Oh dear, it seems to have been almost another 5 months since my last blog. Where does the time go?! Literally feels like a month ago since I last wrote. I was talking to Brody on Skype this morning, I realise 5 months is lost in adopting a new accent, as I spent many minutes receiving a ribbing for my slight English tinge. However there’s a whole lot more to fill you in on, so I’ll give it a go.

I left off at the Easter holidays, entering into the Exam term. There’s not a lot to report on that term. We continued on as usual with normal lives, but with the added pressure of examinations looming. I spent most of my waking hours either in lectures, or the corner of the new college library I had managed to steal for myself. The new library is very incredibly fancy, but too much so for its own good because nobody can fix it. The heating system is monitored by a computer to create a dynamic control between the heating, the windows, and the atmospheric temperature. The only problem was for the whole term it was controlled at a temperature around 30 degrees and stifling, but nobody could do anything about it! I guess it is worrying that my one of my points of note from Easter term was a bad heating system in the library… In the hours I managed to find for myself, I spent them with friends either at church or in my house. It was so great to have their support and friendship. We really get along great. The below photo is from our ‘mid-term forced study break party’.


But each night as well, 3 or 4 of us would gather in someone’s room after finishing work and just chat away. It is so great living with your friends (but not too closely – I imagine sharing bills would be harder.) It was supposedly the beginning of summer, but I am still to see real evidence of that and it is now becoming Autumn. We did however manage to have a few days in the sun, evidenced below with the water balloon catapult. I expect however, like the snow in Easter, there’ll be a few weeks of uncharacteristic sun in October. Global warming, maybe?!


Exams came and went (if only it felt like that at the time) and I got a 2i. That’s the same mark that I achieved as last year. It’s by no means incredible, but it is a good mark, and on track to do what I want in years to come. Plus to do anything better I’d really have to give up being a normal person, so let’s not do that.

The week after we finished we decided to repeat our Bremen trip of last year, but instead this year, to go to Tours in the Loire Valley of France for a week. So we packed up and boarded the cheapest, nastiest airline you can imagine (yes…Ryanair, every students best friend, and the environment's nightmare) to head for the land of cigarettes and wine. Oddly enough there was very little smoking and wine drinking occurring. But we spent 5 days wandering the city and taking in the beauty of the region. France really knows how to build a city. They keep it clean, they blend it with the country, and it is just genuinely a lovely place to be outdoors. I say this in the kindest way possible though: I just couldn’t live there, the people really hate English speakers. I’ve included some pictures below of our trip.

At the airport

Strolling...

The steps of our house, having returned

Wallabies at the botanical gardens?!

Jonny and I at the gardens

The Loire Bridge

A random fountain in the city centre on a stifling day

The whole trip was just a God-send, because we were absolutely spent after the exams, and needed a place to unwind afterwards that was away from all of the metaphorical noise of Cambridge. So we just relaxed most of our time there. There was a lot of pate, cheese and baguette eating, as well as coffee drinking. And the weather was stunning to just sit on the sidewalk and people watch. Favourite moment has to be our first night there. We found ourselves a bar on the street and river’s edge to sit at, with the sun going down, and enjoyed a cold French beer. One of those perfect moments. We spent a day out at Chateau Chenonceau. It’s this incredible chateau built over the Loire River. Some aristocrats back in the day decided they’d buy the land with the only bridge over the river for miles, make it private and build their home on it. Whilst it was an inconvenience then for sure, it makes for a good day out now. It just made me think of that castle in Beauty and the Beast. And they know how to look after a garden. It would make a pretty good house really.

Chateau Chenonceau Gardens

After returning to Cambridge, it was time for May Week. You may remember my posts about this last year. But basically it is the first week where every exam in Cambridge is finished, and all the colleges throw these giant Balls, and all the societies have their garden parties (and on a less glamorous note, everyone gets trashed). I wasn’t able to indulge in the Balls this year because they are a ridiculous sum for one night, and my treat was France. I was saving to go to Zambia you see (more later). But that didn’t stop my friends and I from spending our days at Garden Parties drinking Pimm’s, eating ice-cream and playing croquet. (How English!) We also did an overnight punt to Grantchester orchards. You just hire the boat for the night and go down river to the orchard, and set up camp under the stars with a fire and BBQ and chat the night away. It was certainly the best moment of the week. As expected, photos below!

A random photo frame...

Milling around at the Corpus Garden Party

Late night fire

At the end of that week, everyone’s rent runs out (except mine, yay for being international) and they are kicked out of college. So on the Saturday, one by one all my housemates parents came to take them and their stuff home, and I spent the morning moving my friends out. It was pretty empty after that, but who should be around to rescue me from my loneliness but the lovely Paul and Priscilla Collins! I tell you, that was a very welcome treat. As always it was wonderful to see some special and familiar NZ faces mingling with the Cambridge scenery. We took a tour from my room, to town and had a pub lunch. After which we went punting and then to Marks and Spencers overlooking the town square for a coffee. They were staying with some friends in Bury St. Edmunds, so I went back with them to Bury and had dinner with them and their friends before very kindly being driven back to Cambridge (the trains were a bit sporadic). It was the perfect day. Thank you Paul and Priscilla!

After the day of the Collins’ visit I had a week to fill in before going to Zambia. But it was spent pretty much every day organising myself so I could actually go; a week of doing tasks to spend a month away, a tad ridiculous. The best one is always going to the pharmacy to pick up all the travel soap, the ridiculously high DEET content insect repellent and the sun screen that’s off the SPF scale. And before the hypochondriacs get worried, I had 11 injections throughout the course of the Easter term. They were actually really fun, if not a little expensive. (I suppose on reflection, enjoying a needle in the arm is a little sadistic.) So the week flew by and I walked out my door on the morning of July 31st not to return until August 1st. It was quite a difficult walk actually, big bag, little bag, communal bag for the team and my guitar, loaded up on my back on the way to the train station. We flew Kenyan Airways (amazing airline! Cheaper than South African airways, just as modern, no turbulence; but that’s not a guarantee, and really friendly.) from Heathrow to Lusaka and were met by Allan, the office manager and driver (interesting combination) for the Jubilee Centre. This is his beautiful family and us, in our guest house:


I realise at this point there may still be confusion as to why I am even in Zambia at this point of the story…so to clarify. I went to Zambia with a team of 9 students from my church; Holy Trinity Cambridge, in partnership with TearFund, to the Jubilee Centre; a Zambian Christian NGO, to get alongside the work they do. In simple terms, a mission trip. Meet my fabulous team…

Left to right: Dave, Me, Katie, Jasmine, Emily, Cat, Phoebe (JC), Allan (JC), Jamie, Becky, Emma, Chileshe (JC)


The Jubilee Centre’s vision statement is, “working to empower churches, communities and their leaders to grow spiritually, flourish physically and have a voice in the world.” Now I was skeptical about just how they would make that work in a worthwhile way. I mean they are nice words right, but how do they turn into actions? However, after arriving, my doubts were very quickly humbled, and they could actually make it longer I think. They have so many amazing ministries tailored perfectly to address the needs of the Zambian people. Whilst they are not big enough to cover the entire country, their work is very active in the Copperbelt province (Zambia being the largest producer of copper in Africa and second largest in the world). Their ministries include HIV/AIDS programs on; training volunteers to look after sick and vulnerable people in compounds around Zambia where people are sick with HIV/AIDS; youth clubs, to teach young people the realities of HIV/AIDS, the routes of transmission and the value of abstinence (noticeably not contraception); and, home-based care, to visit 'chronically ill patients in their homes and provide spiritual, physical, material and emotional support and work.' The orphans and vulnerable children program identifies those within a community who need support for schooling and food, and then they meet those needs. The child-headed homes initiative seeks to support those children whose parents have died due to HIV related illnesses. The Jubilee Centre is also the Zambian arm of the Micah Challenge, an organisation that lobby’s government to meet their commitment to the UN Millenium Development Goals by leading with example. They rally churches to meet the goals on the ground and use it as leverage to tell the government to do their bit too. It is a salt and light approach to development. And people are really captured by it.
They are also keen to train leaders about patriotism, as many Zambians leave the country who have any form of training. So they want to inspire in Zambians a sense of national pride and a desire to contribute to making the country better.
They have still more but it is best not to bore with admin.

As for us, we got stuck in teaching at local primary and secondary schools again on issues surrounding HIV and presenting the message of the gospel, as well as teaching lessons on patriotism, Maths, English and Science. Furthermore we had a building project, a toilet block for Mapalo Bread of Life School in the Mapalo compound. (Mapalo means blessing. They have such nice names.)

Assembly at Northrise Basic School

Our patriotism drama

Laying the toilet foundations

On Sundays we would go to one of the churches in the local area to teach and be taught. These times were so important because what we were seeing and doing was so draining on body, mind and Spirit so I really treasured the time we had sharing our hope in Christ with our Zambian brothers and sisters. There were afternoons we also spent running bible studies or sports clubs in various areas. They have an incredible liking of football (which is a little unfortunate as I do not support an English football team and they all seem to know them. I tried to teach them Rugby, but they just found it fun to try soccer with a funny ball.)

On our way to church
Preaching at Revival Worship Centre
Hand Shakey Shakey outside church. It's a really cool thing they do. They all sing as you go out, and when you get outside you shake the hands of all the people in the queue, and then you join it and shake the hand of everybody else going past, so you meet everyone. Also, they just add random y's on the end of words when they same it. Queeny, shakey, turny etc...

One day we spent in a very remote village on the DRC border with a family living as Zambians. So we learnt to cut and gather firewood, work the ground, fetch water, sweep, wash clothing, and most importantly of all, how to cook food! Nshima that is, obviously we could cook food already. It is amazing watching these Zambian women prepare a ‘fresh’ chicken ;) And then the baby starts crying so they pick it up and continue on just as well with one hand! I was a little nervous about this day, because I really did not want to intrude, but my fears were very quickly put to rest as we arrived. We couldn’t find Ruth who we were spending the day with, and after calling for her, this Zambian mama literally jumps out from around a corner shouting for joy that we’ve arrived and comes up to us so filled with excitement and glee. She was so much fun. So she showed us the workings of the home which she runs for her family of 12!

Ruth doing all the work...
The boys aren't so good with the water
Playing jacks; it's like knucklebones. They got so into it, amazing really. 
Ruth and her daughter, Jazzy, Phoebe, Emma, Pastor Rogers and me.

A couple of days were spent in the compounds (another name for a very poor, high populated area) visiting the Home Based Care patients with HIV, bringing them food, doing their chores and praying with them. In the compounds we were also privileged enough to join the orphan feeding program for just one day, dishing out food and eating with them. They have these big piles of Nshima that would have made me sick on my first attempt, and they just demolish it. For many the 3 meals a week the ‘Love Kitchen’ (told you they had cool names) provides are the only they get. And around 300 children get fed each time (which is sad enough). But it only costs £300 for the weeks 900 meals I think; that’s just a pound per child a week.

And finally in the Chifubu compound we spent time in the child headed homes, getting to know people our own age who spend all their time looking after their family because both parents have died. I tell you, there’s nothing quite as sobering as meeting these people. Except the realization that the Good News of Jesus was meant for them, and that the power of his death on the cross stretches 2008 years forward in time to bring hope and support into their lives.

I just want to say one thing about the volunteers for the Home Based Care (HBC) programs, because they are just the most phenomenal people. Day in day out they care for others, carrying their burdens as well as their own. They are normal Zambians, not rich themselves, and with their own mouths to feed. Yet they do this! They get trained to do it, and below is a video of some of their time of praise together, so much joy.

They are really struggling at the moment because obviously the point is to pray with and physically help people back to health, but many are dying at the moment. Did you know 2 million children in Zambia are orphaned also?! There are only 11 million people in the country! So I’ll finish the Zambian mission tales with two stories from our time. One heavy, one light.

On one of the days working with the HBC we were taken to a lady called Loveness (beautiful names yet again.) Her family had lain her outside on a bamboo mat in the sun, and she was just lying there limp and unmoving as we first saw her. She had clearly covered herself with a rug for the shame of the white people seeing her with HIV. This was pretty awful cause I was just feeling like I had no right to be with this woman, like she was just far too good for me, and I could not be doing anything harsher than seeing her under such circumstances, so I was feeling pretty ashamed too. So because of the rug, literally all we could see of her were swollen ankles at one end, and a weak, yellow roaming eye at the other peering out to the world seemingly given up on her. As we arrive, her family of 20 or so pile from out of their hut, goodness knows how they fitted in the first place, and they arranged themselves in a semi-circle on the other side of Loveness, looking on and listening to what was going on. To make our shame worse, they all sit on the ground, but fetch water cans for us to sit on. And then the HBC volunteer who was there to translate to Loveness for us simply turned to us and said, “you bring encouragement now.” I mean, every ounce of faith fails me and I fail to think of anything that I would possibly be able to say that would be an encouragement to Loveness with such advanced HIV and a ring of pained relatives. Thoughts run around my head, “What am I doing here? What right do I have? How dare I be here!” Anyway, I wrote a relatively mediocre poem about this day, and this time in particular, that I wanted to share with you. Its’ main purpose is to simply contrast hope and sorrow, but in this segment of it, it uses Loveness on one hand and this little girl we met earlier on in the day on the other, to do so.

Eyes. Heaven’s dichotomy.
White, sparkling, full of hope.
With innocence and unbrokeness you observe your world, you know only joy.
Yellow, dim, saddened by life.
Knowing now, only misery, HIV eats not only your immunity, but your dignity and joy.
You observe the world with one eye from under shame’s rug.
Dichotomy…

(It must be poetry if it causes lots of grammatical green underlining in MSWord!)

So I am still sit in front of Loveness with two others from my team, still thinking crazy and unhelpful thoughts, contrasting her to this little girl. And then I slowly realize the joy of the little girl never needed to leave Loveness because she has joy in Jesus whose very mission was not for people like me or you, but for people exactly like Loveness. And he conquered on this earth everything that could afflict her. Me being there was not because I was to be saying anything else, cause nothing else I could have said would have been of use, but the power of the gospel – that is Good News – is just that, good news for all who hear. We began to chat with Loveness and share from the bible, and finally to pray with her. Now she wasn’t healed, nothing dramatic like that, but she did smile, she did find a little joy from what we shared, and for me that was the biggest miracle of the trip.

…

Obviously photos of that would be seriously insensitive, but below is my very good friend, Joy. She pastors the church I was privileged to preach at In Chifubu, the very poor area where we spent a lot of time. She was also the translator for us at the child headed-homes (not with Loveness, that was someone else) and the co-ordinator of the Chifubu compound for the HBC program, so she practically runs the HBC for the area. She is amazing.

...

So moving onto slightly lighter things; obviously my name is Blake (obviously), but that is not exactly an abundant name in Zambia. So every time I would meet someone new, which happened a lot, they would come bounding up to me in their friendly and flamboyant Zambian way, shake my hand with the secret Zambian handshake and say, “Muli-shani?” (How are you?) To which I’d reply, “Bwino, Muli-shani?” (Good.) And they’d say “Bwino. Mawebo ni ishina?” (What is your name?) I’d reply, “Ishina lyandi ni Black.” Or at least that’s what they thought. It turns out I have the most racist name in all Africa, I mean I really get to the heart of racism, and keep it simple. Black. So to avoid confusion, and also to avoid stating the obvious, that indeed the people I was meeting were Black, (and obviously as a term of affection) Phoebe, the most amazing woman at the Jubilee Centre renamed me Bupe (woo-pay). It is the name she has always wanted to call her son (I know, soppy, get over it!) and it means Gift. Meet phoebe…

Well I could really go on with stories, but I’ll just include some more random photos and another video that is an excerpt of us singing our favourite Zambian song on the ‘tour bus’. Takwaba uwaba nga Yesu (There’s No-one like Jesus). Look out for the older man with the glasses dancing in the back corner of the bus, he was an absolute character! His wife happened to be the most disinterested person ever. They were a hilarious contrast.

Coffee fields!
Some bus love on the way to Ndola
Playing with the children in Mapalo compound.

So all up that was 17 days, and we took another 14 days to travel around Zambia. First stop was Lusaka, the capital to just rest a bit. It was 6 hours south of Ndola where we were with the Jubilee Centre. That was 2 days, and then we headed further south for another 6 hours to Livingstone and the Vic Falls. Simply put – amazing. We stayed in these adventure tents on the edge of the Zambezi river. The place itself was a contrast of high end and ‘student’ accommodation. So they had great facilities. It was very strange being surrounded by so many white people, I really didn't like it. The highlight of being there was our first night: we’d just arrived from 8 hours of dodgy bus trips (6 hours if all works to plan) and the sun was setting, so we went to the bar, got ourselves a Mosi (A Zambian lager, named after the falls, really good!) and sat on the pontoon edge with our feet hovering above the river, said grace and in the most idyllic setting watched to sun go down. And Africa knows how to hold a sunset! For those of you who, like me, take photos of scenery that in no way do justice to the moment…

Actually it may not have been THE highlight, cause the next night was a full moon, so after our River and dinner cruise (our luxury for the trip, well worth it) we headed into the Falls national park to see the lunar rainbow. Basically, the moon casts a rainbow in the mist of the falls. PHENOMENAL! The sun, moon and earth all have to work together on that one. It’s really spectacular to see this silver crescent in the mist, which upon inspection actually contains all the colors of the rainbow. But, that was all a bit much, because the falls during the day were in themselves breath-taking enough. I metaphorically passed-out from awe. And there were a few surprise visitors in the park area also, as you'll see…

The boys...erm, looking out at the falls

The falls (about 400m of the 1.8km's of them)

The bridge joining Zambia and Zimbabwe

A bush-trek to down the gorge to the boiling pot. We walked straight through a family of babboons. That was exciting :S

Gerry the Hand-puppet meets a friend.

The lower Zambezi river begins, as viewed from 'The Boiling Pot'

The following day some of us went into Zimbabwe. Sadly, all the media reports of the economy are true, but thankfully also those reports on the solidarity of the people are true as well. The shell petrol station was in ruins (why would you need one with no petrol right?) the supermarket shelves were barren except for floor cleaner and even McDonald’s was boarded over. It was so sad. Really, to survive you need to live on the border and do your shopping in another country, as well as having access to foreign currency. When we went to Zim in the morning, all the locals were crossing through No Mans Land in the opposite direction to do their months shopping in Livingstone, and at night when we returned, they were going back home. The centre of the country, we were told, is almost empty. But, the place is absolutely stunning. Only a few of us went in becausee it was pretty expensive for British people, but not for NZers :)

So from Livingstone we headed around the Botswanan coast to Bovu Island, where we relaxed under the sun and stars for a few more days. It was basically a privately owned island, and we were the only ones on it (except for those running it.) The set-up is so clever, it’s all done from native bush, with huts for the bar, library, toilets and showers, and chalets on stilts to stop you being attacked by hippos in the night. They have a fire to heat the water for showers, and there is one power socket run by solar panel. But you miss nothing, and just take the time to relax. We went out in the Makoro’s to a secluded beach and they made us a packed lunch to take and all. Really a relaxing paradise.

Transport from Livingstone to Kasane

The outdoor eating area

The bar hut

On our way to watch the sunset at the beach. (The boat is a Makoro)

The big race - I can gladly say I won.

The manager of the island was a lady called Margery and she joined us on a couple of nights for worship. It was just so cool how God provided Zambian friends for us everywhere we went. After this 4 of the girls went home because they had various things o be back for. And the remaining four of us went to the Western Kingdom because we wanted to escape the tourist routes and nobody goes there. We hopped on a 10 hour long bus to Mongu, and got there an hour before sunset not knowing if they even had places to stay. Thankfully, yet again, God intervened and waiting at the bus station was a lady from Scripture Union who was picking up some people from America helping her with a camp. She’d being living there as a missionary for 5 years and knew the place very well, so she helped us find a place, and within 30 minutes we were out exploring the town having checked in. It was great to get back to our Zambian routes for our final leg. The people were so open as we’d come to know, and because it was not a tourist route, we weren’t treated as money bags, but rather real people. They are a major fishing centre for the country, so we had a lot of fish with our Nshima there, and walked around exploring the Barotse flood plains. They are just a vast expanse of flat land that floods in the rainy season. The sky feels huge, and you feel so small and insignificant, and we only walked 2km’s into it (it was 24km’s to the river, and more again to the other side).

The Mongu-crew: Jamie, me, Emily and Dave

This was fairly common-place. Amen!

Mongu market

The Mongu 'harbour'
In the flood plain

A random photo yes: but the birds in this tree sounded like flying pigs! That would make a whole lot of things possible if they were flying pigs.

These kids just started cart-wheeling in front of us. So we joined in, and then they went crazy and started back-flipping off everything in sight. We didn't join in on that.

The famed fish Nshima, a Mongu specialty, at the cost of a mere 5000kwacha, or 80p (which is very expensive actually, food price rises!)

So after Mongu we caught an overnight bus back to Lusaka and after another day flew back to England: impacted, eyes-opened, and not quite sure what to do next. I must say I really really miss my friends from the Jubilee Centre, and whilst we’ve been emailing, I keep finding myself thinking of how I can get back there. Though obviously I shouldn’t go just because I want to, we’ll wait to see what God says, but it would be so cool to see them again, and for a decent period of time. Maybe I could go live there one day…

Before I left I thought it probably wouldn’t be the best to be on my own for the next short while after such an intense and powerful experience, so I had arranged with Adam to spend the week in Belfast with him. This was another God-send. It was like coming home to you guys really, just another home in another place. I love Adam and his family, they are really special! He got a friend of ours from uni to surprise me at the airport. He’d arranged for him to get the flight an hour earlier than mine and be at the airport to jump on me. I had no idea, so it was a very welcome surprise as Adam was going to be working 9-5 all week anyway, so I had someone to keep me company for the days. I turned out to be his tour guide which was a bit odd, you’re not often a tour guide in a country that’s not your own. We got shown around the Avalon guitar factory also. If you don’t know Avalon guitars, you should basically. They are all hand made, and I left the factory wanting to make guitars for a profession, but I think there are probably better things I could do.

I spent the weekend in Cambridge (at this point, out of 6 weeks of holiday, 2 nights have been spent in my normal bed) and then took my youth group to Soul Survivor. Think of it as a bigger version of EasterCamp. They have 10,000 people come each week over 3 weeks. It is an incredible ministry. My youthies of 11-14years absolutely loved it, and it was so cool to see them just so mature in their faith. We were a small group of 9, but they weren’t too worried about that. They really got along well, which is good for a group of 11-14 year olds who only see each other once a week. They really wanted to join in on all that was happening, and that was the coolest thing ever. One of the kids has ADHD, which we were worried about how he would handle 2.5 hour meetings morning and night, but by God’s grace he just sat there captivated by the hype of all that was on around him. And they all had some pretty amazing encounters and times of prayer for each other, I was almost redundant, which is the best way to be. A couple of people from Zambia were also there with youth groups from their home churches so it was neat to catch up with them and talk about life after Zambia. My poor guitar as well, dragged all around the African continent for a month, and then to an agrictultural showgrounds in South England for a supposed summer camp. The weather was a ctually VERY wet, and the whole grouping of fields turned into mud. But that was ok because we all had our gumboots on. (At least by the end of the week we did. The start of the week everyone was wearing some bizarre item they call Wellington boots.)

The worship leader banter photo...

The main tent

A wet day in the caravan

Florence, me, Carys and Ben waiting for the meeting to start

The girls take to the stage

Essential - enough said.

So Soul Survivor lasted a week and I returned to Cambridge this time for good, to start a summer internship for 6 weeks at Cancer Research UK. (I didn’t realise it before the holiday started, but I really packed it in. It is an amazing time though – so blessed!) If you were ever a person disheartened by the state of funding for the sciences (which I am sure many of you are…) then this place will bow your mind. It’s just like CSI, all brand spanking new. It was an initiative between Cambridge Uni, CR-UK and some private investor in China called Li Ka Shing. CR-UK now entirely runs it which is amazing, cause it costs around £50 million a year to run CR-UK’s labs alone and 90% of that is public donations. What a machine.

So aside from being wowed by charity propaganda in this job, I have actually been getting really good experience in many of the routine biochemical disciplines. Some things just can’t be done in Uni labs for 200 students, so it’s great to be trying my hand at all the stuff we talk about in lectures. For those of you interested I am working in the area of genetic imprinting, and looking at interactions of proteins with the differentially methylated region of the IGF2 gene. I am coming to the exciting results in the next couple of weeks. And who knows, maybe even an authorship on a paper at some point. The job really appeals to my inner geek – we talk science over lunch. But better still, it also appeals to my inner coffee addict, because the whole labs spends an hour setting up in the morning, and then takes a coffee break in the staff café downstairs. Legends! It is also encouraged to have an afternoon pick me up ;)

It’s nice to be in Cambridge whilst there are no students around. It gives me a chance to build on my relationships with the real people here. The 9am-5pm thing works great too. You come home in the evening and it is up to you what to do. I’ve either been meeting up with some of my ‘real people’ friends or wading through my list of things to do, (gotta love lists).

And that leaves the future. The next 3 weeks I will be at CR-UK still. This weekend I’m up in Birmingham for a Zambian reunion, and we’re going to try to make Nshima, who knows how that will go. The following weekend Katherine Barraud is visiting me, so if anyone has a message for her, let me know and I’ll pass it on. The weekend after that is my friend Anna’s 21st up north for the weekend. And, on my last day at CR-UK, Brooke Fraser is giving a concert in London so I’m going to treat myself to a celebration with some Brooke mad friends (yes, I’ve been indoctrinating people to Brooke). Then I have a week during which I move into my new college room (recently refurbished, with a stunning view into Kings College, an ensuite, fantastic kitchen and very central. – it is good to be a third year.) The new Kiwi is coming up that week, and I’ll be taking her to meet the Girdlers’ as the acting senior scholar (the oldest guy, Ryan will still be in NZ so that leaves me in charge ;) She is breaking all the moulds – the first girl in years, doing music and the first ever person from the South Island. It can only be a good thing, and from emailing her about what to expect, she sounds like a great person to be welcoming into our wee kiwi-family here. Finally there is our Christian union’s houseparty and my first day in the Biochemistry department follows that, signalling the end of my freedom. It is pretty exciting all that’s going on, and it is keeping me busy. I’m getting sleep too so don’t worry…

And in the becoming not so distant, but still distant future, I will be coming home. Over Christmas I will be returning to the shores of NZ, and I cannot wait. It’s been to long since I saw you all, hugged you all, and shared life with you. Plus coffee, pie, L&P, burger fuel, kumara and driving withdrawals are all as strong as ever.

Right, well I’ll leave it there. Thank you so much for reading. I hope it was of interest to you. I am still very keen to hear how you are; the news from the homeland is wearing thin, so even if you want to tell me you bought a new pair of jeans, it would be great to hear from you. And my prayers are that you are well, and being challenged to new and greater things.

With lots and lots of love,

Blake