Annular Eclipse of the Sun!

Jan 15th 2010. It was really exciting to be right in the path of the annular eclipse today!! Awesome experience. The temperature dropped a lot as the moon went infront of the sun. The school all came out onto the field to enjoy the experience.

We observed the sun light coming through leaves of trees, through a holey spatula and also through a straw hat!

Enjoy the pictures!

ISU Students on the School Field

Through a spatula (the holes act like a mini pinhole camera)
Through a sunhat (the holes in the hat act like mini pinhole cameras)
Through leaves of a tree (see the moon shapes projected onto the wall)

This was my pinhole camera - a poster tube balanced on my music stand

Through a pinhole camera (this was as the moon was moving away)

Christmas & Brackenhurst Mission Conference

Christmas day was super - we had 11 people for lunch, turkey with almost all the trimmings. Then in the afternoon the kids kept themselves amused and the rest of us had a rest and naps on the sofas! Many thanks to Lucy's mum for providing most of the trimmings & the christmas pud!

Just after Christmas we went to Limuru, Kenya for a few days for a Mission Conference that serves lots of missionaries from as far and wide as Ethiopia, Congo, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and of course Kenya. It was a lovely and well needed break, with some good Biblical teaching by Tim Wambunya, a lovely Kenyan chap. I (Emma) realised how tired I actually was once we got there, and so actually did a lot of sleeping, knowing that the kids were in Kids Clubs, food (lots of it) would be on the table, and there was no washing up to do.
This was the same conference that you may remember we attended 2 years ago and ended up leaving our car in Kenya for an extended holiday due to the post-election violence. This time, we flew (but there were no elections this time either)!
On the last day, we took a group photo. There were about 100 of us who attended this year, less than previous years. So next year we'll be recruiting for punters!
It was good to catch up with people that we know and also new people from around the continent and just hang out and not have to worry about work, etc. We shall definitely be trying to go next year.