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Rallying round
Summer clothes and science equipment are sharing space in Sue Hayward's luggage.
And when, eventually, I get round to packing my suitcase ready for Friday's flight to Kenya, clothes are being kept to a minimum to make way for face paints, test tubes and other much-needed teaching aids for the village school in Watamu, plus some presents for my four-year-old sponsor child, Barke.
I'll be meeting her for the first time, and I am so excited.
I've bought her a Barbie complete with several changes of outfit, and some new clothes for Barke herself, including the item she needs the most ... a pair of shoes.
In the first of our two weeks there, Blackpool hotelier Sue will introduce me to the village that has become her home from home, and where she and her husband, Dave, plan to spend the rest of their lives, with an adopted family of 100 orphans!
After writing so many words about Sue and the charity she founded, Children of Watamu, I will be seeing all it is doing in the impoverished community and will hear, first hand, how the community she is shaping feels about her remarkable efforts.
First stop will be the Happy House orphanage, to check progress of building work and see how the first crops of fruit and veg are coming along.
We will be going into Watamu SDA School, transformed by Sue's charity from a tumbledown shack to a state of the art school, with 700 children in full-time education, to meet kids and talk to teachers. Sue and headteacher, Silas, will be making final arrangements to welcome a party of sixth formers from Lytham St Annes High.
There's sure to be a buzz of excitement among the Watamu children about the pending arrivals who have all kinds of fun lessons planned.
The Fylde students won't be travelling light.
They are bringing yet more science equipment and musical instruments, bought with their own fundraising, plus sports equipment donated by Heyhouses CE School, St Annes.
I will be sending back reports and pictures so Eve readers, who are helping to finish and
furnish the Happy House by supporting our Eve in Africa Appeal, to will see how their money will make a difference.
And via our link, friends and family of the LSA High party can follow their African adventure.
I've got a batch of Eve in Africa stickers to hand out to the kids (all kids love stickers), thanks to the kindness of Mark Booth, owner of Bispham print and design company Minuteman Press. Mark does the printing for Children of Watamu using Andy Makin's designs.
He and his designer, Andy Makin, are full of admiration for Sue's work.
"Sue is fantastic.
"The effort commitment and work she puts in to achieve what she wants for these children is incredible. I have never come across anyone else like her."
* Don't miss Elizabeth Gomm's blog on the Eve in Africa site at www.blackpool.gazette.co.uk
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Weather for Blackpool
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 30 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 30 mph
Wind direction: North west
