Keeping busy

Was it really ‘only’ a month since our last blog? Despite the summer (did we actually have one?) usually being a quieter time for many people it seems our August and September have been the busiest months in quite some time! In many ways that is a good sign, since Liz obviously felt well enough to cope with so much activity! Whilst we try to make sure we don’t pack our days with too many activities, she still needs to rest often and gets lots of help around the house she has generally been doing better. Please do celebrate with us and continue to pray for her full recovery.

Since we last wrote I (Matt) attended, and presented at, my first academic conference. My (co-written) presentation was on how to set up effective and sustainable mother tongue-based multilingual education, with some examples from our work in Africa and Asia. It was a good experience for us all; with me getting to meet others interested in this area of work/research and Liz and Levi coping well at home without me (with some valuable and much appreciated help). Since the conference I have spent most of my time preparing for teaching (alongside three colleagues) on the Literacy training course currently running at the Wycliffe centre. You can see all the things the students will be learning here. Fancy giving it a go next year?

Whilst the course is giving me a good opportunity to practice my teaching skills, it is also a nice chance to work with colleagues face-to-face and get to know the nine students. It is also a good reminder of the breadth of work we are involved in since the students come from six different countries and will be heading off to work in eight different locations! What a privilege it is to be part of helping to prepare them for the work they will be doing all over the world.

My focus is also now turning to the next few months. After a reasonably settled period: next week I will be travelling to a roundtable discussion in London hosted by UNICEF, Save the Children and a large research project; at the end of October I will spend a few days with colleagues in Paris at UNESCO discussing the role of education in post-2015 development goals; and in November I will travel to south-east Asia to visit a project and attend a workshop and meetings with colleagues. My teaching commitments will fit around these trips and run until Christmas so it is a busy, but exciting few months ahead! Not to mention that at some point during that time I will turn 30!

Finally, we couldn’t write without mentioning Levi. It is amazing to think that this time last year we were eagerly awaiting his arrival, attending antenatal classes and buying last minute items! Now he is ‘cruising’ (slowly for now!) around furniture, walking while holding our hands and saying ‘Mama’ (who knows what it really means) at every opportunity! Needless to say we are loving seeing him grow and hope that you can see him (again, or for some for the first time) soon.

The photos are mainly from a lovely week-off that we had with family in September. To see more just click here.