Christmas Project

The kiddo's school, the wonderful Rosslyn Academy, is sponsoring their annual Christmas Project. The school community raises money, food, and clothes for a selected cause. This year they are sponsoring the Village Project Africa in Makutano, Kenya, and the New Dawn Education Center just around the corner in Huruma slum. See the school's video here.

This morning, my daughter pulled out her purse where she has been keeping her piggy bank money, grabbed a handful of shillings and quarters, and carefully put them into a donation envelope to take to school. As I was tucking the envelope away in her backpack, she says, "Wait a minute! Now I don't have as much!"

Yes, sweetling, let's go.

Goodbye

Andrew left today for a 2-week trip to Addis. One does not take a job in a foreign country without having a nearly uncontrollable itch to travel around and see new countries, so I was happy for him and excited for his trip.We were all disappointed that he was going to miss the Princess Leia debut at Halloween, but since I've missed Halloween before because of cool international travel we tried to act like we were OK with it. Until the taxi came and picked him up. ARGH!!! I hate to see him go! Unexpectedly, my first thought as he drove away, was, "How can you bring me all the way to Nairobi and leave me here?" Kiddo and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. I'll be OK with it, just give me a day or two.

Touring Car

So, yes, we purchased a car sight-unseen from Japan. It's cheaper than buying one in Nairobi, and has the added benefit of not having been driven in Nairobi.

However, our car is taking a vacation on the way to stay with us. We thought it would be here by now (along with all our household possessions) but it has stopped in Malaysia for a while. That, uh, seems like it's still quite a ways away....

Driven Crazy

We have rented a car to keep us moving while awaiting the arrival of ours from Japan. First non-embassy trek: the local market less than a mile away. A very easy trip, if you don't consider the crazy matatus zipping down the street; front-tire-swallowing potholes; curved, hilly, bi-directional roads that are - I swear - less than 2 lanes wide; and the occasional bicyclist or cart driver pulling impossibly wide heavy loads given their mode of transport. While driving is not stress-free, it's better than walking along the same road.

Additionally deterred from braving Nairobi traffic to see "animal stuff" by the fact that our GPS is still somewhere in the mail and we are not sure we could get both there and back, we headed the closest direction out of town and went to Hell's Gate National Park. After navigating a too-narrow, truck-clogged, matatu-ridden drive clinging to the edge of the Rift Valley wall, driving in and around the park was cake. The biggest challenge was this steep grade, rocky hill where we were met by shepherds sheep and goats, and an oncoming safari vehicle. Andrew handled it like a pro and I actually enjoyed it, except for worrying that our rental car tires would pop.

Pleasantville

It's weird how living among expats in a foreign country is in many ways more like being in America than it was being in America. Take the following:

1. Our neighborhood has nice sidewalks lined with flowering trees, a playground where all the kids gather, a pool and gathering spot

2. Neighbors always say hi or wave as we pass.

3. I walk my kid to school every day.

4. At first glance, there may be more Africans at our home church in Herndon, VA, than there are at our ex-pat dominated church here.

Websites that don't cooperate

Issue: All our kid-photos since day of baby's birth through age 4, as well as various vacations and remodeling projects, are stored and shared online from Kodak Gallery.

Obstacle: Kodak Gallery does not like my IP address, and won't let me access my own photos to make our annual kid-picture-filled cheesy calendar for the grandparents. Grrr...

Solution: Shutterfly! I realized after a friend posted her photos and oohing about how cute and big etc her kids were getting... I can actually SEE these photos! It's going to take me a while to catch up, though.

I know a lot of expats use a VPN, but I have a work-related VPN that only covers access to work related sites and servers, and it cannot work with other VPNs. Double grrr.

Other websites that are on the naughty list (I won't put links since I can't see them anyway):
Pottery Barn
Williams Sonoma
ABC (streaming video)
NBC (streaming video)

That video becomes really important when you don't have a TV, CD player, or even a clock radio!!

Sites that are internationally-friendly:
Crate and Barrel (they even ship all over Kingdom come!)
Amazon (a dear friend)
Kohl's

There are other online shopping sites that let us visit, but won't ship to a DPO address. Enter 3rd party shippers. That's a whole other hassle.

Safari Song

I always thought "going on safari" was a trek undertaken with ages of planning and executed with mysterious methods of communing with nature. We weren't here a week when an individual from the general expat community was impressing us with the sheer volume of safaris they had done. It turns out, you call a guy up (at least when you are car-less like us at the moment), and he comes and picks you up and takes you to see animals. It's a day trip. Or more, if you want.

Our first safari was this weekend to Lake Nakuru National Park. Holy flocks of flamingos, Batman, that was a lot of animals! As impressive as seeing them was hearing them, especially at the lake where the thousands of flamingos are softly honking, birds screech across the water, hundreds of pelican wings beat overhead, and winged critters of all kinds splash their wings against the surface.

On the way back we stopped in a downpour for some good old fashioned roadside nyama choma - grill-roasted meat. We had goat - a little tough but tasty. Our guide was impressed at how easily the 5-year old adapted to this foreign culture of eating with her hands. Yeah, she's a natural.