Excited!

Today was a good day, despite the sad cancellation of the bouncy castle that was due to come to Mahali for the children - we had no power! In fact that was about the third day without it, but at the end of the day it returned. The bouncy castle, and an exciting trip we're taking the children on next week, are thanks to the friends and family of a lovely little boy who turned 1 recently. Instead of gifts his parents asked for contributions so we could take the children on a trip - and there was enough for a bouncy castle too! So we look forward to it next week...

I had a really good Montessori session with the top class too. I haven't got photos but I do have some video - there's so much video now that it's going to take me ages to edit it, I'll try to get round to it in the Easter holidays. The top class are pretty lively and can be difficult to work with on my own, and they also struggle to cope with too much freedom, which is why I don't usually give them completely free choice. However, today I decided we would try. I explained about getting out one thing, playing with it and then putting it away, and on the whole they were excellent about it! They were noticeably better at concentrating on one activity rather than doing each thing for 30 seconds, and I was able to go round and work with one or two individually on some fairly tricky activities. There was also a marked enthusiasm for puzzles, and I could see real progress with some of them, which is so encouraging.

Today I also unexpectedly met a couple of ladies who I first got to know through walking and travelling on the matatus, and it was so nice to catch up with them. One of them greeted me, "Hello, Sarah rafiki" (which means 'friend') :-)

But the most exciting thing today is that Jon is on his way to see me! He is staying for almost two weeks, the first of which is a school week as he wants to see Mahali and the children again, and the second of which is holiday so we're going away to the Masai Mara for a couple of days! I'm heading to the airport to pick him up in a little over an hour - I can't wait!!