Several of you have asked what’s happening in our work lives, and the answer is that we’ve mostly been getting settled and haven’t yet begun work in earnest. I’ll write more on this later, but there is lots of paperwork to done to stay here as expatriates, and everything moves slowly during Ramadhan.

The boys, however, have begun school, which has been a very good thing. Their school has students from all over the world (Zanzibar, Finland, Germany, China, Italy, Korea, India, England, Australia, and the United States). English is a second or third language for almost everyone. On the playground before and after school, parents talk with their children in their home language and then switch seamlessly to English when talking with someone from another country. I hope I’ll be able to do that so fluidly from Swahili soon!

Calvin says he likes the tire swing and soccer at school. He has a friend from America there who likes to play soccer, too. Calvin says that what’s different about the school here is that they have different games in P.E., they call math “maths,” and they have French class.

Oscar says he likes the tire swing and eating school lunch here. He’s glad that the menu is designed by some eighth graders and some adults who know what kids like to eat (i.e. chicken and rice, spaghetti, pizza, French fries or “chips”). He says what’s different about school here is that he never eats school lunch at home.

Here are some pictures from school.