I get up at 5 am (a real killer !) ... padding around the house with a torch (flashlight) as the generator is not yet on & there is no electricity for another hour or so .... put the kettle on and feed the cats. Take the ice packs out of the freezer and put them into the coolerboxes. Check school bag, sports kit, music stuff - whatever lessons my daughter has that day and that all is there. Take our breakfast out of the fridge (packed the night before, to eat on the road) aswell as my daughter's school lunch and snacks. Put everything in the dining room, ready for us to leave. (Can you see who's hiding under the dining room table ? I only saw him when I downloaded this photo !) Take coffee through to hubby and wake him up. Get myself dressed and do my make-up and hair, then wake my daughter up with some tea. Just before 7 am, everyone is bundled into the car .... thermal mugs of tea/coffee at the ready - and we're off. As hubby drives I give my daughter breakfast in the car - usually cereal, yogurt, fruit and perhaps a boiled egg. The kids then both usually fall asleep !
At around 8.15 am we turn off the main tar road and on to the (very, shockingly, horrendously bumpy) school dirt road .... I wake my daughter up if she is still sleeping .... we dodge pedestrians and people on their way to market with bunches of bananas on their heads .... as this road also leads to small local farms where many bananas are grown.
We finally arrive at the school .... a privately owned/run school in a converted house, on the edge of a small coffee 'shamba' (farm). I get my daughter out, smarten her up and neaten her hair ... and take her in to school. Say hi to the teachers and to other Mum's and Dad's dropping their kids off - many of whom are friends of ours we've known since we first moved here over 12 years ago - when we were all unmarried and childless still ! I catch up on a little gossip, too .....
Then head on another half hour or so into the city, where I have a day of shopping ahead. Banking, chemist, dry goods, butchery, bakery, fruit and vegetables - and grab a quick bite to eat at one of our favourite restaurants for lunch - before making it through the (constant !) traffic to fetch our daughter from school .........
We arrive back home just after 4 pm usually. (5 pm if there are extra mural activites that day). It's a long day. Everything is unpacked from the car and into my store/pantry .... my daughter peeking in the boxes to see what treats I've bought for her .... and I often have a little helper (pictured) who kneels and helps us to 'unpack' the boxes - with the vegetables being a favourite !
Oh - and look who's also always there to help with the unpacking ! He waits to see what special cat treats and meat I've brought home .... of course I always have a little something special for him .....
So - that's what a school run is like for me in my part of the world. We do this twice a week but hubby does many of the trips whilst I stay on the farm with the baby, as he is usually in the city for work related stuff (collecting chemicals, seed, spares etc) anyway - and trips like this, twice weekly, are quite tiring - especially with a baby in tow ! 
