Tag Archives: school

Oribi Mom

Oribi Mom: How To Get Rid of an Uninvited Guest

“January has been busier than expected but also an exciting time of growth for our family.”

Life on the farm can be full of surprises. See that baby snake there?
February 6, 2023 

It’s still a mystery how these things happen, but life in Oribi Gorge is certainly keeping me on my toes. Last year would grind to a halt after almost a whole December of sick children and not much beach weather. But January was beckoning with new beginnings in so many areas.

Grade R. School runs. No plan to return maternity outfits. An action plan forming for feeding the bottomless pits who share my home. And I don’t mean the infuriating troop that strips my fruit trees and vines before we even get a taste.

The second week of school was going well. One of us even managed to make the parents’ meeting in the evening so that we could hear all the things we still had to organise for our eldest’s education. Big school is a lot of work for parents.

I’d left the stationery labelling to the very last minute with all the viral invaders vying for my children’s respiratory systems. I didn’t realise that sticking on over two hundred labels and covering books would be such a tedious exercise. Granted, I only had time to do it at around 9pm when I was already exhausted, but it took almost a week to finish. And that was without the plastic. (Did you know that self-sticking plastic covers are not very good at self-sticking?)

So, January has been busier than expected but also an exciting time of growth for our family. Other families seem to have grown too, including the Western Natal green snakes that live by the far porch. However, I didn’t expect to see one of their brood on my kitchen counter.

It was hiding behind the utensil bucket, right by the bread I was reaching for. At 20cm, swishing it quickly into a jug was enough for a very undramatic capture and release. The uninvited guest only needed a few prods but, like the crab, I have no idea how it even got up there. I guess one of this year’s tasks will be to investigate in case it isn’t such a harmless visitor next time.

Published here.

Oribi Mom, Travelinds

Oribi Mom: Clicking My Heels Because There’s No Place Like Home

“What a blessing to be right here.”

July 9, 2022

So, we had our first parent’s meeting the other day. It was just before school. My one-year-old came with us and played on the mat. We sat down and listened to how our sweet four-year-old is navigating RR. But all that my brain managed to process in those first few minutes was, “How did I get here?”

From the Classroom to an Exotic Beach

I had this flashback to lying on a slightly scratchy bamboo lounger reading a faded old novel I’d found at the reception desk that morning. The cobalt and turquoise sea was just ten metres in front of us. It was gorgeous in the sunlight, despite a few clouds left over from a recent cyclone that had passed through the central Philippines. We had endured a few days of rain with more sleep, more reading, and a cheap massage or two. Now, we were back in the sun and waiting for the tide to come in a bit so we could get to the reef.

It was quite sharp and rocky near the shore, but once you got deeper, the reef stretched for several kilometres in either direction. If you were lucky, one or two lazy hours with a snorkel and a rash vest brought endless colours; parrot fish, octopus, banded sea kraits, zebra fish, peacock shrimps and so much more. If you were really lucky, there would be a few green turtles or leatherbacks swimming by, close enough to follow but never slow enough to touch. Amazing!

But, here I was sitting on a yellow plastic chair as my son’s teacher spoke about our little boy. I’m almost a mom of three! We have lived in one place for almost five years, a record for us both. We undertook a quest in the Bornean jungle to find some of the last wild Pygmy elephants – and found them after five days! Now, I was watching my toddler happily dumping out every toy container he could find in his brother’s classroom, right before school.

There’s no place like home

How did we get here indeed. Life doesn’t stop for soaked-to-the-bone speedboat rides from Malaysia into Thailand. It only lets you remember all the fantastic things you’ve seen along the way. Maybe it was the sun rays on the wall that suddenly drew me back to our adventures.

As I listened to how much my boy has grown and learned, I had another thought. “What a blessing to be right here!” This is home now, with two tiny boys starting their own adventures alongside us. I could never have imagined how things would turn out while I searched the tree tops for that one wild orangutan we found, but I’m so glad that we kept going. It’s a new day, and I’m happy to be living in it.

Published here.