Snorts under the Stars

Doing a little catching up, here, but last month we finally went camping! It was big on my list to be out under the big sky far away from city civilization. When school got out we drove up to Lake Baringo, one of  several lakes that dot the length of the Rift Valley in Kenya. We took a boat ride, which revealed birds and crocs while we floated over submerged lake islands - there had been a lot of rain. We didn't have to venture further than the shore edge, a few dozen feet from our campsite, to see the hippos.

Yes, this is where we camped. The closest hippo was just to the right of the sign... but too much in the bushes to get a good picture.

After dinner at the covered-patio restaurant (gotta love roughing it in Kenya!), we gazed at the stars, demurred on the campfire, and crawled into our sleeping bags as the deep and rumbling hippo snuffles and snorts carried us of to a 9PM sleep (yeah, we've been tired!).

The next day we drove to Lake Bogoria. We were very impressed with the state of the tarmac. (Yes, tarmac, and it was in great shape!) We went in the northern gate of the park and were almost immediately treated to lots of flamingos, beautiful scenery, and hot springs.

Flamingos, mountains and lakes, oh my.

Despite what the ranger had said, the road to the south gate wasn't actually passable (at least, we weren't willing to try without having a winch, and someone to winch us). Instead of backtracking we decided to go out the western gate. It was on the park's map. It was on the GPS.

Note to self: If you find yourself saying "This road should work" when you already know another road is perfectly good, DON'T TRY IT. Just suck it up and backtrack.

After a journey that resembled a cartoon car going up and down hills, on a very rocky, bumpy, dirt track, we finally made it to the gate. Which was at a wee village. The gate was closed and locked. And the wee village was very, very quiet. Andrew got out of the car, and walked around looking interested in the gate. This process sends up the muzungu alert. Soon enough, a little boy came running up to Andrew, and stood there looking at him. Andrew pointed at the gate and asked a question. After a bit the boy smiled and went running, and soon enough an older man came to the gate, reached down and unwrapped the chain and still-locked steel padlock from the posts, and opened the gate. Er, thanks.

Note to self: If you find yourself saying "How do we get through this locked gate in the middle of nowhere" always try to simply open the gate. It just might work. 

After what seemed like hours and hours, very few cow/sheep/goat sightings (which just shows how middle-of-nothing we were for a while) and several exclamations that went something like "This is really on the map?", "This isn't a road, it's a river bed!", "You've gotta be kidding me!" and repeated renditions from the back seat of "are we there yet?", we finally reached the highway. Another four short hours through death-defying traffic and we would be home. Andrew would have kissed the tarmac if he wasn't so anxious to push the car above 15 km per hour.

And then, I got to deliver the news to the wee one that 1) yes, she could watch a dvd now, and 2) when we got home, we were going to babysit two kittens. After 5 weeks with us the kittens went home last night amid many tears (from the child) and sighs of relief (from the curtains and my office chair).

Cutie faces, loud purrs, funny pounces, sharp claws.

Running

It's been one of those months...hence, things have been quiet on the blog. A few things have kept us running with feet spinning around like cartoon characters.

1. End of school year / beginning of "let's keep the kid busy and make ourselves crazy in the process" (sign up for camp, get a schedule, pay the money, and expect it to happen...? Not in Africa!).
2. A long-awaited camping trip! Which totally rocked except for the fact that the roads on the map really shouldn't be on the map if that's what they are calling a road (a future post). This resulted in a very long drive home.
3. The Great Sandbox Debacle (I'm not ready to talk about it).
4. Piloting of the training I've developed on temporary contract with a locally-located WHO office (develop materials, enlist participants, and carry out the training...? Not in Africa!).
5. Andrew's scheduled travel to a conference, it's on - off - on - off - on! (and so is his work on the paper he is to present).
6. The CATS, which we are kitten-sitting, adorable as they are, with their kitty boxes and their kitty claws and their penchant for climbing, disrupting the normally (un)productive evening working hours. 
7. Three people, sick for two weeks.
8. The child, who loves the cats so much, that she barely lets the poor things' feet touch the ground.

This weekend I am looking forward to actually running, paying some attention to my kid, and, best of all, picking up some of "our people" from the airport! 

It's that time of year again...

We are now nearing the 10-month mark for our time in Nairobi. The 2-yr or 4-yr cycle of moving in the foreign service will be a level of geographical stability our kid has never known.

Our lifestyle since 2007 has been something like this:

• Summer: Celebrate the kiddo's birthday and then move to a completely new location
• Fall: Get settled, find friends
• Winter: Get restless with making the place "homey" and move furniture (OK, this is me)
• Spring: Start planning for the next move, including what to get rid of before we leave, what to get more of before we leave, and stressing about what to do for school/childcare during the move and once we get there
• Summer:  Celebrate the kiddo's birthday and then move to a completely new location
• Etc.

We are VERY excited to not be moving this year. Our child actually knows the school she'll go to and she loves it. I do not have to think about what to do with the stuff we really want to keep but never actually use, Andrew does not have to figure out an entirely new payroll, leave, and retirement system. Truly thrilling!

On the other hand.... It is a daily occurrence, now, to see the moving trucks in our neighborhood. Folks are moving out, houses serviced by an army of cleaners, carpenters, and logisticians, and the next family moves in. I AM happy that we are staying put, but I'm a little jealous of those who are leaving too. 

When we move, during our last week we do a "goodbye tour," (yes, we move so much we have procedures!). We visit all the fun places or restaurants where we would hang out. Our wonderful mini-person, goaded by her father, always puts an enthusiastic spin on things. When we do this I find myself actually feeling nostalgic about leaving places we didn't even like that much, and it puts such a nice but bittersweet spin on leaving.

I miss the excitement of packing up our most essential possessions, heading for the airport, stopping through a new city, maybe staying overnight and exploring there, on our way to our final destination. And of course there is the new HOME. What will HOME be like? What hiding spots will the wee one find? How big of a garden can I plant? 

Every time we uproot the child I wish we could just "be home" and not deal with the constant relocation, and yet... it's so exciting to go and be in a completely new situation, with the 3 of us setting off to explore. If we lived in just one place, for an indefinite term...wouldn't it be boring?

All in all, that feeling of not being rooted is a reminder that our ultimate home is not here on earth. One day in the great blue beyond, we will finally be truly home. Cue Audio Adrenaline!

Making it home

It's not that you can't get stuff in Nairobi, because you really can. But it's usually expensive and not as good as you were hoping. We enjoy cooking and have always done a number of items from scratch out of the pure principal of the thing. Now we have expanded our repertoire. I am looking at it as practice for when we have our own little bed & breakfast / adventure outfitter (one of many "we'll settle somewhere, someday" dreams).

Naturally, there is weekend pizza. This one I took a picture of because of the bubble-monster that formed. But it was yummy.

There is also homemade lasagna. I made the noodles (don't have to, but we do) and the sauce, and seasoned minced beef to taste like sausage. I did not make the cheese, I bought that (thank you Brown's).

Mexican night is at least one night a week at our house. I make our tortillas, and Andrew makes the refried beans and salsa (except for right now, when we are flying high on a Sadie's salsa care package from mom!). I also make muffins and homemade granola or granola bars for school snacks and munchies. I make hummus and all other manner of dried-legume preparations.

We make bagels - including Andrew's sourdough bagels which are in addition to his previously perfected sourdough bread and Saturday morning sourdough pancake ritual.

The thing is, in 2 years we won't be in this kitchen or house or country, but we can still have Mexican night and Saturday pancakes.

Home is where you make it.

Alert Messages

These days we all have our emergency procedures for school, work and home. Both Andrew's office and mine have alert systems in place, I get the family-member appropriate messages from the Embassy as well as continuing to get the ones from North Carolina (I keep trying to get off the NC list, apparently it's non-negotiable).

Last week's alert in Nairobi:
"There is a grenade attack at a church. At least one confirmed dead, several rushed to the hospital."

Last week's alert in Chapel Hill:
"The police department is investigating multiple peeping incidents that reportedly occurred early Friday morning."

600 Kenyan Shillings

....which is just over $7 most of the time, will get you:

• 6 liters of milk (~1.6 gallons)
• A pound of lean ground beef
• Half a wheelbarrow full of compost manure
• 1/4 cup dried blueberries 
• Less than a pint of grocery store ice cream
• An imperfect but pretty 16-inch flower pot
• A mediocre sandwich on decent bread
• A pair of beaded flip flops
• Half, yes HALF, of a 99-cent made-in-China bouncy ball (I paid for a whole one...)
• 5 Roma tomatoes, 10 carrots, one red onion, a pound of fresh snap peas, 2 heads of garlic, a bunch of basil, 5 apples, 2 yellow bell peppers and a pineapple

Dairy

We struggle a bit with dairy products here. The quality just isn't fantastic. In most cases, it's better than nothing (in some cases, nothing is better).

But yesterday I went to the store to buy milk (which we are now recommended not to buy... another story), and not only is the sell-by date in just 3 days, but the the refrigeration in the dairy section has not been functioning for an indeterminate number of hours.

Cheers!