The day started with a very cheerful baby Tiras, which is not always the case. He seems to just instinctively bolt to his feet when he wakes and start fussing and hollering for us to come get him. To walk into his room and find him smiling and cooing in the crib was a delight.
And, for our fourth week in a row, my two compound neighbors and I have gone on a fun outing. Today we hit the craft market. There are so many wonderful wood carvings, stone carvings, pieces of jewelry, and etc. I intentionally brought along only a small amount of money with the intent to purchase handmade cards and only handmade cards. I ended up borrowing money from one of my neighbors so I could purchase some stone carvings that really grabbed me. Also, I am really horrible at bargaining. Really. Horrible. But, like my deficiency in driving courage, my lack of bargaining prowess helps the local economy. So there's that.
I also have some successes on the cooking front. Over the weekend, I discovered I had some plum tomatoes that needed to be used up. Thanks to the Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics cookbook, I made the most delicious tomatoes I have ever eaten. Bar none. These tomatoes were roasted with a bit of balsamic vinegar (plus olive oil, sea salt, sugar, and pepper) and were so very delish. The tomato drippings started smoking up our kitchen and we had to race around opening windows so as not to set off the fire alarms. At one point Micah ran out to inform the guards that we had smoke in the kitchen but everything was o.k. However, his reassurance had the unintended (but forseeable to me as I raced out behind him) consequence of actually alarming the guards and I had to explain that we were just cooking and there was smoke from the cooking and Micah just wanted them to know we were o.k. They looked a little startled and skeptical, but no further drama ensued. And, all's well that ends well, which is to say that I was not alone in my tomato love--Deron declared the recipe well worth the smoke filled kitchen and looked forward to having them again!
We also tried another Food Network slow cooker recipe, this time a Chinese style rice soup (or jook) and, using some of the commenter suggestions to guide me, I had our family savoring a very gingery and delicious soup which garnered high, high praise from Micah, who wanted to eat it for breakfast this morning. Thanks to Ina Garten, I have also learned that it is not just my imagination that my poached chicken is rather dry. She also seems to share the opinion that roasted chicken is a zillion times yummier than poached, so I roasted the chicken for this soup and it was soooooo good.
Also on the food front, our compound received a flier from a local organic produce grower who makes home deliveries. How many happy dances can I possibly convey on this blog entry. Add one more because having fresh herbs and veggies and fruits delivered to my house on a weekly basis will be so great! Especially since they are growing some produce like red leaf lettuce and snow peas and strawberries! (which range from not easy to impossible to come by out here thus far)
And on the mom/school front, how much am I loving having a kiddo in Pre-K? This is such a fun stage! Micah loves doing number and letter worksheets and loves to practice cutting and it is so fun to watch his joy and enthusiasm. I even have fun ordering Kumon workbooks for him because I know how excited he is about doing them. Yesterday, I worked on the budget and he happily worked alongside me on his school materials and he is so proud of his accomplishments! It it is pure joy to behold!
I also ordered him his first set of personalized pencils AND I got a Preschool through 12th Grade School Days memory book for Micah and for Tiras. My mom had such a memory book for me and for my sister when we were growing up and, while this is not the exact same version, it is the same premise and I am just so elated to be starting this adventure with Micah and so excited to imagine filling those pages with all the experiences yet ahead. What will he love? What subjects will be his passion? What friendships and fun moments await?
Also in the realm of education, I may be tutoring one of the fellow expat kiddos in U.S. history since that is not covered here. I ordered a number of really promising looking books and also the Schoolhouse Rocks DVD with the history snippets. I am excited to share these materials with Micah as well and think he will enjoy them. I am really looking forward to doing some lesson planning and teaching.
This past Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving (and our local Nakumatt carried frozen turkey breast and drumsticks in honor of the occasion). While I am not myself Canadian, I surely have had a week filled with many thankful moments!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Micah Moments and Tiras Tidings
I think it is safe to say that Micah likes school. Parents from the early years right up on through high school are invited to join their kids for lunch each day. In Micah's case, lunch is after the end of his school day, so we eat lunch and head home. He has been opting to hang around his older friends longer and longer each day. Today, when we finally headed home, he had a somewhat downcast demeanor. Why so glum? Had something gone awry at school? No, far from it. He was sad he had to leave and proceeded to explained to me that he wished he were Year One (equivalent of Kindergarten) so that he could stay a full day. And a couple days ago, he expressed abject horror upon learning that they had a week of vacation for "half term" at the end of October. Yes, the boy likes school very much. He seems to enjoy his teacher and the schoolwork, but the favorite part of school is all the good friends he has there, ranging in age from two to almost eight. Have I mentioned that I love how the kids intermingle across class levels at this school? Love it! And the high schoolers are so friendly and gentle with the younger kids. It's really, really great!!!!
In othe Micah news, and passing along something that amused me a bit, I was recently in the dog house with Micah. Allow me to share the conversation I overheard between Micah and Daddy at the dining room table after dinner:
M: I'm so disappointed.
D: Why?
M (archly): I think you know. (this line, in particular, cracked me up)
M (continues as Daddy feigns ignorance): It starts with MOM and (upon my entry to the dining room, he hesitates, but then continues, undeterred) ends with she made me go places I didn't want to go. Twice.
D (amused): Wait a minute. It starts with Mom and ends with her making you go some place you didn't want to go. What's in the middle?
M: In the middle, I was very, very mad.
(End on two parents laughing)
I must have fairly quickly fallen out of disfavor because when Micah learned I was resting on the couch with a stomach ache, he hurried over and asked to take a look at my tummy. After having a look, he suggested that he might rub my tummy and see if that made it feel any better. He then said, "And if that doesn't work, tell me and I'll come up with another solution." (I was touched by how sweet he was and also a little bemused and bowled over by the use of "solution". He is so my little four going on forty kiddo at times!)
As for Tiras, wow! He is getting so big and independent. He managed to grow two molars without my realizing it until they had broken through! He is exuberant and active and loves to go "side" (outside) after requesting "shoe" (as in, please fetch and then put on my shoes so we can get this show on the road!)
I will leave you with this parting image, which Deron and I find adorable. At grace each night, Micah closes us out with a special thanks to God. One night he thanked God for making space and for making space so big. A lot of the items are really sweet and touching! Meanwhile, Tiras has started joining us. There is so much cuteness in seeing a little guy fold his hands and close his eyes and then mumble away in his own little language while we are saying grace. It was all his own idea, not something we have been urging him to do. Very sweet! Very cute!
In othe Micah news, and passing along something that amused me a bit, I was recently in the dog house with Micah. Allow me to share the conversation I overheard between Micah and Daddy at the dining room table after dinner:
M: I'm so disappointed.
D: Why?
M (archly): I think you know. (this line, in particular, cracked me up)
M (continues as Daddy feigns ignorance): It starts with MOM and (upon my entry to the dining room, he hesitates, but then continues, undeterred) ends with she made me go places I didn't want to go. Twice.
D (amused): Wait a minute. It starts with Mom and ends with her making you go some place you didn't want to go. What's in the middle?
M: In the middle, I was very, very mad.
(End on two parents laughing)
I must have fairly quickly fallen out of disfavor because when Micah learned I was resting on the couch with a stomach ache, he hurried over and asked to take a look at my tummy. After having a look, he suggested that he might rub my tummy and see if that made it feel any better. He then said, "And if that doesn't work, tell me and I'll come up with another solution." (I was touched by how sweet he was and also a little bemused and bowled over by the use of "solution". He is so my little four going on forty kiddo at times!)
As for Tiras, wow! He is getting so big and independent. He managed to grow two molars without my realizing it until they had broken through! He is exuberant and active and loves to go "side" (outside) after requesting "shoe" (as in, please fetch and then put on my shoes so we can get this show on the road!)
I will leave you with this parting image, which Deron and I find adorable. At grace each night, Micah closes us out with a special thanks to God. One night he thanked God for making space and for making space so big. A lot of the items are really sweet and touching! Meanwhile, Tiras has started joining us. There is so much cuteness in seeing a little guy fold his hands and close his eyes and then mumble away in his own little language while we are saying grace. It was all his own idea, not something we have been urging him to do. Very sweet! Very cute!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
I Have Not Driven A Car In Over 4 Months!
And I suspect I probably will not be driving a car any time soon! We only just got our car in early September and Deron takes it to work most days,so it's not like I have had weeks and weeks to be learning some driving skills in Kisumu. But that only accounts for a teeny, tiny fraction of the reason why I have not driven here. I look at the pedestrians, tuk tuks, boda bodas (bicycles), and occasional cows and goats and the way they freely (make that capriciously if you factor in the mattatus!) move in and around the street upon which I would be driving and I just can't get the nerve to climb into our giant SUV and join them lest I end up bumping into one of them! And, hey, every time I take a taxi to the grocery store or a tuk tuk to Bible Study or on another errand, I am helping the local economy. So that is laudable. Yes, my timidity serves the local community well financially! Or something like that. I realize I need to conquer this fear and get behind the wheel at some point. Everyone suggests driving SLOWLY and I can certainly manage that. But I am none too excited about it. None too excited at all!
Living here amazes me in that in just a few months I feel so at home. I feel like we are exactly where we are meant to be and I can't imagine my life WITHOUT having come to live here now. Had anyone tried to convince me that I would be typing such a sentiment on my blog, I would have nodded, smiled politely, and utterly dismissed the notion as well intended but epically inaccurate.
Which is not to say that life here is without challenges. I still find myself just wanting to pick up the phone or send a text message to family and friends in the U.S. and have them receive it in live time. The massive time difference and massive cost and technological limitations of my phone make that a no go. BUT, there is Skype and that is hugely helpful. Having internet be so very erratic and slow is also a challenge and frustration at times. Living in a cash society can be challenging. However, I can see Dave Ramsey's* point about spending less when you use cash. While it's true that there are less places to do shopping here and I have much less ease to hop in a car and go shopping, there is also something about having only the money in your pocket that tends to limit impulse buys. Also in the category of challenges, there seems to be a huge net effect to the incremental increase it takes to get basic things done that finds me often feeling like my to do list is just a wishful fantasy that won't see fulfillment until I am back in the U.S. And don't even get me started on my frustrations with the maintenance of this blog. It turns out that having inspiration, time without kiddos underfoot, AND an obliging and working internet all conspire together is more elusive than one might think. I will have these blog topics and posts composed in my head which, naturally, sound eloquent, witty, interesting, and riveting whilst in my head, evaporate to nothing once a few days of not being able to type them out go by.
But despite challenges and affronts to the Type A portion of my personality, there are so many grace notes and moments that eclipse all that. There are two women on my compound who are at home during the day, just as I am. We have started "Wonderful Women Wednesdays" and have gone out for coffee at the one coffee shop in town (and it's quite good!), had lunch at the Nyanza Club across the way, and had beauty treatments in town (a much needed pedicure and haircut for me! And before you snort derisively about a much needed pedicure, my heels could snag the mosquito net when I sat down for that pedi! They are exposed to way more dust and dirt here and the least I can do is give them a bit of pampering from time to time!). It's been really great and we are all in different seasons of life, so that's a fun dimension to have too. I also have joined a wonderful, wonderful women's Bible Study that meets each Thursday. We just started a study of Daniel and it's wonderful because if you know your Daniel, you know that he and his friends trusted God through EVERYTHING and it's surely inspiring and reassuring stuff to read!
I have also been spending a chunk of internet time on the Food Network website. Along with the amazing brownies I posted about in August, I have also discovered a delicious green tea based apple and mint punch. It tastes so light and fresh and is wonderfully refreshing! We also made a slow cooker Korean inspired beef and noodle soup this weekend and it had lots of flavor, was easy to make, AND used ingredients we can actually get here. I came to Kisumu with nary a cookbook and with visions of plunging in to the local cuisine and learning to cook from the cook we would hire. Well, there's not a terriby extensive cuisine in Kenya, turns out. And our cook, Rose, has asked me for cookbooks and recipes. So, while we have tried a couple traditional dishes, that is not going to hold us for 365 days a year and it turns out things are a bit different than I expected. Food Network is an investment of time, rather than money. (And I note the latter having frantically purchased Kenyan magazines for their recipes and some cookbooks from home I thought might work. While I got SOME workable options from the U.S. cookbooks, it's amazing how many ingredients show up that are so easy to get in the U.S. and so NOT an option nor easily substituted with other ingredients here.)
But speaking of those Kenyan magazines purchased for recipes. While the recipes, for various reasons, were a bust, (I noticed a certain vague quality to the ingredient list and directions that even Rose could not make heads nor tails of, for example.) the magazines were a giant success when it came to giving me some glimpses of culture. I really LOVED getting to read articles in the voices of insiders. I learned about health issues, for example, since my New African Woman magazine was devoted to health in September and October. I learned, for example, that there is a stigma to having TB and how one South African television personaity who contracted TB is fighting that stigma and on a crusade to make care and information accessible to all. I learned about another woman's crusade against female circumcision. I read a lighter article about protecting one's marriage. Regarding advice not to pester spouse with a zillion phone calls when he is having time and space with friends, the article quoted a man as thinking about taking a second wife so he could tell his wife he was with her when he was actually out with the guys and he could just enjoy their company in peace. Now, I gotta say, I surely never encountered such a scenario in any articles on relationships in U.S. magazines. There were also book reviews on books all written by African women. It wasn't that I got PhD level sociological insight into modern women of Africa by reading the magazine, but it was so many little details and little insights and I really thrilled to that. I am not sure how well I am articulating all that adequately. I suppose it's the thrill of learning something new and having a glimpse into the small (and not so small) details that are part of familiar life for many here, but all new to me.
Am now hoping to grab a shower before Tiras awakes. Still no pump to give us water pressure, but we do have hot water back after a week without, so I am happy. It is well here!
*Dave Ramsey hosts a really great radio talk show about managing one's money wisely. I liked, in particulalr, one ad campaign where he had the phrase "Act your wage."
Living here amazes me in that in just a few months I feel so at home. I feel like we are exactly where we are meant to be and I can't imagine my life WITHOUT having come to live here now. Had anyone tried to convince me that I would be typing such a sentiment on my blog, I would have nodded, smiled politely, and utterly dismissed the notion as well intended but epically inaccurate.
Which is not to say that life here is without challenges. I still find myself just wanting to pick up the phone or send a text message to family and friends in the U.S. and have them receive it in live time. The massive time difference and massive cost and technological limitations of my phone make that a no go. BUT, there is Skype and that is hugely helpful. Having internet be so very erratic and slow is also a challenge and frustration at times. Living in a cash society can be challenging. However, I can see Dave Ramsey's* point about spending less when you use cash. While it's true that there are less places to do shopping here and I have much less ease to hop in a car and go shopping, there is also something about having only the money in your pocket that tends to limit impulse buys. Also in the category of challenges, there seems to be a huge net effect to the incremental increase it takes to get basic things done that finds me often feeling like my to do list is just a wishful fantasy that won't see fulfillment until I am back in the U.S. And don't even get me started on my frustrations with the maintenance of this blog. It turns out that having inspiration, time without kiddos underfoot, AND an obliging and working internet all conspire together is more elusive than one might think. I will have these blog topics and posts composed in my head which, naturally, sound eloquent, witty, interesting, and riveting whilst in my head, evaporate to nothing once a few days of not being able to type them out go by.
But despite challenges and affronts to the Type A portion of my personality, there are so many grace notes and moments that eclipse all that. There are two women on my compound who are at home during the day, just as I am. We have started "Wonderful Women Wednesdays" and have gone out for coffee at the one coffee shop in town (and it's quite good!), had lunch at the Nyanza Club across the way, and had beauty treatments in town (a much needed pedicure and haircut for me! And before you snort derisively about a much needed pedicure, my heels could snag the mosquito net when I sat down for that pedi! They are exposed to way more dust and dirt here and the least I can do is give them a bit of pampering from time to time!). It's been really great and we are all in different seasons of life, so that's a fun dimension to have too. I also have joined a wonderful, wonderful women's Bible Study that meets each Thursday. We just started a study of Daniel and it's wonderful because if you know your Daniel, you know that he and his friends trusted God through EVERYTHING and it's surely inspiring and reassuring stuff to read!
I have also been spending a chunk of internet time on the Food Network website. Along with the amazing brownies I posted about in August, I have also discovered a delicious green tea based apple and mint punch. It tastes so light and fresh and is wonderfully refreshing! We also made a slow cooker Korean inspired beef and noodle soup this weekend and it had lots of flavor, was easy to make, AND used ingredients we can actually get here. I came to Kisumu with nary a cookbook and with visions of plunging in to the local cuisine and learning to cook from the cook we would hire. Well, there's not a terriby extensive cuisine in Kenya, turns out. And our cook, Rose, has asked me for cookbooks and recipes. So, while we have tried a couple traditional dishes, that is not going to hold us for 365 days a year and it turns out things are a bit different than I expected. Food Network is an investment of time, rather than money. (And I note the latter having frantically purchased Kenyan magazines for their recipes and some cookbooks from home I thought might work. While I got SOME workable options from the U.S. cookbooks, it's amazing how many ingredients show up that are so easy to get in the U.S. and so NOT an option nor easily substituted with other ingredients here.)
But speaking of those Kenyan magazines purchased for recipes. While the recipes, for various reasons, were a bust, (I noticed a certain vague quality to the ingredient list and directions that even Rose could not make heads nor tails of, for example.) the magazines were a giant success when it came to giving me some glimpses of culture. I really LOVED getting to read articles in the voices of insiders. I learned about health issues, for example, since my New African Woman magazine was devoted to health in September and October. I learned, for example, that there is a stigma to having TB and how one South African television personaity who contracted TB is fighting that stigma and on a crusade to make care and information accessible to all. I learned about another woman's crusade against female circumcision. I read a lighter article about protecting one's marriage. Regarding advice not to pester spouse with a zillion phone calls when he is having time and space with friends, the article quoted a man as thinking about taking a second wife so he could tell his wife he was with her when he was actually out with the guys and he could just enjoy their company in peace. Now, I gotta say, I surely never encountered such a scenario in any articles on relationships in U.S. magazines. There were also book reviews on books all written by African women. It wasn't that I got PhD level sociological insight into modern women of Africa by reading the magazine, but it was so many little details and little insights and I really thrilled to that. I am not sure how well I am articulating all that adequately. I suppose it's the thrill of learning something new and having a glimpse into the small (and not so small) details that are part of familiar life for many here, but all new to me.
Am now hoping to grab a shower before Tiras awakes. Still no pump to give us water pressure, but we do have hot water back after a week without, so I am happy. It is well here!
*Dave Ramsey hosts a really great radio talk show about managing one's money wisely. I liked, in particulalr, one ad campaign where he had the phrase "Act your wage."
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