Big News!

When we started BeyondWater in 2007, we established a Board of Directors. Their job is to set up policies, procedures and as much as possible, ensure our future. This is not always easy when we’re based in Kenya and they in Aussie.

All of our boards are hand picked business men and women who have a passion for bringing about positive change through our work. We’re all in this together.

A couple of years ago, our Aussie board asked us to consider taking 6 months off for a sabbatical/long service leave. Can you imagine Pete sitting around for 6 months? Not only is he a sanguine, he has ADD and needs to be doing something practical, otherwise we all suffer. I get what they were saying, it’s time we took time out to refresh our batteries for the next season of the work.

We managed to whittle it down to 3 months. It’s still a long time and also means we can’t do fundraising when we go. We normally travel a few months a year in the US, Australia or New Zealand but if we were to take three months off, this wouldn’t happen.

We looked at doing short courses but nothing came up. Going back to Australia to see the family would’ve cost $10,000 just in flights – and it’s very expensive being there. Would’ve been great to go back and see them but this will have to wait until the end of 2025.

So, we’ve decided to take 12 weeks leave and drive in our landy all the way down to Namibia and back. That means going through Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and maybe even Malawi. We’ve all got things we want to see, the big one being Victoria Falls and the deserts of Namibia.

We were going to leave at the beginning of May but because we got back from New Zealand later than intended, we’ve delayed it. We might go at the beginning of June but we’ve a few things to wrap up in the office – like taxes first.

Check out our announcement here:

16 Years & Counting

In 2007, we came up with a crazy idea to give people across East Africa better and safer access to drinking water. Thus, BeyondWater was born. Originally it wasn’t called BeyondWater, because we were going to partner with a company in the USA, but in the end we decided along with our Board of Directors to go it alone.

Fast forward 5 years and we found ourselves moving to Nairobi, Kenya. The plan was to volunteer part time with some kiwis who had their own program and do BeyondWater part time. After two years, we parted ways.

It was then that things really started coming together. We had one part time person, then another and then we increased days and staff. We moved into a very small office and after a couple more years had to find somewhere bigger as our staff numbers increased.

Our original plan was to go back every few years to touch base with family and donors, but grandkids changed all that. Our youngest daughter Hannah, got married and then for the next few years kept birthing children. So, we (or at least Sharon) travelled back and forth to New Zealand and ended up speaking to community groups such as Rotary and also in schools. This actually set up a pattern for the next few years.

16 years later, we are active in several countries across East Africa. We have a large team based in Nairobi, community workers across Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda and Board of Directors in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Kenya.

With the family in Aussie

In November 2023, a wonderful couple from C3 Frisco in Texas surprised us with this video celebrating our 16th anniversary and the 240,000 people who each day get access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.

We don’t see ourselves as missionaries, but just normal people who stepped out to do something to help people help themselves. Yes, we have our personal faith in Jesus Christ, but BeyondWater was set up as a community group.

Giving out sanitary products in The Girl Project

We’re Back!

I wasn’t sure if I should try and get this blog going again so I’m giving it one more year. Liz and I have just finished our first week back in Nairobi. It’s the first time I have been here without Pete, but only two more weeks and he’s on home soil.

So what did the first week entail:

• Getting Liz into a routine in a new country
• Sorting out her phone, making sure she has Mpesa for funds
• Going through all the work laptops to make sure they’re updated and protected
• Lots of shopping for stock at Carrefour
• Going to church at ICC
• Team meetings
• Going to the gym
• Lots of washing clothes by hand
• Bucket showers

What’s the gym like?

We go to Smart Gyms at the Junction Mall. It’s a 15 minute walk from our apartment and depending on traffic, it could take that long to drive. It’s certainly not cheap, and at 13,750Kshs ($176) for 3 months you want to make it worth it. It’s modern, has music going, water available and the best showers.

Why do you hand wash your clothes?

Our apartment is so small that there’s no place for a washing machine. I’ll do a blog on it one day to show you what it’s like. The weather here is good so things only take a day to dry.

Why bucket showers?

When our 1,00litre tank runs out, the pipes get air bubbles in them. That means very little comes out of the taps, including the shower. I didn’t know how to get the air bubbles out so our friend Ayub came to the rescue. Once I sussed it out, it was no problem. Our landlord gets water in when Nairobi Water fails to supply, which is basically all the time. We had water for a couple of days and that was it. We have spare water containers around so that’s used for the toilet. Before I figured out how to bleed the pipes, it was a bucket shower for us. You can also have a bucket shower with just one litre of water.

While it’s been good to settle back in, we’re both looking forward to Pete returning home.

Biking the Dunstan Trail

When we were in New Zealand in 2021, Pete decided that it was a good idea that we should do some cycling. My brother, Dave, had already given him a bike, so off to Torpedo 7 we went. I told Pete that after going down South, the bike might gather dust in the garage. However, he insisted.

One of the coolest places we cycled was the Dunstan trail.

The Dunstan trail is halfway between Clyde and Cromwell. You can either cycle or walk the trail which is a whopping 55km’s in length. You can park at either the Clyde or Cromwell end and if you’re like us, you just do a portion of it.

We discovered that half way there’s a floating coffee shop, and its owner grew up in Kenya. They take cash and card. As someone who is a coeliac, I really appreciated that they had gluten free goodies available.

As someone who wasn’t an enthusiastic cyclist, I really enjoyed it. There were some hills that were too much to bike up so me like many others, simply got off and walked. Having a bell on your bike is a good idea as some of the corners are blind. The track is only skinny on a boardwalk at the base of a cliff, while most of it is quite wide.

You can hire an electric bike but make sure it can last the entire trip if you’re going to do the 55km. One poor lady we met was pushing her bike most of the way as the battery died and those bikes are particularly heavy. Also make sure you have a tyre repair kit.

We started at the Clyde end and one thing to note is that after the floating coffee shop there’s a sheer cliff to get your bike up. The trail looks tough and I really admired the kids that were doing it. There were some parents who had little trailers on the back of their bikes that little ones could sit in. That would be super tough work.

The great thing about the trail is that you can organise to be dropped up and picked up at either end.

The views are stunning and I highly suggest doing the trail, or part of it, biking or walking.

Here’s some helpful links:

https://centralotagonz.com/tracks-and-trails/lake-dunstan-trail/

https://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/lake-dunstan-cycle-trail/

Home

http://www.argyllonclyde.co.nz/

Care Packages

From our room we get to see people exercising, food dropoffs and a business centre. Sometimes people chat with relatives through the fences – there’s 2 layers of them to keep people separated.

Of course the main activity is people dropping off food parcels. Why, you may ask – the food is absolutely horrendous in MIQ. It’s pretty much always cold or lukewarm. Imagine having scrambled eggs that are only just warm? We aren’t allowed microwaves, toastie machines or toasters in our rooms in case they start a fire. The staff here spend a lot of time making sure everyone is separated so a fire drill is out of the question.

I am really glad we don’t have small kids in MIQ. Not only would they have lots of energy, they would hate the food.

We’ve done several Countdown orders but we were super blessed when my cousin Jeanette and her husband Jeff organised a care package for us. She baked us a lovely loaf and somehow smuggled in a huge knife. Check out the video below.

Exercising in MIQ

When you’re in MIQ (Managed isolation & Quarantine) the plan is to stay in your room as much as possible. Facilities have different rules, for some you can be out for only 30 minutes a day, for others, an hour.

At the Ibis Ellerslie, we can be out for an hour but you have to book it in. You can’t just wander out of your room whenever you want. If another bus from the airport is coming in, there will be an announcement over the PA saying when there’s a total lockdown of the exercise area.

Only one ‘bubble’ is permitted in the elevator at a time. You then walk on the lefthand side of the yellow dotted line at the entrance (don’t dare walk on the right). A member of the Defense Force checks you have the blue wristband on (says you don’t have Covid) and records your room number.

This is where you join a number of people at 2 metres apart walking around a specific carpark. There’s security guards onsite to make sure your mask is up and you keep separated. They take their job very seriously. It does get very monotonous going around and around the same circuit. The first day we went it was raining so that meant foggy glasses and it just wasn’t fun.

I’ve got into the habit of listening to podcasts. Pete’s given up going outside because he kept getting told to put his mask over his nose. He almost had a stand up argument with a police officer about it.

Instead he does a few exercises in our room (see video). I do a bit of exercise in our room but I do like getting out in the fresh air every couple of days.

MIQ Adventures – The Food

My cousin Cath was in MIQ a while back and posted lots of photos of her day-to-day adventures. She had the most amazing gluten-free meals and it gave me confidence that I wouldn’t starve when we were in there.

I was SO wrong. We’re at a different hotel than Cath (you don’t get a choice) was and the meals are very different too.

When you arrive at MIQ you’re given a whole lot of paperwork, including a meal choice for the next 2 weeks. Later in the day we were phoned up and had to choose every meal, right there and then – so great after flying for about 36 hours. Breakfast was either scrambled eggs, waffles or porridge. We chose the scrambled eggs.

What we didn’t know is that all of the meals would come lukewarm or cold. There’s no microwave to reheat anything so you have to eat it really fast.

Basically, the food is horrible. There’s been many a time that Pete has refused to eat it. His ‘toast’ at breakfast is this limpy thing that doesn’t have one bit of brown on it, and it goes straight into the bin.

Thankfully there’s online orders but no use ordering meals like pizza as they’ll be cold by the time it arrives. We’ve resorted to ordering from Countdown to help us have snacks on the days when it’s really bad.

Check out this video of our latest order.

MIQ Adventures

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but since we’re in MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) for 2 week in NZ (New Zealand), it’s a good opportunity to get writing again.

Each year we try to get to New Zealand, Aussie and/or the US on a speaking tour. We try to mix it in with conference and family events (like grand baby arrivals). In 2020 we got stuck in NZ for 10 months which was great because we got to hang out with our 3 grandkids but it was about 6 months longer than intended.

We headed back to Nairobi in January and had to take a good guess on when we should come back to NZ. The decision was made for us when Hannah, our youngest announce that she was pregnant with their fourth child, another girl, due in August. We know we couldn’t be in NZ for Christmas but needed enough time to speak to schools, community groups and churches about our work to raise more funds, to do more projects.

With the effects of Covid still happening there’s a lot of uncertainty of where and when we could travel. We knew that flying with Emirates was a sure deal because of the meat exports between NZ and the UAE. What we’re not sure is if we can get to Aussie and not be locked in, and the same with the US. Even though we are still fighting with Oman Air to give us credit back on our flight with them from last year, we used some of our house investment money to get back to our other home (NZ).

We’re really fortunate because we have a very small apartment, office and car in Nairobi. We also have a great team there that can keep things going while we’re away. We also have a little granny flat area at Hannah and Lukes place in Auckland, plus Bessie, our faithful old car. A lot of people who got stuck with not being able to get back were not in such a good place.

To get into NZ though we have to spend two weeks in a hotel room. Even as we got on the bus at the airport, we didn’t know where we were going to end up. As the navy officer in charge told us all ‘this is not a hotel, it’s a quarantine facility’. You can’t go out of your room. The meals are delivered to your door (half cold) and you have to get permission to go out to the exercise yard at a certain time. You get your temperature checked every day and three Covid tests during your stay.

I’ll be sharing about some of the unique adventures here and post some videos as well. Happy reading!

Life as a Refugee

The dictionary states that a refugee is ‘a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.’

Okay, we weren’t forced to flee our country of Kenya but with the COVID-19 virus, doesn’t it count as a natural disaster? Conspiracy theories aside, it definitely has thrown a spanner in the works for billions of people.

Lives have been lost, livelihoods destroyed, families separated, lots of online fearmongering.

I know of quite a few people, who like us, have been totally displaced and nothing we do can plan for the future. The very Sunday before we were locked down in New Zealand, we were at a church and as I was speaking to a lady there, her son and soon-to-be daughter in-law were meant to get married that Saturday. They had travelled from England to get married in front of their families. They left their homes, jobs and friends and like us, are now stuck here without any idea of when they can return. On one of our daily walks with the grandkids I’ve met a man whose wife is back in England and he is locked down here while visiting their grandkids. Another friend was out from Tanzania was visiting family, with her husband back home, and again, can’t get back.

These are but a few of the hundreds of thousands of people in the same boat.

Lockdown means something different in every country. In New Zealand for 4 weeks the only time you were permitted out of your house was to go out for fresh air or one family member to visit the supermarket. I broke a tooth so had an online appointment with a dentist and then went in the next day to get it fixed. Their doors were locked, so had to let them know when I arrived, I had to use hand sanitizer and then glove up.

For most, they are bunked down at family or friends homes. They have no income and no way to even think of employment in a country they haven’t lived in for decades. The only clothes you have are the few you packed for a short trip, and the weather is changing.

We are SO grateful to our daughter and son-in-law who have allowed us to bunk on an airbed at their place. We get to see our grandkids every day and can fit some work in between entertaining them. One of the things I’ve always said is that I love my kids, but I don’t want to live with them. For the first 5 weeks of lockdown I didn’t even unpack my hand luggage which has all of my clothes. It was easier to deny than to accept the situation.

As development workers we solely rely on our friends and family for financial support. Thankfully we have not seen a drop in donations, but we only live on $500 a week and a lot of that goes on rent and other expenses we are still paying for in Nairobi. You get something like a broken tooth that costs you $450 and it leaves you really stretched for important items like food. Without the support of our kids I have no idea what we would do. It’s also put them out a lot. Luke has to teach online so a lot of the time he has to hide in the kids room. They were going to put 6 month old Naomi into the room we’re sleeping in, but now can’t. Sure, we’re giving back where we can but for people who are hosting us refugees, it’s a real labour of love. Good news is, we haven’t killed each other yet.

We anticipated that we would be speaking most of the time in schools or business groups so would be wearing one of two dresses I packed. Besides that, it’s black tee shirts and jeans. Oh for some variety.

Like everyone else, lockdown is a mental challenge, not just a physical one.

The big question on every human’s mind is ‘when will this end’ or more importantly ‘when will life get back to normal’?

For we refugees, the big question is ‘when can we go home’?  Sure, airlines are giving credit for cancelled flights but then you have to pay the price difference when you rebook and where do you find the cash for this? It was heartbreaking to cancel our trip to Hawaii for a conference and then slowly cancel all of the other flights. I had got such sale prices on all of our flights that we will need to find thousands of dollars to rebook.

Of course for us this was meant to be our big fundraising tour for the year. It has caused us to rethink how we do things and bring plans forward a year. Storage facilities, online meetings, making sales via Facebook. We’re doing what we can to bring in funds to keep our staff and projects going but we will have a big shortfall in 2020.

We’re not the only ones though. It’s affecting thousands of development organisations like BeyondWater. People are being laid off from work, projects can’t operate because of a drop in funding and vulnerable people are in even more dire situations than ever before.

So, what does a refugee do in a situation like this? Like everyone else we take one day at a time and hope that we all adjust to the new ‘normal’ future we all will have to embrace. It is also a huge bonus that we have a personal faith that rests on such scriptures as Romans 8:28 ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.‘

 

 

 

 

 

Why I Went Grey

Whether you spell it gray or grey, it’s not blonde, brown or red.

I got my first grey hair at the age of 21. I was sitting outside a friends house when another person said “Sharon, you’ve got a grey hair!” and promptly pulled it out (thanks Mrs. Haines). It’s all been downhill from there.

In the end I ended up colouring my hair once a month. In Kenya it’s pretty expensive to buy the hair dye so I would get it in bulk when I was back in Australia and it would keep me going for a year. I’d do it myself because it was way cheaper than going to a hair salon.

I made a decision that by the age of 50 I wanted to stop dying my hair. That was easy to say but what about the important thing – what my husband thought.

I started by researching online, watching YouTube videos and seeing photos of people who looked fantastic with silver hair. Silver sounds more glamorous than grey. Pete was silent on the matter, which meant he didn’t approve. Basically he didn’t want an ‘old looking’ wife. Fair enough, but he wasn’t the one putting chemicals on his hair and therefore going into your body.

So, I stopped colouring my hair about August and when the skunky look happened I started using a coloured hair spray. It’s one where you match your hair colour with the bottle and just spray it on. It’s fantastic, but only till you wash your hair again. When you go running every second day, it was becoming a drag.

We were heading to the US in December on a speaking tour so Pete suggested that I invest the most money I’ve spent and get my hair professionally done. I went into the salon in Nairobi that specialises in foreigners hair, which is totally different from Kenyans. I told the lady that I wanted it to be highlighted as I was growing it out. I walked out exactly the same, and cried. Thankfully the owner organised for it to get redone and I absolutely loved it.

The first thing Pete said was “You look just like your cousin Jeanette” This is the only thing I felt I had ever really been selfish and done for myself, and I was okay with that.

And I’m never going back to colouring my hair.

In most cultures, having grey hair is really not appreciated, in fact, it is very much looked down upon. Well, too bad, my grey hair is going to stay. I stopped colouring my hair simply because I decided enough is enough – for me.

I’m over 50 and I’m embracing the more senior years of my life. We should enjoy each stage of our life and what it offers. Be comfortable in your own skin, and if you feel you need a few adjustments or something that makes you view yourself better – then go for it.

So if you want to go grey here’s some things to consider:

• It will take at least 2 years to grow it out
• You’ll need to put oil in the ends of your hair to stop it going straw like
• There’s a high probability that you’ll need to change your makeup colours
• Use purple shampoo once a week to stop the ‘brassiness’ that can occur
• Get regular hair cuts to promote hair growth