Going and growing up

An early start this Saturday morning to get Jamie up and off to school by 630am for a hockey match out of town, on the back of a 3 day school trip white water rafting and generally adventuring which has left him happy but exhausted. I'm struck, as recent visitors have been by how much growing up Jamie has been doing after his first term in middle school. Security and traffic make it hard to give him the little bits of independence he would enjoy in the UK - unaccompanied journeys to school, walking round to friends' houses, hanging out in shopping centres with mates. But he does get the odd night away for sports events, sleepovers and school trips which help both him and me loosen the apron strings.

He spent the first week of the Christmas holiday climbing mount Kenya on a school trip. Its a pretty major undertaking - the second highest mountain in Africa, ice and snow capped, with altitude sickness a very real possibility. He set off early and very cheerily if slightly nervously. Big hugs for mum and dad were sought out but strictly only allowed in the privacy of home and certainly not in front of mates in the school car park. This was evidently the arrangement all the other 11 year old boys had come to with their parents too. He packed his rucksack (a 40 year old thing that Tim inherited from his older brother) with the warmest clothes we have here (not much), my sturdy UK raincoat and oversized gloves borrowed from a friend of mine. And having tried out various shoes and second hand walking boots, he went off wearing my size 7 walking shoes which fit him perfectly. Growing up.

It rained for the entire trip (except when it snowed) and they came back a night early having run out of dry clothes and raced down the mountain to get home and warm as soon as possible. Jamie said that the second night was the low point - cold, wet through, in a tent with no end in sight. But they persevered and he made it to Lenana Point - the highest point you can reach without ropes at just under 5,000 metres, which was fantastic - very proud of him and his mates for trying so hard. They all looked pretty dazed the morning after. Pretty tough going up.



But good to know that through all the going up and growing up, the heaps of wet muddy washing still come home to mum. And the sponge bag returns packed exactly as it left.


Anne