Quiet, Happy, Full, Content.

Tehur is here :-)

Tehur is our 22yr old friend from Portugal. Born in the States to a Portuguese Angolan mama and a Brazilian dad, Tehur moved (home?) to Portugal when she was almost 3.

But we met her when she was about 13, I guess. She went to school with Jesse and Trevor in the cozy days of ICSC, when Mike Bushy was leading the school and the kids all felt like a family.

Somehow, through some trying times, Tehur started dropping by our house in Lisbon for a cup of tea. Our family has forever been the better for her friendship.

Te is here with us till 1 April because she wanted a little break from Portugal and because she knew I wanted a little break from home schooling. You should have seen Heather when I told her that Te was coming. She was dancing in the kitchen and running up and down the hall. This is the friend that used to sit and read poetry with Heather. Heath adores her.

My biggest beef with the curriculum Heather uses, (apart from it's rather alarmingly ultra-conservative sentiments at times and the dreadful singing of one of the teachers on the dvds,) is the lack of creativity. Well, let me just say that Heather's creative brain has woken up since Tehur arrived. She has spent this entire afternoon writing a fairy tale and I really couldn't be happier. Go, Heather! Go, Te! Go, writing and imagining and smiling at your work!

Besides this, Colin has just had a beautiful long weekend in Zanzibar with Hunter and Tait. They attended an African music fest and Colin was in a kind of djembe players nirvana. If you didn't know, Colin plays the djembe like a fiend. His hands are fast and soft and true. He free styles with grace. I'm his mom so you may take comments with a little pinch of salt. But not too much salt because it's all are true ;-)

We just picked Colin and Hunter up at the bus station. Tait flew back yesterday since she had to get to work. I'm excited to get my boy home. It was too much to have him AND the college boys gone all at once. I'm not ready for that quite yet.

The spaghetti sauce is on the stove and there is much laughter coming from the trampoline. It's dark outside and the giggles are thick.

Sweet!

Zanzibar (or Lucky Us)

Lucky us! We "had to" go to Zanzibar for a few days last week. Dang!

Byron and I had the fun of doing pre-marital counseling with Jeremy Stephenson and Kendra Woods over the last few months so we couldn't really NOT attend their wedding!



The air was so lovely and warm there. Mmmmmmm. Now we're back to the brisk air of Arusha. Sigh.

Zanzibar (or Trevor and Dane's Manly Trip)

Trevor and Dane (Uhler) took a little side excursion to Zanzibar last week. It entailed a bus trip to Dar es Salaam and then a ferry to the island. I confess to being nervous about pick-pockets and accidents and youthful forgetfullness, but they had a trouble-free journey.

Carly (Dane's sister) called it their "Manly" trip because it was their own adventure to celebrate graduating from high school. Dane and Trevor met as little kids but really became good friends during our six years in Portugal.

Congratulations, boys, on your graduations!

Looks like their trip was pretty fun.