Between School and the Sea

A new rhythm is quietly settling in: school in the morning, exploring in the afternoon.

The day began gently, with pancakes, mango, and muesli, Assunta proudly making the pancakes. But our peaceful breakfast quickly turned into our first real lesson in tropical living.

We had left the sugar on the counter, still sealed in its plastic packaging. Within minutes, tiny red ants had found their way inside. Not around it, inside it. Fascinating, and slightly unsettling at the same time. Safe to say, the sugar now lives in a sealed container.

At breakfast, Polyxena announced confidently, “After school, I’m going straight into the pool.”

Assunta didn’t even look up.“I’ll already go in during the break.”

And she meant it.

Not long after, the children ran outside, and suddenly called for me.

“There’s something in the pool!”

A crab.

They stood at the edge, half excited, half unsure whether to laugh or panic. I tried to get it out, unsuccessfully, until the pool attendant came to the rescue. Calmly, he lifted it out and showed us how to hold it.

Julius didn’t hesitate for a second.

When the morning school session is almost over, the girls often spend their extra minutes quietly reading their books, completely absorbed, while Julius prefers to explore the surroundings, discovering every little corner of the garden or peeking under leaves for insects and geckos.

While the morning continued, we kept hearing a strange sound — almost like a small alarm echoing through the trees. We couldn’t see the bird anywhere. After a bit of searching, we discovered it was a Northern Red-fronted Tinkerbird. Another new sound to add to this place.

The beach has quickly become one of our favourite discoveries. The sand is incredibly white and soft, almost like powder.

“It feels like we’re walking on flour,” Assunta said.

And she’s right.

Julius immediately started building a sand fortress, completely focused, while the girls wandered along the shore on a different kind of treasure hunt — collecting flip-flops. Ever since visiting the Ocean Sole workshop in Nairobi, they have been seeing them everywhere, knowing how something so simple can be turned into colourful pieces of art. To their great delight, they found nearly ten scattered along the beach.

It’s funny how our visit to the Ocean Sole workshop in Nairobi keeps coming back to us here, suddenly the flip-flops on the beach are no longer just rubbish, but little pieces of potential, waiting to be transformed.

Early this morning, Julius and I returned to the beach at low tide. The landscape had changed completely. We spotted tiny fish, crabs, lots of urchins, and what looked like small starfish scattered across the sand.

Watching the white crabs move quickly across the beach, Julius paused and said,“I think they are white because the sand is white.”

A simple thought, and yet, somehow, it felt like real discovery.

On the way back, he proudly carried four coconuts he had found. Another small adventure added to the day.

Back at the house, we are slowly getting used to our little companions, geckos. They seem to be everywhere. So far we have spotted three different kinds, from tiny ones on the walls to a larger, beautifully coloured one near the coconut tree. We don’t mind them at all, especially since there are also plenty of mosquitoes.

And then there are the mornings.

Very early, before the day really begins, the unmistakable call of the Hadada ibises echoes through the trees — loud, sudden, and impossible to ignore. What felt unfamiliar at first is already becoming part of our daily rhythm.

So, between schoolbooks, pool breaks, birds, and beach walks, we are slowly settling into this new life.

One small moment at a time.