Tomorrow people

Today has been a Skype day. I have probably waxed lyrical about this major communication revolution before but it still amazes me every time we use it. On the first of our Skype calls today we made a link with a primary school in England. Our Class 4 pupils have been writing letters to a year 5 class in Welford First School. Our children sang a song for the Welford class and later listened to a song that the Welford children recorded for them and emailed over. Later in the afternoon Judi was able to join the first part of a meeting of all the teachers in our primary school. It was great being able to hear her share her thoughts with us. Skype definitely shrinks the distance between us. The third call we made today was a more personal one. It is my son Tom’s twenty first birthday today. Tom has been very understanding about the number of times either his mum or I have been over in Kenya for his birthday. This year was the first time we have been able to have much of a chat between Kenya and home on his birthday. Tom’s sister Ellie is over here with me so we managed to sing Happy Birthday and catch up with his news for the day. On occasions like this I do wish that cloning or massive distance hopping, (as demonstrated in The Tomorrow People many years ago), was possible.

I’m sure Jess, (one of our very recent visitors who started her journey home in the early hours of the morning today), would have the same wish. In addition to having a very long wait in Nairobi for the first leg of her return journey it sounds like she had a very long delay in Istanbul before starting the last bit. She won’t be home until well past the time her flight was due to land in Birmingham.

Our current visitors, (Ellie, her boyfriend Andy and an old friend from Kenya called Winnie), have had a very silly time in our house this evening. Winnie and Ellie have remained friends since Winnie stayed with us during the year that we lived in Kenya and started our work in Kosele. We were joined this evening by a young man called Collins who was also with us ten years ago and got on well with Tom. At the moment he is being a great help to us working with the Agriculture College teachers and students.  It was almost a reunion. Winnie is incredibly funny, and one of the worst cheats at cards I have ever met. It is impossible to do anything but love her. It was great to see the three of them and Andy having a good time together.

For those of you who remember The Tomorrow People follow the link below – don’t you just love the 70s (The cool looking belts the cast are all wearing at 8:00 on the clip are the key to avoiding jet lag, delayed flights and 21^st birthdays!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YzTWxjdWPU&feature=related