Under the Shade of the Jacarandas

'Cammo' David's new pet chameleon he found today

Before things get too routine and we forget some of the novelties of living here, I thought I would mention a few of the daily differences from life in the US. Nothing is particularly remarkable but there are some things that seem simplified. That is especially true around the kitchen. We don't have a dishwasher or hot water coming into the sink so we usually boil a pot of water and pour it in the sink to clean dishes. There is also a lot more stuff made from scratch--tomato sauce, yogurt, pasteurized milk. Shopping tends to be done in much smaller quantities than in the US, but that could be because raw ingredients take up less space and packaging. We need to wash and sterilize all our fruits and veggies in "Sanex," and so far, we haven't gotten major tummy bugs.  A large water filter is the way we get drinking water and filling it several times per day is routine.

Many of these changes have been welcome, even if life is a bit more labor-intensive than in suburbia. But the activity that I least enjoy is our ongoing war against invading ants. These aren't the big army ants one sees on the savannah, these are the tiny black 'picnic' ants. It is hard to describe how perniciously they stream into our windows and door frames to cover any food left out, and weirdly, seem to have some kind of water fetish. We often wake to find millions in the shower, sink, or hiding under the lid of the toilet bowl. This past weekend I found about a million had climbed into our water boiling kettle and committed suicide. Others actually invaded our water filter and managed to get into the clean water. Gross.

Jacarandas behind St. Constantine

At least twice per week I go out and do battle. Armed with a can of 'Doom' I go and spray a Maginot line around all the window and door frames and soak down any nests I see. It works for about 4 days than we wake up to find our defenses have been breached in a new location and there are millions covering our counters and kitchen sink. At times I have seriously considered giving up and learning to simply eat them along with our food. (I am not there yet.)

On the other hand the perks of living here cannot be ignored. The climate continues to be incredible. Right now we are in the dry season, and while it is a bit dusty, most trees remain green and in bloom. Right now jacaranda trees are in full bloom everywhere and many of the streets of the city are lined in purple. I will confess that I have never gotten used to winter since our stint in Burundi and I am very happy I will be missing it this year in the US.

Rebecca will fill you in here about our weekend.

We had a non-routine event to report from the weekend. The parents association of the kids school held a special cultural fair to celebrate the school's diversity and also promote the idea of democracy. A tent was set up for each continent represented at the school Parents were instructed to go to their continent tent and bring a food from their culture to share. We weren't totally sure what to expect, but we baked at least 8 dozen cookies -- Peanut butter & Oatmeal Chocolate Chip (yes, I found something called chocolate chips here! Too much fat, not enough chocolate, but still looked OK). It turned out that there was only one other North American family which turned up. They were from Canada and brought maple flavored caramel popcorn. Yep, the North Americans had people covered on the sweet side! I wasn't actually surprised that our tent was fairly sparsely represented -- I was almost wondering if we would be alone, given that I've met no other North American parents before this. They all seem to attend the other two (more expensive) international schools down the road a ways.

Our families took turns handing out sweets and talking with passing students about North America. And then we parents and kids also joined the groups circulating to other tents. We enjoyed cucumber sandwiches and bitterballen from Europe, interesting rice flour sweets from Asia, vegemite from Australia (?!), and then the overwhelming variety of treats from different parts of Africa. Burundi was well-represented, but the tastiest food came from the Zanzibari families. The kids also enjoyed the bouncy castle slide, and a few interesting inflating water roller activities. The weather was beautiful as always, warm and breezy. We stayed through the raffle drawing and won a gift certificate to a toy store, worth the exact amount that we had spent on raffle tickets. ;-) 

I was really hoping to connect with the parents of a few of Oren's school friends, but sadly they were some of the many students who did not turn up to the event. I'm beginning to realize more of the dynamics of St. Constantine's that present a bit of a challenge to expatriate families. Other international schools that we and our children have attended in the past have been a primary source of community, probably because a large proportion of the students were expatriates. At St. Constantine's, most of the families come from the local Tanzanian and Tanzanian-Indian business community. It's great for our kids to be making friends with kids from here. However, those families are already well-established here and have their extended families and friendships outside the school. They send their kids to school with a driver or private bus, and so it's really hard for us to connect with other parents. Anyway, all of this will mean that we need to be creative and persistent in finding friend-times outside of school.

Paul--On Sunday we were back in church where I went to help with David's Sunday school. David has not wanted to go and has complained that it is boring. I was a helper and that was good because there were 25 kids in his class, and apparently some were missing. They had one teacher, so I could see how it could get a bit out of control. Still it seemed to go well and David stayed and seemed to enjoy the lesson and craft.

After church we went out to lunch with some friends. One of the routines for David and I, whenever we go to a new restaurant is to search the grounds for chameleons. (Every restaurant we have been to here is outdoors. I don't think there are any indoor restaurants.) For 2 months our search has been fruitless although David has caught a number of geckos which he releases into his room, and skinks. But yesterday our fortunes changed. David was throwing a ball up in the air, and as it came down, out of nowhere, a little chameleon came down out of a tree right after it. David caught it and we brought it home and put it into a small potted tree beside our kitchen window. He has been living there for 2 days and seems quite content. David has named him Cammo.

Bonus Photo: Here is a photo of a display of art projects from Oren's class. They had to try to reproduce Starry Night using VanGogh's style.