Mother’s Day at Maramboi

For Mother’s Day (and Mother’s Day Eve:  a day that I think should get more attention), we went away with the Phillips clan to Maramboi tented camp about a hour and a half from Arusha just outside Tarangire National Park.  We had a great time relaxing by the pool, going for a game walk, and enjoying watching the beautiful scenery and wildlife right from the lodge.  We watched zebra, wildebeest, impala, and warthogs right from the tent and pool with the great rift wall and Lake Manyara as a backdrop.  We even had a nice welcome to our tent by a snake sitting across the bottom step.  Big thank you to my sweet husband for organizing for us all!

Unfortunately, the baby bunnies did not have as nice of a weekend and we came home to only two (there were seven).  We are unsure of their fate, but it did offer more teaching opportunities on the circle of life for the kids. 

Maramboi

Sundowners and yoga poolside.

Walk among the zebra and wildebeest

It’s getting a little dry (impala skull)

Exploring poop and a zebra carcass

And on the way home we drove past an overturned beer distributor’s truck.  The local Maasai took the opportunity to turn it into a roadside party. 

Another great weekend in Tanzania.  You should really think about coming to visit. 

Luckiest Mom Ever

I am the luckiest mom ever!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms.  I hope you all feel as lucky as I do.

Landscape Field Trip

The girls’ classes had a field trip to the Dorobo campsite in Olasiti (local village) where they could implement some of the things they were learning in school about landscapes.  They were asked to look and talk about different landscapes and the ways that they see people (and animals) using and interacting with the land.  Despite my last field trip experience, I volunteered to go along again.  While not as dramatic as the last time, I did end up with ants in my pants. Literally.  Seems to be the season for the dreaded siafu that make highways through the grass and quickly climb up your legs and start munching away on your skin.  I managed to get most of them, but couldn’t get one out, so I ended up having to duck behind a car and quickly take off my pants to locate (and kill) the offender.  I still had a great time hanging out with the girls all day and watching them learn and interact with their friends and teachers. 

Ashlyn was excited about the field trip, but was very concerned when she figured out that Thursday is also one of the days that Anderson goes to school.  She told her teacher that she didn’t know if she could go because what if Anderson needed her during the day.  She’s so sweet. 

Using Dorobo as a base for regrouping, break, lunch, and games, the kids went for walks to neighboring farms and villages.  For each of the stops they had to draw the landscape that they were seeing.  This included horses, zebras, cows, goats, farms, fences, village stores, women and children out and about, and mud huts.  I think the local kids were more intrigued with us than we were with them. 

Bikes and Books

Ashlyn is moving out of a grumpy reactive phase and maturing into a much happier, more stable mood – which is great.  It is really fun to watch her grow and mature.  I am convinced much of the reason behind this transition is the confidence she has gained recently from learning to read and learning how to ride a bike.  I noticed this with Tierney too – but the explosion of the mind, the body and the resulting confidence of this combination is amazing. 

Ashlyn is conquering reading.  She still struggles with new words a bit, but understands how to sound them out and loves doing it on her own.  I have found her recently putting herself to bed with books and sitting quietly on the couch reading.  Incredible – really – to watch this transition from a go-go-go high energy girl.  She loves the independence it gives her. Perhaps she likes how she can share reading with her big sister too?

Ashlyn’s biking is equally great to witness.  She loves to ride to school now.  2 weeks ago we were riding around the ‘neighborhood’ – actually we call it riding around the block – which is really just down our dirt road and turning left 3 times on dirt double tracks with 16 inch grass in between the tire tracks and on the sides.  It’s pretty intense mountain biking for someone just learning to ride with small tires going over fairly good sized rocks.  Anyway, she fell pretty hard on the dirt and scraped her knee and hands.  She screamed at me for not catching her and said she was never getting on the bike again.  Literally 10 seconds later, I reached down to pick up the bike ready to push it home on my own with a mad Ashlyn pouting behind me, but she grabbed it from me and said, “No – I am riding it!”  And with a smile she said, “Daddy, will you start me.”   I was happily shocked – her stubbornness pays off.  

Tierney is reading everything – and reading really well.  She is great with Ashlyn and encourages her to try new words and let’s her stumble through without correcting her too much.  Her biking is amazing to watch, and her swimming, and her football and today I taught her how to dribble a basketball at ISM after school.  She picked it up in seconds.  Gabriel, her piano teacher, told me that he loves how calm and focused Tierney is during class and loves teaching her.  He told Lisa this a few months ago as well, but it was nice to hear again today.

I don’t remember really learning to read, but I remember learning to ride my bike – 14 Trowbridge street, Newton – we had a stump near the garage and I would push off the stump balance and pedal 8-9 times downhill and then crash into the grass.  I must have done that 30 times a day until I figured it out.  I wonder if they will remember learning to ride their bikes to ISM in 35 years?

While not reading or biking (with pedals) yet, Anderson is off to school and loving his time there.  I picked him up today at 2:30 and he was sitting talking to his friend Kavi (3yrs) while eating pineapple, cucumber, carrots and watermelon as a mid-afternoon snack.  Good stuff.

And finally, the new fascination with music is hilarious:

Tierney and Ashlyn chillin’ out after dinner

Baby Bunnies!

A little late for Easter, but we now have seven newborn bunnies.  We’re not sure when it happened, but it was sometime between when we brought Banksie in to play yesterday afternoon and this morning.  Matt was just telling us this weekend that he thought Brownie was pregnant because she was acting very mkali lately (mkali is a swahili word that sort of means testy/mean/sharp) – that’s why we only were able to bring Banksie in the house yesterday.

Banksie in for some playtime yesterday. 

Newborn bunnies today.

Crater Hike: Shimo ya Mugu

David had once seen a pretty large crater not too far from our houses when he was flying over Arusha.  Well today, Matt and David located it on google earth, recorded its GPS points, and off we went in search of it.  After several failed attempts (getting stopped by ravines or fields of maize) we came across a very nice mzee (old man) who agreed to get in the car and take us there.  Although I think we could have made it there eventually it was nice to have him and take us on roads (if you can call two lane cow paths a road) the rest of the way.  It was a beautiful crater… very green and very steep.  The local boys said it’s called Shimo la Mungu which is literally Hole/Pit of God.   Not sure if that is a name for all craters or this particular one, but I like it.  The kids made friends with the local maasai kids who followed us everywhere.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. 

The Boys (Anderson, Cole, and Birch) checking out the maasai cattle

Very steep walls made for a steep hike down.

Tierney exploring a termite mound

Some interesting branding on their cattle.

Last night we were also able to have sundowners with friends on a hilltop with one of the best views of Arusha.  I must say that nights are starting to get pretty chilly – fleece or sweatshirts were definitely required.