part 2 of sleeping angels

nap time in the little girls room....part 2

Latifa and Neema

beautiful, spirited Anna

Latifa

Neema

Anna

Pendo, Anna, Priska

Glory (looking very much like her older sister Angela in this photo)

chess, marching ants, and can anybody spare a wheel?

Baba Steve has added "learning Chess" to the Tumaini activities.
Raymond plays and Kelvin is taking mental notes.

Raymond is a quick learner of the rules...

but will need to work on his strategy.

Everything at Tumaini is a spectator sport including chess.

Note the African board and pieces.

Mama Dee is playing one of the kids favourite new games "the ants go marching".

Pendo and Grace loooove marching.

Even Mary, who rarely cuts loose, is having fun.

They march on and on (ten verses i think).

Meanwhile, Liadi's trike is missing the front wheel. Still works though...

He can still wheel it around on the back wheels,

use it as a seat,

and pretend to be a "fundi", (tradesperson) and fix it.

With the dozens of hands and feet (and no TV) toys and bicycles get a lot of use here, and I am amazed at how well the quality brands hold up ....maybe we should do an advertisement for a toy company? hmmmm?

sleeping angels

The last couple of weeks I have been slipping into the little girls

room (I call it the giggle room) to get images of them sleeping. I was always too early or too late and they were awake.

Yesterday they were all asleep

Pendo (Janet)

Gracie


Latifa




Gracie and Latifa


Priska

Gracie and Latifa

Pendo

Priska

(I could not get a shot of Anna without waking her so I will have to try again)

Jan. 13th 2011 at Tumaini

A typical day at Tumaini......

Baba Steve put up the new basketball hoop....a big hit.

Thank you Baba Steve

Neema working on her homework...new school routine means

the homework is done right after school (after a small snack)

and before play time.

Christina is sick with a head cold and is asleep on the couch.



Latifa is also sick (with tonsilitis) and fell asleep with Katy on the couch in the volunteer room.

Sound asleep.

Kelvin on his way to the garden....

Baba Steve and Baba Kal inspecting the garden.

This one is left over from yesterday....Grace and Liadi could not resist playing in the puddles after the huge rainstorm yesterday afternoon.

a little off topic, but I have this facination with the banana trees

We eat a lot of bananas at Tumaini - Banana stew, banana soup and bananas for desert
and since we arrived I have seen and hundreds (maybe thousands) of
banana trees and they either have full bunches of bananas
or no bananas at all, so I walked around the compound to check out the 7 or 8 banana
trees we have here to see if I could figure it out....

These are my observations:

The bunch of bananas start as a huge purple flower on an equally huge stalk,

As the petals of the flower open they reveal row after
row of little tiny flat bananas,

the petals continue to spread and more rows of bananas are added

The bananas grow rounder and larger,

and when they turn yellow, they are ready for market.

(close up of the flower)

Now that I have the mystery of the bananas covered I will go back to blogging about Tumaini....
stay tuned

Family Dinner on Sundays

Sundays at Tumaini are now family dinner time. We all eat at the same time, in the same room and we have a few changes to the Tanzanian routine.

The kids no longer have to eat everything on thier plate.

Conversation at the table is encouraged, no longer discouraged.

At least one adult at every table to help with table manners - food all
over the table and floor is no longer acceptable!

New menu's with smaller carb portions and larger veg/fruit/protein portions.

mama Dee (Cherie) explains the new expectations.

Getting dinner prepared and served for 40 people is a task in itself, but

well worth it.

Volunteer Amanda teaching manners...

Volunteer Rachel laughing with Stefano.