Pemba

We arrived in Pemba, Zanzibar on Sunday morning, after 44 hours of travel, 5 days of packing and moving, and very little sleep.

Pictures later!

Easiest way to reach us is by our gmail acounts sarah dot beckham at gmail dot com and justin dot beckham at gmail dot com

You can also reach us by snail mail:

PO Box 210
Chake Chake, Pemba
Zanzibar, Tanzania

and by phone (use a calling card or you'll pay through the teeth!)

011 255 715 789 450 (Justin)

011 255 714 227 636 (Sarah)

en route

all our baggage



just the carry-on luggage



"I love moving walkways!"




Christmas phone call home



on the plane





chilling in London airport

moving and packing and traveling

Things are downright crazy here. I have traveled back and forth between New Haven and Baltimore three times in the past 5 days. Even Justin traveled down to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (an hour away from Baltimore) at the exact time I was traveling north. We passed each other in New York. Both of Juma's parents were out of town at the same time. We had a friend pick him up from school and put him to bed--sleepover on a school night!

I was in Baltimore on Monday to take two finals, then hurried back on an overnight train so I can help Justin finish packing up the house. Tomorrow we load up the moving van and drive down to Baltimore. So our time in New Haven is down to hours now.

On Thursday and Friday we pack up my apartment in Baltimore, move everything into storage, and run our final errands. Friday night, we fly to Tanzania via London. We will arrive in Tanzania early Sunday morning, then take a little flight over to Zanzibar.

We are going to miss New Haven. Juma is very sad about leaving his friends "forever," and we are going to miss our friends, too. I even made friends in Baltimore, the other first years in my division. Yesterday, they held a goodbye lunch for me.

t-minus

This semester of commuting has been crazy and hard, but we've managed it. Justin has proven his amazing juggling skills, keeping up with a full-time job, TAing, and single-parenting. Juma has been resilient and supportive and a great all-round kid.

I have to say goodbye to Justin and Juma only two more times! Then in a whirlwind week, we celebrate the holidays, I take my finals, Juma has his last day at his school, then we all move our stuff down to Baltimore, stuff it in storage, and fly off to Tanzania.

What can I say? My family is the greatest.

another Baltimore weekend

One of the many fun things we did together this weekend was go to a children's museum, where Juma had a blast and thoroughly exhausted us in his three hours of play.

Besides exploring a three-story jungle gym, figuring out how to maneuver a wheelchair, getting his shoes soaked in the water-play area, and building with blocks, he also pretended to be a cowboy,





learned to throw a lasso,



and made a giant bubble.




Thank you, Justin and Juma, for driving all the way down to see me! Baltimore is going to be a fun city to live in.

Juma's performance at school

Every year, Juma's school has International Day. Each class learns about a different country and performs a song or skit about it. This year, his class had Turkey. The whole class performs a skit about Hoja, a character from trickster-style folk tales. Juma doesn't have a speaking part, but he is one of the characters who show up for lunch at Hoja's house.

Halloween

For Halloween, we decorated the house:






Juma dressed up in the coolest ninja costume:



and played with his friends:




I did my hair crazy and let spiders and bats take up residence in it:




And of course we took Juma trick-or-treating:

october

Since we only have the weekends together, we really take advantage of them. Last weekend, we went to an aquarium in eastern Connecticut. We'd been there before, so this wasn't our first time to pet sting rays



but it was our first sea lion show



Afterward, we drove right on past our house and up to West Rock, one of the highest points in Connecticut. To give you an idea of how high that is, we hiked it in about 20 minutes. Only to discover that most people drive up. Oh, how I miss real mountains.

Still, the view of the leaves changing in late October in Connecticut is spectacular.





I can't help but take pictures of the leaves every year. Can I? Nope, I can't.

And who wouldn't want to spend the day with these two?

Jumaism, age 7

Juma: Did you know that when I jump in the air, it feels like time stands still?

a weekend in Baltimore

Justin and Juma made the drive down to see me this weekend. Walking around downtown, we happened on a big trucks expo, which Juma pretended not to like but loved.






We also went to the second-to-last game of the Oriole's baseball season. They've had a terrible season, but they won this time.










As I write, they are on their way back to Connecticut.



Juma said he's getting more used to saying goodbye, but it's still hard.

Yes. It is.