The Manuel Family Christmas 2010 News Update

Christmas 2010 is upon us and what a year it has been. However we, in the Manuel family, are all well. Jamie, Mum and Dad are in Kenya and I am now working in Uganda but am home for Christmas. Here are just a few snaps of the family to show how happy and healthy we all are. Mum has done a few BBC jobs, so make sure you watch the series next year: Rich, Famous and .... She did .. and in the slums! (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r9297) She had lots of adventures there and will hopefully be seen often and not edited out! Her oil business is going well and Dad is also very busy in his workshop while Jamie has had one of 'the hardest jobs in (his) life' catching and relocating 21 warthogs! I seem to have been everywhere this year from South Africa, to Botswana and Zambia and now Uganda .. where I'll be for two years now so come and visit if you are passing through. 

Brother Jim (home)

Me and a white lion cub ... not ethical I know .. (South Africa)

Dad catches one the best fish of the entire holiday by line  (Zimbabwe trip)

But Jim catches a much larger number ... spear fishing  (Zimbabwe trip)

Dad and Jamie at Dad's 67th birthday (home)

Dad and Darsi on another fishing trip (Dimbolil Dam)

Me (Sweden)

Me camping in Lake Nakuru Park

Mum and I on Mutemwa Rock (Zimbabwe Trip)

A lovely picture of Mum and Dad with Nzo the elephant and one of her buffalo in the background (Zimbabwe trip)

Mum with the largest mushrooms you have ever seen (Zimbabwe trip)

Mum by Numwa Dam on Imire Safari Ranch (Zimbabwe trip)

Mum on Mutemwa Rock with the incredible view beyond (Zimbabwe trip)

Three lovely 'old ladies' and their coffee: Jessica, Mum and Cheryle (Carnelley's Camp)

Along with three cheerful 'old men': Anthony, Robin and Dad (Carnelly's Camp)

And Vincent is still going strong too .. for those of you who remember him (Home)

The garden too is looking lovely ... Jamie's mud hut in the garden has also been renovated and now hosts a bathroom and has had the walls filled in so for those who want to come and stay we have a mud hut at your service! (Canadian cousins no more fear of being tied up by a hopeless bunch of thieves!!)

The view over the valley from home

The garden at home

A view of the house from the side

The house from the with Goondong in the foreground

Dad is still fixing farm machinery which means taking the gateposts out every time we need to get them in or out!

A view of the mud hut ... now renovated

Another view of the front garden

A view towards the hills from the neighbouring coffee estate

Looking across the valley at our house

Kibo on the verandah

Kibo (the alsation) has just had 5 puppies ... great presents for Christmas.

Uganda

These photos are not supposed to be amazing they are just to show you all where I am living and working ... nothing very special

This is the house 'Claire's House' where eight of us including Claire and her daughter Olivia live

These are the fabulous dogs Bella, Poppy and Kiera who are great fun to be with

  

This is my room (4mx4m) .. tiny but comfortable it is in the garden

Last night (01/11/2010) we had a thunderstorm and I started a story .. I'll finish it one day ..

Last night the rain thundered on the roof as I lay listening. Thundered as only the rain in Africa can do, spray dampening the curtain that hung with painted dragons and flapped in the wind with a fury that only a dragon can summon. The butterflies on my walls appeared life like and delicate as their paper wings almost tore with the force of the gusts. I lay, huddled in the deepest depths of warmth, blankets up to my chin as the fury continued unabated. Lightning intermittently lit the sky with cracks that left dogs whimpering and the homeless frightened. Thunder claps reverberated from the stone walls and sometimes a tree, bent over in a fight to remain upstanding, would tear from its roots or splinter when the wind found its weakness.

And this is the Uganda Carbon Bureau office where I work, set in the beautiful garden of Bill (boss) and his wife Sue

So there we go ... not fascinating but informative!!!