Only a few more hours

In 11 hours time Olly, Sally, Noah, Anna and Libby will be landing a Heathrow Airport after a long journey from Freetown, Sierra Leone via Banjul (Gambia) and Brussels, Belgium. We will be there to meet them, along with Ben, Claire, Thomas and Sophie and Wendy and Dave (Sally's Mum and stepfather). Then we will all drive in convoy to Pippin Cottage for a weekend of re-union and celebration. Claire, Thomas and Sophie have not seen Olly and his family for five years so there will be much to talk about. Jenny has been cooking for weeks and the larder and deep freeze are full of lovely meals. We've made the landing into a small bedroom for Noah (see photos) and a local craftsman has built a big wardrobe in the bedroom where Anna and Sophie will sleep - Jenny has wanted another wardrobe for some time and the return of the family was a good reason for finally having one. It was only finished a week ago since when I've given it three coats of paint, as the photos show.

More excitement

Extracts from Olly's recent email:

"We are so excited (to be returning to the UK) ... the kids are talking about about nothing else. Anna asked this afternoon if England is beautiful ... obviously they can't remember much.

We are looking forward to doing normal things - playing in the garden, going to the supermarket, watching Britain's Got Talent. And buying sweets. And fresh fruit. And milk. And soft bread. To think, CH village shop has probably got more fresh fruit and bread in stock than every supermarket in Freetown combined."

Many of the ordinary things we things we take for granted, sweets, fresh fruit, fresh milk, good bread and watching TV and much more are not readily available in West Africa. And you can't play in the garden (or play football or any ball game) on a ship, even the largest charity hospital ship in the world, the Africa Mercy.

These photos of a market in Liberia, West Africa, give an idea of what "shopping opportunities" there are there.