August began in Italy with hiking and celebrating Maria's 9th birthday. It ended back in Nairobi with the children already 3 weeks into their new school year.
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| New hiking boots for a 3 day hike with Paolo and friends. |
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| Carlo and his daughter joined the hike. We knew Carlo in India where he ran a travel company for Italians. In a small world twist he then moved to Ukraine. At the start of the war they relocated back to Bologna. |
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| Some of the hiking crew. |
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| Visiting a marble quarry. |
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| Off they go! |
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| Back home and ready to celebrate turning 9! |
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| Giacomo Belli (son of Paolo's brother Guido) works for PUMA and brought Maria this authentic Italian team jersey! |
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| A big crowd (not everyone made it into the picture!) for a big birthday lunch! |
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| And very early the morning after the birthday (3AM!) we began our journey back to Nairobi. |
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| 20 hours later we made it home. Salt was so happy to see us! |
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| One day to rest and then off they went to start the 2022-2023 school year (August 10). |
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| Maria's class! |
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| Birthday cupcakes to school. (Thank you to anyone who thinks I actually made these. I did not!) |
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| Birthday request to color her hair. |
Photos from Pet Village
(daycare on Wednesdays for Gioia & Winston)...
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| 2.5 days of home learning thanks to worry about potential violence around the Kenyan Presidential election. Everything remained calm and the children happily returned to school, now without a mask mandate (Maria still choses to wear one most days). |
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| Maria making a guest appearance in Gio's humanities class. |
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| A return to horseback riding (with a snack of dried crickets first!). |
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| Gio is thrilled that he has been selected to play the tuba in the concert band. He has one at school and this one stays at home for practice. |
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| Winston loves neck scratches! |
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| He also loves to "shop" for toys in our recycling containers. |
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| A boy and his dog. |
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| Maria has become an avid reader. Thank you, David Walliams, for inspiring her! |
Swimming with her best friend.
September brings a lot of travel for Paolo (Rwanda & South Africa) and a week-long trip for Gio and the 8th grade.
Ciao! Clara
