Hi everyone!

Yes, we made it back to Benin! The journey was straightforward and we were back in our home here by 9:00pm yesterday (in spite of having lost our keys somewhere in England!)

What hits you most when you get back here is the humidity. Temperatures are no higher than England back in July (ie 26-32C) but the humidity can by up to 90%.

Upon leaving the airport, I was greeted by a Beninese guitarist, strumming away and singing “Bienvenu, mon ami” to me!! The fact I didn’t know him from Adam (nor, therefore, he me) didn’t seem to matter!!!

Went to a local pool today and met up with some of the International Fellowship, which was nice after a tiring couple of days before that! Our Landrover – alas – is still in the garage, having a new alternator fitted, but should be finished tomorrow.

That’s all for this post. Great to see so many of you during our UK visit. Do keep in touch when you can.

Cheers,

Rob et al

Whilst in the UK, we had the privilege of living in our own house in Ampthill for a couple of weeks, so we made the most of it and threw a Summer Party (as has been tradition over the past years in the Baker house).

This time, numbers were about normal (with 70-80 guests overall, but never all at the same time!) We hired a bounce castle again, which is always a winner with the kids (and a certain slipper-wearing ‘blogmaster’ who will remain nameless!!!)

Anyway, if you missed the bash (and even if you didn’t), here are some pictures of some of our completely normal friends:

And, just so that you don’t think I’m too normal (any danger of that???), have a butchers at this one:

And, yes, I was wearing the FULL outfit for the party (have a closer look at the 5th photo above and you’ll see a bit more of it in the background!) 

Incidentally, ALL the photos above were taken by Madelaine who, we have discovered, gets much better results than we do, particulary when photographing people!  Well done, Mads! 

Well, take it easy and we hope to see you at our next Summer Party in 2008 (date & time TBA!!)

Sorry folks… we do still exist and have been having a great time back in the UK. The trouble is, we’ve been sooooo busy travelling here and there and seeing friends that there’s scarecely any time to update the old blog. Anyway, here we go with a few highlights of our stay…

Following our trip to Boston and Rob’s trip to the USA, we had a lovely holiday in North Wales, where we stayed at Beechwood Court, Click here to view the Beechwood court website.

It’s a Christian Endeavour holiday centre and we had a great time there. Here it is

Our room was the first window on the front (first floor) and the small window at the side.

One of the big highlights of our stay there was climbing Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales (Scotland has some taller ones!) Here we all are at the summit of Snowdon – yes, the kids all walked it without any carrying from parents! We thought about catching the train back down, but it was going to cost us £60!!! Nice walk, though and spectacular views across Anglesey, the Lleyn Peninsular and the Welsh coast.

Whilst at Beechwood, we also got to see our good friend, Jon Assheton, who was also the drummer on the ‘Creation’ CD (see link on RHS of this blog, and/or visit: New Music Enterprises.)

Here’s a somewhat surreal photo of Jon with our three (taken from the balcony above the vestibule in Beechwood Court).

Finally, we visited the village with the longest name in Wales (if not the world!) It is called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwrendrobwll-llantisiliogogogoch. Here it is:

Other visits…

A few days ago (don’t ask me when – it’s all a blur!) we met up with Rob’s (second) cousin Pete and his family and went to Beckonscot Model village Click here for their website.

which was great fun. Here are the kids there:

I would recommend a visit – our kids loved it!

We also had a Baker family get together. Here’s Mum and Dad with Rob & Lois, Ian (Rob’s big brother) and Rachel and all our children. (Ian & Rachel also have 2 girls and a boy in that order – weird, eh?)

So, to sum up, we’ve visited loads of friends, been to lots of people’s houses for tea, had friends round AND had a holiday. We’ve all stayed healthy throughout and have enjoyed our stay (even if it has been a tad hectic!)

We fly back to Benin on Monday, 28th August.

That’s all for now folks. Will try and add more news SOON!!