Swimming and other delights

Today we fulfilled one of Kitty's homesick longings at last ...

Fish and Chips!

Mr B is off counting ducks in Tarangire for a few days, so  we decided to join two other mums and assorted children for an afternoon swim and dinner at the Ilboru Safari Lodge. Very pleasant location about 5 mins walk from our house. Since I signed up for a months use of the pool we have been at least twice a week but this was our first meal there. The 'dry' season is finally starting to be sunny and dry, and it's lovely to be able to be outside such a lot, even eating dinner outside.

The Mancub still runs in off the side of the pool whether there is anyone there to catch him or not (fortunately he only does it if I am at least nearby). He doesn't seem to mind getting completely submerged, just commenting on the 'water' in his 'eyes'. Today however he decided he could do the same off  a ledge over a bit of garden, insisting that he do a 'big jump' on his 'oooooown!' Given that it was about 3.5 ft high I was rather reluctant to allow this and ended up just about catching him in time a few times before, thankfully, fish and chips arrived and he could be distracted.

Kitty has never had such enthusiastic suicidal tendencies confidence about the water, but is now happy bobbing about on her own with armbands, and was thrilled today to discover, after a lot of persuasion,  that she could actually 'jump' in on her own without needing catching. On dry land she is much more confident about some things, wanting to jump down 7 ft and be caught, but still very cautious about trying new things. She has a new classmate this week who is Tanzanian and doesn't speak English yet, and she is keen to learn some more Swahili to speak with him and others we meet. She now likes to practice the respectful greeting "shikamoo" whenever we pass someone with wrinkles or white hair and yesterday she learnt to say "would you like this?" to help her classmate. (The Mancub joined in, yelling "kitu hiki!" repeatedly for a while. He uses his own amalgam of swahili and english, such as "bye hairy" instead of "kwaheri" for goodbye)

Tomorrow is a madly busy and social day. Somehow in the morning I have to drop off Kitty, buy huge quantities of various drinks and pick up huge quantities of crockery and cutlery which we are borrowing, all for the housewarming on saturday. I think we ended up inviting half of Arusha... At least it's a pot luck lunch so I'm going to provide bread, drinks and snacks and hope that between them all we get a reasonable balance of food... Then the Mancub and I have to get back to school for 12.00 to head out for a lunchtime birthday party, followed by a trek out to Usa to visit Kitty's friend O. The Usa trip was planned before the birthday invite and it's so nice out there we have foolishly confidently decided to do both in the same afternoon....My hope is that, like today, I will only end up providing breakfast, so even if it is a mammoth day I get a break from meal preparation! I think by Sunday we'll be ready for a bit of peace and quiet.