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Sudanese women making a biscuit thingy we ate for breakfast today
Day two of our Cush Consultation, and it has been cool this morning after rain yesterday, but since lunch time the heat and humidity has been building up again. The little biscuits we had were very spicey (sweet spice) and the water here doesn’t tast that nice so it is doctored with cinnamon to disguise the flavour. Which works well for a cup of tea, but the coffee is terrible when made with this water. Dinner last night was some very fine goat, and loads of spinach. Rice and cooked maize meal with everything, of course. There are no shower or bath facilities here, so it is a wash in a bucket of water, and a long-drop toilet. But the fellowship is great and the people are interesting. Including Billy, retired US Army Special Forces officer, who is teaching literacy to the SPLA, and in the process getting the chance to share the gospel. He is tough as nails, but has a huge heart for these people. He became a Green Beret in 1961, one the the very first. I will get an interview with him tomorrow, and also with the pilot of the DC 3.
This massive celebrating of Rose’s 50th hit day ten with (what Mark hopes, and what his bank insists is the last of) another fine meal out – this time with daughters Julie and Ashleigh, and their boyfriends – Ed and Liam. We ate Chinese, at a place called Opium Den ( I think) in Oxford, near the central bus station. Been there before, perhaps a year ago, when we were but tourists passing through. And so we finally got to meet Liam.
My brother Paul, known in the family as Pig (I had better explain that) flew in from JFK yesterday. A fleeting visit on the way to business in Austria and Germany, he had managed to detour via Gatwick to make the chance to come visit. We had a pleasant lunch out at the World’s End, a pub-restaurant near the delightful village of Patching – which is about a 10 minute drive from our house. It has become a favourite eating place for us. Patching village is the kind of place we would love to live in, if only we had lots of money! Houses in delightful villages are expensive.
About that Pig. Somehow, one day long ago, Mark – Rogan – Paul got abbreviated to Mick -Rig – Pig and it stuck. Only family seems to use the names, but they are definitely terms of affection. The photo above is after an excellent meal and before we all went home for a Sunday afternoon nap. Paul and Carol live in Connecticut, with various children and a slightly deranged chiwowow (I think that is the American spelling).
The picture here depicts part of the battle of Britain being fought high above the white chalk cliffs that mark the coastline here. We had a fabulous lunch at the Beachy Head Pub, high on top of the cliffs. Rose and I celebrated 29 years of being married today.
She deserves a medal! I remember 24 June 1978
like it was yesterday, and recalling some of the many events, changes, challenges, and joys that these years have brought is just amazing. After church today, we drove towards Eastbourne, and had decided to just stop somewhere that caught our eye, and so when we had looped through Eastbourne and heading back on the coastal road, we came across a sign to Beachy Head.
Unfortunately it was raining too hard for us to take a walk around, but seeing that there are a number of walking routes, I think we shall be back before the end of summer. For more interesting information about Beachy Head, have a look at this website. Nearby, are the Seven Sisters cliffs, and another walking trail, that we would like to try sometime. This photo came from Bradford Genealogy (thanks). 
MY VALENTINE 2007 Rose made a delicious meal which included Thai Stuffed Salmon,
as a special dinner on Valentine’s Day. We realised as we shared
another romantic evening, that 1973 was probably the first year that
I sent her a Valentine card (which she still has). Aaah, young love has
become decidely middle-aged love, but it’s all still good!
One observation about UK life is that Valentine’s Day, whilst commercialised here too, is knowhere near the same hype and hysteria the media and advertising whips up in South Africa. Are the Brits just far more sensible about such things, or are they less inclined to be overtly romantic? Don’t know – but we did like the fact that TV was not splashed with endless ways to part with your money to prove your love, as they do in the former apartheid regime country. Mind you, red roses on 14 Feb were ridiculously overpriced here.
Last week Rose and I had lunch at a favourite restaurant called SPLASHES, at the entrance to the docks in Durban harbour. It is in the old Shotblast Shed, and very close to the new harbour and waterfront developments that are changing the old port area significantly. We like the seafood there, and there is usually a ship or three that arrives or leaves. Here we see a container ship leaving Durban. The harbour pilot has taken the ship out of the dock area, and his helicopter has just arrived to hoist him up and back to his office, or the next ship. In the background is Durban Bluff. 
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