June 2020: End of School Year and Continued Lockdown

The highlight of the month was Gio's virtual graduation from Elementary School.  Lots of friends left Kenya so our world feels even smaller than it has since the pandemic began.  We have a small hope of going to Italy in July but there are a lot of things that need to happen such as the airport re-opening to commercial flights.  Meanwhile we fill our days with math, reading, horseback riding, Legos, swimming and dog walking.  So basically exactly what we have been doing since March....

We continue to foster Ragu- he is doing quite well. He loves to go to Karura.  He does not go every day (I cannot handle 4 dogs!) but when I do take him he makes the most of it.

Maria's romantic life continues, even from across the world (Dominik is in USA).

Hide-and-Seek

Message from Dominik!

Morning greetings before she rides. 

Seniors discussing white muzzles, creaking joints and worn down teeth...

King of Karura!

Gioia was not allowed to return to Karura until the middle of June as she was still in season, but most mornings she tried to sneak into the car to come along.  It took all of our strength to haul her out!

Maria's Zoom class "office" with her trusty assistant.

Working on her passion project...

First jumping lesson...

Pals.

Preparing to give her passion project presentation on Zoom.

Maria rides 3 times/week. Not enough in her opinion!

Jagger has slept with Maria many nights this month.  This is the bed she prepares for him each evening.

Sleepover antics.

Carrots for Blackie.

My kitchen assistant.

Maria has "graduated" to a new pony though she has insisted she get to still ride Blackie once/week.  She made cards for Rudi to welcome him into her world!  She is moving on to Rudi as he is a good jumper and a more "challenging" pony.

My stress-reliever....

....and Maria's, too!

Waiting for Gio's virtual graduation to begin.

...and finally a haircut!

What our Sundays look like these days.
(25% of our dogs stay off furniture!)

Hanging out with her bestie.

Every single time I try to do a puzzle...

Post evening walk collapse.

It took me a month but I finally caught Cinnamon.  Off for annual vaccinations.

In the Karura "lake"- Ragu is nearly blind so he relies on Jagger when he is in unfamiliar places.  So Jagger is finally a Guide Dog after all!

Summer camp math class.

We had a lot of excitement the final week of June when a monkey began hanging out on our property and stealing food from our kitchen.  The dogs were very very excited about it all!

Reading challenge- this day it was to dress up as characters from a favorites story.  Our Totos did not cooperate.

Nothing makes Gio happier than when we order from his favorite Indian restaurant.  Must be his Delhi-born roots shining through.

These two are rarely apart.  A funny combo- a giant goofy puppy and a mostly deaf & blind senior.

New riding pants!

You know who does not mind hanging out in the house all day?  Salt is thrilled to always have someone to visit.

So will next month's post be written from Italy or still from here?? Stay tuned....

xoxo.  Clara

May 2020: Still Here...

 Each month feels rather like the one before.....

Ragu settled in more and more with us. 
12-year-old dogs sleep a LOT!

Chalk painting our road- should fill a few hours!

Gioia being very naughty with her best friend Pepper.

That is me out in the middle of the bog searching for tennis balls.  My fishing waders have come in very handy this rainy season!

The 4 Stooges (from left: Gioia, Yellow Pepper, Apollo & Jagger)

Always great excitement here when we find one of these in our garden (a chameleon)!

Apollo is eagerly waiting for me to throw a ball.  Gioia is just waiting (she is decidedly NOT a retriever!).

Bruno meeting with his subjects.
Gioia practicing social distancing.

Some of Maria's Seesaw assignments are as much fun for me as they are for her.  Can you guess which one each of us drew?

Gioia never turns down a tummy rub.

Gioia turned 1 on May 6th!   2 weeks later she started her first season (heat).  Hard to believe our "little" girl is all grown up!

Best friends.  Jagger's tightest bond on our family is with Maria.  He now sleeps with her every night.

This is Gioia's brother Jimmy who lives in Cape Town.  He is 12 kgs bigger than Gioia!

Sweet Ragu.

We needed a picture of Gio in his graduation outfit for their virtual ceremony which will take place June 10th.

Official Elementary School graduation pose!

Girlfriends.

The challenge of cooking dinner in a minefield.

Virtual learning assistants.

Listen to how far she has come in reading!

A glimpse of the kind of math Maria is doing for virtual learning (using Seesaw).  She has really enjoyed this unit on data.

More virtual learning.

We decided this month to allow each child to have one friend they can see for playdates.  They are both thrilled.  Maria and Amelie enjoyed a few sleepovers. The change we saw in the children once they were allowed to see a friend again was remarkable.

It has been over 2 months since we have had water from the city- the reasons are complicated but they involve a historically heavy rainy season that caused a landslide at the damn that supplies our water, a lack of water treatment capacity and diverting water to slums to help with Covid response.  Every week we have to buy water from one of these trucks.  

Patiently waiting while I take a shower....

Gioia likes to "walk" Ragu.

I expect June's post will look a lot like this one.  Only thing coming up is the end of school and Gio's graduation from Elementary School....

xoxo.  Clara