furniture and gifts and all the kids. We prayed and then had some speeches. The project zone chairman and secretary spoke about how they had been waiting for a sponsor to come, because they receive all this support and things that help the community but they don���t really know who it is that is helping them. The secretary also said that from the letters they had assumed that Bridget was a man ��� which made everybody laugh. I got up and gave a short speech, again thanking God, as they had already done, for bringing me to them and said something like if it was not for Him I would not have been able to help or to come. (I got a bit tearful.) Ian said a few words also, thanking them for the welcome. Then they presented us with gifts: a necklace and earrings for Beryl and a full Maasai outfit for me ��� skirt, blouse, belt, bracelet; all exquisitely embroidered with beads. It was only when I got back to the hotel that I looked at the belt and realised (because of how the buckle holes were worn) that it must have been somebody���s that they gave up for me. I knew this sort of thing was going to happen, that I would be given the widow���s mite (as it were), but the only response is to accept it.


Outside Tom's family's house, after being dressed in a traditional Maasai outfit

We closed in prayer and then Jacinta and some of the women gathered around. She told me how they all loved Jesus and had been praying for my journey. I said how much I admired their faith, and that many people in New Zealand have so many things that they think they don���t need God. It was a very special moment, to realise these women are my sisters in Christ and to be able to share that with them. Being ���made��� a Maasai helped as well, I think, to show that I was just one of them ��� human.

After this we took some more photos, with the family and with all the women, then they escorted us all back to the vans, singing all the way. Jacinta provided a summary translation (praising God for bringing me), although I could hear the words ���Iesu��� and ���Niuzilan��� on a regular basis.

Lunch with the Maasai (27 May, part III)

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After that initial meeting and conversation we were ushered back to the vans to head off for the Maasai lunch. We gave Tom the option of travelling with his father or going with me, and to my surprise he went with me. We got in the van and I showed him the bag of gifts I had, then gave him the soccer ball to pump up. He attacked it with gusto and for the first time he seemed to relax a bit.
It was a long drive out to the Maasai, on some roads, dirt roads, and eventually what seemed like animal trails. There were four of us in the can, with three children, so it was pretty cosy. Paul had pointed out that many of the children might not have ridden in a vehicle before, and we were told a similar thing at the school earlier, that many of the children had not travelled as far as Emali.

We finally arrived and were greeted by the Maasai. This involved some line dancing (for want of a better word) and the whole tribe filing past us and everybody shaking hands with everybody. We are learning new words all the time: ���karibu��� in Swahili and ���sopa��� in Maasai is ���welcome���. I even experienced the ���African handshake��� which was quite touching as it is only used among close friends. After this we climbed up the hill a little way to where they had a marquee and seats set out, and food cooking. The food was simple and good ��� stew, rice, meat, some vegetables like spinach and cabbage. By this stage Tom and I had been reunited with his father and our interpreter, so we continued the conversation about African culture.

After everybody had eaten we went to the top of the rock on the hill, which Tom���s father told me is called Kimpas. We took some photos ��� the view was spectacular ��� and I gave Tom my camera to take some snaps for himself. His smile was getting bigger all the time.

Then we were treated to some tribal dancing and Paul was made an honorary elder of the tribe, much to everyone���s amusement.


Paul being made an honorary elder of the Maasai tribe

Meeting Tom (27 May, part II)

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By the time we were on the road again back to the CCF office, we were about half an hour late. Nobody there seemed to mind too much (after all, we see many people on the streets just sitting, not doing anything). I think we were more concerned, because it meant we got less time to spend with our sponsored children.

When we arrived they were singing the same song as the day before:
Happy we are, happy we should be, happy forever more
Singing together, praising the Holy Lord, oh-h He will not fail

I recognised Tom and his father instantly and that was really exciting!
We made our way in and found our respective children and their family members who had come, and the interpreters from CCF helped translate back and forth. Tom was very very shy and I must admit I couldn���t think of many questions to ask. His father asked a lot of questions about New Zealand, how people work, the school system, the food, and some quite profound questions about what people think about Africa and how I felt as a person visiting them; also about poverty in New Zealand and how many people there are Christians. I asked what Tom���s favourite subject at school is (Swahili), what he wants to be when he grows up (a teacher), and what his normal day is like. That was an interesting one. He gets up and prepares himself for school. He goes to school from 8 am until 2 pm, when he goes home and has something to eat if they have any food. Then he helps his mother by fetching water etc. Paul had said to ask them how long it takes to do things like fetching water, so I did. There was some discussion (I suspect because Tom probably doesn���t have a sense of time yet) and I was told, ���Not long; the water is from a pipeline close to their house, so only 15 or 20 minutes.���


Photo of me and Tom, taken at lunch

The school visit (27 May, part I)

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The ���hotel��� we are staying at is right on the main road, so we all got woken up at about 4 am from all the trucks going past. This made for some cranky people by the end of the day but I���ll get to that. I had offered to go around and knock on everyone���s doors at 6.30 to wake them up but there was really no need!

After breakfast we drove to the Mulala primary school and were greeted by about 700 children. The principal took us to the staff room and introduced all the teachers, after which we had to introduce ourselves like yesterday. Then we each went to different classes, I went to year 7. The guy I was with was a bit of an idiot ��� using broken English to talk to the kids (���New Zealand only four million people���) and being sarcastic ��� I told them how I went to university for seven years and he piped up and said it was because I was a slow learner. Oh well, his problem���

Video of children dancing

Then we all gathered at the assembly area outside and were treated to some dances by the parents (!) and the older girls. After that they had trees for us to plant, which is apparently an important symbol to acknowledge distinguished visitors. It was more moving than I had anticipated, as this little boy unwrapped a seedling, held it out to me, and we both lowered it into the ground and pushed the soil around it.


Planting a tree at Mulala school, with help

Emali (26 May, part II)

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After the meeting at the project office we made our way to the Kindu ���hotel���, which is probably pretty good by Emali standards. It has running water and electricity ��� and not much else. The light in my bathroom doesn���t work, so I have to shower with the door ajar. But I would be really disappointed to be staying in a Hilton (a la Israel trip 2006).


Penthouse suite at the Kindu. Just try not to step on the floor...

We had some food (well, everyone else did ��� it was 9 pm by the time it was served, and I just wanted to go to bed), after we had discussed the schedule for the following day. We start by going to one of the schools, then it���s off to the project office again to meet our sponsored children. From there we go to lunch, with them, for a Maasai barbeque. Afterwards some of the group get to go with the children to visit their houses. Only six people are able to because of the locations involved, and I am one of them, so I am very thankful about that.

I think the thing I am most looking forward to will be to pray with Tom and his family. They opened and closed the meeting yesterday with prayer and I made sure to give a hearty ���amen��� ��� given that very few other people in our group are Christians. Wouldn���t it be awesome if they were able to notice that these people in Emali have something that they do not.

Off to Emali (26 May, part I)

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We spent the morning at the CCF Kenya project office in Nairobi, which was quite interesting (although it involved a lot of talking), then we hit the road ��� literally. They are doing what felt like 100 km of roadworks. As one of the guides said, ���this is the road to heaven ��� you will have the hell shaken out of you���!

The scenery was fantastic along the way, and we even saw a giraffe in the distance ��� the first of many, I���m sure.

So after three and a bit hours we arrived in Emali to people singing and smiling ��� it was all quite overwhelming! They welcomed us and then we had afternoon tea. It was interesting to see many of them taking pictures of us, just as we were taking pictures of them. Two of the women were dressed in the traditional Maasai garments and we are certainly going to see more of that tomorrow.


Afternoon tea at the Emali CCF project office.

Then we had another one-and-a-half hours or so of talking, beginning with everybody in the room (about 50) introducing themselves. The locals spoke so softly that we couldn���t hear, so that was a bit frustrating (not that we���ll remember their names anyway) but I suspect it���s an important part of African culture, that everybody is introduced before the meeting can begin. They certainly appreciated us greeting them with ���Jambo��� (���hi���)!!