Harambee: New and Old Friends

Harambee was a chance for the girls to spend some time with their new and old friends… I found they did more socializing than I did - maybe in future years I’ll get a chance to relax a bit more. But it was neat to see.

Sugar, in typical fashion, hung out with her Swazi friend T and some of the older girls, like JC and R & S… but she also stayed quite close to her mama and ababa. Spice, on the other hand, found a new friend that she stuck like glue to - C, who is a sweet boy seven years old (R&S’s brother.)

So both girls floated around in the same crowd much of the time, flitting between our trailers and the gathering places, but C and Spice would constantly find each other and dance with each other, etc. At the hip. So funny.

For me, a highlight was seeing my friends E and S, and L with her husband K. The first three I stayed iwth in Ethiopia, and it was lovely to see them again. they both looked so relaxed and happy. Eplainable in contrast to when we were in Ethiopia - top stress for them because they were some of the Almaz moms that busted out their babes early from the transition home, and for me because of the whole visa / bankruptcy business. In fact, E was the first one to email me from Ethiopia to tell me to get over there and pick up my kids.  

I digress. But they stopped for part of the day and we went to a winery and did a little catching up. Otherwise, I spent a little time with my friends from Kelowna and got to know some of them a bit better. We also started spending a bit of time with JC’s family from Nakusp, who are really nice. Next year - more visiting!