Day 117: Morning Beach Exploration During Low Tide

Every morning we wake up to a low tide with hundreds of yards of beach and wading pools right in front of the villa.

After breakfast we decided to head down and explore before the afternoon tides came in. The plan was to spend 20 or 30 min then come back up for a morning school session.

We ended up staying for about 3 hours. We wondered around, collected shells, observed the sea life and watched the fishing teams bring in their haul. One team was so excited by how much they caught that they were singing and dancing on boats as they came back to the beach.

Some of the same local kids from yesterday came down the beach again to join us. It was a fun morning of soccer, sand castles, shell collecting and digging in the shallow pools. Watching James and Willa break off into extended play sessions with different kids convinced us that this was better schooling than anything we’d be providing back at the house.

We headed back up to the villa for a made-to-order pizza lunch. Fun fact: James now likes pineapple on his pizza and ordered it today. So good.

We chilled around the pool for a bit after lunch and then went back down to the beach. I settled into one of the super-comfy pillow beds and took a little snooze while Margaret and Willa collected shells (and saw the head of a dead guitar fish!) and James played ball with a guy from the hotel staff.

It was one of the most pleasant naps I’ve taken in a while: hat over eyes, kindle on belly, perfect temperature, sound of the little waves crashing on the beach, beautiful colors from the soon-to-be setting sun and Margaret, Willa and James all enjoying themselves within eyesight.

The kids ate around 6:30 then we put them to bed and enjoyed an grownups-only dinner, our last after 9 weeks in Africa.

Misc:

It was good for Willa and James to see the local kids out and about without grownups. It’s not ideal of course, but that level of independence was eye-opening for them, who come from a world of 24-hour grownup supervision and hand-holding.

Later when they’d ask for help with things are whine for us to do something, we’d remind them of the kids on the beach. Instead of rolling their eyes at us, they’d pause and think about it. James would even get a little embarrassed that he was being so needy.