Spring Break 2012! Pangani Beach

We just got back from a very relaxing 5 days at the beach with our good friends Mirjam and Andrew and their 2 kids Simone (6) and Theo (3).  We stayed at another friend’s house there.  Well, it’s not really a house, it’s more like a compound.  There were 4 simple bandas for sleeping and one central area (open air) for eating, cooking, etc.  There’s no power, but there’s a cooktop and chest refrigerator that both run on propane tanks, so we just brought the tanks and all of our own food down.  They also have a hanging basket system for fruits and veggies. There are a couple of helpers/guards that are on staff to do the dishes/cleaning up and also fetch Anderson his fresh coconuts and help us clean fish what the local fisherman brought us.  It was great!  The kids had a blast playing together.  Next door we had more great friends (Ashy’s *friend* Ben), so it was very fun for all. 

It was really hot at the coast…African hot, so sleeping was a bit uncomfortable and we really didn’t let the kids out of the central area during the heat of the day except for the day that we went with the neighboring family to Maziwe Island for a snorkel trip.  And then, we just spent the entire day in the water.  (Thanks to Hagai for sharing his underwater photos). Tierney is now very adept with her snorkel and has no fear of touching things:  pic below in purple bathing suit you can see her holding a sea cucumber.  Also notice the guide in the picture with Matt; he’s snorkeling in his jeans.

Goats and local mamas on the beach

Ashy calls this her “sassy” look

Ash and Simone riding bikes on the beach

Red Snapper

Fetching and cutting coconuts

Beach time! Sand castles and beach tennis.  Ashlyn and Simone in particular were in the water constantly and it was difficult to call them in even as the sun set.

Time to go home.  Getting on the ferry to cross the Pangani River.

Roadside bus wisdom

We could have easily stayed at the beach another few days, but we have an opportunity to head to the Serengeti where a pack of wild dogs has started denning because the girl is pregnant.  It’s unusual for the packs to stay in a smaller area, so we’re going to give it a shot and see if we can find them.

Go Blue!

Got there just in time for the tug of war at the end of term Sports Day. 

No surprise to see T tucked right in there with Udine and Flora. 

Ashy giving it her best.  Is that her tongue that we see hanging out à la Uncle Chuck?

Somehow they even talked the moms and dads into getting out there (against the staff).  We won!

Go Blue!  Anderson’s first Sports Day and his sisters were there to help him. 

Blue Won the Day!

Bugs: ugh!

I may have mentioned our larger that life bugs a time or two in the past, but this year the icky ones seem to be out in full force.  A few that I’ll mention now.

The Nairobi Eye (or Nairobi Fly) is a pretty harmless little creature…that is unless you happen to crush it on your skin when it can cause third degree burns. Wikipedia:  “The beetles neither sting nor bite, but their haemolymph contains pederin, a potent toxin that causes blistering and Paederus dermatitis. The toxin is released when the beetle is crushed against the skin. People are advised to brush or blow the insect off their skin to prevent irritation.^[1]” We have been finding these everywhere this year.  We had seen them occasionally the last two years, but it’s been an infestation this year.  We thought it might be due to all of the construction around our house, but we’ve heard many others talking about them this year, too.  One night we had at least a hundred on the bathroom ceiling that I noticed as I was getting the kids bath ready one night.  No bath that night.  The kids know to flick them off instead of squishing them, but the harm comes when you just feel something crawling on you and your reaction is just to smack it.  We’ve had several friends with burns on their chest, face, and neck from these. 

Next is this scary looking centipede that we’ve seen twice in our time here and both times have been in the last month.  The first time was our trip to Brown’s Farm and then again today Ashlyn’s class found one crawling out of the sink.  Now we’ve been told that they are fairly common at the beach during the rainy season.  Great!  Not only is it scary looking, but it’s also extremely painful to get bitten by one. Although it looks like it would sting like a scorpion it actually bites you.  I think it’s the Tanzanian yellow legged Scolopendra.  When I asked another mom if they were dangerous or just painful she responded “Well, that depends.  Would you consider a non-fatal stab wound dangerous or just painful?”.   I think I’ll avoid these. 

The other thing we deal with regularly are mango flies (putzi fly).  Well, that might not be the way to phrase it because we don’t have to ‘deal with’ them at all….as long as our clothes are ironed.  The risk is that they lay eggs in the damp clothing and then they burrow into your skin and then you get an itchy boil and then a maggot pops out.  Harmful?  No.  Disgusting?  Yes.  Definitely!  So while everyone can tease us about having ironed underwear, I’ll take then any day over a worm hatching out of my skin.  But, if this does happen to you the solution is supposed to be to just put vaseline on the bump and then the larvae/maggots can’t breathe, so they pop right out.  Aren’t you glad you know?

(I’ll let you google your own pics of the boils, etc)

And you thought all we had to worry about were the large predators. 

This post won’t stop you from coming to visit, will it?

End of Term Student Lead Celebrations

Yesterday we had the end of term student lead celebrations where the kids get to show the parents all the things in their classroom (and beyond) that they’ve been learning.  I only took a couple of pictures, but I’m so proud of all three kids and what they were able to show off. 

Ash and her Georgia O’Keefe paintings

Tierney’s Biome in a Bottle

I also got to watch Tierney do a presentation to her class and the other parents on Grasslands last week.  She did the entire power point herself as well as all the research.  Amazing what they are learning.

Ashlyn’s class also lead last week’s Share Time at school.  They talked about organizing book week. They had to come dressed as a book character (Ash was Eloise, Tierney was Annie [from Magic Tree House books], and I could only get Anders to wear a character shirt [Thomas the Tank Engine])

 

Next week starts their spring break.  We’re off to the coast for some much needed beach and family time.