25 days to go!!! (I don't want to leave)

With us in our last 4 weeks we are slowly bring everything to a close. We all don’t want this last month to go fast but with the amount of stuff that needs to get done it just may. Our last month consists of the Serengeti next week, a workshop at bombo hospital for Wednesday and Thursday of this week plus our goodbyes and maybe we will try to squeeze in a trip to Lushoto (a town in the heart of the Usambara mountains).
School is back in full swing! The new buildings are going up fast and the Africans say next week but Sister G knows that not true. I am in Standard 7 and Simon decided to stay in 5 (I think it was because he wanted a reason to be able to do his own math because I was ahead of him. (Always competing!). My teacher was Simon’s teacher last year who moved to my class. He is very kind and wouldn’t dare to hit a kid so the corporal punishment has ended. The kids enjoyed Rose’s computer lesson so much that when ever one of our visitors (Joel and Paula, Stephanie and Fiona) come up to the school the kids are always asking me if they are here to teach computers.
We were all choked when massive dump trucks started bringing truck after truck of a dusty soil mix with large rocks. We knew it would be something that would not do our bikes very well. Ally (our new bike partner who just showed up at our house on morning calling out “simon , simon” over and over again. He is in neither of our classes and neither of us knew him at the time. We are now good friends with him) said they are paving it which will not be done in the time we are here so I think it is all very bad timing. It is now almost impossible to ride with the big piles spilled across the road.
Last week we went to Peponi with Joel and Paula, who left in the middle, and then were met by Stephanie, Fiona and their two daughters Eva and Hailey. This meant we had two sand island trips in 3 days! The meals were just as good as we remembered and I had something new every night. For the first three nights we shared the family banda with Joel and Paula which is a double bed with a side room with 4 singles. It was perfect for what we needed. When Steph and Fiona arrived we moved for the one night where Joel and Paula and Steph and Fiona overlapped, but then Sy and I moved back to the double bed the next night. Simon woke up on the Sunday morning feel as if something was in his ear (like water) and he couldn’t shake it out. After a day where he was almost in the water all the time it bleeds during the night and we realize he has punctured his drum. We think it happened by the water pressure of diving down but we don’t know. We just today got and email from the ear doctor in Sidney who said it should heal up fine with a few drugs and there is no need to cut the trip short. Anyway by the end we were there for 6 nights which was awesome!
Our visit with Joel and Paula (besides going to Peponi) was lovely but short. Paula loved Muheza just like so many of our visitors and she even told us in a recent email that she had strongly considered coming back for a week to ten days but realized it would be hard to pull off. She loved the scene in general and we even relaized from her walks in Muheza she loves shopping as was buying kangas or ktangas on every trip. She left with 2 tie fisher pantsade by the fundi. We went to Amani on there first weekend here which they both loved. We saw chameleons and tons of other creatures. Again she shopped at the gift shop up there.
Internet connection is in Muheza but it is our access that is limited. After a server crash in late December our laptop has never connected SO I am having to ride my bike up to the local “internet café” to bring our emails back on word documents and send others. This is the reason for the delay in the email you sent us. All I can tell you is we are trying and we all can’t wait for internet in England!! Plus just to add another effect to the whole this is that the Café owner hates me and will do anything to make it as hard as possible for me to get stuff down. A few cases are I walked in and she was on her computer and all the other computers were full so I waited. Less then 30 seconds later a woman walks in the owner gets up and this woman sits down. They both look up at me and laugh. I usually end up with the slow computer on purpose.
We leave for our safari in a few days. We got a very good deal with one of Sally’s ( the doctor) nurses husband who runs a safari company. The final cost was $800 per adult and he doesn’t charge the kids. Two medical students and their friend from Malawi are also joining us which knocks the price down again. We will have our cameras tuned and ready for the experience of a lifetime (I think).
I said it last week that I was looking forward to some cold weather but I don’t know if healthrow being closed because of snow is too cold. Haha. I will try to get yah posted.
G