Happy Birthday, Libby

Today, 22 December, is the 4th birthday of our granddaughter, Libby Peet. Happy Birthday, Libby! The photo shows Libby playing on the dock next to the Mercy Ship, Africa Mercy, on which she lives with her Mummy and Daddy and brother and sister Noah and Anna. We took the photo when we were in Liberia with them in October/November this year. Since then the ship has journeyed to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for annual maintenance and insurance reassessment and Libby is enjoying the freedom of playing in the superb parks there. She is great fun.

Liberian snails

I actually had a letter published in The Times newspaper last Friday (12 December). A few days earlier an item had appeared in Young Times saying that, amongst other charitable gifts one can give to families in the developing world this Christmas, for £8 you could give 100 snails for a Liberian family to breed, eat and sell. The journalist described snails as " as slimy little things" so I wrote to the editor saying that Liberian snails are at least 4 inches long and boiled up with rice they make a very nourishing meal for a Liberian family. I attached a photo which Jenny took in November of snails being sold from a wheelbarrow in a Liberian market and The Times published both letter and photo. We hope that more people buy snails for Liberia as a result. If you would like to give £8's worth of snails to a Liberian family, log on to the charity Samaritan's Purse.