Massive Change of Pace

Don’t get me wrong. I love being in the States – life is so convenient there.

But it’s nice to be back in Nepal, despite the pretty low post-earthquake morale here. After an extremely hectic home-leave, which was difficult in ways we are not ready to talk about in the packing and preparation of our house for the next tenants, we are back with our stuff, in the alternative life we live where I don’t have to do laundry or clean toilets, have minimal gainful occupation, and can stay home playing with the girls and the dog and watch the monsoon rain pool outside (and inside, but that’s another story).  

Now, if only I had some Trader Joe's in the freezer I could get started on making dinner...

Oh, Mama!

New Baby Year came at last! 

Pregnant mom and firstborn moved back to the US, we changed schools, and had a new baby overlayed with the foreign-service issue of technically living (and hubby physically residing) in a

How can my heart not burst?

place that is different than where we had the baby. In our case, we are extending this period by several months.

Here are some highlights:

• Reveled in living in a place that belongs to us – Home is where the House Is! - despite the lack of furniture and household goods, check (Nov 12)
• No. 1 daughter strong-armed into attending excellent local public school despite her fears, check (Nov 23)
• Thanksgiving with dear US-based friends but without hubby, check
• 40th birthday celebrated while being really, really pregnant, without hubby, check (Dec 5)
• Amazing baby girl born after 2 weeks of “pro-dromal” labor and one hour at the hospital, with hubby, check (Dec 30)
• Comings and goings of parents and hubby, most notably husband’s paternity being up and heading back to Nepal, ouch (Feb 22)
• A bunch of stuff I barely remember, such as getting up 3 to 5 times a night for one child or the other or both; feeding baby while watching it snow; cold bus stop waits with a screaming newborn; cold shopping trips with a precariously sleeping newborn; piano lessons with an amazingly good newborn; library visits while shushing the newborn; skyping to Nepal; cooking dinner with the baby in the sling and the girl sprawled on the kitchen floor doing homework; before school breakfasts with my girl at my own kitchen counter; laundry at 1am; and snuggles in sunbeams with both my girls. . .check
• A visit from a dear friend who folded the 3-load-tall mound of clothes in the borrowed papasan, alleluia and check (March 22)
• Mom arrives, and the house is picked up, eldest dear-one has company during feedings and baby bedtimes, dinner dishes are magically done, bathtubs are usably clean, la! Thanks Mom, glad you’ll be here a while. 

Back on the Airplane Again

After arriving back in Nepal, beginning our very sincere first two weeks at homeschooling, working nights, and getting over jet lag, I hopped on a plane to Singapore for the 5-month pregnancy scan. I was able to do the 3-month scan in Albuquerque since we were in the US anyway, but a foreign service pregnancy in many locales such as ours means a lot of extra scheduling, paperwork, and trips. Lucky for me, I like Singapore. Unlucky for me, Uncle Sam doesn’t pay for the family members to come.

Despite the doc creeping me out a bit, the news was all good! We have a healthy, normal baby girl on the way!

Nelsons Roll

I have to admit that I am doing a little back-dating blogging. I started several posts and didn't get them finished - time to catch up!

Starting with our home-leave: "Home-leave" is an official term meaning "minimum four weeks of extra paid vacation for the foreign service member so that you remember what it's like in America and also so you still think this job is cool after a few years' hard labor."

We Nelsons have been trained not to count on where we expect to be living or working in the future. For now, we can absolutely assured that we have a whole month to be on vacation in the US. Seize the day! Believe it or not, many foreign service members decry their enforced home leave... Why you ask? Because they have forgotten what it's like to have only 10 days' annual vacation? Probably, yes, but also because it is expensive. The majority of people would have trouble spending more than a reasonable one or so weeks at their in-laws, and  other places to stay generally cost money.

Our solution to this was to stay the one or so weeks at the respective in-laws', to travel between said in-laws' homes by our car which is wisely cared for by my parents while we are out of country, car-camping on our way from one to the other and back again. Thus, our schedule looked like this:

1. A week in Europe on the way, where we immersed ourselves in wine, bread, cheese, art, Parisian charm, and Disneyland

2. A few days in NM doing crazy-mad shopping that is hard for those not living in 3rd world countries to comprehend, as well as dentist and doc visits

3. Driving, camping, driving, etc, to include the following stops:

• Rock climbing in the Jemez, NM
• National forest near Pagosa Springs, CO
• Mesa Verde National Park, CO
• Arches NP, UT
• Zion NP, UT
• A'le'inn cafe along the Extra Terrestrial Highway in Rachel, NV (a quick stop so we could get out of NV before the tires melted)
• Mammoth Lakes, CA (in a BED)
• Yosemite NP, CA



The accomplished Junior Ranger in her favorite milieu.

• San Francisco, baby!

4. 10 days' worth of playing, 7-yr-old birthday celebrating, and avoiding forest-fire smoke inhalation at my in-laws' in OR

5. Driving, camping, driving, to include:

• Boise, ID, and a visit to an old college buddy of Andrew's
• Yellowstone NP, WY
• Grand Tetons NP, WY
• An night with a hotel shower and laundromat in lovely Laramie
• A few nights at one of our favorite haunts, my grandfather's house in CO

6. Back to NM for the last of the crazy shopping, packing, eating, and telling everyone we see how awesome our trip was.

Now, my dears, now, I sit in a lovely home in a cloudy city on the other side of the world. A city crammed with people, motorbikes, and houses that go UP; with rooftops where people gather, work, eat, and stare at us; where the dogs, roosters, and the locally-made horn blowing keep waking us up at night; where prayer flags flutter from buildings, marigolds decorate doors and gates, and people, dogs, and cows walk around with the red tikka on their foreheads. We can see the hills surrounding much of the Kathmandu valley from our own rooftop. I look around, think back to just 2 or 3 weeks ago, and wonder which experience is the dream. 

T minus 23 and counting...

23 hours from now, a plane will take us away from Kenya, probably forever. There have been a lot of mixed feelings in our house this week. For the little one in particular, it's been tough balancing her excitement to travel to the States soon with her sense of loss. End result: child's behavior is alternately enthusiastic and downright awful.

For me, I have realized that this is the first move we've made where we may never set foot in this city - or country - again. We'd be crazy to pay for a trip to come here, when we've already seen and done so much (and there are so many other new places to visit!). But this sense of finality is really putting a damper on my own excitement to leave.

On the bright side, we have pulled off one of our lowest stress moves of all time (thus far). Our stuff was pretty much organized / sorted / tossed / sold before the movers came. We seem to have everything now we planned on having, and all that we have fits in our suitcases - or in strategically timed care packages to family.  The house is clean, the laundry is done well before midnight, and we have time to host a goodbye cookie-party at the playground before we leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow's journey starts with a week around Europe, then a 4-week trek across the Western US. This is one of those times...home is where the family is.

The joys of the season

What a lovely escapade we had traveling to the US for Christmas. Aside from the 30 to 35 hour gruel of the journey --during which I learned that Kenyans are much kinder to a mother traveling alone with a kid than Europeans or, especially, Americans-- it was fun delving back into the land of smooth, wide roads, shopping galore, and wide blue cloudless New Mexico skies.

Well, yes, the skies are like that in Nairobi too. The difference being: when you are looking at the sky in New Mexico in December you are bundled from nose to toes and still shivering. Or at least you are when you've gotten used to thinking that 60 degrees F is cold.

Highlights of the trip (excluding the food factor, because those are too many to list) include:

• Seeing my mom direct the children's choir at church with my daughter timidly singing in it
• Working at home, and overhearing:
• My daughter: Grandpa, would you like me to do your hair first or buff your nails?
• My father: Let's to my nails first, I haven't had them buffed in much too long.
• Watching my daughter play in the snow with her friends, her dad, and my dad (I enjoyed this much more than when I played in the snow with her myself)
• Having my daughter and her two visiting friends, whom were a highlight all on their own, tromp inside with red noses and bright eyes, gushing about the fort they made out where I used to play 
• Going out to a new movie, at night, with my husband, while grandparents babysat
• Visiting with "my people" - friends whom I have known for way, way longer than 18 months, by this time we have affirmed that we can pick right back up from when we last met
• Visiting with my aunt, whom I haven't seen except on Skype in a few years, and now that she is, ah, up there in age, seeing how much her spirit and manner remind me of my grandmother

Then, there was the coming home to Kenya. What really blew me away was that I really felt I was coming home after a month way. This thought is quickly followed by, "Oh crap! We're moving in 6 months!"

C'est la vive.

Impressions of home

Eight days ago, my daughter and I arrived in the States for an extended Christmas holiday. (Hubby will be following shortly for a less extended vacation.) Immediately we notice a few sublime differences, unabashedly pointed out by my 6 year old in that way that kids have.


1. Thee road is so smooth! There are no potholes, no speed bumps.

2. It's COLD! (Followed quickly by, "SNOW!" and much running around inside and out)

3. You can drink water from the tap??

4. While watching the Grinch on TV, with real actual commercial breaks..."Why do they keep saying, 'buy this' and 'you need that' all the time?"

5. At the store: Can we get cherries? (yes.) Can we get strawberries? (yes.) Can we get toaster waffles? (yes.) Can we get fruit bars? (yes.)..... et cetera.

6. (2 hours after sundown in a parking lot) It is not dark out here! It can't be night time!

I for one, am enjoying the sedate style of driving and am getting over my shock at being able to safely and easily go out at night to run errands and do Christmas shopping.

Just sayin'

My daughter pointed it out. I have never said a thing out loud, though I have thought it every time we read this book...

Plimoth Plantation, a 1627 reproduction village, known to us from our love of the book Sarah Morton's Day 

Modern-day homestead in Western Kenya

A & A on R & R

Life is not so hard for an expat in Nairobi. Still, we looked forward to our R & R vacation over the school spring break. Here are some of the highlights.

Amsterdam: 1 Historic Haus
Early morning arrival, cold weather (!), strolling the now-familiar canals, and... wonder of wonders...the grocery store. Stocked up on cherry tomatoes, yogurt, deli meat and cheese, baguettes, and drooled over just about everything else. Had a lovely visit to the Anne Frank House.

Bonn: 23 Castles
Stayed in long-time friend Laura's lovely flat in her lovely neighborhood while she chauffeured us and met every whim. Saw castles and monasteries, visited Rhineland, ate great food, drank great beer, and purchased all manner of crazy things like soccer shoes for Andrew and a sling for kiddo's arms. One of us cried when we had to leave Laura's cat behind (poor Andrew just loves those kitties!). We counted 23 castles on hilltops along the Rhine as we rode the train to the Frankfurt airport.

Florence: 500 Steps

Our "attic" room at a B&B afforded views of the famous Duomo created by Brunellsechi right outside our window... you just had to look down the street a bit. 500 steps from our B&B to the Duomo and a center of tourist-action. Also 500 steps up to the cupola...which was more like 1000 for Andrew since he had to carry the kid up most of the way. I did not anticipate how much I would freak out to have my naturally-reckless 5-yr-old jumping about the exterior cupola walkway----way high up there --- nor did I anticipate that she would freak out trying to get down those steep, steep, narrow, dark echo-y stairs (hmmm, maybe I should have). It didn't help that she couldn't hold on to the railing due to the casts. At the Uffizi I was really glad Andrew had taken art history in college - the child had a lot questions.

Rome: About 20 dead popes
We did not count them - the popes interred at St Peter's Basilica - because there was a serious concern that they would outnumber the German castles; simply not acceptable. The adults estimated and worked hard to convince the child the castles won. The Forum / Palatine Hill and Coliseum were predictably and amazingly impressive. We did not take a peek at St Paul's jail cell - apparently the catholic church has turned the formerly free jail-cell viewing into a multi-media event, considered to be irrelevant at best and offensive at worst (according to the all-knowing TripAdvisor).

Home: 1 ginormous traffic jam
It took us longer to take the taxi back to our house than any of the train rides or within-Europe flight. The traffic "flow" engendered by the inexplicably placed downtown Nairobi traffic circles and the brand-new roads that seem to have little concession to how cars get on and off them is mind-boggling. However, reaching our own little garden oasis and all 3 of us collapsing on our extremely comfortable and much-missed bed made me think... maybe home is where the mattress is!

Travel weary tyke

So a freshly-minted 5-year old on her way to Africa just won't go to sleep on the first leg of the flight - even on the red-eye. Who knew? She valiantly explored Amsterdam with us, and then collapsed as we've never seen her do. In the middle of the busy square where we paused, her head went down, eyes closed, and she was done! Andrew lugged her dead weight back to the train, and she was appropriately alert for the leg on to Africa the next morning.