Puppy Update: Week 4

Man, has it already been 4 weeks! Time flies when you’re a step dad!!! Basically puppies, all nine, are doing well. They are BIG, everybody who sees them wants one. Apparently it’s a little unusual to see such healthy plump puppies as people don’t tend to feed them, or the mama as well as we have been feeding them. Sandy has been a superb mama. Actually I’m not really surprised by that as she is a sweet sweet dog anyway; she so attentive.

There have been some health issues though. Week 2 one of the pups developed what looked like an open sore on its tail. The vet, Martin, the only vet in town, said it was bacterial infection and gave it antibiotics for three days. That seemed to do the trick. Then last week we noticed, again in the tail, on 3 pups this white crusty thing, Martin says its fungus and now they are taking meds for 3 weeks! Dealing with illness is so stressful mainly because I don’t trust ANY health care in Kisumu as far as I can throw my Toyota, I started voraciously reading about canine skin diseases on the internet, I don’t know if I’d do the puppy thing again, I get too emotional about it. I am really trying not to get too attached to any pups…just in case.

Last week we decide to move them out of the pantry as they all had opened their eyes and had become mobile little poopers and pee’rs and Gladys (our cook) was over it. So we finished fencing the kennel and outside they went. On the first night they were out I was nervous as a mother hen. And it rained. It’s now rainy season here so it rains almost everyday. But it didn’t just ‘rain’ it RAINED…for a long time. And it turned out the place we put the kennel was a water collection area and even though we built the kennel with 8 inch legs so the floor was above ground, the water was up to the floor of the kennel knocking to come in. So me and the guard piled all nine in a box and brought them back inside. We moved everything to higher ground over the week and yesterday they are all back outside.

Homecoming

For those of you who are anxiously waiting to hear when we are making our first trip home. It’s in June; probably the first three weeks of June. We’ll fly into Atlanta then at some point go to Chicago and New York; then we have to fly back to Africa thru Atlanta. Thinking about the 22 hour flight back; all the issues with jet lag and toddlers; all this flying around the US….is this suppose to be a vacation?? I’m exhausted already!! How much time we spend in any one place still has to be determined but that’s the jest of it.

Gosh, by the time we go home in June we will have been living in Kenya for a year and a half. Hard to believe. I suppose its home for us now. It will be really interesting to see what it’s like to go back. Our impressions of the US from afar now. To find out what is ‘striking’ to us now about the US? To see just how we’ve changed. How the kids have changed. You’ll hear Esther’s little Kenyan accent and don’t be surprised if she throws in a few Swahili words into your conversation with her.

Living here has been, and will be, a life changing experience. I hate to be cliché about this but it’s really true. There are some things about the culture here that is so much like living on Mars, it’s so ‘alien’ to my sensibilities and yet people are people where ever you go too…whether they live in a dirt hut in the countryside of Africa or a glass tower in New York.

Americans are so isolated, so focused on their own navels; they miss a lot of wonderful things about living on planet Earth.

A Walk Thru Kibuya Market

Kibuya Market is a huge outdoor market place where you can literally find anything for sale. Africa's version of Costco. I took a walk thru it this Sunday and took some photos. Click link to view them........

Some Observations.........

When walking through the grocery the other day I noticed a couple things I would like to share:





Doesn't anyone use spell check anymore before they publish things?













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Only the Japanese could come up with a name like 'Crispy Balls' and really mean it...Ouch!













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But exactly what IS a Choco Kiddo anyway?
"Hey mama, cannya cook me up sumadem Choco Kiddo BALLS for breakfast today?" again I say Ouch!
















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Wonder how many millions went into company research to discover this products name? And the winner of THE most appetizing name assigned to any product: "Hey mama, cannya cook me up sumadem Honey BALLS for breakfast today?" mmmm, mmmm!















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Darwin Award Playground Equipment

Just outside one of the markets we visit is a playground. I don't know if this photo will adequately show the true disturbing nature of this piece of equipment. There are two slides and a stairway going up to.....what exactly? Hmmmm, I think I'll just step out on this platform....aaaaaahhhhhh

Swords........

You might have to wait some time after you 'click to play' this video, or you can just use one of the other links below to download it and play it from your computer............

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Formats available: Microsoft Video (.avi), Flash Video (.flv)

A 3 hour tour...

We just returned from a weekend trip to Uganda. We went rafting down the Nile River. Now, did you ever think you would EVER hear me say that I’ve been rafting down the Nile!? We went with two other families. And one of our expat friends offered to lend us their minivan so two families rode together while the third drove their own car. It’s suppose to be a four hour drive to Jinja, Uganda where we start on the river but due to road construction it took seven hours (some of it driving night, yiks!). And crossing the border into Uganda was literally like a visit to that town in Star Wars where Luke and Obi One meet up with Han Solo; no bar with band though, just chaos; money changers everywhere, people who want to ‘help you get across the border’ everywhere. We had our own ‘‘help you get across the border’ guy, named Noor, who sort of ‘streamlined’ the process of getting us processed at the border… $$$

We stayed in a fairly nice resort Friday night and early Saturday morning met our river guide, Juma, who show the way to the put-in point. We left our cars by the river in a gated and guarded compound, walked down a high escarpment to the rivers edge. We boarded two big rafts, each with a guide, and there were two kayakers who spun around us thru the whole trip, they were there just in case…

I have to say the river is beautiful. Although it’s not a muddy river it reminded me of the Mississippi River with its wide girth, and like the Mississippi, happily (otherwise we wouldn’t be rafting) no crocodiles! Seems the Ugandan army shot them all for food long ago.

Even though the trip was “family friendly”, with class 2-3 rapids, Esther stayed with the nanny on land. Both rode in a truck to wait for us at the campsite. Most of the trip we were just floating and swimming along down the river with only three rapids on the first day. After the first rapid Max was very fearful of anything that even looked like foam in the water. We talked a lot during the rest of the float about his fears. On one hand he was afraid even to go floating in the calm part of the river and on the other hand he would say “this was fun”, so, obviously conflicted.

We put-in at 10am and by 12pm we were on the banks of the river having a picnic of fresh fruit and sandwiches provided by our guides. Then off to the last rapid before camp. All these rapids had names; this last one is called The Nile Special. Turns out that this particular rapid is a place were world class kayaking competitions are held. People from all over the world come here to compete.

There was a lot of flip flopping of passengers between rafts as we floated along, and as we were approaching The Nile Special, Max wanted to transfer to the other boat, we were close to the beginning of the rapid but we made the transfer anyway. So Michelle and her two daughters, Kayla and I were left in the raft to ‘assumed the position’ (kneeling against the side of the boat and holding on to a rope) which our guides had asked us to do, we could see the kayakers already playing in the rapids when we started in.

It wasn’t the biggest rapid we’d been in but it was long. And not too long after we started I heard Juma (our guide) make this ‘sound’; a sort of grunt/groan that seemed to suggest “oh shit”’, and as I was wondering just what was going on, it happened so fast, totally caught off guard, our boat flipped up and turned completely upside down, putting me face first and fast into the Nile.

Ever wondered what it would be like to be inside a running washing machine? I can tell you! I think the whole thing only lasted 30 seconds but it seemed forever to me at the time. I had my head above water only once during the whole thing but I was going to hold on to the boats rope no matter what! It’s weird what you think about during these sorts of things, my first thought was thank the lord Max was not on the ,then I wondered how the others were doing, then I thought about NOT loosing my wedding ring(?)…

Soon, though, I popped up in calm waters and a second later Kayla popped up next to me. Turns out she had found ‘someone’s body part’ while she was tumbling and held on through the whole thing. It was my arm, it turns out, but I had no idea she was holding on to me. Juma was standing on top of the upside-down raft, I handed him my bag containing phone and camera ( inside plastic bags) and Kayla and I just hung on the side trying to calm ourselves. Now, I am also noticing that I can not see anything…my glasses are gone. No, they were not tied down on my head, it was suppose to be a family-easy-drift trip, dang it!

We couldn’t see them on the other side of the raft but Michelle and her two kids were being picked up by the kayakers. They were pushed a long distance from us. Although people in the other raft were shaken up when they saw us turn over, they made it through fine. And here's the kicker for me, as we were all being brought in the other raft like the catch of the day, I hear Max at the other end of the raft say “ boy, I really like these rabbids (rapids)!” Man, he just wanted to see his ole’ man get dunked I think!

Juma was pretty upset with himself, he says he should have never made that last transfer with Max, threw his trajectory off at the rapid. Oh well, shit happens. My mobile phone did not survive but miraculously the camera did which is why you can see photos of the rest of the trip! I was pretty depressed as I now faced the rest of our time here, 2½ more days, with no glasses, blind as a bat.

We stayed in a small hotel/campsite called Harry Lemon’s. It’s on an island in the middle of the Nile. Mostly serious kayakers were there, camping is available, nice surroundings, or so they tell me, although if I looked thru my LCD on my camera I could see pretty well, so I had my camera up to my face a lot… without photographing.

Next day on the Nile was pretty easy, only one rapid. I was pretty nervous but ya gotta get back on that horse, right? We stopped here to picnic and…ride the waves! There was one spot were if you went out on a boogie board you could surf and the water would keep you in the same spot.

We made it home safe with no other incidents. My arms are still sore and bruised a week later. My brother sent replacement glasses from the US (good thing I had an old pair at home though) which should arrive any day now. We had a good time... I think, at least I have a cool story to tell!

Lots more photos here in the gallery!