Umoja #2 in Durban

I love the guys at Tearfund's Inspired Individuals Initiative! They give me all sorts of wonderful opportunities - including a trip to Durban from the 2nd - 5th March for the second Umoja conference - with the wonderful Francis Njorge (a man whose brain I would love to download into my own!).

We stayed at the Bel Air Suites on Durban beachfront (lovely!) - and I enjoyed a fascinating couple of days - learning from the other delegates, and Francis - about community development and upliftment initiatives that work (a hand UP - instead of a hand-out!!)

An interesting, enlightening game (and fun!)...

Francis Njorge - our wise facilitator.

Musa & Nyasha (fellow Inspired's) having a laugh.

Joyce (from Zimbabwe), Theresa (from Malawi) and me. Joyce & Theresa are also nominees of Tearfund's Inspired Individuals Programme.

The Bel Air Suites on Durban Beachfront. Lovely hotel.

Umoja stuff.

Tracey Webster. "Inspired Individual" and good friend.

David (from Uganda) - also a Tearfund Inspired Individual.

Flip-pad of expectations.

Focus. Questions. Storytelling.

Our conference room...

The view from my hotel window of Durban's beachfront.

Inspired Patricia

As some of you may know, I was nominated as an Inspired Individual by international aid organisation, Tearfund, in 2009. One of my fellow Inspired Individuals, Patricia Sawo, is doing amazing work in Kenya - teaching the community about HIV/AIDS (Patricia has been living 'positively' for a number of years now).

Patricia has recently been selected as one of CNN's "Heroes" - click here to read the article and watch the video about this inspiring woman!

Music Video Shoot

On Saturday and Sunday, my husband was very busy filming the new music video for Joe Niemand (who is also a good friend of ours). Nick has shot / directed / edited 2 of Joe's music videos including Jericho and Your Surrender (click on my links to watch them).

The latest video is for the Afrikaans song, "Ek sal nie bang wees nie". The shoot location was at Fort Klapperkop in Pretoria - a lovely, scenic spot that I never even knew existed! I brought the kids along to watch their dad in action (they loved it).

Nick's cousin, Mike Brits, took these pics of the proceedings...