School Holidays...Our Morning Events...

Today I thought I'd record our morning, to give a bit of an idea about life on the MAF compound during the school holidays, with both Esther and Ben at home...

6am- Andrew's alarm goes off. He gets up to prepare for his flight to Arusha and then Haydom hospital in northern Tanzania.
6:10- Andrew informs that he needs a white T-shirt to wear under his pilot shirt, but unfortunately I have not ironed his T-shirts yet: since they were hung outside, we have to iron them before they can be worn, in case any nasty mango flies have laid their lavae in the material (which could then burrow under our skin- yuk!). I drag myself out of bed with the reluctant offer of ironing his T-shirt (hoping that he would actually iron it himself!!), but happily he finds an ironed one in his pre-packed overnight pilot's bag. However, I still need to make his packed lunch, so I stagger, bleary-eyed, to the kitchen and start on lunch preparations and toasting some toast for his breakfast.
6:50- Andrew leaves and goes over to the MAF hangar to pre-flight the plane for his 7:30 meeting time with the passengers.

By 7am, Ben and Esther are both up. Ben requires help in the form of changing his rather nasty night-time nappy and then getting dressed for the day. Esther meanwhile wakes up with a panic-stricken look, as she has a sore tummy (these things happen fairly often out here) and she needs to rush to the toilet. 3 toilet visits later (assisted by Mum) and Esther is finally ready to get dressed.
I go out to the back of the house to put the 1st load of washing on and am greeted by a very hungry Moshi, who accusingly wails at me until I take notice and go outside to feed her with her smelly fish breakfast.
7:55- I hear the 1st "Hodi" (Swahili gretting) being called to me at the front door. Fortunately, I am now dressed and able to open the door to greet Amos, who works as our neighbour's gardener and has come to collect their shed key, as our neighbours are currently away on holiday. My first Swahili exchange of the day takes place.
8:05- we hear Andrew taking off and his noisy plane flies over our house on his way up north.
I am just getting Esther + Ben to swallow their malaria pills with a cup of water each.
Finally, after 2 hours of being up, I can think about breakfast! However, the milk lad is late with our milk today and so there is no milk for cereal and toast will be the order of the day. I am gratfeul for my English toaster, which we brought with us, but realise that the bread is running low and I must make some more today.
As I spoon some milk powder into my tea, an argument erupts between Esther and Ben. [Esther is intent on playing Doctors, but Ben objects to being the patient. All is resolved when I suggest a placid teddy bear as the sick invalid, rather than a hungry little brother!]

Once breakfast is over, the milk lad arrives with another shout of "Hodi!", bringing our milk. I sieve it and boil it for the day. Then I need to refill the water bottle for the bathroom, bringing it to the kitchen to be filled from our water filter, so that we can brush our teeth with the clean water- using tap water would be unwise.
9am- the household jobs start in earnest; washing up, sweeping up toast crumbs, sieving the dry popcorn to rid it of weevils before I cook some for the children, making the dough for the bread with the help of my wonderful "Kenwood" mixer (it is well used out here!), hanging up washing, pouring the boiled milk into a clean jug to cool down for use later today... etc...

Took a quick moment to check the MAF "Hospitality Rota" on our email inbox and see that it is our turn to have a MAF guest here for lunch on Thursday- start to think ahead about what we could cook and am very pleased to note that Jane will be here on Thursday to help me in the home. Whilst visiting the computer briefly, I also send a quick Skype message to our Programme Manager re hosting the MAF staff meeting here tomorrow evening.
Meanwhile, Esther busies herself with drawing a very detailed picture on coloured paper to pin up in our nieghbour's home, to welcome them back from their holidays when they arrive home later today. Ben is outdoors and I go to open up the sandpit and then the shed for him, so that he can ride his "motorbike" up and down the garden, making loud engine noises as he whizzes along.
10am- Sabina arrives, to collect the house-key for our neighbours, as she is working in their home today to make their bread and get the home ready for their return. The Swahili is useful again!
At the same time, Esther's 2 little American school friends arrive, with their Mum, for a play morning together... and the fun starts...
The children play inside, then outside in the garden, then progress to taking turns on bikes riding up and down the MAF compound, then move over to the MAF playground... They are joined by various other MAF children at different points, while us 2 Mums follow them around, enjoying a good natter, a cuppa and some cake- a strange but actually very nice 'chocolate and beetroot' cake (!!!), from an on-line recipe I found to use up beetroot I bought last week from a visiting fruit and veg salesman. After buying the beetroot last Thursday, I realised that I don't actually know what to do with beetroot, so did some on-line investigation and came up with the bizarre but yummy cake recipe and decided to be adventurous and have a go!!
Out on the compound, we meet many other MAF staff, both Tanzanian and other nationalities, and also visitors staying here in the MAF guest-house. Conversations switch between Swahili and English as we meet and greet the many people coming and going.

The busy- and sociable- morning flies by and before long, it is time for friends to leave and for me to make lunch...