Mating!

Early in the year we were given a couple of bunny rabbits which kept the kids entertained for a few weeks (they then got bored of having to take them downstairs to play from their hutch on our balcony)... the bunny rabbits became just rabbits, and too large for the kids to even get in/out of the box to take them downstairs. A few weeks ago one of the rabbits began shedding a lot of hair and the next day we noticed six small hairless ugly things in the hutch. Well, three have grown hair, become cute and survived into adulthood, after we were told we had to kick the male out of the hutch.

Though the little TV the kids watch is usually cartoons in Chinese to help with the language, I also think its better they watch some real TV sometimes or good Disney movies which nice plots and characters. So sometimes they go to the cinema, or watch something on our portable projector at home. Last week I thought they could get into some non-fiction, so they've been watching BBC Earth's Africa series. Attenborough at his best, and the footage is spectacular: it covers birdlife, large mammals, small insects, oceans, lakes, savannahs, forests and much more. The kids have generally enjoyed it, however most of the episodes are all about birth, fighting, death and mating... whether animals, insects or flowers. It's a bit much for the kids sometimes, especially the part with the baby elephant dying from the drought.

Talking about fighting, Leah still occasionally has bursts where she'll hit people if she is angry and unhappy... usually teachers or parents, so this is something we still need to work on. She's not great at controlling her anger. Maybe its the terrible threes or something! In other news, tennis continues and Hannah has experimented with several dance classes and currently enjoys tap dancing, though Leah has decided against it. The kids are definitely sprinters rather than distance runners. They often enjoy running so much that if they complain about walking, they'll prefer to run (which is more of a game) instead!

This week is also a little more than a month since Hannah got her smartwatch, enabling us to call her and see her location at any time (and see how many steps she does each day!). A relatively expensive luxury but quite useful. We can see the ridiculous route that her school bus takes as it picks up and drops off other kids taking more than an hour each way mostly, so after the Summer we'll work out an alternative for her and Leah (Leah will also start at the same school as Hannah soon). Generally Hannah doesn't complain too much about the bus, occasionally listens to music and often talks to friends.

After a couple of relatively dry weeks, we can be be fairly sure the rainy season has basically ended so the government have been out fixing roads, thankfully, as the storms had made the roads so bad they made driving dangerous as cars weaved all over the place to dodge holes that were often half a meter or more deep, let alone the traffic jams ensuing from the slow driving.

Meanwhile our apartment complex invested in a borehole to directly get underground water instead of buying in trucks of water every week (drinking water is still provided separately)... there was a lot of noise for a week. Last year it also invested in a backup generator in case of power cuts. Despite all the rain these last three months the Nairobi Water company still does not provide regular water supplies, hence the need for trucks or boreholes; and Kenya Power does not provide regular electricity either (most of the electricity comes from hydropower or geothermal; hydropower is affected by the rains) though often both companies suffer from the infrastructure as much as the water or power generation.