In January 2010 we moved to Arusha, Tanzania for Matt's job with the Nature Conservancy. This is my attempt to keep family updated on what we're doing (and document it for the kids to re-read when they are older).
Eight!! That means he's spent 3/4 of his life living in Tanzania. I can't believe it either.
8 years ago this silly boy entered our world and completed our family. Happy 8th Birthday, A-Bro!!
And he really does bring so much joy and silliness to our lives. This is what every day is like with him:
Tie-dye cupcakes for school
Chocolate cake for home
Matt promised to take Anderson camping for the weekend while the girls and I went to Dar Es Salaam for a swim competition. Per Anderson it was THE BEST way to spend his birthday weekend. He came home tired, muddy, covered in tsetse fly bites, and all smiles. Success!
And this is why they were late picking us up from the airport
Friday, the girls left school early and we flew to Dar Es Salaam for the TALISS Invitational Swim Championships "Don't fear the competition, make the competition fear you" was this year's motto. Well, ISM did their best to do just that. We had 13 swimmers from the Arusha campus (plus 13 from Moshi) representing ISM.
Overall from ISMAC we had:
13 swimmers
72 races
53 new personal best times
13 new course records
26 medals: 18 1st, 4 2nd, and 4 3rd
1 best overall swimmer
3rd place overall (with Moshi)
Tierney and Ashlyn did a total of 10 races and they got 9 new personal best times between them! Very impressive and great to see all the hard work pay off. It was fun to be there and feel the camaraderie of being part of a team. And the girls and I had fun staying in a hotel and going out to dinner together.
Traveling with friends is awesome
This is easy
Morning pep talk from new coach, Spike
Arusha and Moshi coaches strategize
"Don't fear the competition, make the competition fear you"
Happy girls in taxi on the way to the airport. Not bad after 13 hours at IST the day before and not enough sleep.
10 of our 13 swimmers with Spike (3 left the night before) at the airport on the way home.
Right back into it this morning for Spirit Week. Today was Rock Star Day. Made for a bit of an insane morning, but all smiles by the time they found their friends at school. (Grandma Sue - these wigs and accessories are already getting their money's worth!)
And I had a special encounter this morning. This beautiful, orphaned caracal was being taken for a walk by her caretaker when I happened to be running by, so I stopped to say hi. Lucky me. He said she likes to chase the butterflies when she's out. Very sweet. Judging by the size of her paws, I don't think it'll be too long before she wants something more than butterflies.
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