A New Addition

Our family hasn't owned a dog since Josiah was a baby. We moved to seminary housing in 2005 and were no longer able to keep our spunky little chihuahua, Amiga. It was sad to have to give her up. (Paul and I got Amiga just a week after we were married.) Thankfully, though, Paul's parents were willing to adopt her, so we still get to see her every time we visit them in Arizona.

For a quite a while now, our kids have been asking to have a pet. We considered getting a guinea pig while we were doing our linguistics training in Dallas, but we figured it would be better just to wait on the pet thing until we came to Tanzania. So, that's what we kept telling our kids: "We'll get a dog in Tanzania."

Now, our kids can stop asking.

Yesterday we adopted Chica, a 9-month old (or so) mixed-breed from an expat who is leaving Tanzania. The dog hasn't had much human contact for the past 5 months (her owners were on furlough and she was being looked after by guards who didn't give her much attention), so she's still fairly shy and scared. We're hoping, though, that she'll come out of her shell more as she gets used to us.

Even this afternoon, she was wagging her tail and playing a little bit with Josiah and Anna and the other children on our compound.

It will be nice to have a pet again.

Easter Break

Has it REALLY been over a month since I updated the blog? Wow!

I always have grand aspirations of blogging regularly, but for some reason those aspirations never seem come to fruition.

This time, I'm going to blame my lack of updating on the fact that my computer died a few weeks ago. (Thankfully, a kind soul agreed to hand-carry a new one on their recent trip to Tanzania, which is why I'm now able to bring you this blog post). I've also been keeping busy entertaining both kids while Josiah has been on a 2-week Easter break from school.

Here are a few highlights from the break:

A mini-safari to Ruaha National Park - We joined some friends on a day trip to the park (which some say is best game reserve in Tanzania) and were able to see lots of giraffes, elephants, zebras, impalas, and other animals. Unfortunately, the lions - everyone's top choice on their Animals I Want To See Today list - evaded us that day.


A lip injury - Josiah punctured his bottom lip with his teeth when he fell on our slippery concrete floor after a bath. Thankfully, we were able to use super glue to treat the injury. Getting stitches just wasn't an option for us here in Dodoma.


Many art projects created - It's a good thing spring break is over because our sticker, paint, and coloring book stash was disappearing rapidly.


Many books read - We've read the books we brought with us from home over and over and OVER again, so when we inherited a new stack of American books from another expat's moving sale, my kids were in heaven. Mommy is a little hoarse.


Many hours logged outside on the swing, in the hammock, and in the dirt - I'm so grateful to live in the land of eternal summer.


School resumes tomorrow, and although it's been a fine two weeks, all of us are ready to return to a somewhat normal schedule.