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7 quick takes...
- Good morning! How’s your day going? Mine started a bit mediocre with one
girl telling me that she wishes that I would be the one working so that pappa
could be the stay at home dad and the other bursting out in anger because I
told her to put on a clean dress instead of the dirty one that she picked up
from the floor. But now they are playing peacefully, so maybe it’s not so
bad after all.
- You probably already knew this, but I just realised that it’s February. How
did that happen? It’s true what they say with little children. The days are
long, but the years are short. Or does it not stop when the kids are older.
Does the speed of time follow an exponential curve? Anyway… it’s February.
- Hartmut and I had a rather relaxing weekend with nice meals, a boat ride and
plenty of downtime. The girls, on the other hand, were very busy. They decided
that the garden needed to change, so they got a rake and started to work. Our
garden is big and parts of it are nicely done by the gardener but there are
also big parts that are very wild. I love those parts as they are a perfect backdrop
for the girls' adventures, or for a gardening weekend. They raked the leaves,
prepared a big piece of land and planted grass and plants that they had taken
from other parts of the garden. They are very chuffed with their work and feel
like they have created the most beautiful garden in human history.
- Homeschooling is amazing because it means that you can teach children the
essential things. Who cares if they can read and write, Sophie can bake a
banana bread without my help and I think that’s a much more important skill.
Last week she made this one and if you are going to bake one more
lock-down-banana-bread, let it be this.
- As much as we would like to believe that we are clear thinking, unique
people who can’t be pushed into doing something, just because other people do
it, it’s not true. People are herd-animals. That’s why Hartmut, after waiting
for a robot (traffic light) crossed through a red light because the two cars in
front of him did it. I have to admit, it was a confusing traffic situation with
arrows and irregular cycles. The length of time it took for our light to turn
to green gave us plenty of reason to believe that the light was broken. But it
wasn’t and a minute later our car was stopped by the police. The two cars ahead
of us could drive, but we were stopped. Hartmut has learned how to deal with
the police in Malawi and when she told about his violation of the law, he
admitted right away and told her that it will never happen again. But when she
started talking about a fine, he started asking her why he had to stop and all
the others had to go and how confusing the traffic situation is until she got
fed up with him. ‘Just go’ she said. ‘You are troublesome’. And that was that. No
quick cash for this police lady, no fine for us.
- Can I complain a little? Since we are back from Namibia, the internet has
been slower than ever before. So slow that most whatsapp-calls cancel
themselves after a few minutes, video calling is out of the question and even
sending or loading pictures takes forever. Not fun as communication with
friends and families is a great way to charge our batteries. I hope it will be
fixed soon. I also feel that lately, the internet is built around fast
connections and endless data access. Apps and websites are definitely not
coping with the supply of data that they have here, and as a result, using them
here is often a frustrating experience. Or am I just imagining things?
- It’s drizzling outside, and quite dark. I kinda like days like this because
they don’t happen too often. It means that I’ll make a warming soup for lunch,
we’ll play and do school inside and listen to audiobooks, play games and make
crafts. And perhaps, if the internet allows, we’ll even watch ‘Heel Holland
Bakt’, (the Dutch version of ‘The Great British Bake-Off’). Not a bad start of
the week. I wish you a great week too. Stay safe and warm/cold (whatever you
prefer).
