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Monday 29th March
The Journey: 31 children, 5 adult carers and me ( Graham Pountain ) set off from Bethany 6 am Monday the 29th March. After four hours on the bus we reached the Tanzanian/Kenyan border. We filled in our departure cards for the Tanzanian immigration and got our passports stamped. We then went through to the Kenyan immigration Office and filled out 37 arrival cards and got our passports stamped. We then traveled another 8 hours on our bus and got to Nairobi airport for about 7pm. We met up with the District Commissioner for Magu who joined us on our trip. We waited at the airport for nearly 6 hours and finally flew from Nairobi in the very early hours of Tuesday the 30th March.
Tuesday 30th March.
Our first flight was to Dubai and lasted 5 hours. We arrived very early in the morning and were provided with breakfast at Dubai airport. After a seven hour wait we queued at the boarding gate but Immigration officials instructed us to stand aside and wait. They were to put it mildly ‘unhelpful’. Eventually we discovered that what they wanted were letters that had been attached to our passports by the embassy which we had been told at the check-in desk at Nairobi were not needed. Fortunately I had kept these letters and when a senior Immigration Officer finally arrived and we produced the previously unwanted letters they accepted our visas and allowed us through. By the time we were allowed on the plane all our allocated seats (together) were taken by other passengers and our children were asked to sit in any available seats. The crew did not see the importance of them sitting together. (Emirates airlines crew please take note - make sure that children booked to sit together get the seats allocated and are not separated and scattered throughout the aircraft hemmed in on all sides by non-swahili speaking adults who took up all our aisle and window seats). I spoke to many of the passengers sat next to our scattered children and explained that when they wanted to go to the toilet they would ask for the ‘choo’ and would they make sure they went (otherwise suffer the consequences!). Without exception the passengers were all very accommodating which is more than can be said for the cabin crew or the Immigration Officials. However we arrived at Manchester airport 7 hours later at appox 7pm but it took a couple of hours to get through UK Immigration. We received a very warm welcome from the many people who had made the trip to meet us. We were provided with a coach free of charge courtesy of Frazer Eagle Coaches. We arrived at OCC at approx 10pm and had some supper, thanked God for our safe journey, sang a song for our hosts and went to bed.
Wednesday 31st March
The children had a lie in and then were allocated some of the warm clothes which had been kindly donated. In the afternoon they went to Rhyddings park for a stroll and a game of football. That evening they had a time for games, worship and prayer.
Thursday 1st April:
In the morning some of the boys who could swim and some who weren’t such good swimmers went to Mercer Leisure Centre (Great Harwood). Then at lunch time the whole group visited MacDonalds at Ewood Park where they had chips, chicken nuggets and a soft drink. In the evening they held their “Informal evening - meet the Family’. Over two hundred people turned out and did indeed ‘meet the Family’. The teams were introduced. Many different songs sung and we were also were honoured by a short speech from the District Commission who wanted to encourage us and our supporters to consider providing a school among other things for the project. One of the highlights of the evening was when the children sung ‘We are marching in the light of God’ and marched round the audience once and on the second time round were joined in by the audience. An exhausting day.
Friday 2nd April:
In the morning the whole group went to St. Pauls school in Nelson where they sang in the assembly and received a cheque from the school. The money had been raised by the children who had organised various activities throughout the year. After assembly some of the older children went off for a tour of Radio Lancashire. In the afternoon we set off for RAF Cranwell to meet up with the RAF students who had built our new dining room and kitchen. We were treated to tea and then a session of bowling. That evening each child had their own bedroom which had a washbasin!
Saturday 3rd April:
After the RAF treated us to breakfast they sent us off for a tour of Lincoln Cathedral (paid for by them). We toured the Cathedral and were allowed to sing which surprised one or two of the visitors!. We then set off for Spring Harvest and because we were early we went for a walk on the beach at Skegness. This was the first time many of the children had seen the sea ( a bit like Lake Victoria only much much colder with waves and the water tasted salty!). We had lunch which consisted of bread rolls, crisps and lemonade. At 3 pm we arrived at Spring Harvest, Butlins, Skegness.
Saturday April 3rd to Thursday April 8th
Spring Harvest: It was cold as usual but our children enjoyed their age group activities. We entered three football teams but sadly didn’t make the finals -so no trophies here. However the family were spotted entering the evening all age worship evening event and were invited to sing. Having sung their first song they were then invited to sing twice more at both sessions of the all age worship sessions. From there they were asked to sing at the ‘good morning big top’ session on the final Thursday morning and then were asked to sing two more songs on the Thursday evening main big top service. They were introduced by Graham Kendrick and followed by Steve Chalke. The audience were very appreciative and they made many friends that week. We returned to OCC late afternoon on Thursday 8th April
Friday April 9th:
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