Growling match

Our entertainment comes in unusual forms these days. My mum always said that babies are little time wasters, and it's so true! How much of my day could I spend just watching our little girl just waiting to see if she will do something?! These days she is starting to do more than just lie there helplessly. She smiles and (sort of) laughs and talks all the time and I'm sure it won't be long until she rolls of something. I walked in on her having the following conversation with her Daddy:

Did I say conversation?!

Our 1st Krismasi

Our Krismasi was certainly a bit different this year. We find we are slowly but surely being taken over by all things baby and small child. We definitely missed being with our family back home, especially this year, but having Anna around certainly made the day extra special and eye opening when you think about what it is we celebrate on this day - God come to earth as a baby.

We got lots of exciting zawadi's (gifts) through the post (mostly for Anna who didn't have the foggiest what was going on and why mummy and daddy were acting so strangely and propping her up to take pictures of her 'opening' presents...), we read the Christmas story together, had an enormous roast chicken dinner with Christmas pud, went to the beach and then watched 'The A-Team' in bed with the A/C pumping in the evening. All in all a good day :)

Stocking ready and waiting!

Zawadi heaven!

Princess dress up now comes in baby size! Completely ridiculous but gorgeous all the same!! (It's Cinderella just in case you can't tell!)

We hope that you all had a Happy Christmas wherever you were, whether you were where you were supposed to be or not!

Following in Daddy's Footsteps.

Paula's Piki Piki Lesson

I always fancied having a Vespa and zooming around town on it but it never really seemed appropriate for our needs before. Here everyone gets around on 'piki piki's' (used generally for any kind of bike with an engine). Got a family of 5? No worries! Need to transport your new car windscreen? No problem! (Seriously, we have seen both these and lots more.)

Our school was recently given a couple of piki piki's from Germany and after bringing one home today, Rich decided I should have a lesson. Obviously since I was refused a license on account of my gender, I was limited to riding round and round our house. However, if I may say so myself, I got quite good at this particular route and as you can see from the smile, I rather enjoyed myself!

(Now all I have to do is convince Rich that I should have one :))

Making friends

Since arriving back, we have gradually been trying to visit all our old neighbours and friends. A good friend of Rich's and his wife had their sixth child in August while we were back in England so we went to visit them and meet their new baby. Although almost two months older than Anna, as you can see from the photo there really isn't much difference in size and everyone tells us what a big baby she is. (The women are all very impressed when I tell them I delivered a 4.5Kg baby!!)

It really seems that having a baby here in this culture is the key to getting to know people and making friends. They LOVE babies here and everywhere I go, after being asked 'mtoto hajambo?' (basically 'your baby's OK?') Anna is whisked away to been shown to someone else who may or may not be in the same room/house/street!! For the most part Anna does brilliantly and smiles at everyone, listens to them babble away at her in a new (to her) language and just watches what is going on.

Learner Drivers

We all love to hate them. They are overly cautious and drive exactly on or just below the speed limit, they are afraid of the edge of the road and still feed the steering wheel through their hands. But we've all been there and done it ourselves. I am referring of course to learner drivers.

It seems like it is possible for anyone here to start up a diving school, and that is exactly what people have been doing. All you need is a car and a big bit of wood to stick on top with your big red 'L' painted on it, and you're away. It seems that 'aerodynamic' was not part of the design brief when making up these signs and as we were driving behind this car the other day I just felt I had to capture the moment and share it with you all.

I don't know what happens when there are strong winds... maybe the lesson is cancelled??

Learning to Swim Part 2.

As it is yet again the weekend, we headed to a local hotel yesterday for Anna to have her next swimming lesson. (Contrary to what it may seem like from this blog at the moment, we don't spend all our time swimming in crystal clear seas and lounging under palm trees next to swimming pools!)

Anna making use of her new sun tent and having a snooze by the pool.

Smiling at Dad - 'maybe this swimming malarky's not so bad after all...'

Drying off in her new beach robe.

Posted at the risk of having two sets of grandparents arriving in order to take Anna away from her unfit parents!

Back to Shule

On Thursday Anna and I headed to Roxanne's house to visit the kids from Shule. Apparently before we arrived they were super excited to meet Anna but when we got there they came over all shy. They loved showing off all the English they have learnt and singing some new songs, including 'The Wheels on the Bus' and a song about the days of the week.

Anna enjoyed the whole experience so much she fell asleep (No mean feat when you hear how much noise these kids can make!!).

It was great to see and hear how much progress these children have made over the last four and a half months. Most importantly, they now know how to ask their teacher for candy in English!!

First swimming lesson.

I think I briefly mentioned Anna's first swimming lesson in my last post. Here's a few photo's to give you a better idea of how it went!!

Not off to a good start - she doesn't look too impressed!

This photo clearly shows the trauma the poor little thing went through. However, when we took her out of her float (which is a bit on the big size at the moment) she was a bit happier. No smiles as yet but no screaming either!

We also took her swimming to a swimming pool in a local hotel the following day and she had her first taste of being underwater!!! Although it was on purpose, it was a bit of a shock to all involved, but Anna didn't cry or scream (just coughed a bit). She will be a water baby yet :)

We're back!

After a drama filled evening and morning before our scheduled flight back to Tanzania (we found out when we tried to book in online that a ticket had never been issued for Anna and we would have to pay $411 at the airport for her - more than we paid for each of us and it didn't include a meal!), we eventually all made it on to the plane with all our luggage successfully weighed and checked in.

Anna was a superstar the whole way and even managed to stay in her routine and slept most of the journey back. Once back in Dar we took the easy option and rather than trek across town with all our luggage only to endure a long wait at the port and an even longer ferry ride back, we would buy an extra ticket for our luggage and get the plane back. A great decision which meant that we were back home by 10am rather than 2pm.

It was great to be welcomed back by our German team mates who all congregated at our house to say hi and to meet Anna. Our American speaking friends are currently on holiday and will be back in the next day or two.

Anna has been a hit here and everyone loves her. I am continually handing her over to our local friends (and sometimes people we have just met) and assuming I will get her back at some point! She is adapting really well and although sometimes the heat gets a bit much, she is still her usual smiley self.

Chillin' underneath the fans at a local hotel.

Enjoying a Stoney with Dad.

Having her first swimming lesson in the Indian ocean - not bad! The water was a bit on the cold side at first but she soon got used to it and enjoyed a bit of relief from the hot of the beach.

Where did the last 4 months go??

Somehow our time in England is at an end. We are in our last week at home in the UK and I am not entirely certain where the last 4 months have gone!

Our last week has been a great time of seeing family and here are one or two photo's of our family as it currently looks...

All dressed up for Aunty Abby and Uncle Rob's wedding.

The Mottram clan, bigger all the time ;)

The Osborn clan, also growing almost daily!

The snow came the day before we were due to leave and having missed all the snow over the last couple of years we were very happy to see it. Plus we got to leave before all the chaos of closed schools and icy roads. (We really need to learn to cope a bit better with 'adverse weather' don't we?!)

Anyway, we have had a fantastic time back in the UK catching up with friends and family but we are about ready to get back to life as we currently know it in a mildly warmer climate!! We will miss everyone lots so keep in touch and let us know how you are doing.

Bye for now x