Thing I haven't done for a whole year!

There is only 1 more sleep left until I start my second year at Isamilo. I can’t believe it was a year ago that I was sitting in my flat not knowing what the first day with my new class in a new school would hold. Now I’m writing this not worried about tomorrow at all!

I have had a brilliant 2 months spending time with family and friends. It was wonderful to see everybody and there were far to many highlights, laughs and funny stories that I can't tell you about them all. I spent the last part of my holiday in Tanzania with Emily, Graham and Nikki. We had an amazing time which included a lot of ‘firsts’ for them so here is my summer of  ‘things I haven’t done for a whole year!’.

(Don’t be offended if you don’t appear it is probably because I didn’t have my camera handy!)

I travelled on lots of  trains and even went through some tunnels.
 Some trains were full size, others Mum and I found out,
 were a struggle to get in and out of. Zoe had no problem!

Went on lots of Durrant picnics.
Surprisingly in good picnic spots and not in the rain!

   

Lots of tickles, cuddles, wheel barrow
and helicopter building and of course lots of  'Hammer time'!

The closest game of catch (throwing balls at Emma!)
 I have ever played!

I became Cinderella!

I  was soaked by a 5 year old while wearing my clothes!
 I did get Charlie wet too but it didn't really have
 the same effect as she was wearing a swimming costume.
 I did also swim in a very cold sea in the correct clothing.

Ate lots of delicious ice cream, not like the ice cream that tastes like foam that I can get in Mwanza.

I enjoyed lots of  English sunny weather which meant lots of fun picnics with lots of wonderful people.

A very close encounter with an elephant. I was not in a van when I took this photo! Unfortunately the path to get down was by his trunk. When he had moved slightly we decided it would be safe to pass behind him to get down the path. The elephant did not agree....... we were trumpeted at very loudly as we passed and we discovered that elephants cover a lot of ground as he followed us down the path.

Hunted with Bushman.  We tried to follow them through very thorny bush land but each time we managed to catch up with them they had already caught something. The bush baby was cooked on a fire ,started with just sticks, and eaten for their breakfast not mine!

 I Discovered that there are even more kinds of banana than I thought....
the red ones were much easier to identify than all the varieties of green ones.

Canoed on a lake with hippo in it. 

Saw the top of Kilimanjaro from a plane and a canoe.

Enjoyed the beautiful white beaches on Zanzibar and
 swam in the warm Indian Ocean with people
that had never done it before. 

As I said this is only a very small part of my jam packed Summer which was full of wonderful people that I miss lots and lots.  It was sad to say all my goodbyes again but I am very happy to be back in Mwanza for another year of adventures.