Words in our lives

We got our Iquamas! After seven months of waiting and regular inconvenient travelling, it feels as though we have surely earned them! Now we can apply for a medical aid and get ourselves really settled in. We shouldn't complain though, I heard of a family who have been waiting for two years where for most people the process takes three or four days.

It's getting really hot. As I write the mercury is soaring to 47degrees C in the shade outside my front door. Practically it means that we don't really go out after 8am and before 5pm although we do go to meet the shopping bus at 9am and go to join the nursery school children for a run in the gym hall at 10am. The we walk quickly and go strait there and back, you can really feel the heat melting you bit by bit.

Ramadan started yesterday. For the ladies in the compound this means that shops are only open after 8pm, although we can get groceries during the day. We are all careful not to eat in public, not even drink water in respect of everyone who is fasting.

I thought you might enjoy a few beautiful words that have infiltrated our lives. My favourite is habibi which is arabic for 'child' and is used by the compound ladies with a very specific inflection when their offspring venture into the realm of the disallowed (if you know what I mean). Then there is matapat which is the word used for a speed bump, shukran; thank you,  inshallah; if God wills.

Mieke and I have been trying to get creative with things to keep busy with. There is a wonderful website with incredible activities for little people that is currently our favourite: http://www.theimaginationtree.com/. We recently had a green glitter bath with lost of green glitter, food colouring and different textured toys. I was a bit too cautious with the food colouring though. Next time...

Painted pasta is fun to stick into play dough, and can be sorted into endless variations of kitchen containers. It is also nicely crunchy underfoot and can be used to paint things with if you mix some spit with the pasta.

One of our favourite was a huge big bowl of spagetti. The idea is really to colour it into rainbow colours using food colouring. I just wanted to test out the concept. We'll try rainbow spagetti this week and post a picture!

Four and bran are fun and relatively easy to clean from the floor and furniture. Nice to scoop and sweep with your hands, spoons, brooms and all sorts of things. You can also rub it all over your body without permanent effects.

The littel flour footprints all over the house just melted by heart...