Queens day

We celebrated Queens day with our Dutch friends on board for the second time. Here is some of the fun:

Trying to catch biscuits hanging on string whilst blindfolded

Tug of war on the dock, Tom is the small red boy near the back, still wearing his t'shirt back to front from earlier

Tom and Elliot pulling a landrover  - thanks Elliot you made him very happy that he got to have a go!

wacky day

Tom decided what he was wearing - his clothes the wrong way round, his sunglasses on the back on his head and my slippers with his summer clothes. Tommy wore odd socks and shoes with cropped trousers, a shirt and tie and big hat. Josh didn't want to wear anything wacky, but settled with his PJ bottoms on his head. It was pretty funny seeing the ideas the bigger kids came up with...

Ok so start with the nursery/kindergarten - barely wacky, just enough to amuse themselves

Then Kindergarten - mildly more so...

then go through a few more grades, each getting sillier and sillier, here Tommys class looking quite striking!

free health care for mothers and children in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone has launched a free healthcare plan for pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and children under five years old. This is great news that will hopefully help them change the fact that children under five and mothers in childbirh are more likely to die there than anywhere else in the world at present. For more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8645968.stm

50 years of independence

Togo is celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence today. It seems to be a public holiday, our dayworkers are here but having a celebration on board this afternoon following a Togolese lunch.

It seems it was a big year for African countries gaining their independence:

http://africanhistory.about.com/b/2010/01/01/50-years-of-independence.htm

More about how they celebrated on the ward here:

http://thalexander.blogspot.com/2010/04/independence-day.html

swimming in the waterfalls...

...was probably the highlight of our weekend so here are some pics:

 Driving to Kpalime was green like this most of the way

a view from where we started our walk to the waterfall

We survived the very steep climb down just as the tropical storm was ending and were pleased to finally see a waterfall!

See I really did swim under it!!

 Here we all are looking very wet!

Miriam and I on the way back