4 Months

Edited to Add: Internet went down for a while today, so I did most of my composing as a word document during Tiras's nap. It is finally back up and since typing the bulk of this post, Deron and I were able to do a fair bit of unpacking once the boys went down for the night. Definitely a very satisfying progress to make! And rather energizing to feel some unpacking momentum get rolling. (You might detect a little weariness in this post.)

They say it takes about four months to get settled here and I think that will prove to be true. There are so many wonderful people easing the transition, but it will probably take about four months before we have our own car, our belongings in order, Micah up and running in school, and various quirks of the house resolved (some of which have an uncanny knack for taking about three permutations before resolving, which can feel tedious, especially since it means being homebound to be on hand for the workmen). But we are falling into the rhythm here and have come such a long way in even the few weeks that we have been here, so we are good.

And now, more bullets:

• Our second visit to Nairobi afforded us the chance to finish up checking in at the Embassy and to learn yet more about the ins and outs of living here. Very useful and helpful.
• While in Nairobi, the boys and I got to peruse the Village Market and enjoy our very beautiful hotel (the Tribe Hotel); the complimentary magazine provided in our room was an interesting read for me as it talked about such things as the rising film industry in Nairobi, music in Nairobi, the rising technology culture in Nairobi and etc. It felt like a nice way to start getting a better bead on the personality of that city and the broader country. I am realizing just how little I know and hoping to see what A.mazon might have to assist me in the learning process!
• Our air shipment arrived Monday and we have been enjoying watching the boys enjoy their playthings and books (Micah and I read about heffalumps before his bedtime last night, which was wonderful!) and enjoying having some more of our things on hand. Including our consumables. We have a nice stash of such items as diapers, wipes, medicines, dental products, and even some applesauce (great for our malaria meds!)
• I am also elated that some paper towels and toilet paper from home made it in the shipment. I had no idea at the time how luxurious they would seem to me when contrasted with the paper goods here! Which probably sounds very diva-esque and spoiled of me, and that is not my intent. I just tended to take such products for granted and thus they are a wonderful treat to have interjected in our supplies!
• We had a swim and lunch playdate with one of Deron's coworkers and her two kids, a boy age 7 and a girl age 5. Micah and the little girl had a ball swimming in the kiddy pool and a very nice rapport. The playdate was at a restaurant/meeting center right on Lake Victoria and it was really refreshing to take in the scenery and the company!!!
• We also went to dinner at this same location with some other new friends and took in the sunset and a family of hippos--Micah (and all of us, really) was delighted by the hippos!
• Micah was very intrigued by the little popsicle molds that came in our air shipment and yesterday we made four kinds of popsicles from the wonderful juices we can buy here: mango; apricot; kiwi cranberry; and pomegranate lime.
• My triumphant joy today is having my sink in working order again. It only had very hot water and Deron put in a request to fix that, but the influx of cold water brought with it sand and silt and that blocked off our water flow, so for two days we have been sort of limping along. Today the issue was resolved and I cannot remember being quite so enthusiastic about doing dishes as I right now am!!!
  

On the kid front:

• Tiras started walking in Nairobi!!!! He had been taking steps since the end of May, but fairly tentative and erratic in his efforts and interest in walking. Perhaps the carpet in our hotel was the final incentive he needed, but now he is a delighted walking machine who often smiles and giggles with glee at his new skill!
• The air shipment seems to have gotten the creative juices flowing for Micah. He was thrilled to receive some art supplies and has been drawing lots of wonderful and colorful pictures and writing out words (I dictate spelling; this game is all his idea, not something I am pushing and he just seems to have a ball doing it—let’s hope that holds for school). He also contorted his body into the shape of various letters to entertain me. He would say, “Am I making a challenging Y (or B or H or what have you) now?” and wait for my confirmation. Very hard to stay irked even about a recalcitrant sink with that kind of entertainment going on!
• Micah and Tiras were playing with our compound neighbor yesterday. She just turned 3 and has a water and sand table that arrived in her family’s sea shipment. Tiras had a ball with the table and Micah and this little girl had a ball racing each other on her big wheels. Very fun to see the kidlets all getting comfortable with each other. She and Micah will be at the same school.
• Tiras and Micah have playdate tomorrow with a little 8-month old boy and I have a playdate with his mom! She stays at home too and is very eager for the stay at home moms to find each other. Which will be wonderful!
• Micah quote as recounted to us while at dinner with friends where we saw the hippos. One of the women at dinner is a PhD student with expertise in animals and she was telling Micah that hippos spend the day in the water only coming up to breathe and then at night they come out of the water and eat loads and loads of grass.
  He replied to her: “Oh, so they must be nocturnal.”
  I would like to say it is the books I read to him about owls that taught him this word, but that was months ago and Deron and I are pretty sure it is the PBS DVD series “Curious George” that gets all the credit on this one!
  The PhD student was quite tickled by his response to her and I pass it along in case it tickles you as well.
• Kenyans are very friendly and loving toward children and Tiras in particular really seems to love this aspect of life here! He will smile expectantly and even put his hand out to greet just about any Kenyan he sees and he breaks out in a joyful smile when they respond to him with a very warm and friendly greeting!

So that is a bit of an update on the last week and a half or so of happenings. We are doing well and meeting lots of great people. Deron is busily about the business of learning the ropes of his new job, and very enthusiastic about the substance of his work!

Impala Park

Above: Monkeys and Impala roaming freely in the park the way we might have encountered squirrels back home.
Below: Micah roaring "in Lion" to his favorite resident of the park.

On Sunday we ventured out to Impala Park, which is located right next to Lake Victoria. We immediately viewed lots of impalas serenely munching on grass and then were treated to the sight of three hippos (one of which was a baby) surfacing to get breaths of air every few minutes or so! It is actually fairly rare to see hippos so close to shore, so we were very fortunate. Shortly after our arrival, a welcoming committee of curious monkeys came our way to inspect our stroller and the picnic goodies our friends had brought along with them to the park. It was a wonderful outing and just what we needed after a couple weeks of moving in mode!

The sanctuary also has some caged animals and Micah thrilled to the sight of a leopard, two cheetahs, and his beloved lions! Micah has informed us that he speaks lion and quickly began roaring a friendly hello to the large male lion. Although the lion appeared unresponsive to adult eyes, Micah was delighted to inform us that the lion understood him because he had thought to speak in lion.

We've Got Mail!

Deron came home from work Friday with not one, not two, but three boxes!!! We had mailed two of the boxes to ourselves when it became evident that we had more than we could comfortably pack in our suitcases and carry-ons.* We have now been reunited with a number of items (including kid hangers, a book for me, a Lightning McQueen cup for Micah, and a bag of Jolly Ranchers that were part of a wonderful birthday goody box for me and which were a popular hit with everyone old enough to speak) and it is yet one more step toward getting settled and feeling at home. The third box was a L*ands End order and I am looking forward to sleeping in t-shirt cotton sheets tonight. The sheets provided get the job done, but most of our neighbors made room for their own sheets in their suitcases and there is something to be said for familiar sheets. Yay!

We also learned that our air shipment made it to Kenya last week!!!! Once we made it through our check-in at the embassy and once Customs receives/received certain notification, the air shipment will be released to head out to Kisumu. I am excited about all of it, but the top two items are toys for the kiddos and stain sticks for laundry. The latter is far and away my biggest thrill as I have yet to identify an equivalent to our stain remover sprays or sticks since I have arrived here. And with two little boys happily playing outside and one little boy intent upon feeding himself and very cavalier about food spills, well, suffice it to say there are a lot of stains and my good old friend the stain stick will be warmly welcomed here! :-)

In other news, we flew out to Nairobi last week and got checked in at the embassy. There wasn't much time to sightsee per se, but the boys and I were lucky enough to be hosted by the wife of Deron's supervisor and she took us to all sorts of wonderful playgrounds and also a mall that had coin operated rides. The boys LOVED every minute of it and I enjoyed her company and insights very much!

We got to drive around some of the residential areas while heading out to these various playgrounds and there is so much beauty! It reminded me of Hawaii at times because of the bougainvilia, hibiscus, birds of paradise, etc. I am very much hoping that our next visit to Nairobi will afford us an opportunity too visit the giraffe sanctuary and the elephant orphanage. We keep hearing good things about them and I am sure the boys (and the adults!) will love them!

There is a store at the embassy selling things from the U.S. that we might miss from home. Our host took Micah there while Deron and I were getting one briefing or another and Micah selected F*ruit Loops cereal because it looked like the Ch*eerios he was used to eating at home. (give or take a little sugar and artificial coloring) He calls them "fruit hula hoops" and that makes me smile because it sounds kinda cute.

It is the weekend again and we are very thankful for a little down time because last week was a bit of a whirlwind. The mosquito screens are in place and we made a grocery run this morning AND we have a working fridge again. Every day we get a little more functional. And functional is good! :-)


*They arrived in Kenya in a mere 6 days but were held up until now because we had not yet checked in at the embassy. I am curious if things will always move so quickly?! Because seriously. Six days from Atlanta to Kenya?! Wow!

Getting More and More Settled

Note: Added this June photo of Micah sleeping under one of those mosquito nets I mention in this blog entry.

*

I am typing from our office space with a fresh air breeze coming through the windows, which is wonderful! The internet is down right now, so I am hoping I will be abe to post this by Tuesday morning. We have been here in Kisumu just about a week and a half and while I can believe that, in that I still feel so unfamiliar with the area, so much has happened that it is very hard to grasp we have been here less than two weeks! Here are some miscellaneous updates:

· In the category of basics, we discovered upon arrival that we have a water distiller in our kitchen but the taps are not drinkable. At first I found things such as remembering to tote up the distilled water for teeth brushing a bit elusive and often found myself making several trips to get this basic task done. This is becoming much more second nature!
· Also in the category of basics, I initially thought the mosquito nets over our beds were beautiful and fun. I then revised that to find them to be a little claustrophobic. And also quite irksome to emerge from when I was trying to quickly extricate myself from bed so as to attend to Tiras or Micah in the middle of the night. I have gotten more adept at maneuvering the mosquito net and I am back to enjoying it. I remember one mom saying that she would tell her daughter the nets make her bed into a princess bed and I gotta say that my girly girl side resonates with this and enjoys it! J
· In the category of needful basics, our malaria meds are going smoothly. None of us seem to be having any side effects and both boys are taking their doses beautifully. Micah just plain swallows his pills and enjoys medicine time, both because he is proud of his prowess at taking medicine just like the grown-ups and because he enjoys getting the snack we take along with our meds. As for Tiras, after a bumpy start the first day where it seemed he could taste the medicine through his applesauce and did not care for it one bit thank you very much, he has since been taking his medicine with no problem with all sorts of foods, including applesauce. Big relief to have all that going smoothly!
· On the home front, on Friday we had a work crew arrive to start installing mosquito screens on our windows. We thought this would be several weeks away for us and were delighted to have this project underway unexpectedly early. Once we have the screens, we are able to open our windows and take advantage of the refreshing breezes that come in off the lake and cool the house nicely. Our office space and our living room on the ground floor both have the nets. Bliss!
· Also on the home front, over the weekend Deron and I started rearranging furniture and the result is that we are starting to feel much, much, much more like we are settling in and making ourselves a home. There’s a long ways to go yet, but this was a big start and we have a vision!
· On the awesome superstar front, Deron has been driving the streets of Kisumu like a champ. His very first drive here was in a standard shift car, which meant he not only had to adjust to driving on the left side of the road, he also had to remind himself how to drive with a stick shift—and then deal with the fact that the car was set up in reverse form to what he was used to. He has since driven automatics and found them to be a piece of cake after his first drive. I am very impressed indeed!
· Speaking of cars, we do not have ours yet and it will probably be a number of weeks before we do. People are wonderful about lending us their cars and one new friend has offered to take me on errands or have me text her to pick things up for me any time.
· On the fun front, the camaraderie of the expat community is really special. We have been invited over for dinner and enjoyed wonderful company (and yummy meals!) and we have been out to dinner at no less than two restaurants in Kisumu. One was on a rooftop and afforded a very nice view of the lights of Kisumu and the other was in a garden setting and had yummy food and such nice wait staff. We enjoyed everything, but the mango-pineapple-ginger-mineral water drink I shared with both the boys seemed particularly tropical and wonderful. And I was impressed by how the boys guzzled it down so enthusiastically—even Tiras!
· Also on the fun front, we have had some inaugural skype conversations and that has been so wonderful! Looking forward to many more such conversations!
Kid updates:
· People here are really warm toward children and Micah is very responsive to that and enjoys chatting with everybody.
· Micah’s favorite thing to do right now is play outside in our grassy area. He loves to kick the ball and to play catch and he loves to ride our neighbor’s big wheel (which she graciously shares).
· Micah seems to thrive on learning about Kisumu—he was asking Deron what is the food item people eat most here, and the second most, and the third most, and so on to fifth or sixth. He also insisted on riding his big wheel on the left side of the walkway and directed me to do my walking on the left side as well! It has been said that kids adapt well—I guess so! J
· Tiras has been sleeping through the night for several nights now. It seemed like the one-week mark (which would fit the adage of one day for every hour difference in time zones crossed) really was the magic changing point for him!
· Tiras is still not walking yet, but does tons and tons of cruising and will take the occasional step or two. It is interesting to us to watch how diligently he works at climbing all over furniture in odd and perilous ways requiring parental intervention and contrast that tenacity and focus with his very minimal interest in trying out steps.

We are heading off to Nairobi for the next few days to do our official registering at the embassy. I am off to pack and will probably not have internet access again until we return.

Happy

This time last week, we were in our hotel in Nairobi having left Atlanta nearly 24 hours prior and having just one sleep and one last little half hour flight in the morning between us and our new home.

By the by, thanks so much for your prayers and well wishes--the flights both went beautifully! Tiras and Micah did a fair bit of sleeping and were easygoing on both flights and in the airport. Plus, our second flight was the flight where they had assigned us 3 seats together and one seat by itself behind us several rows. Which meant one parent to two kiddos. Which did not seem too promising since Deron had kept Micah happily entertained with various activities and Tiras was happy to hang out with me BUT put the two in the same row and Tiras wanted to grab at Micah's toys and things would tend to devlove into a dynamic significantly less rosy than our man to man coverage.

Still, we were grateful for one good flight and steeled for the one ahead. But our second flight ended up being not full and passengers were invited to relocate once the plane had made its ascent. Tiras and I ended up having a row of 3 to ourselves with Micah and Deron just across the aisle in a row of 5 mostly to themelves--one sleeping woman on the end was their ownly rowmate.

The attendants on this flight were wonderful and so professional and efficient and pleasant. I cannot say enough great things about our experience with K*LM. (And yet another segue, I put the little asterisk in this airline's name because people tend to do this on blogs, maybe to avoid messing up other people's internet searches? At any rate, I am blindly following the trend.) So we had two wonderful flights which concluded with being met at the Nairobi airport by Deron's supervisor and someone from the embassy, which made for smooth sailing on that portion of the journey too!

So back to my reflection mode, just a week ago, we had come so far and were so close to discovering our new home and neighbors. And one week later I cannot begin to convey how wonderful this week has been because of these neighbors and the people we are already meeting in Kisumu. The reality is that there IS a lot to learn and adjust to just to do basic functioning and the reality is that I tend to like my world in order and I tend to love my routines and sense of being on top of things, and I TEND to get really flustered and out of sorts by moves because of the lack of the aforementioned factors. But I am happy and excited here. Our neighbors look out for us. People are social and warm and I feel like I am just experiencing the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

And along with developing friendships with these wonderful people, I also feel like there is so much to learn and discover here. It's hard to articulate my sense of anticipation and excitement, but it's very much there.

Deron is three days into his first week at the new job and it's all he signed on for and he is thrilled. There is a LOT to learn and Deron likes to be on top of his game, so he has the challenge of the learning curve. BUT it's a learning curve toward something about which he is passionate and excited.

There have been points when we felt overwhelmed about all the "to do"s of gettting settled. There have been points when we just felt physically wiped out (not helped by having Tiras on his own new special time zone). But we have talked about how it is like the newborn phase of parenting when there is so much coming at you in all directions needing to be done and there is sleep deprivation. But it is a temporary phase and you get more adept at things and it is all part of something you love.

Hoping this is coherent. Our neighbor drove the boys and I into town and I finally got to see Nakamatt for myself, which is where we can grocery shop and get art and get microwaves and get kitchen goods and etc. I was especially tickled when Micah excitedly pointed out a billboard he remembers from our drive from the airport last week. It just somehow seemed like foreshadowing of how at home he will be here. Which is cool to me. And we also saw cows crossing the street. And they look different than our cows and as best as I can recollect Micah has never before seen livestock cross the street on one of our grocery runs, so it just seemed fun to see. The boys and I have mostly been on the compound and getting out and about was very good.

Thankful and happy.

I do love and miss you, my dear friends and family. FB posts (and my first two comments here!) and emails all mean so much! We are one week into this adventure and I think it is going very well indeed!

Celebrating My Grandfather!

Today is my grandfather's 90th birthday and he is definitely 90 years young!!! He raised 5 sons and 2 daughters (my dad is #2 of the 7) and became the doting grandfather to 6 grandsons and 6 granddaughters and is the doting GREAT grandfather to 6 great grandsons and 3 great granddaughters.

Tiras had insomnia again and we started our day at 3:30 am again, so my brain is far too muddle headed for a really wonderful and eloquent tribute. A few wonderful things about my grandfather include:

• He is reflective and sensitive and wise



• He is loving and supportive



• He is an avid sports fans at all levels--whether he is rooting on the Fighting Irish or cheering for the local high school basketball team, he does so with gusto. In fact, the local high school named him fan of the year and invited him to ride in the player bus for the last game.



• He is active--still out on the greens playing golf



• It turns out that I get my enjoyment of number patterns from him (a trait I share with at least one other cousin--Tracy!) He would totally get why I think March 7 and July 3 of this year are cool (because the 3 + 7 = 10 and 7 + 3 = 10) and it's fun to have that in common.



• He loves history and heritage and has mind boggling memory for detail



• And one of the sweetest traits is that he adores his bride, my grandmother, and their relationship is a wonderful inspiration!

Happy, happy birthday indeed and here's to a wonderful 10th decade!

First Post from Kisumu

We are here! We are here!

My brain is still muddled due to jet lag and the business of getting settled, but I wanted to start the habit of posting updates. We are sharing the lap top until Deron's computer arrives and Micah needs to clean up, so this will be short.

Kisumu is wonderful. We are still very much in the settling in process, but part of the wonderful is the great sense of community here. People have brought us meals and our neighbors even took Deron shopping and helped guide him through the products here (I stayed at home with the boys since Tiras was being a little clingy yesterday). There was a welcome dinner last night where we got to meet some more of Deron's colleagues here and it has just generally been a wonderfully pleasant start to life in our new home.

And speaking of products, my "washing powder" has cleaning guidelines that read, "Sort your wasing into piles of A) not too grubby and B) rather grubby." Now I ask you, how can I possibly not be so very charmed by the use of the word "grubby" and just generally by my "washing powder" box that every time I do laundry I get a happy smile on my face. I cannot. It's a small detail, but it is one of the fun things of being in a new place.

Hmmm, Micah is taking out his Curious George activity book. Clearly he knows that my "short" update will start to ramble on about things like cute wording on laundry detergent, so he has time to play. :-)

Just a few snapshot moments:
*Last night I saw a gecko on my wall--a very welcome guest since they eat mosquitoes and are very cute and charming in their own right
*One of our neighbors is celebrating a birthday so there was a party for her in our compound courtyard. I get the feeling there are many such gatherings and it is quite wonderful.
*During this gathering, Tiras looked positively delighted when he got to pet one of our neighbor's dogs.
*During this same gathering, Micah started kicking a ball around with an older boy, who very sweetly encouraged Micah to play. They were actually doing some soccer and Micah went on to tear up and down the lawn with the soccer ball and a look of pure bliss that I want to burn on my brain forever
*Our washer and dryer are located on an enclosed patio, so when I am not smiling over my charming detergent box and the word "grubby", I am smiling over the hibiscus and cool breeze surrounding me
*Tiras is thinking more and more about taking steps and when he is cruising will often let go and try out a step or two.

Tomorrow I will make my first ever foray to the famous Nakumatt to go shopping. (Famous in the sense that every CDCer who has ever been out to Kisumu for work mentions that that is the place we will be doing our shopping and Deron had told me about it from his time here back in 2005.) Looking forward to seeing it for myself and getting our household up and running.

The plan is to post pictures here, but for now we have been too busy getting settled to take any.

Off to take my rather grubby son upstairs for a shower. (See how I am expanding my vocabulary already?)

Much love to you all--thanks for your emails and FB posts. It definitely helps lessen the distance!