Happy new year everyone

Happy new year to you all, we hope you had a lovely time welcoming in the new year.

We thought it only right to spend a mo reflecting on what a wonderful year 2010 has been for us......one sister married to a lovely chap, we now have a cute little nephew-well done mum&dad disdle, one set of parents in india&the rest of the family with good health, a bundle full of very precious friends all over the world, thankyou Jesus.

we welcomed in the new year eating take away pizza&watching the sentimentally funny film UP. we missed you all over the Christmas period, but felt very blessed spending it with our zim family.

we missed our family midnight mass too, but decided to bring a glimpse of it here. so with about 20 of us, we sang Christmas carols by candlelight on the veranda. it was a really special time for us all&lots of chuckles were had as andy tried to work out the right key!

we must have given off messages of how much we're missing chocolate-as that's what our stockings were filled with, delicious! apart from a nasty tummy bug that seems to be going round the whole of bulawayo our health continues to be good-so thankyou for all those health prayers! we've really enjoyed observing the differences between the uk&zim christmas season-here it is so much more about relaxing&the focus being on spending quality time with loved ones. we feel we've lost that element in the UK, where the focus seems to be more on purchasing presents?

over the last few days, we've spent another fun night camping, this time in the matopos national park, with a stunning dam&mountains as our view.
we went on a somewhat adventurous walk in the afternoon-we won't fill you in on all the details as we don't think you would believe us, but lets just say it involved running up steep mountains&skidding down them, getting spiked with by evil plants that clawed under the skin, avoiding poisonous spiders&their huge webs, wading through smelly swamps, jumping across cliffs with sheer drops.....needless to say we were slightly relieved at the end of the trip, with only very minimal injuries! our converse did us proud!
the tasty evening braii with a sky filled with stars was breathtaking&a sight our minds will not forget.

we're busy today with washing our clothes&re-packing our rucksacks as the final part of our adventure awaits....

we're hitching a lift 'down south'-no not cornwall, but south africa! we'll be leaving bulawayo around 5am monday morning &hope to be arriving in pretoria around 5pm.

prayers for continued good health, travelling mercies&safety would be warmly appreciated. We're really exited about what awaits us in this new country...!

so as we say our goodbyes to the beautiful country&people of zimbabwe it's with a sad heart, we've grown really fond of our host family&are so grateful to them for welcoming us into their home&family life for so long!

all our lovex