Life and Times in Halifax

Hi Folks,

We have had a very busy two weeks. Our company had a staff conference in Halifax. We did not experience the WORST of it - because we work for a non-profit organization, things are always done on the cheap. While Ron & I slept in our cozy bed all the other staff were sleeping in university residence beds and eating residence cafeteria food.

The BEST of it was seeing all kinds of old friends. There was never enough time to completely catch up but whatever we got was nice. The conference speakers were encouraging us to incorporate into our work some sort of social justice initiatives. They pointed out that you can't read the New Testament and skip over the verses that talk about the poor, oppressed, widows and orphans. Their work is mainly among vulnerable and marginalized women in Eastern Europe - they help them set up microenterprises to support their families. They also work in Africa and were kind enough to speak to us over dinner about what they've learned. Some of the things that we are starting to do in Uganda are similar to what they are doing in Kenya & Ethiopia - mainly helping women to start small businesses to provide for their families - right now in Uganda it is making needlepoint crafts to sell to the tourist market. We are just at the beginning and have much to learn! The speakers said that the best bang for your buck was educating women with a trade. That really got the wheels turning for me. I will be doing some reading on international development this year.

We even got to go on a cruise on a tall ship - which our kids loved. We had to dress up as pirates (costume parties are not our finest hour - but we did it). Then after the conference ended the kids begged us to go to the Buskers Festival. We saw two bad acts & one excellent one called the "English Gents" - amazing acrobats.

After so much rain and cold we been having 30C weather - pretty unheard of in Halifax. We have been going to the beach alot. Today Dan's friend Cam wanted to take us to a new place - a secluded lake with cliffs that you can jump off of. I will go again, but will insist that Matt and Sam wear lifejackets! It was one of those situations that felt a little dangerous - diving off cliffs far from shore and with no cell phone. Fortunately no one got hurt.

Yesterday Ron took the kids to a lifeguarded beach & there was a near drowning. The lifeguard saw a 5 year old floating face down, rescued him and a physician on the beach rescuitated him (he was unconscious). VERY VERY SCARY.