You can tell when...

... your children are being brought up in an African context... far from the UK!

Some examples:
* Esther and Ben come into the kitchen playing a game of "spitting cobras" (we encountered one in Iringa)- hissing and spitting like the real thing and chasing each other on their stomachs in a very realistic impression!
* When we get the Doctor's kit out, the poor patients involved in the role play are nearly always suffering from the dreaded malaria- which E and B are quite used to hearing about!
OR the 'patients' are lined up for a series of injections, reminiscent of last summer in the UK when poor E and B were subjected to weeks of injections to help protect them against various sicknesses found in Tanzania
* Dress-up play might involve wearing a colourful Tanzanian kanga and tying a baby onto their backs, or maybe using the kanga to dress up, covered from head to toe, like certain local ladies we see around town...

*When I mentioned a bizarre craving for a Big Mac and fries from MacDonald's last week (it will be a very long time before that is possible!), Esther looked up and asked, "What's MacDonald's?"
*As we prepared for our trip to the Highlands a few weeks ago, we told the children how lovely it would be to see lakes, after months of dryness in Dodoma. Esther simply said, "Oh, but what's a lake?"

On going to the local "duka" store today, at noon, to buy some potatoes, I complained aloud about how uncomfortable I am in this midday heat. Ben looked at me, puzzled, and said, "But Mummy, it's not hot"...!! He has definitely got used to the climate out here, where a girl like me with an English upbringing struggles through!!