Nia was off last week for Diwali Break so she accompanied me to Lilongwe. Oddly enough, I didn’t spend much time with my daughter, as she had a totally different social calendar than I did. Because of that, I thought I’d devote a post solely to her trip adventures.
She would want you to know that the suitcase shown in the photo above is her very first suitcase of her own. She got it from her Grandma and Grandpa Novak for her recent birthday. She managed to jam the entire thing full of toys, most of which she never touched. :) Oh well. Such is life with a kiddo.
At the top of her priority list was as much play time as possible with these sweet girls, Michelle (11) and Evelyn (6). For those who are new readers, Michelle and Evelyn are the daughters of our former cook/housekeeper. They lived in the staff quarters on our property and played with Nia daily. They were so close, in fact, that they called each other ‘sisters’. She had missed them immensely and I was so excited for her to have this bonus time with them.
And play they did. I think in total they got about 15 hours of playtime in on the weekends. Not too shabby, huh? And what was even more awesome was that they just picked up where they left off, like no time had passed at all. It was so heart-warming. Love those girls sooooo much. They’ve been such a good influence on Nia. In the pic below Evelyn is wearing Nia’s old clothes. The dress was her Xmas dress. I love that Evelyn thought this was a special enough occasion to bust out her fancy dress. :)
Nia’s mornings were spent as the big helper at her former preschool(s). She did one day at the Learning Centre but came home crying and said the “babies” (that’s anyone younger than her) were making fun of her because she’s 7 and was too old to be there. And she didn’t feel like she got enough special jobs. So at breakfast the next day she had a crying meltdown and refused to go back. Luckily for us, we had another offer to help out. The former co-owner of the Learning Centre had started her own preschool, The Playhouse, so Nia went there from Tuesday – Thursday. The director of The Playhouse is Indian so they were celebrating Diwali all week. She enjoyed telling the kids about living in India, got to wear her kurta, and helped everyone make rangoli art with colored rice.
I was super proud to learn that she read to the whole class a couple times. I thought that was a really brave thing to do. Go Nia!
Nia went right from school to various playdates on Monday – Thursday. And Friday and Saturday had sleepovers on the docket. She was one busy lady!
Both Nia & I agreed that it was a fantastic way to spend our week off. I wouldn’t be surprised if we return there again…
CLICK HERE if you want to see the full gallery of trip photos!
