Mud, feet and very very long lists...

I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by - I know I should probably be used to this feeling by now, but it still amazes me a bit! I think it’s just over two weeks since I last wrote my blog and it feels like so much has happened since then. We’ve had a couple of really busy weeks jam packed with a very random collection of things happening...

When I last wrote, we had just finished holiday club and begun the long Easter weekend. We had a day trip to Kitale to go and see some of the local sights. It was good to get out and about and see a bit more of Kenya. The street kids in Kitale were pretty tough going - they were very very insistent, more so than anywhere else I’ve been, and looked like life was giving them a tough deal. It was pretty overwhelming.

Other than that though we took it easy over the weekend. I felt so much better for taking it slowly especially as we knew there was a weeks hard work coming up in the form of building a mud hut.

Mud hut week began on the Tuesday after Easter Monday. We had a rough idea of what we were letting ourselves in for as Gemma had built a couple before and told us a bit about it, but we didn’t really know how it would go. Each day began (and ended!) with an hour long journey along bumpy roads, through various small towns and villages until we reached Soysambu, the home of the family we were building a new house for. The existing family home is currently shared by the father of the family (Edward), his mother (Flora) and his four children (Collins, Hillary, Abel and Linda). This number of people in a small house is not unusual, however it is not culturally acceptable for the grandparents and parents to share a house.

Having spent some time with the family it is clear that they have had a very rough time. The mother left a few months ago, unable to deal with all the difficulties, the father has a problem with alcohol, drinking local brew throughout the day. He often comes home drunk and kicks the grandmother and children out of the house and they have to sleep outside. The kids don’t go to school and don’t look like they’ve had a particularly good wash in, well, weeks...but more about this later...I’ll tell you about the house building first!

I loved it! It was such hard work, particularly in the hot sun, but i’m not complaining - if it had been raining it would have been worse! There was a team of 7 from IcFEM headquarters (including 4 of us who had never done it before) and about 5 or 6 helpers from the local fellowship. It took us about three and a half days to complete...many biscuits were consumed, loads of water drunk and there was some interesting local food to eat as well (including cooked green bananas that looked like bananas but tasted exactly like potatoes...so confusing!)

Here is my 10 step guide to building a mud hut!

1. Find a piece of level ground and set out the building using string, a tape measure and markers made from branches, whittled down to a point at one end and with a nail at the other end to wrap the string around. Use some simple trigonometry to make sure you have good right angles!

2. Dig holes using a long heavy pole to break the earth and a small bowl to scoop it out the hole as you go. Each hole must be about 2 foot deep for each timber column (we had 18 to dig) and trenches should be dug between each hole.

3. Drop the timbers into the holes and ensure they are all the same height at the . To do this, stretch sting between the corner posts and check it is level this with a spirit level (it seems that you should do this by standing on a chair precariously balanced on a table sinking into the muddy floor!) If the post is too tall, take it out the hole and chop the end of using a panger (like a big scary looking knife!) or alternatively dig the hole a little deeper which seemed like the easier option but less preferable! Pack the earth around the bottom of the timber and Bob’s your uncle!

4. Place the wall plates along the top of the two long walls on your well levelled columns and nail down.

5. Nail horizontal vetoes (I’m not sure how that is spelt at all!) to the inside and outside edge of all walls at roughly 400mm centres vertically, remembering to leave a gap for the door.

6. Place the roof trusses onto the wall plates, having carefully measured out their locations then one by one flip them the right way up (ends first) and nail in place, bracing with diagonal timbers in the corners.

7. Lift the tin roofing sheets into place and nail down. Add the roof verge.

8. Position the pre-made windows and doors and nail in place, adding extra timbers where necessary to support these. Cut the vetoes crossing the windows on the internal sides (so they can open) but leave them in place externally for added security.

9. While all this is going on, you need to begin making the mud - turn over a large area of earth using a jembe (a hand held tool that you swing from over your shoulder in to the earth) and add copious amounts of water carried in buckets on your head from the well (hopefully not too far away!) and squelch in with your feet. This is particularly hard if you’re wearing wellies as they get stuck in the mud!

10. Roll the mud into big bricks (lumps), get an army of kids to carry them into the house where you then place then gently but firmly on top of each other. Take care to span across the vetoes so that the weight of each section of wall is carried by the timbers not the mud beneath it. As the mud settles and dries out, sections of wall will fall down - rebuild them! If a bit of wall is looking a bit like it might topple over, shove (that’s the technical term) a branch down the middle of the mud for added strength!

It’s as simple as that! There is more to do, you have to level and treat the floor (with cow dung to prevent jiggers...you’ll understand that bit soon!) and “plaster” the walls inside and out with a different type of mud to level it and finish them, but we left this work to be finished by the fellowship in the community and will return for the handing over ceremony in a couple of weeks.

Whilst we were building the house another story was unfolding. The longer we were there, the more we found out about the family and their situation. I outlined it briefly above and it’s probably worth explaining that the new house we were building is for the grandma and the children, Edward (the father) will stay in the existing house. We were very impressed that Edward came and helped with the house building all week - on previous occasions when similar families have been helped there has been no sight or sound from the father. He does however obviously struggle with alcohol and kept disappearing every now and then for a while and coming back a little worse for wear. His relationship with his children appears to be very broken, although we have only had a brief insight into the family life so cannot really say. Tim spent some time with Edward encouraging him to interact with his children a little more.

It is hard to explain someone’s life when you do not understand it fully and I do not wish to jump to conclusions but, from the history of the family that I do know, it appears that the fathers alcohol addiction has lead the family into greater poverty than they may otherwise have been in. The very real affects of this are clear in the lifestyle of the family. There is not money enough to farm all of the small bit of land they do own so they are unable to grow much food. The children do not go to school, even though primary education has now been made free. They are all wearing clothes that are quite literally falling apart and both the children and the clothes look like they’re in need of a good wash!

We noticed that Hillary, the second eldest boy (8 years old) was hobbling when he walked and Abel, the youngest boy (5 years old) used a stick when he walked and Linda (2 years old) just sat still even though she could walk. When we asked about this, a lady showed us the children’s feet and explained that they all had jiggers. Now, I have to warn you, this whole subject is pretty grim so if you’re squeamish I’d skip the next bit!

Jiggers are little fleas that live in dry dusty soil and burrow under your skin slowly. If you wash regularly, you will probably wash them off before they get in, but once they’re in, the feed off your flesh and in due course, lay eggs which hatch under your skin and become even more jiggers. Not every having had one, I can’t tell you how it feels, but everyone I have asked say they are painful and itchy and you definitely know about it if you have one. Well, we we looked at these kids feet, they had probably at least 20 in each foot as well as a number on their fingers and knees. You could see where jiggers had died naturally and fallen out, leaving behind dead and decaying flesh - no wonder these kids were hobbling. It must have been so so painful.

If the family moved into the new house without infected feet, then they would spread the problem and it would be resolved. It seemed right that we should help them deal with this other very practical need as well as with the house so they could make a new start.

After some research, we found a treatment that you soak the infected area in that will kill the jiggers under the skin. You can then remove them by essentially digging them out with a pin or leave them and once they are dead they will fall out in due course - it seems preferable to remove them from everything we have heard or found out. So, thanks to Tim’s practical get on with it attitude, we turned up on Thursday equipped with the treatment, some pins and some antiseptic cream to help the feet heal.

Removing jiggers is one of the worst things I have ever seen - and I wasn’t even at the feet end! I just helped comfort the kids and encourage them while they were having this horrid thing done. We had seen the infected feet through a layer of mud originally and when the mud was removed you could see the extent of the damage caused to the feet. Thankfully a couple of members of the fellowship who were helping with the house had dealt with jiggers before so were a dab hand and I don’t think we could have managed it without them.

We started off with Hillary who was incredibly brave, but he was clearly in a lot of pain when the jiggers were being removed. When one is pulled out it’s about the size of a smallish ball-bearing and looks like a white round maggot thing. Because it feeds off the flesh, it is essentially attached to you so you can imagine how much it must hurt having it taken out. We decided we could not remove them from the younger children’s feet and hands as they were both clearly terrified and it would have been far too traumatic for them. So we gave them an extra long soak in the treatment which would kill the jiggers and left them to come out in due course. However, we couldn’t really manage to soak Linda’s knee which had 3 jiggers in it and therefore had to remove these there and then. It was awful. The poor little girl screamed and screamed and was shouting “How am I ever going to walk again” because it was so painful. All I could do was hold her still so that the whole thing would be over as quickly as possible. She was shouting and screaming for her dad, but sadly he didn’t even come to see what was happening. I was totally reduced to tears by the whole thing and even writing about it now makes my eyes fill up all over again.

Having dealt with the kids jiggers we checked out the grandma and father and discovered their feet were also riddled with them. So, we treated their feet as well. The grandma was obviously having an internal battle - she obviously wanted the situation dealt with so it was over, but she also knew how painful it was and kept hiding her hand or her knees so we couldn’t see the jiggers in them. Then she would come and show us them as she knew it was better to deal with them even if it did hurt now. I think it is safe to say all of us were physically and emotionally exhausted by the end of the day.

I kept wondering why nobody had dealt with them before? Jiggers are relatively common here and most people you ask about them has had one at some point. The general response is that people remove one as soon as they find they have one and that’s that. It seems to shows a real loss of hope to sort of give in to them and let the jiggers run riot in your feet and those of your family.

We were talking with the people who lived next door to the family and they said they have previously tried to remove the jiggers from Hillary’s feet, but he ran away from them and has refused to go in their house ever since. It also appears that the father has a tendency to violence when drunk so they have not been able to help him as much as they would like. Having jiggers seems a little like the social equivalent of having nits - although a lot more painful. Without wanting to sound too harsh, you were viewed as a scummy kid if you got nits at school (although I think everyone had them at some point!) and I think this makes your pride kick in. In the case of this family, I feel that, despite their dire need, the father struggles to accept help from those around him. I think we were able to give his family this help where maybe his neighbours previously hadn’t been able to because we were outsiders in this instance. The people helping us remove the jiggers were clearly nervous about dealing with the father’s feet and I think this was due to his previous reaction to them. However, amazingly he sat still and quiet without kicking up any fuss while they removed them! A real miracle!

By the end of the day the kids were smiling again and even seemed pleased to see us when we turned up the next day! I’m not sure I would have been as forgiving as them if someone had hurt me so much!! Hopefully when we go back to officially hand over there house there will be an improvement in the health of their feet!

So, I will stop talking about the horrible jiggers now. I’m sorry to share such gross things with you, but it really struck home how hard life here can be and how important it is to be willing to deal with whatever we are faced with. I was really reminded of James chapter 3 verse 14 - 17:

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go , I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good it is? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

So there you go, that was mud huts, jiggers and a very intense week!

We followed that by going to a wedding on Saturday...I won’t say much apart from the fact it took the bride about 30 minutes to march/dance up the aisle with her 15 bridesmaids! Apparently that was quick. Sometimes it can take up to 2 hours!!!

The last week has been a lot less emotional, but pretty busy. I think I mentioned the maize and beans project last time I wrote but only briefly. It has become a major task here - the bank are taking a long time to process all the 5000 farmers forms and in the meantime to farmers are all waiting for their maize seed and fertiliser, which they need to plant, well now! I am pleased to say that over the weekend lots of progress has been made and a substantial amount of seed and fertiliser was delivered, so that is good! However, as people have been asking questions it has become apparent that the records held here of who was waiting for what were, well, far from organised! So, somehow I ended up taking on the task of sorting them out!! Anyone who knows me will know what this will have made me do - I’ve sort of been in crazy-overdrive-mental organising mode whilst I’ve typed up 5000 farmers names and details (I’ve had some help) and made a spreadsheet of a joy in excel that added up the amount of acres and farmers and what not so it didn’t have to be done by hand every time somebody needs to know how much fertiliser is needed where. In all honesty, it’s been a pretty tedious task, but now I have a happy feeling of happy organised files! It also means that the information can be emailed to the bank or suppliers when it is needed. So, although it was far less fun than building a mud hut I do think it’s been another worthwhile thing to have spent my time doing. I have a feeling I’ve not seen the end of it all yet though as I think there will be some amendments as the bank finalises their paperwork!

And finally...hurray for birthdays and the weekend! It was Jo Riley’s birthday this weekend so we planned a few surprises, mainly involving yummy food like cake and pancakes and toad-in-the-hole!!! We also had a little party that was a very comedy event involving a few silly games and on Saturday we ventured out to Bungoma - a town about an hour away. We went by bus so had to brave the bus station in Bungoma on the way home - always interesting! There’s no signage or bus stand to show you where to get the bus you want, just a corner that you have to know you need to go and a load of guys all trying to get you to get on their bus! At one point I turned round to see a guy saying to Gemma “I just want to marry you, that’s all I want. I only want to marry you!” It was at that point that I decided it was time to just pick a bus and get on it...which we did without further ado and made it safely home.

So there you go! My last few weeks in a rather big nutshell!!!
___________________________

Thank God for:
- the opportunity to help some people much less fortunate than ourselves.
- all the fun and laughter he has given us amongst the work as well as the energy he has given us to keep going.
- our safety as we have been out and about!
Please pray for:
- clarity about what to do and what not to do - every day is busy, but I still feel that I need to put in place a “bigger picture” to make sure I do all the things I originally came to do!
- a closeness with God amidst the busy times. I don’t just want to spend my time here doing stuff, I want to learn to walk closer with God!

Jambo!

Hello! How are you? It’s been a while since I wrote to you from Africa, but here I am again! This time I’m in Kimilili, a small town in the Western Province of Kenya.

I arrived here about 10 days ago after a hectic few days packing up my life at home again. I was a little more organised than last time, but still managed to finish packing at about 2am when I had to be at the airport at 5am... Oops!

Ah well, I made it and got some sleep on the plane before arriving safely in Nairobi on Friday night. I met up with Jo and Jo in Nairobi - two other girls with the best name ever also heading out to work with IcFem from a few months. We had an interesting morning in Nairobi visiting the local market which reminded me quickly of some of the downsides of being a white person in Africa - it took us a good 20 minutes to shake of the guys wanting to “take us round” the markets, for a fee of course! However, once we were on our own, we had a lovely morning looking at some the fabrics and jewellery on sale.

That afternoon we caught out internal flight to Kitale which was on a comedy little plane with about 15 seats - I think our luggage alone pretty much filled the “boot”. Arriving at Kitale air strip was great...no waiting for your baggage to come through to the conveyor belts, we just collected it at the back of the plane as it was lifted out!

A forty five minute drive brought us to the IcFEM guest house which is home for the next three and half months or so. It’s a lovely little place with the bedrooms and dining room set out around a small garden area. I’m currently sat outside our little living room and bedroom block under the veranda looking out towards the mountains, It’s a hot and sunny day but a gentle breeze whizzes by every now and then, making it quiet pleasant. Being three Mancunians, we seem to have managed to bring the rain to Kenya with us and the rainy season has now begun. Whilst we may not be so pleased about this, the Kenyans are delighted as it means it’s time to plant their maize, a long awaited event. Late afternoon most days the sky turns from glorious blue to ominous grey and a pretty impressive rain storm takes over for at least a few hours. The roads are beginning to change from dry dust to dusty with patches of mud and you can tell that as the rains continue the roads are going to get pretty muddy - I think I’ll be investing in a pair of wellies!

I’m feeling quite spoilt at the moment. I have my own room, with an en-suite shower which even has hot water (provided the electricity is on), all our meals and water are prepared for us and our rooms are cleaned as well! Saying that though, we have to wash our clothes by hand so it’s not all roses...but it’s pretty good really!

About 5 minutes walk along a red and dusty, untarmaced road, shared by pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes, the occasional car and many cows and goats, are the IcFEM head quarters. Everytime we walk there we are accosted by little kids asking us how we are - I’m not sure they ever really want to know, they just want to say hello.

Head quarters is home to a nursery, an internet cafe, a tailors, a small shop and library, offices for IcFEM staff and a couple of meeting rooms and a hall. Each day starts with morning devotions at 8am with different things taking place depending on the day of the week. Following morning devotions, people get on with the job in hand, some set off to surrounding villages to carry out their work, others are office based.

Our first week was spent mainly away from head quarters as we went out and about to find out a little about the work IcFEM is involved with. We spent one day visiting schools where IcFEM have helped with construction of buildings. The fact that we were three girls called Jo caused much amusement and confusion whenever we were introduced to a class (or anyone for that matter!) We had a great time at one school where we had an impromptu question and answer session with some of the older kids. After a slow start, we were bombarded with questions mainly about the differences between England and Kenya - ranging from what seasons do you have and are you near the equator to is polygamy allowed and are boys circumcised?!

The following two days were spent visiting eldery people in various villages where IcFEM are active. I guess I need to say a little about how IcFEM works to explain it all...basically, a fellowship of 25 people or more forms within a village. When there are 40 fellowships within one area these join to form a local unit. The fellowships remain distinct, but the leadership and members responsible for different areas of work all meet together at the local unit to encourage and support one another, learning from each other as they go. Through all of this there are 12 “line ministries” such as family unit, eldery, disabled, youth, education, health and welfare, agriculture and recreation & sports. Each line ministry is headed up by a small team who are based at headquarters and go out to visit the local units and fellowships encouraging and supporting them. The different line ministries seek to be practical outpourings of loving our neighbours as ourselves and to challenge attitudes and situations that work against this. The very practical work is based firmly on the belief that peoples lives are improved first and foremost by a right relationship with God and that this is key and central to changing situations and peoples lives in any lasting or substantial way.

Anyway, where was I...oh yeah, visiting the eldery... We spent one day at Chiskake (I think that’s how it’s spelt!) and one day at Sikhendu, both local units. Sarah is responsible for heading up the “eldery” line ministry within head quarters, so accompanied us to the local units where we met with those who were involved at the next level. They then took us out to visit a few people in their community who they know are in need and who they are helping. Help can be in many forms - we spent some time talking with these people sharing their laughter and their sadness, we prayed with them and also gave them a small packet of rice and some soap. Many of these people are unable to get around easily, sleeping and sitting on the floor. They live in small mud huts, some literally a couple of metres square, that are dark and smoky as they double us as bedroom and kitchen. Through the local units and fellowships, IcFEM are able to reach out to these people through their neighbours and those living around them. The fellowships are the hands and feet of IcFEM reaching out to those who are on their doorstep - a visit from a neighbour can make all the difference to an isolated eldery lady who struggles to get by alone.

Another way IcFEM is involved with helping people is through the Coral programme. This involves loaning a small amount to a struggling business that helps them get up and running more successfully. This loan can be used in many ways helping meet the short term needs of the person and their family. IcFEM then work with the person to help improve their business and trading skills, leading to a more successful business which will then support the family adequately longer term. We got to meet some people who had been helped by the Coral programme when we visited Kimilili market last Thursday. It’s a proper african market with rows and rows of stalls set out on the floor. There’s a section for fruit and veg, clothing, shoes, cattle, fabrics, household stuff and of course the smelly dried fish! It was a hot morning in the sunshine, but it was great to wander around an african market again and to meet some people whose lives have changed due to the work of IcFEM.

The rest of the week and the weekend were taken up by filling in forms...yet another way in which IcFEM is helping the local community is the Maize & Beans project. I’m not 100% sure of the full particulars, but they are working with the local farmers (5000 of them) and the bank to help provide small loans that will cover the cost of seeds and fertiliser for farmers which can be paid back at harvest time. Each farmers has to fill out a form which, it turns out, can be filled out in many, many different ways! There has been a massive amount of work generated for those at head quarters amending the forms and compiling lists of who is to get how much of what when it is all delivered to different villages. This hasn’t been helped by the fact that the power has been off lots lately so everything has had to be done by hands. I went on a bit of a mission over the weekend sorting out pages and pages of hand written lists of names, putting fellowships in alphabetical order within their local units so that peoples names can be found much quicker when it comes to the point of delivering the seeds and fertiliser. It totally drove me mad in the end, but you know what I’m like when I get something to sort out!

This week has been taken up by holiday club...I wasn’t going to be involved in this, but as the plans I am making in different areas of work are getting of the ground slowly, it turned out that I was free to be involved. This was great as an extra pair of hands and a loud voice were needed and I also ended up having a great time - although I’m now shattered and have a slightly sore throat! Jo, Jo and Gemma were running the games that were taking place in between the teaching sessions. Some of the games linked into the theme for the day, others were just an excuse to make lots of noise and run around. British bulldogs went down a storm although we renamed it “Ugali” (the kenyan name for enshima). It felt slightly suicidal shouting ugali at the top of your voice and watching 100 kids all charge towards you screaming!!! We also had a great game of Captain Splodge - involving paint, water and chasing the same 100 kids (who are much quicker than us!) round a big field in flip flops! The kids loved it though and spent the rest of the day coming to tell me that I was too slow to catch them...hopefully they will also remember the messages and lessons that were the basis for some of the games played! Jo, Jo, Gemma and I all sat down exhausted last night and noticed that we’re all rather pink after being out in the midday sun for 3 days - even my factor 50 didn’t do the job entirely!

Today has been a welcome slower day. I’ve caught up on some reading I need to do and put my head in order a bit about how to move forward with what I want to do in the forthcoming weeks. I’ve had lots of good discussions with people, but it takes time for discussions to turn into actions!

Well, that’s about it! I seem to still have the knack of writing a long blog even though I’ve felt a little rusty getting back into it. I just want to say something quickly about God’s timing - I’ve been meaning to write this for the last month or two but just not got round to it, so I’m going to do it now! A good friend sent me a text message before I left to wish me well and said that he knew I didn’t need luck as I seem to carry it with me. (You know who you are...so, hello! I know you’ll probably disagree with what I’m about to say, but I know you’ll chew it over anyway!! Missing you bert) It does seem that since I made the decision to set off to Africa where I felt that God was calling me to go, my life has been the luckiest ever...everything has fallen into place at exactly the right time and I have been spending my time doing things I enjoy in amazing places meeting new and interesting people....my time at home worked out perfectly and I met even more great people during my short stay at home...here’s a brief recap for those that can be bothered to read it...

• I met Jon from Dignity 2 days before finding out I was being made redundant - the plans he had set out (and needed volunteers for) fitted almost exactly with the plans I had in my head.
• My time in Zambia was full of little events and meetings with people at just the right moment to be able to help or encourage them and vice versa - I noticed this particularly in the last few weeks when I was on my own.
• My weeks holiday at the end of my time in Zambia worked out perfectly - an extra two day safari trip was being put on the week I was there (I wouldn’t have been able to go on either of the normal trips for various reasons) and I met a great couple who were working in Namibia and off to visit their relatives working as missionaries in Congo. As well as having a great day with them, it turned out Jeremy had been going to Victoria Falls regularly all his life having grown up near by (in African terms) so was the perfect tour guide to walk down to Boiling Pot with, the one place I wanted to go to and hadn’t made it to on my first visit and didn’t really fancy venturing to on my own.
• The very day I got back from Zambia, I got an email from a friend about a job opportunity (the coffee shop).
• The day I met the manager-to-be for the coffee shop (who I was to hand over to as I had only ever been there short term) another friend unknowingly texted me about a short term opportunity at an architects office.
• The period of work at the architects meant I would be setting off slightly later than planned, but would be travelling out and spending time at IcFEM at the same time as Jo and Jo....

....and so it goes on....Now, I know you could put this all down to luck, or call it happy coincidences...but I've been so consistently "lucky" that I cannot believe it is luck! I am convinced that this is God shaking and moving things in the way he does so perfectly to fit everything in place. He doesn’t promise us life will be easy or that times will never be hard, but he is in control and has promised to be sufficient.

The thing that blows my mind whenever I think about it is how God manages to tie it all together, constantly bringing in things from my past and skills he has given me to form my life as it is now...and then I think of all the other people he is doing exactly the same for and, well, at that point my mind can’t deal with it anymore as it really is amazing!

Oh - and I promise this is the last thing...I have to put straight something I said when I was in Zambia. I have to confess I have made a mistake...I said that I met a boy at the Falconer Home called Gary who spells it Gray...well, turns out, I'm wrong! Gary has a twin brother called Gray!!! My apoligies to both Gary and Gray...I did think that Gary did a good job of being everywhere all the time! I am now wondering whether I ever saw them together or not, whether they were playing a great twin joke on me or whether it was just miscommunication! Either which way - I felt I should put the record straight!!
___________________________

Thank God for:
- his perfect timing.
- safe travel and arrival.
- a great first two weeks settling in and the warm welcome we have received.
Please pray for:
- clarity about what to do and what not to do!
- renewed energy. I didn’t stop for the 3 months while I was at home and the first 2 weeks here have been go go go! I’m definitely looking forward to the long easter weekend.
- clear communication with people.