Mrs.O's writing room.

It's the end of September and the beginning of October, looks like lots of African countries got their independence around this time. So the Africans at Wharton threw a joint party today, to celebrate anniversaries gone by and those yet to come (like Uganda's which is in about 9 days time). We had lots of fun, African music, plenty of dancing, African food of course and a movie "The Last King of Scotland" (there couldn't have been a better choice).

So, Mich is having fun at preschool, he has made friends and he likes his teachers. But with school comes the baggage of viral illnesses and strange behavior. Last week he didn't go to school for two days because he was down with a cold. I have also noticed that he cries a lot more these days, even over really petty issues and I was wondering what was happening, I'm thinking it might be because he sees other children crying at school but many of them are younger than he is. Then just this weekend he said something that I know he definitely heard from somewhere else, he said "I don't like grownups", now that was a shocker and we are trying to deal with it. Even as he grows, learns and gets more independent, we continue to trim off the rough edges.

Last week Sam came to a point where he thought it was time to change careers apparently school is doing things to him. He decided life as a marine might just work better. I hope by now you have realised that I'm just pulling your leg. On a serious note, Sam and a few other Wharton students had the opportunity to experience life as a marine for a day. They went to quantico the camping and training base for the marines and this is what happened. And lastly the writing on the wall.

We all looked forward to Mich's first day at school, he was excited, so was I and Sam was busy getting ready to head back to school too. On the morning of the first day Mich wasn't too keen on taking his bath or getting dressed, we had to keep reminding him of what exciting things lay ahead, that got him going. It's preschool or should I say play school so we didn't have to get him much, just a school bag and some decent clothes. When we got to school and entered the class room Mich let go off my hand and went off to play with the toys. There were a few kids here and there crying because their parents had left them and one was throwing a serious tantrum. Mich looked at the boy with a bewildered look of "what's the matter dude, we are in school that should be exciting". Sam and I hang around to speak with the teacher and see how Mich settled in but honestly he couldn't have been bothered with us. The teacher was nice, she said we should give him time to...

Yee ! It's great to be back, no, not to Uganda but back to Philly. We took the 12:00pm flight from Dallas, took about 3 hours to get here and thankfully my dear friend Brent and his wife Diane picked us up from the airport. We spent the first night in a hotel because we couldn't get the keys to our apartment until 12:00pm of the next day (1st September) My my! west Philadelphia especially the areas surrounding the University was jammed with cars, roads were blocked off, basically that whole part of town looked like back to school day in a boarding school. Students carrying suitcases, furniture, the whole works, but that is because many students especially under grads rent housing close to the compass. Interestingly it's good to be back, feels more like home than ever (I can't believe I just said that), I guess because everything is familiar. Nothing much has changed. It's nice to meet up with friends, who were more less acquaintances last semester, there is a lot...