last day, squared

The West family:


Juma with Mrs. A, the teacher's aid:


Juma with Mr. Shortt, the teacher:


Juma with Gonen, his best friend:


The last day of school was also the day to say goodbye to our good friends these six years, the Wests. We'll miss you!

home but sick

We got home just fine (though our luggage didn't) after a crazy, crazy rush to the airplane. I left St George in plenty of time to get to the Las Vegas airport, but then hit insane bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go construction traffic in the city. I watched the minutes tick away as my rental car came due...an hour until departure...45 minutes until departure...30 minutes until departure...and all the exits were closed so I couldn't even get off...

We checked our luggage in 15 minutes before departure, waited patiently in the security line, and rushed off to the gate, sitting down 2 minutes after departure time. Juma about had a meltdown when he realized there were no two seats together and he thought he might have to sit in between two strangers instead of his mama. But a nice man let us take his seat, so we got to sit together (thanks, nice man!). So naturally, our luggage didn't make it on the plane. I had to go back to the airport to get it the next day.

And Tuesday, I woke up feeling horrible. And I still feel horrible. I did nothing but take Juma to school, pick him up, and sleep all day yesterday. Not much more productive today.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our vacation to Utah Valley; Salt Lake City; St. George, Utah; and Phoenix, Arizona.


Waiting in the airport to head to Utah...blissfully unaware that our next airport experience would be hellish.




On the Alpine Slide in Park City, Ut.



In the desert outside St. George. How on earth did anyone decide to settle this place? It was nice to see the sun, though. It's been raining all summer here in Connecticut.



All the Beckham cousins (plus two dads) next to some 3000-year-old petroglyphs drawn by Anasazi (?) Native Americans.



Cameron and Stephanie, aka the Newlyweds, whose wedding we attended in Salt Lake. Overlooking Green Valley in St. George.



"The Beckham Boys" with Cam and Steph and some nifty "alien" petroglyphs.

home again, home again, jiggity jig

arizona

And now Juma and I are in Phoenix visiting my sister Laura and her family, including the newest addition to the extended family, Liam.

fun with cousins

We've been having a good time in Utah hanging out with relatives. Juma has 20 cousins, 16 of them here in town now. I've just forgotten to take pictures most of the time.

Yesterday, we went to the Alpine Slide in Park City. This is Juma on the ski lift, with the coaster in the background.



Then we went to the zoo (try taking 10 kids to the zoo...).

Isaac, Rylee, Xander, and Laurelin climbing a rhino:



Tristan on the train:



Juma on the train:



Irelyn and Vicki on the train:



Sarah and Gwen:



Rylee and Juma:



Rylee, Juma and Isaac:



Laurelin, Isaac, Juma, and Xander:



Juma and Isaac:

utah

We're off to Utah tomorrow for a Beckham wedding, some time with the Wilson family, and a Beckham reunion. We're excited to see all the aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, in-laws, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, nieces, and nephews.

Whew. That's a lot of family. Just counting Justin's parents on down and my parents on down, that's 41 people. Not including us.

buzz cut

Okay, it was an accident that I buzzed it. But now he looks like uncle Cameron B. did when he was a kid. Just not blond.

for all you parents of 6-year-olds

Do check out this link. It's a hilarious little blog post about being a parent of a six-year-old. Oh, so, so familiar.

ankle

D'oh! Justin sprained his ankle playing basketball, poor thing. Yes, he was wearing his ankle braces (because of all the sprains he's experienced through the years).



Get well soon, Justin!

pictures from Pemba

Justin has gotten some pictures to us, but doesn't have a good enough internet connection to get them on here. So I'll do it for him, hoping I'm explaining what everything is correctly.

There are lots of geckos everywhere, and we love when they live in our houses; they eat mosquitoes and other bugs. This is a baby one Justin caught.




This is a typical village house. I'm not sure which village this is, since Justin's visited relatives of friends in a couple different spots on the island. Houses like there are the cheapest--the walls are made of coral rocks, sticks, and mud. The roof is made of thatched palm leaves, with a frame of sticks. The floor is just bare, packed, swept dirt. A place like this has no electricity or running water, of course. A majority of Pembans live in houses just like this one. Others have houses made of coral rock cut into large bricks or locally-made concrete blocks; these often have tin roofs.




This is the view from Justin's house, I believe. This is the same street we lived on in years past, but on the opposite side.




Meet Justin's pet spider. These giant buggers live all over the islands on these huge, intricate webs a few feet above people's heads, usually between roof awnings, electrical wires, and tree branches. There aren't very noticeable, but if you pay attention and look up when you are walking through an alley, you can see dozens. If you're lucky, you can see them moving to catch insects in their webs, or to repair their webs after a heavy rain. (Click on the picture to see it up close and life size.)




The blue building at the end of this alley is called Obama Restaurant. Justin eats lunch there every day. People in Pemba (and all of East Africa) love Obama.




Here's an example of Justin's lunch: rice and a whole fish, fried up, and some hot milk.




Lastly, this is the Old Fort (built by the Portuguese, British, or Arabs, I forget which) where the Archives are kept. Justin spends from 7:30am to 3:30pm here, five days a week. Once he has the right paperwork in hand, he'll also be spending some of his days in towns and villages interviewing people.

Juma's report on the weekend

Just after graduation weekend, Juma wrote a "report" for his class. Here it is with his spelling.

"on the week end I whened to a play in new york called wiced. It was vary freaky. It was about the wizard of oz. of how the wicked wich of the east of how she became the wiced wich of the east and how she died"


And the "correct" version for those who have trouble reading first-grade-ese:

"On the weekend I went to a play in New York called Wicked. It was very freaky. It was about the Wizard of Oz. Of how the Wicked Witch of the East [West?] of how she became the Wicked Witch of the East and how she died."

baseball

Juma's baseball season is almost over; he has only one more game that we could make it to (but it's at 7:45 at night! What six-year-old can play that late?!?!).

This is a highly abbreviated video from Juma's first game of the season--he made two runs. Justin is pitching to him on the first hit. Juma is wearing jeans, orange shirt, and is number 12.




And these are some shots from one of his practices (just about the only practice we made it out to--this working and being a single parent thing is tough!).

Waiting for a catch:




Pretending to pitch, while playing center field:




Practicing hard:




Getting bored in the outfield, giving himself a manicure: