So, there have been a few celebrations for us in the last week!
Last Wednesday, Mark had his birthday which was quite a low key event but just how he likes it! We picked up Naomi from school and went out for a birthday lunch, then collected Abigail (who finishes two hours later than her sister!) and in the evening had a birthday dinner! Menu chosen by the birthday boy!
Just three days later it was Abigail's 6th birthday. On Friday, Jenny delivered some cakes into school at break time for Abigail to enjoy with her friends!
Her actual birthday was on Saturday ... which started very early, as two excited girlies couldn't wait for the fun to begin! Abigail opened a few little presents first thing in the morning!
Then at 10am (or thereabouts!) we had a small group of the girls from her class and their teacher (the lovely Miss Idowa) come for a party! It was meant to be 10am-12pm ... but some didn't arrive until 11am and some weren't picked up until 1pm! Very Tanzanian!
Abigail had very clear ideas about what the party was to include and helped with all the planning! So, we did something crafty, making paper plate crowns and straw necklaces. In fact, one of them was even wearing her necklace to school today (Monday!)
We also played some old-school party games, an egg hunt and pass the parcel ... and then enjoyed a feast of snacks together.
Since her 4th birthday Abigail had decided that she would have a Spongebob cake for this year ... yes that was two years ago, because she had already decided that there had to be a butterfly one last year! Abigail is not one to forget these things easily and although she is a girlie girl for the most part, she LOVES Spongebob. At her request we copied a really silly face cake we saw on the internet and then both her and one of best friends decided to try it out for themselves on the day! Beautiful!
In the afternoon, we gave her the rest of her presents but out here good presents are quite hard to find and being in a state of transition made it even more difficult for us this time round. Abigail however didn't seem to notice the more low key present giving this year which is something great about living in a less materialistic culture!
One thing we did 'give' her though ... which turned out to be one of her favourite things, was her own email address! She loves writing to people, texts, emails, cards, letters and due to the nature of what we're doing, has family and friends dotted all over the world. Usually she logs into our accounts but now she has her very own one which was filled with messages from close family and friends when we opened it on her birthday. While she doesn't know the password and everything that goes in and out is checked by us, she is in her element! The downside for us is now she keeps asking us to 'check her messages' for her!
After a very restful Saturday afternoon (we were too tired to do anything else!!), on Sunday, the teachers from CAMS invited us out to lunch as a thank you for all we've been involved in at the school during our time here!
While this academic year our input has been minimal due to our imminent move, we have had the privilege of looking out for the teachers and helping out in lots of things at the school where Jenny used to work (and both girls love to go!). The staff are a great bunch and we're going to miss them all loads! We were really touched that they wanted to treat us to lunch!
It's been fun to be able to celebrate all these things! Now we have just 3 weeks left in Dodoma! Tick tock, tick tock!
