Waffles and watercolours

In a spirit of true confidence in our joint hospitality skills, one of our readership, who shall remain nameless,  has taken our delay in describing the house warming party to imply that it was a social disaster...

So, although we failed to take any pictures during the party itself due to food and drink replenishing, child minding and chatting (in that order for me), here is one a mere 20 mins or so before it all kicked off.

Yes, here I am creating a mammoth quantity of non-alcoholic fruit punch to go alongside the beer, wine and sodas. 

The party was great. Although several of our friends couldn't make it (a fair number of them run safaris or disappear off to far flung corners of East Africa on a regular basis for other reasons, such as health and education work or training for ministry), there was still a big crowd, with people coming and going for about 5 hours. I've no idea how many people came but we got through almost 2 of the above vats of fruit punch, as well as other drinks. It was lovely to be able to welcome to our home so many people who have given or lent us their homes, time, food, advice, toys, books... And it was nice to see people we know from different aspects of our lives getting to know each other too. The bring and share pot luck lunch was great - a real hotchpotch of different cuisines, and just enough without much left over. (And lots of people brought home made biscuits which is never a problem....)

We've had another social week so far. Monday saw the Mancub and me at the Blue Heron cafe meeting our friends M and 2.5 year old D. That morning we also finally made it to what is probably the best stationary shop in town, buying paints, enormous sheets of paper, scissors and even indoor fireworks ready for Kitty's birthday cake in a month. The paints and paper were promptly pressed into action that afternoon.

 

Tuesday afternoon we headed on from school to another cafe "This n That" to revisit the kittens in the bathroom. It was the first time the Mancub had seen them and he was enthralled, though somewhat wary. We all had cuddles and strokes with them until they decided it was time for some milk and promptly fell fast asleep in a huge feline pile of fur. Heading home we opted for a swim and then the children shared a plate of fish and chips at the lodge, finishing just in time for our rendezvous with T and A, a nearly retired couple from British Columbia who have worked in Serengeti for over 40 years. T was how Mr B got involved in Tanzanian ecology in the first place. We jumped into their shiny new landcruiser and guided them to our house, where Mr B had been manfully beating back the pizza base I had made earlier and coating it with red onion, courgette, feta and sun-dried tomato topping. (The pizza bases always struggled to rise in Aberdeen - here they take over the whole kitchen if we leave them too long...) We had a very nice evening with them and have an open invitation to visit them in their new house on Lake Victoria, which sounds lovely except for the drive to get there.

Yesterday we had a guest from next door for a few hours after Emma got home. This is R, who has been to visit us once before and is delightful. Her main passion is football but she will consent to stop practice occasionally to drink milkshake, adorn cardboard boxes with felt-tip and sticker and, of course, ride the pikipiki!  She is polite, well behaved, full of fun and a David Beckham in the making.

And today's social afternoon involved taking care of two other children - B (whose 4th birthday party we attended a few weeks ago) and his little sister H who is 18 months. Their Mum, who is Hungarian, was having a job interview over Skype for a post teaching English in Germany. She lent us her waffle maker as well as her children so we had a happy and calorific tea with waffles, banana and chocolate sauce, raspberry jam and orange juice and sugar. And then threw them all in the bath (the children that is). I did take some pictures but will resist putting them on here. When Mama and Papa arrived for them, we fed them waffles as well, while hearing about their holiday in Pangani (on the coast). We will now definitely be trying to book for the same place for when Grandma comes in a few weeks. It sounds idyllic.