Masai Test Post

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Hi all. Another post from my phone (cant tell you how psyched I am about not having to be tethered to my computer to do this). This one i sent while having coffee with Gary at the Kisumu airport. I am sending him back to America with lots to talk about. It has den fun showing him my life here and reconnecting. Photo here is of Gary at airport cafe with his big bag of goodies. So good bye my bratha and safe travels

On The Beach in Lamu

Wow Lamu!

Having a great time on Lamu. Amazing food. Beautiful beach. 500 year old Swahili-Arab town. Beautiful woodworking here, we spent a bunch of $ to have some furniture made and hopefully they will arrive in tacked!

Next...

Well gary and i survived the drive back to Kisumu. Had great time in the Mara. Saw an incredible 6 Cheetah sitting together. Photos to come. I am posting this from my phone!

Next...

Well gary survived the drive back to Kisumu from th Mara. Had great time there. Saw an incredible 6 Cheetah sitting together. Photos to come later. I am posting this from my phone! Now we are all on our way to Lamu on the coast for the weekend

Safari Update

Our guide had us in the Mara at 6am for 6 hours today. Saw lots of animals but the great migration is late this year. Below is a photo of our room. Its a tent, compete with plumbing and electricity. It feels very odd to be here without Kayla and the kids, like having a phantom limb, I still have my kid radar operating.

Uncle Gary has arrived. He and I have just checked in at the camp at the Masai Mara. No kids, too quiet. I hardly know how to act without the kids around.

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead! ...NOT

Landlord is backing down on agreement. Dang, we are back to having to move by end of September, sigh, I can't believe it!

What Is That?

We were on our usual grocery expedition, Esther, Max and I. We go to this huge store Saturday’s which is sort of a combination of Walmart and a grocery. And since it is located just across from an enormous slum it is not unusual to see kids wandering around. You know can't afford anything in this store but they are just curious.

There were these two girls, one about 12, the other about 8, clearly sisters, who caught my attention. Maybe it was how they gasped and stared at us as I pulled 5 loaves of bread off the self (I know it's a lot of bread but we have the kids and 3 staff to feed lunch to every week!). Anyway it made me really self conscience as they followed us thru the store, wondering what we were going to do next. When we all arrived at the frozen food section the little one got her nerve up and asked me "what is this?" as she pointed to some frozen fish fillets in clear plastic. "Wow" I thought “she has never seen frozen food”. I said it was fish, held it in my hand to show her and asked her if she wanted to hold it. She did, and then pulled her hand back in astonishment after touching it, probably not expecting it to be so cold.

They followed us for a while longer then disappeared into the store.

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!

The embassy folks flew out to Kisumu, finally, to find out what was going on with our sleazy landlord and to see if the contract with the houses could be salvaged. After a 3 hour negotiation session he has agreed that we can stay! With a rent increase, of course. Turns out he has mostly been angry that the US Embassy has broken two other housing leases with him. Hmmm, I wonder who is REALLY the sleazy one now?? We are still waiting to get the go-ahead from the gov agencies who actually pay the rent, hopefully they will agree to this.

Got The Blues

Yes I know, it’s been a while. But I just haven’t felt like writing much. We all have the blues here, well, really mostly me have the blues here.

First, I was a little sad coming back from our home visit, I was frustrated at how little time we had to spend with people with all the running around we did… I miss everyone! And then, none stop back to back illness struck our house, even Kayla who never gets sick got sick. And then, we find we have to move, oh fun. And then, we have had a series of big going away parties. Lot of people leaving, some have become good friends. Oh, there will be new people coming, some even with kids, but we are between the new and the old now. On top of it all we are swamped with work; at home and the office. The kids are out of school and there is really limited activities here so we really have to be creative for the month of August. And as the nannies are not creative with they’re interactions with the kids we have to plan out almost every detail of the day.

I need a vacation.

Our Home Visit