SAFARI!

We both think it would be a tragedy to come to work in Africa amongst the dirt and grot, and never actually see the beauty of the animals.

Like Australia, where Kangaroo's don't go jumping down roads, Africa doesn't have giraffe's and lions wondering down the streets.  If we were a little more rural, you do see alot more.  We were only 45 minutes out of town and elephants were crossing the road!

So, it is always a privilege and delight to go on Safari to get up close with the animals.  Lions, giraffes, zebra, wildebeast, elephants, antlope (Impala, thompsons, waterbuck, Dik Dik plus various other varieties of these but can't remember the names), cheetah(very rare but we did see it), extravagant birds, monkeys, massive boabs (here prounced baobab here), hippos, rhinos (though very far off so we didn't really see them close), buffalo plus heaps more I've probably forgotten.

We were stoked to go with Mum and Dad Plumb on safari to 'Ngorongoro Crater' and get so close to the lions we had to tell the kids DON"T TOUCH!!  They easily could have reached out and stroked them.  The lions like to come up to the cars in the heat of the day and rest underneath.  All well and good until you find you cannot continue your safari!!!

 

I hope you enjoy these piccies!!  And yes - we took them all!!!

Darran's started smoking!!

I have decided to take up smoking full time.

I was missing that spectacular summer pastime of barbequing.  The weather here is well suited to outdoor dinning and I had a craving for meat.SO with a little dreaming, and a little internet research, I came up with an arrangement that combines the best of two worlds.  It copies the American arrangement of smoking meat, and the Australian arrangement of a barbeque built in a second hand steel drum.

I was desperately missing bacon and wanted to try to create my own,but dare not waste a good chunk of pork on an experiment.  So I began with some easier pieces of meat, and have thoroughly enjoyed smoking: chicken breast, sausages, whole beef fillet, boulevours, and nuts.  My favourite would be the smoked peanuts and smoked boulevours.

I have made two bacons.  The first being a poor arrangement, due to my own forgetfullness.  It stayed in the fridge for over a week, and started to go off before I remembered to smoke it.  It stunk to high heaven, but still tasted pretty good.  The second didn't look too much like regular bacon, but tasted pretty darn fine.  I'm hoping I'll get better with each try. 

I tried smoking cheese, but found my temperature was way too high, as the cheese melted into an oily mess. 

I am looking forward to doing a whole goat roast!!

School for the kids!

Well we are ALL stoked to have finally found a school for the kids!  WOOOOOHOOOOO!!
Not sure who is happier - the kids or me.  This year of homeschooling has made me appreciate people who do it full time for years on end - Congratulations - you are a SAINT! 

Whilst we have definately benefited as a family from it - and I wouldn't have had it any other way for this first year, it is exciting to enter into this new phase of life.

So...it is a small local school.  It is run by three Americans, but otherwise comprises only of Tanzanians.  The teachers are both locally trained, but also trained on campus at the school, as the Americans are determined to get away from the traditional teachers training.  This involves rote learning, invites no discussion or creativity etc. 

The classes are small with only 25 students in each class - it goes from Nursery1, Nursery 2, Kindergarten, then 'Standard' - or year/class 1-7. 

The kids will be learning Swahilli as part of their curriculum - as well as English!  The lessons are all taught in English, so they will be fine in the classroom.  On the playground they will need to definatley sharpen those language skills as I"m certain the local kids will be rattling away in their national language!!

The kids appear to have no fears...on the contrary they are pretty much counting down the days.  We've been alerted to the areas that we need to improve so they integrate much easier.  For example, Tahlia needs to be reading, writing, Amber's maths need's improvement, and Kia's writing needs to be neater.  All achievable within the next 8 weeks before school starts January 3rd.

So...listen for the squeals of excitement!!!  I'm sure they will be heard!!!!