End Of Term

Well it's the end of the school term so now there is a two week break before class starts for them again. During the last day they gave everyone awards and Max and Esthers awards couldn't have been better suited.

The next two weekends are going to be our first time driving out of town on 'safari'. Next weekend we're going to Kakamaga, it's a national forest; hiking, camping, animals. then the next weekend we go on a big trip to the Masai Mara. An enormous game park. We are very excited. Hopefully I'll have lots of picutes to show you.

News Of The Week

Sandy is doing better. At first she didn’t know what to make of things. She certainly didn’t know much about how to play and ran for cover if you waved a twig at her for catch. Now she has her own chew toys and we (me, Max, and me holding Esther) play chase the stick or whatever it might be and she actually acts like a pup now. She like to nibble Esther’s feet while I run with Max. Esther hates it and yells ‘no’ but then we run after Sandy and she’ll scream with delight.

Kayla has been gone for 10 days now. We’re at the end, she’ll be back tomorrow. Normally at the end of one of these marathon trips she takes I’m the one exhausted. This time I feel pretty good! And why wouldn’t I with three people to look after things with me? Max, however, hasn’t faired so well with Kayla being gone. At least once or twice everyday he wants to know when she is coming back and how he really misses her.

This was the first week for Gladys, our live-in cook/nanny/housekeeper. It went really well. The kids love her and even though her cooking needs some refinement (a little less on the fried-in-corn-oil-and-less-salt kinda cooking) it’s gonna work out fine. So the infrastructure is slowly beginning to take shape. We now have fresh milk delivered every morning, with one phone call I can have as much tilapia fillets as I need delivered, I send a text message from my phone twice a week to have what ever fruits and vegetables needed delivered, and the Kenyan newspaper has just started morning delivery. I’ll be spending less time around the house so the kids can really get used to being with the nanny and cook. The kids know I hideout in the office and they rarely let me work for very long before one of them is at my office door. Hopefully soon the house will run it’s self and I can get on with my thing (yea, right!)

Esther Sings

Every Friday at the kids' school there is some sort of 'performance' by each grade. The last before the Easter break was the babies of which Esther is the youngest (and cutest). It's not a very good angle for the video but I hope you get the jest of it anyway, she was just so damn cute and really the only one who seemed to know what was going on and having a great time of it too! Enjoy.

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News & Thoughts

• Max is taking Swahili classes. Twice a week, after naps (if he doesn’t sleep through it) we walk back to his classroom at the school for a half hour class. Mostly older kids but he seems to be interested. He comes back with one new word each time and he is actually spontaneously using them in conversations and asking me how do you say such and such in Swahili. We are all learning a little bit anyway because all the house staff uses it and is using it with us and we hear it in the streets everyday so I suppose before it’s over here we’ll be able to at least have a little conversation in Swahili.


• We live well here by anybody’s standards but it is sobering to consider within less than a mile from us there are people literally dying because they can’t afford food or basic medicines or are miss-diagnosed at the hospitals. It not something I am used to being around and makes me feel guilty at times and also inspires me to help in some way. Americans are so lucky. Sure we gripe and moan and we should, it’s what keeps things improving and moving. And there are some people who fall through the cracks here and there, but not like here. And even though life is so hard for so many the cliché of the ‘human spirit’ shines through all around here. People are good natured, happy and friendly for the most part.


• Gladys our new cook/nanny/housekeeper has finally moving into the staff quarters today. We now have living-in help and our staff is now complete. She is a sweet woman from the north of the country. Just in time as Kayla left today for eight days in Atlanta. Max and Esther already feel very comfortable around her, even more comfortable than with the woman who we ‘say’ is the nanny, so even though they are both wonderful people there may be ‘changes’. Even so, when you let someone go here it’s a lot more severe than in the U.S., there is no unemployment very little compensation and they may be supporting extended families on their salaries so you don’t do these things willy nilly

Max & Sandy

Max & Sandy

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New Photos

There are new photos in the Photo Gallery of Max with Sandy. Video is trying to upload but can't seem to take yet, I'll let you know.

Sandy

Please welcome the newest member of the family, Sandy. She’s a four month old part German Shepard part whatever who has the most wonderful personality; a sweet, sweet dog. She was donated to us by our neighbor Shwan. He and his wife are from Belgium they work at the CDC and live two ‘gates’ down from us. It seems that Shwan is friends with the local veterinarian who tries to find homes for all sorts of different animals he can’t take care of and Shwan takes them in. Shwans collection includes a bunch of chickens (and gives away fresh eggs all the time), turkeys, sheep, dogs, cats, two African parrots; good thing they have a large compound! Shwan is also an amazing cook. Hmmmm, what happened to those turkeys I saw at his house last time???

Max has been excited about the dog ever since Shwan mentioned he would give her to us. And once she arrived, it was astonishing to watch Max with her. He is intensely interested and wants to be with her constantly. The day she arrived he walked/ran around with her so much on her leash that the next day his legs were so sore he cried and complained and could hardly walk! Even though he was hurting that next morning, the first thing he wanted to do was go see “his bestest dog”, as he calls her, he wouldn’t even finish getting dressed so he was out there in only his underwear for awhile. Sandy seems to be a missing piece to Max’s happiness here. I hope his enthusiasm lasts. Unfortunately Esther is a little terrorized by Sandy. Hopefully that will change with time, I’ll let you know…..

It's Here!!

We got our air shipment FINALLY on Friday!! It’s actually amazing how little there was in it. And then there were things in it that made you say “what? Just what were we thinking about when we put THAT in the air shipment?” but it was so intense and chaotic at the time we left. Most of the shipment is toys. Especially one toy in particular, Max’s guitar. It arrived intact and as out of tune as ever, ready for Max’s version of Ba ba black sheep. He was a happy boy that day. Both Esther and Max were really transformed.

A lot of the kitchen stuff came too and I got my computer!! Kayla got boxes of work papers…hmmmm. In any event, it made us all feel a little more at home here.

Almost forgot...

Whoops, forgot to write about the other reason we were in Nairobi. Kayla was invited to a cocktail party at the U.S. ambassadors house. Cool, eh? Except you had to wear ‘business’ attire and all my suits were still on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean! Spent most of the week before we went scouring the town for a sport coat and believe it or not borrowed a nice one (that actually fit me too) from an expat.

The party was great. The ambassador was actually very approachable, nice guy, someone I actually could hang out with except he was probably a republican so, oh well. Sorry there are no pictures of the event. I did bring my camera but seems I was the only one there who had one and I got cold feet, since no one else had one. I kept feeling like if I started photographing the guys in the dark suits who where talking into their hands would escort me out. I just drank a lot instead.

The Road To Nairobi

[see new album in the photo galleries and watch new video below]
It was only a half hour plane ride from Kisumu to Nairobi which went well, there was just the usual annoyances when you travel ‘light’ with two car seats but we arrived safe and sound. it took seemingly forever to go from the airport to the American embassy where we still had to finish our country check-in.

The roads in Nairobi are interesting. No traffic lights. Just these enormous roundabouts. The roads were narrow and were bordered by the tall security walls of individual homes so you really don’t see much except vegetation and wall as you go through town. Streets are very twisty turny too so it was hard to get a perspective on where you were, seemed like we were perpetually going in circles to me until we actually arrived some place.

The embassy is new of course and really very nice, all the comforts of home. One odd thing though, every floor looked exactly like all the other floors so you had to double check where you were, but maybe that’s just government buildings for you. We had to run around, up and down for a few hours to work our way through the checklist in order to finish our check-in and with the kids in tow it wasn’t so fun. By the end we were pretty fried and Kayla still had to go to the CDC Nairobi to work in the afternoon. We hired a driver to be available for the weekend and we met her at the embassy. Her name is Freda. A very nice woman who upon arriving with me and the kids at the house we were staying at had to show me this 44 magnum pistol she kept in her trunk. At first I was like ‘what the heck!’ and the little hairs on the back of my neck stood up but then I thought, ya know, this is Nairobi, carjacking, robberies, I need to get over it and just feel better protected. But it does sort of wake you and makes you recharge the battery on your New York awareness.

Friday is the day to go to the Village Market in Nairobi. Oh, you’re thinking some quaint and rustic shopping? Nope, it’s a shopping mall alright but it’s as modern as any in the U.S., except for the Masai Market section on Fridays. Which is a half acre of souvenir vendors!! I took one look at this and called Kayla on the cell to say that after today we were not allowed to come back. All sorts of figurines, sculptures, beads, masks, spears, anything you can think of here in one place. You really had to hunt for the quality stuff but I saw some real gems. I am glad now that we don’t live in Nairobi or Kayla and I would go broke buying all these crafts. There will be plenty of time later I suppose.

Later on Friday I found out that when Kayla was in the taxi (with Freda our driver) the car was in an accident. Now normally that’s not big frontpage news right? But here, when even a car gets a little scratch there is a lot of shouting and rowdy crowds form and it can be a little scary. And, as it turned out Kayla hadn’t edited her briefcase so she was still carrying all our passports, money, and other valuables with her! So when the shouting began and the crowds started to form in this busy roundabout she understandably became nervous. She immediately called the security service the state department employ’s (that is what we are told to do when something like this happens) and they took good care of her. Nice to know it all works like they said it would.

Saturday was a fun day. First we went to the Nairobi State Park for a special viewing. Everyday at 11am they feed the baby elephants and a baby rhino (see video and photos) it was great fun. And you are right up close with them. One woman told me that when she was there and talking to her friend and not paying attention she was goosed by an elephant trunk! Next we drove a short way to the Langata sancturary where you can actually feed giraffes! It was so cool! (see photos and video) it was a little intimidating being so close to such an enormous animal but they are really very gentle.

Sunday was pool day. We went to the new American compound which resembles a typical Florida style gated community but with more serious security. It was like stepping back to the U.S. for a minute; great pool; a real playground. American foods. Even a ‘moral’ store where you can buy all sorts of American items.

Return From Nairobi

We have just returned from four days in Nairobi. I'll be posting about our adventure and misadventures within the next day or two.

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Baby Elephants And Giraffes

Baby Elephants And Giraffes

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