Ice-cream

Okay - now we've really arrived. I have 7 contacts on my mobile, I've actually met 6 of them and I only live with one of them. We've had our first powercut and found the candles and lighter. We have been invited to and attended our first social engagement (meeting L who I spoke to on the phone yesterday). And we have looked around 4 houses in various dusty corners of Njiro - a district on the south-east side of town. We would like to live on the west side but no-one seems to know of any houses available there at the moment so we thought we'd at least get a feel for what houses and prices are like.

Kitty and the Mancub have had their first Tanzanian ice-creams this afternoon having survived a hot and dusty (and rather more circuitous than neccessary after I forgot the streetmap) walk to the cafe, and I partook of a 'Healthy Juice', not by choice but because the Passionfruit had apparently just run out. It was surprisingly nice. L turns out to be as lovely, helpful and generous in person as she appeared on all the emails we've exchanged over the last few months. Not only had she bought us the newly published "Passport to Arusha" - the DEFINITIVE directory, but she had also prepared several pages of useful info herself. Thanks L! L had brought along her elder daughter E who is the same age as Kitty and they were soon playing together which was great. (The Mancub had brought his tractor and train so he was happy).

Tomorrow we're off to look at a Landrover and Mr B is going to visit TAWIRI - the Tanzania Wildlife and Research Institute, who have hopefully finalised his work permit and may provide deskspace. Saturday we're probably meeting up with F and N - an English couple who have also just moved here with their 2 year old and a baby on the way. And of course at some point we need to take Kitty to the visiting circus up the road which is apparently amazing and dirt cheap.

Mama