Saturday, December 10, 2016

December 2016 - Greetings from Dar es Salaam!

For those of you who don't know, the Streett Family moved to Dar es Salaam in June 2016.  I'd say we are firmly settled into life in Dar these days.  We decided to put N into the French School system, which we hope to keep him at future posts.  They have picked up a few words of Kiswahili and we are under the assumption that N is learning French.  We only hear a few words here and there, vert, orange, rouge, deux, trois, etc.  N taught M Freres Jacques and so she wanders around singing that all day long.  They have a nursery program that'll start next summer when she turns three.  I think she'll like school more than N does. 

I'm not sure when N stopped taking daily afternoon naps, but it has been at least a year by now.  Fast forward to a month ago and N came home proudly declaring that they let him take a nap at school and they brought a bed in from the nursery classroom to let him sleep in.  He was excited!  Who knows what they think of us as parents!?  He strongly refuses to take a nap most days, but I guess napping at school is the thing to do!  


M on the other hand has quite the little social circle.  The nannies coordinate and visit each other's houses, the playground and trampoline.  She has two little best friends and the nanny periodically sends photos of them holding hands.  M has turned into quite the little ham.  Whenever someone is taking her picture or shows her even the tiniest bit of attention, she goes into full on celebrity mode.  She pretends to be shy, then giggles, then she'll make faces, such a cutie!  
Evidence of M enjoying the spot light!
Although I haven't been blogging, we've been busy.  We've already taken three quick trips in Tanzania.  We went to Bomani Beach where we took a dhow ride and swam in the ocean (and we got lost on our way to the ruins).  N and S walked around the village and brought back 15 children in tow.  The hotel let them come onto the grounds, it was a bit chaotic.  Eventually N and M got tired of the attention and the hotel staff shooed the children away.  

Next we did two nights in Morogoro, we had a nice place lined up and then they called to say they only had one of our two nights available.  I really don't like the idea of changing hotels for one night each (though in retrospect we probably should have).  The place we ended up was nicely furnished, but there was absolutely nothing to do.  I know now it is used as a stopover point between safari and Dar.  They advertised a short hike to a waterfall, which left much to be desired.  We wandered around in people's backyards up a hill to find a dribble of water coming down the rocks.  I guess it is nice if you go further, but the kids didn't have the stamina (and me!).  I didn't take any pictures the whole hike, that's how unscenic it was.  
The only picture that turned out from Morogoro, the rooms were cylindrical chalets with a loft.


Lastly, we spent 5 days on Zanizabar.  We went to a resort on the eastern coast for the first four days and transferred to a hostel O_O for the last night so we could easily board the 9am ferry.  Overall the trip was great, the only downside was the hostel.  It was loud and hot and there isn't even a tripadvisor page for it to write a review!  The resort owner said her friend had rooms she rented for the night, which seemed more like a B&B the way she described it.  Oh well, you live and you learn.  Luckily our trip to Zanzibar began and ended with Royal Class seats on the ferry.  

Royal Class Streetts

We did one excursion from the hotel, we did a spice tour, which included lunch and a quick stop at some ruins.  The kids loved exploring the old building and seeing what the potties and showers looked like.  

Exploring the ruins on Zanzibar

Near the ruins, where the owner of the ruins landed her boat



3/4 Family photo at ruins

After the ruins we went to the spice farm and the kids were exhausted before we even got there.  It is hard to convey that we'd actually like to skip portions of the paid tour in interest of the children.  It isn't that they aren't child-friendly, they just have their plan that they stick too.  We tried to get him to skip the woodcarving stop, which was a sales pitch disguised as a "tour" with lots of donation boxes as you walked around the famous Zanzibar woodcarvers.  The kids had a good time smelling and tasting the spice plants, but were getting more and more tired and right before the end of the tour it started POURING!  A lovely, never-ending tropical rainstorm.  S got separated from us in a different shelter.  After about 10 minutes of wrangling the kids, I decided to carry them over to the other shelter to see if we could eat lunch.  A tourguide felt sorry for us and carried N, both to S and then the lunch tent.  We were all MUCH happier with food in our bellies, though our shoes are still stained from the red clay soil.  


Post Spice Farm Tour Lunch 


If you can't see the rain behind us in the other photo, this is what was happening while we were eating.  
Besides the excursion, we spent most of our time at the resort swimming, eating, playing in the sand and walking up and down the sandy beach.  The sand isn't sand castle sand, but more like white flour.  So the kids didn't build anything with the sand, they rolled around in it and poured it like water.  It was so soft!  




Resort swimming, we swam at least twice a day!




For our last evening in Zanzibar, we ate out at a restaurant S recommended in Stone Town (he had come on a Kiswahili immersion trip in August).  The restaurant was good, but there was no play area.  We ate quickly and walked to the edge of the waterfront and watched the sunset.   



   




The sun is just about gone
Sticking her tongue out for the camera
Father and son watching the sunset