Fun Firsts and Etc

We are fast approaching our two-month anniversary here in Kisumu and the second month has definitely flown by far more quickly than our first month. Among other things, our second month has seen us going on our first excursion and (for the boys and I) eating our first meal of ugali, a traditional Kenyan dish.

FIRST EXCURSION
Last weekend, we joined two of the families in our compound as well as some friends of one of the families, and headed up to Lake Nakuru. We drove through the Rift Valley and one of my favorite sights was the rolling hills and the beautiful green fields full of tea plantations. It actually reminded me a good bit of California's wine country--so beautiful and soothing to the soul to behold!

We stopped at the Kericho Tea Hotel. I will include a link here that shows some photos. It doesn't necessarily do justice to the views of those fields of tea, but it gives a bit of something. And as I have yet to post any photos, it is at least SOMETHING visual.
http://www.shoortravel.com/kerichohotel.html#1


We then proceeded on to our destination: Saroval Lion Hill Game Lodge overlooking Lake Nakuru and itself located in Lake Nakuru National Park. Among the most stunning inhabitants of this park are the hundreds and hundreds of flamingoes that congregate at the lake. There are so many that the lake itself appears to have a pink border all around it. We went on a game drive and one of my favorite sights was watching flamingoes fly. They are very graceful and elegant and when they fly you catch a bit of black that is on the underside of their wings. Up to this point, I had only seen flamingoes fly in Dis.ney's The Lion.King during the Circle of Life opening. I thought the animated birds in flight were stunning even in a cartoon and to see them in real life was a thrill for me.

We saw many wonderful animals, including white rhino, grey rhino, giraffes, buffalo, and baboons. But for some reason, the sight of zebra casually grazing within feet of our vehicle really struck me. Something that looks so exotic so very cavalierly doing its thing made me really FEEL that we were here in Africa. While we saw neither Micah's beloved lion or cheetah on this game drive, we do expect to see many out in the mara next month, so are content to wait for the big cats and happily savor replaying memories of the animals we did see.

Here is a link to our lodge, which includes a bit more information about the park. It was a beautiful, beautiful place. What is not described in the blurb below is the presence of extraordinarily large numbers of very gifted hunters--we encountered a veritable plague of mosquitoes there! They are not the type that carry malaria--just a nuisance. Still and all, we managed to leave our weekend adventure with many happy memories and very few bites!

http://www.sarovahotels.com/lionhill/index.php

FIRST UGALI
Deron returned home from his conference on a Monday evening (detained on runway in Atlanta and, along with 18 others, missed connecting flight to Nairobi in Amsterdam. He was thus sent off to London to take a flight to Nairobi the next day. So, after 11 nights without him home, we resigned ourselves to wait another 30 or so hours. SIDENOTE: While delayed at the Amsterdam airport sorting out how to get to Nairobi, Deron evidently strolled through various shops. Watching him present the boys with presents from the airport made me love a whole new facet of Deron. For Micah, he had picked out a ruler with a magnifying lens and pictures of windmills and tulips on it AND a giant pencil holding colored pencils AND, best of all, an alarm clock shaped like a K.LM cockpit. Micah was delighted and I was touched beyond measure by the whimsical and fun and perfect gifts Deron had so thoughtfully and lovingly selected. Tiras received a cannister with all sorts of Netherland themed pictures, including cows grazing. When turned over, a loud mooing sound emitted from the cannister. This was a giant hit with Tiras and Micah. Sadly for the cannister, Tiras's joy of the moo was eclipsed by the joy of tossing the cannister about and now it is quite silent. I already thought Deron was the greatest ever and fell just that much more in love with him because of the sweet gifts for the boys. Guess what? After the kids were put to bed, he had me come downstairs and there on the table were chocolates for me!) Good grief--that was some giant and rambling parenthetical. Back to the ugali topic.

So, Deron's first night back home, we had our first traditional Kenyan meal as a family. While Deron has been out in the field and here before and is quite well exposed to authentic dining, the rest of the Burton crew hadn't really experienced much Kenyan style cooking. We asked Rose, who is working for us and is wonderful, to cook us something Kenyan and she was excited to make us some ugali sukuma wiki. I will include a link to Wikiped.ia but it is basically a doughy starch made from maize flour and water which is used to wrap around or scoop other foods (much like flat breads in other cultures). Sukuma wiki is a green maybe comparable to collard greens but more grassy tasting. It's a strong taste, but Deron and I in particular enjoyed it. A little sukuma wiki went a long way with the boys. The Ugali, a food you are encouraged to roll up into a ball and then press a little hole into for scooping was a GIANT hit with Micah and quite a hit with Tiras as well, given that he is very much into feeding himself these days and ugali is very user friendly for a new self feeder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugali

READING LIST
My Amazon books have arrived and I am starting with a seven-hundred page book about the history of Africa's fifty years since independence. It's called The Fate of Africa (by Martin Meredith) and while it is going to take me some time to read, I am excited to start learning more background information about Africa!

I also have some memoirs and another big book, Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden. Will update with my "reviews" should anyone be interested in doing some reading about Africa. Am also taking reading suggestions. :-)

Surprises

Note: There are a couple new posts that I couldn't put up due to internet being down. See below.

I have had some surprises this week.

Perhaps of greatest import, I was surprised this weekend to find that I have really started to feel at home here in Kisumu. Rather than wondering how long two years here might feel, I suddenly find myself excited that we get at least two years to live here.

Deron has been away for a week and a half attending a conference back in Atlanta. We didn't realize he'd be going to this conference and it was not the most delightful surprise I have ever had. But somewhere between the blues of having to say goodbye to him and this weekend, I started to feel good about functioning here in Kisumu on my own. (on my own, but with a lot of help from friends here!) I think unconsciously I had been sort of existing for Deron to get home from work and for the weekends. Having him gone for an extended time was just the nudge I needed to start making a bit more of a life here. Just simple things, like those morning walks. But the simple things added up and I am a lot more content here!

But that wonderful development achieved--I am so ready and excited to have Deron back. Which brings us to our most recent surprise--Deron's return has been delayed by a day because his flight out of Atlanta was delayed for several hours due to mechanical difficulties and his Nairobi connection was missed. So rather than having Deron in Nairobi tonight and coming home Sunday morning, he will be in London tonight flying to Nairobi tomorrow and flying to Kisumu Monday morning. I hope he isn't too wiped out by this extension of travel mode!

I also had a somewhat funny surprise, courtesy of Micah. I think of it as "The Not So Constant Gardener" incident.

Wednesday afternoon, Micah spotted a hose and asked if he could water plants in our common area. It was fine with the gardener and the guards even helped Micah attach the various hose segments so that he could walk all over the grounds watering plants. I was pleased he was having such a good time and doing something so constructive. I even congratulated myself on being such an easygoing mom and not fussing about him getting wet or getting somewhat muddy clothing. "What a fun mom I am!" thought I. "And what a lovely afternoon this has been for us all."

Cue to some half hour later when I discover muddy handprints on the sheers in our living room. Upon further examination of the muddy sheers, I discover a hose has been shoved through our window. I look down at the floor upon which I am standing and discover a massive puddle of water. Yes, my dear little gardener, at the end of his watering session, evidently thought it would be interesting to see what might happen if he put the hose in our window. In a Curious George episode, the water had filled the house and to such a depth that things floated all over and a person could even swim. What fun to try this out at home!

Cleaning up the mess wasn't so funny and the unsettling notion that Micah was not terribly remorseful about it, but rather, very interested in the result of his experiment and quite possibly apt to repeat it wasn't so funny either. But I gotta say, when the guards and neighbors asked about the hose in our window and I tried to evenly explain what happened, it was a little funny to see Micah's eyes dancing as I talked and then have him burst in with a delighted, "The water went all the way to the TABLE!" And to a person, Micah's taking over the story and being so thrilled by what happened always elicited a laugh. And sensing the sympathy of his audience, Micah would then give them backstory about what he had hoped might happen (enough water for Tiras to swim).

Life with my boys may get messy, but it is certainly not dull.

Tiras and Toilet Tidings (A July 14 Post)

Tiras has discovered the toilet. And by that I am not coyly announcing that my kiddo has precociously potty trained himself as a follow-up to his recent walking achievement. No, I mean that he has discovered that it is big fun to flush a toilet or rattle the handle in an attempt to flush the toilet. Fun like that is bested, of course, by the experience of dropping a toy car in the toilet. And on a truly great day, Tiras has been known to smile at me confidently and then, with lightning speed, swoop his arm downward and scoop up a little toilet water, an action his (perhaps epically dense, given that he was in the same room as a TOILET, an object of obvious awesomeness) mom failed to see coming. I am doing my best to make the latter a one-time life event. Because. Gross!

And, on a somewhat related note to toilets, it turns out the can't miss comedy routine for a nearly 15-month-old continues to be to wiggle around and laugh uproariously during diaper changing time. Flipping to tummy as if in the midst of an Olympic team trial for swiftest rolling over, he will do all in his (impressively formidable) power to thwart my efforts to change his diaper. And did I mention the uproarious laughter? All coming from Tiras. I tend to be smiling through clenched teeth as I get increasingly worn down and as my "No"s and "You need to be still"s are increasingly treated as amusing suggestions to be utterly ignored.

Ahhh (A July 13 Post)

Note: This post was composed and supposed to be posted on July 13. Internet issues delayed the posting. So by "today", I mean July 13. And if you know me at all, you know I need to type this because you know it is driving my Type A little self nuts to have the blog date NOT match the actual date of this post's composition. But I feel a little better with the parenthetical in my blog title. Because historical accuracy for this blog is a matter of paramount import!!! (Ok, that last bit is tongue in cheek. I am neurotic but in a self-aware kind of way.)

Started today with a walk outside with the boys. It was wonderfully morale boosting to be outside moving around and taking in the world and people around us. Micah loves riding our neighbor's little tricycle/big wheel type toy and I love watching him pedal with such purpose and enjoyment. There are lots of pretty flowers and trees to enjoy on our walk along with the various homes that we pass. At one point we heard women talking and when they passed us, I could see that they all had large baskets and containers balanced on their heads. It was such a cool moment because it is such a common sight here but a new sight for me and for the boys. I think walks outside the compound are a must!

Another source of the ahhh is that I found some promising crock.pot recipes online. Food options are different enough that some of my go to dishes are not so much a go. And food prep can be more complicated here, so something as easy as a good old crock.pot is very appealing.

Kid Updates:

Tiras continues to be very active and on the move. It's hard to believe that it has been just a few weeks that he has been walking and that he was a crawler when we arrived. Stages shift so dramatically at this age! He is very playful and the sound of his very merry laughter when wiggling around during a diaper change or an attempt to dress him is one of the happiest sounds I know. He laughs and laughs as if I am in on the joke. He also thinks it is hilarious to feed me and to try and brush his own teeth.

Not a lot of Tiras quotes, of course. He seems to have paragraphs to say, and he does say them. However, at this point, said paragraphs are in his own particular Tirasian dialect. He does say "hello", "goodbye", and "thank you". He is prone to pick up a cell phone or similarly shaped object and say "hello" and then launch into a conversation with an imaginary caller. He also says "no" and "uh uh". Whereas he once upon a time said yes EVERY time he so much as heard the inflection of a questioning tone, be it directed to him or to somebody else, nowadays I can't remember the last time we heard an affirmative response to a query.

Micah has made friends with the neighbor's dogs and is now asking for a dog of his own. Since he was initially skittish around our neighbor's fur babies, it is great to see him so enthusiastic about them.

Micah also gave me some sage advice last night. Sternly delivered as you will see:

Micah: I think you should come to bed at the same time I go to bed.

Me: Replied something about having to get a few things done. This precipitated a very emphatic response.

Micah: You said the same thing last night and you didn't get enough sleep. This is un-ceptable (unacceptable). Now we are going through the same thing all over again today.

I thought about what he had to say and about how I had dragged all through the day and I went ahead and followed Micah's advice and woke up feeling quite wonderful for it!

Nice Moments

Even with Deron away at a conference, and with missing the big Nelson gathering to celebrate my grandfather's 90th, there have been some nice moments of late. In no particular order:

• Tiras had a fussy night and I was worried it might have disturbed Micah's sleep. When he woke up and I asked him if he had had a tough night, he answered that he had slept, "peaceful as a lion". (This example no doubt came to mind so readily because we went back to Impala Park yesterday and he got to see his beloved lion and cheetahs again and the lion was napping quite peacefully. The cheetahs were in repose too, for that matter.)
• On Saturday morning, one of our compound neighbors was heading out with her dogs to go on a walk. We joined her with Tiras in a stroller and Micah on a big wheel type toy. The morning air was cool, the flowers plentiful, and the joyful and exuberant pedalling of Micah a happy sight to behold.
• On Thursday, a wonderful new friend here took me and the boys on a tour of Kisumu wherein we got to see the two main roads and find out where various useful places are located (such as a butcher and a great place for milkshakes, and etc) The best part was our stops to a craft market and to an open air market. At the former I got a few items I really love and have my eye on a few more. At the latter I got all sorts of sweet mangoes and yummy avocadoes and even a couple of butternut squash which I plan to cook for dinner tonight. Simple but good stuff.
• On Wednesday night, same wonderful new friend brought over two other great women and chocolate chocolate chip muffins so I would have company and chocolate to cheer me up on the night of Deron's departure. How thoughtful and great is that?
• On Friday, we had a swim playdate. Seeing Micah joyfully splash around in the water is a happy, happy thing!

These past two weekends have probably been my toughest yet (Fourth of July followed by a Husband Away and a Missed Giant Family Gathering will tend to up the ante on the old homesickness), but there are definitely these moments of grace even in the slumps.

And today we stopped by our neighbor's home to have a playdate with the dogs. Our neighbor's mom is home during the days and it was nice for me and for the boys to get to visit with her.

Every day we get a little more settled. Every time I get out and about, I definitely appreciate being here that much more. We are hoping for a couple of weekend get-aways that don't require a car* and I think that will be a great thing for our morale.

Deron is very busy with work but very, very happy to be right exactly here doing right exactly this. And that is a very good thing indeed!

*Our buyer bid on a car, so the process is moving along. Shipping seems to take a while. Here's hoping we have the car by late August.

First Month

July 3 actually marked one month here in Kisumu, so I am a little late with this post.

Still, to celebrate our one month mark, I thought I would share this little anecdote. The other day I had this moment of thinking, "Hey, maybe I really am adjusting" when I looked at our neighbor's little motorized Bar*bie car and thought the steering wheel looked funny and was on the wrong side. Then I realized that the wheel was actually on the left side as the toy came from the U.S. Which means that cars here, with their steering wheels on the right side, are starting to seem more usual to me. (If I had a dollar for every time I have attempted to board a car through what is usually the passenger side but is now the driver's side, well, I could certainly order myself a Jacque*s Torres cookie mix or two!)

Which doesn't mean that I will actually be hopping behind the wheel any time soon. BUT, it was an encouraging sign that my brain is starting to process the reverse side driving and reverse side design of cars.

Boys are doing well and making me smile. Tiras is walking up a storm and having a ball doing so. Micah is very proud of him.

Here's a little Micah anecdote. We read a few different Leo Lionni books together yesterday and he really liked them. At dinner I asked him if he wanted to tell Daddy what his books were about. He immediately launched in to the following report:
"One is about a crocodile!" (and then he loudly started snapping his teeth several times)
"One is about RIBBET, RIBBET, frogs."
(the other two were about a snail and a mouse, so I was curious what he would do)
"One is about," and here his eyes widened as he realized his dilemma. Having started to describe his stories in this sound effect format, he definitely wanted to end consistently. But what to do?
Then he started moving his head and shoulders around in a slow manner and slowly said, "a snnnnaaaaaiiiilll." He added further clarification, "Snails talk slowly."

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! Much love from Kisumu!

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!