Blasted Crows!

I think the most frustrating thing about living in Kenya has been the power. The power goes out SO often and for SO long. Well, I found out the blasted CROWS are the culprits! Well, at least that's what my landlord thinks. They all congregate on the power lines and peck at the gadgets at the top of the posts until the power goes out.

One time, I heard a flock of crows cawing at the top of their lungs in what sounded like a heated argument, except all talking at once. I thought, "What on earth are those crows freaking out about?"--it was LOUD! Miriam discovered that there was one lying dead in the street. Maybe he got electrocuted.

I've failed over an over again to capture a decent photo, but you get the idea. Just picture many more crows, and imagine their "caw"ing in the background ALL day long.

Fly Swatter

This post is for Julie, who generously sacrificed her fly swatter at the last minute so we could take it with us. It was a great gift and we use it a lot.

As it turns out, it is also one of Jared's favorite toys at our house. Jared is Miriam's baby boy who's about 16 months old or so. He was running around with it in front of him as if it were a vacuum cleaner...as if he knew what a vacuum cleaner was, which he doesn't. And then he stopped doing it when I started filming.

I meant to say "...because I am recording." at the end of my sentence, btw.

Anyway, thanks, Julie!!!

Reyna's New Tricks

Reyna has some new tricks.

She can make this funny face:

If you listen carefully to the following video, you can hear her click her tongue. Sorry the video is flipped. I can't figure out how to flip it, but I figured you'd want to see it anyway and just watch it up-side-down. :)

She loves splashing up a storm in her little blue bath basin. Bad photo, but again, thought you'd like it anyway.

AND…..drumroll……She has SIX TEETH! She had three teeth on bottom at first, and then her top teeth, and the last fourth on bottom have finally broken through the gums. (Yeah, when I said earlier that she had "broken teeth" I meant her teeth broke through the gums, not her teeth broke--sorry for the confusion) Yay! What a big girl!

Oh! I almost forgot! Reyna is starting to drink from a bottle again! I guess she's thirsty enough to drink the formula when my milk is not enough. She can even hold the bottle!

Hugs and Kisses from Reyna!!!!!!!! She misses you, too!

Emergency Preparedness in Action

I find that I'm having to repeatedly draw upon the emergency preparedness lessons we get from church because I'm having to LIVE these principles every day. I never knew how important they are until I moved to this country! 

For example, I have to be sure to charge my emergency lantern every day or two so that it's ready when I need it. The power goes out at least once a day here. Once it was out for eight hours. I have a back up gas stove for cooking, so I also have to keep the gas tank filled. I keep a pair of sandals and a headlamp near my bed at night in case I need it. I'm so glad I brought those headlamps.

I've also re-learned how to properly store water. I found really simple, non-overwhelming information on this church web page. It's kinda funny, because I was just thinking one morning that we should fill up some of our old mineral water jugs and store/rotate the water we pump from the Seychelle water filter/pump (Mom and Dad learned about this pump while at the missionary training center, and told me about it. I ordered it before I left). I filled up five 5-liter jugs, and that afternoon, the water got really low. In fact it completely stopped pouring out of some of our faucets. We could access water from others, but I thought, thank goodness Heavenly Father is inspiring me about these things that I need to learn and do to keep our family prepared.

I also put together a list of phone numbers for the doctor, power company, other important contacts and tacked it on the wall just in case we need it. I've used it several times. Here's an interesting fact Miriam told me about. If you every need to be picked up by an ambulance, you have to call the hospital and they'll give you a number for the ambulance. And then you call them to pick you up. Good thing I know CPR and first aid for while we are waiting. Let's just hope I don't ever need to use them.

Make Yourself At Home

I've always thought, "You know you've moved in once you've baked a batch of cookies." I've tried to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies early on at each of the 13 places we've lived since we first were married so that we could begin to feel settled in.

Now that our oven is working, I've finally been able to make some cookies and I'm feeling optimistic today.

Besides baking cookies, here are some other things that have helped me feel at home. If you ever find yourself in a country foreign to you, do these things:

• Get a cell phone and memorize your number.
• Clean your bathrooms. (After hours of scrubbing and sweat literally dripping off my face, I felt so much better knowing that the bathrooms were cleaned to MY standard of "clean").
• Grocery shop several times until you're familiar with where things are located in the store and what brands you like.
• Take time in between your adventurous eating of local foods to just eat comfort food. (For me tonight, it was spam and rice. I know that will sound nasty to some of my readers, but there's nothing like spam and rice and tomatoes to make me feel comforted--besides my mom's cooking. Sigh…I miss my mom's cooking. The boys were thrilled).

• Go out and talk to people. Say hi to the same people you see everyday and learn their names. Soon you'll have friends everywhere you go.
• Do what you need to to make your life easier. Hiring a maid was the smartest thing I've done so far. Miriam comes with me into town and translates and makes sure I don't get ripped off. I didn't realize we matched the other day until it was time to go. I'm also so relieved that the ant spray my landlord gave me to put along the baseboards seems to actually be working--Hallelujah!!!!!.

• Develop a routine (having the boys in school helps immensely)…BUT...
• Don't be too attached to your expectations. Things definitely don't operate as reliably here as in the U.S.. If the power goes out when you need to bake something, "Hakuna matata." Just wait until it comes on again. I think people here are patient because they have learned to just wait when things don't go as they had planned. Allow for mistakes. Some days I really struggle with the difficulty of life here, but when I keep the right perspective, I can cope.
• Hang on to your traditions. For family home evening, we made these Halloween decorations. I won't be doing costumes this year, but the decorations made the kids happy.

Tour

we have a frend named mriem.

dad has a new office we go To it too

we had era first day of school 

we have monkeys at school it was awesome Too

To:  auntie seena. 

we got a bowstaff too

ANDRE.

Eeew!!!!

Okay, I never say this, but O-M-G!!!!!

Hunter found this NASTY creature wandering around by our bathroom the other night.

He said "Don't Look!"....so, I looked. He tried stepping on it like five times and it never died. So he carefully swept it up and chucked it out the window.

I thought it was 5 inches long. Hunter says 4. Miriam said they can get up to twice the size and that if one of those bite you, you will be in pain for 24 hours.

Muslim Chant

We live pretty close to a couple of mosques, so five times a day, we hear chants being broadcast in all four directions from the top of the minarets. It's actually quite nice. It helps me wake up in the morning. This morning, for some reason, the chanting kept going for a long time. It maybe has to do with the Muslim holiday coming up. If you listen carefully to the video you can hear it. That's my street. Pretty peaceful in the early morning.

Riddle

Question: What is more disappointing than sour milk?

Answer: A bad egg! I have to smell and taste test my milk and eggs before using them. I just can't stomach the weird tasting eggs. It's not that they're rotten. It's just that they're yucky. I don't know how to explain it. I tell ya, I feel like I hit the jackpot if I make four fried eggs for our breakfast and they all taste good!

Getting into a Routine

I'm starting to get the hang of our rigorous daily routine. I get up in the morning at 5:00 and I tie up my mosquito net. Hunter says I'm the best at it, by the way, and I am. I've got it down to a science :) 

Then I get dressed and start breakfast. I wake up the boys at 5:30 and tie up their nets and they get dressed and eat breakfast. I pack them a snack/lunch and take them down to the bus at 6:45. Then Reyna goes down for an early nap, Hunter and I clean up breakfast, and he heads to work at 7 to do some freelance work before his actual job starts around 9. 

Miriam comes at 9. She does laundry and cleaning every day. Some days she helps cook, and some days she helps shop (we have to shop every other day in order for things to stay fresh). The work consumes the day until the boys come home. Some days they stay until 3:30 for clubs, but they usually return around lunch time. After lunch, we immediately begin homework. Miriam plays with Reyna while I help the boys. Then in no time, it's time for Miriam to leave, and I have to get dinner on the table. I'm thinking I'm going to have to feed the kids early rather than wait for Hunter because they need to sleep earlier. Dinner, bath and bed time flies by and I crash ideally by 11.

Phew!

School

I've been working ALL WEEK trying to get the kids enrolled in this school called Shree Swaminarayan Academy. It's a multinational, multidenominational school, but it's pretty much staffed and attended by Swahili and Indian people. I've had to ride the matatu back and forth trying to get things settled. 

Paulo and Andre had to take these long tests so they could be placed in the right grade. Paulo is in Grade 2 for now. Andre is in what is called Kindergarten 3 / Reception. 

I still have to order uniforms, but I've arranged all the transportation. The boys get picked up by a school bus, which looks like a charter bus, right outside our gate, and are dropped off in the same spot. It's so convenient! 

The campus has two swimming pools (I wish I had thought to take a photo the day I saw the pools--sorry!)--one for the nursery kids, and one for the older kids. They rotate swimming and other "games" or sports for PE, like football (soccer), basketball, and cricket.

Apparently, at the end of the term, there is a big swimming competition among the "houses" (Think Harry Potter and how they have different houses). Well here, they have houses like "Gandi house" "Mandela house" "Lincoln house" and "Nkrumah house". The boys are in Nkrumah house. Nkrumah was the leader who helped Africa gain independence from the British. Pretty cool.

This is the gate where you enter: 

 This is Dickson, the guard. I've visited the school so many days in a row that now we're friends.

The main entrance:

Playground outside. They don't have recess here. I don't really know when they use this.

When you enter the school, this and other Hindu Gods are in the center of the school:

Corridors:

Gorgeous trees on one side:

This is where students take "break" and eat their lunch. They can purchase food from the "canteen". It's quite cheap. I had to ask a staff member to explain the entire menu to me. The boys and I have tried a few things, and the boys like the food. Mostly Indian food. In fact, we are not permitted to pack anything with meat or eggs from home.

I sneaked (snuck?) a photo of Paulo in his classroom. He looks bored because he doesn't have the science textbook yet. He's the one wearing the white shirt. I ordered the boys' uniforms from this taylor downtown. He took the boys measurements, and they should be done soon.

I was taking care of business at the school late one day, so the bus driver let me ride home with Andre. He made buddies with these boys.

The boys came home from their first days of school pretty happy. Paulo's already had a chance to test out the pool. He also has a pile of 14 exercise books and other text books. It was quite the task to cover them all. Hunter's in the process of designing these cool labels. 

It takes Paulo about an hour to do homework. The school is pretty strict. I think it's going to be great for the boys. 

Finding a Maid

I've been thinking of how to go about finding a trustworthy maid to help me around the house for a while. Our first Sunday, a lady followed me into the bathroom and immediately offered to help me. I took her number, but didn't really feel good about it. 

Then, a very intelligent and trusted man from Hunter's fellowship said he had a resume/"curriculum vitae" for a girl he knew who wanted and needed the job. I interviewed her, and again, didn't feel very strongly about hiring her, even when I prayed about it.

Then I thought to ask my friend Miriam. We were having her over to dinner last night, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about it. I learned that she IS interested in working. We worked out an arrangement which is good for both of us, and I think I made the right decision. She has been extremely helpful.

If someone asked me what superpower I wanted, I would have either said I want Mary Poppin's powers, so I could snap and have my household messes clean up themselves, or I would wish to be able to split myself into two or three of me without splitting up my energy sources. Well, having Miriam around, is like having Mary Poppins around, or having a second ME around. I developed somewhat of a schedule of tasks to be done each day, but even without it, Miriam looks around for what needs to be done, and does it. It's AMAZING!!!

She helps me with laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping, shopping. She cares for Reyna when I'm busy. She taught me how to cook Chapati the other day. It was awesome. I'm so grateful I have someone who can translate when I need help, or shop for me so I don't constantly have to pay "white people" prices. (Funny how people think we're white here, and think we're black in Utah--well, at least some kids do). Our days our full of work even with the two of us working. Things just take longer here. It's kind of interesting.

Anyway, she's extremely honest. She's never taken so much as a spare shilling left behind in a pocket. When I asked her if she had already swept all the floors she said yes…then a minute later came out of the laundry room and said "the baby's room, I didn't do yet." It's like she was thinking about what she had just said, and realized it wasn't exactly true, and felt she should correct it. That's exactly how I am! I'm always playing and replaying the things I've said in my mind to make sure I was completely truthful, etc. It's a weird trait of mine, but I'm glad Miriam has it, too. I depend on her honesty.

She's a huge blessing. I'm so glad I hired her.

The kids call her "Mama Betty", by the way, because her daughter, who is Paulo's age, is named Beatrice, but goes by Betty for short, and since she's the mother of Betty, she said the boys could call her Mama Betty. Super cute.

Industrious and Resourceful People

All the Africans I've seen do everything by hand. When I watched a team of builders constructing some glass boards, which were to be used as white boards, for Hunter's office, they did the cutting with a plain old hand saw, the connecting with a hammer and nails.

The other day, I watched Ma's gardener "mow" the lawn with a metal tool that's bent at the end like a hockey stick, and he swung that thing back and forth, whacking at the weeds for, I think I counted FIVE HOURS! No power tools.

When the handy man, Mtinda, came to fix the aerial/antenna for our TV, he literally sat outside and welded us a new one. Crazy!

These are the most hard working people I've ever seen. People who are fortunate enough to have employment during the day get up at 4:30 to begin the laundry for their own households. The kids are off to school at 7:00. Then they go help as maids for a full day's work at the home of someone who can afford it. By the time they get home during rush hour, it's already dark, and they begin to make dinner, then bed, then they do it all over again. I've smelled dinner from our south neighbor's house at like 9 p.m. I think they just learn to live off of less sleep.

Doesn't that make you appreciate the times you can kick back and relax or watch TV before going to bed? it does for me.

Our New Home In Kenya

It is  awesome in Kenya. I have a story to tell. I once was at a place called Nakumatt City Mall and on the way back we had a crazy day. We had the matatus go wrong. We went on the wrong matatu. If you are asking what a matatu is, well, its a 12 seated van-like bus. Well, when we got on the wrong matatu and my mom ask the conductor if we are headed to the Nakumatt Cinemax, it is the landmark closest to our home. Instead they were driving West not East away from Nakumatt Cinemax. Mom asked where are we going to the conductor and he said he would tell us how to catch another matatu toward Nakumatt Cinemax. We got off that matatu and suddenly, some kind person helped us catch the other matatu to the Nakumatt Cinemax. We felt good. When we got home, it was dark. Suddenly the power went out while Andre and I were watching TV. I thought it was just one tiny "brown out" (a short black is what people say in the Philippines.) Instead, the power went back on and off again 3 times more.

I was scared and wanted my dad to come home from work. He was totally late! Finally on the last brown out the doorbell rang really loud. It was dad and I was glad but sad that he missed the brown outs with me. The next day, I went to my dad's  work and asked them what they did during the brown outs. They watched the lights go on and off at the Nakumatt. I had a fun time after that. Some day my dad says I can come to his work with him to work. It will be cool. I hope there is another brown out when I am there so I can see what they did.

I love it here in Kenya. The End.

Jambo! Jambo Bwana!

it is awesome here in kenya. 

ther is a beach

i figured that  ther is some monkeys

no frogs we picket a elephant here in kenya

it is just fine i have a fanta collection

i love it here in kenya..

Packing and Postage

Things I wish I had brought: 1. My little rice pot Hunter bought in the Philippines. 2. More chip clips to seal off my food from ants! 

Things I wish I hadn't brought: 1. ANY high heals or nice shoes--pointless in the dirt. 2. So many jeans! Hard to hand wash, takes longer to line-dry.

Things I'm glad I didn't bring: 1. Reyna's car seat--it would have been completely useless here. 2. Cups. Plenty here.

Things I'm glad I brought: 1. My little sewing kit--I've used it twice. 2. The umbrella stroller--not for walking, though--I use it as a high chair. 3. My baby carrier. I use it every day. It's absolutely essential that I'm able to have free hands when i'm doing errands, and I could use my African cloth to strap Reyna on my back like the other African mommies, but this is so much easier. 4. Tampons. I've only seen pads at the store. 5. Orajel for Reyna--She just broke her third tooth!

Anyway, please don't bother trying to send us anything. There are no actual addresses here. I'd have to get a P.O. box to receive mail, and I've been told, it's definitely not secure to try to have someone ship something to me, so I haven't bothered to open one.

Grateful Andre

Today, our branch met for fast and testimony meeting. They don't watch general conference live here. We just wait for the CDs to come out later. Once again, I was impressed. So many people got up one after another and bore their simple and sweet testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Relief Society meeting was interesting today. The lesson was on forgiveness. Some of the sisters brought up past wrongs and felt they were justified in not wanting to forgive. I shared with them that I knew that even though it's painful, if we pray on our knees and ask Heavenly Father for help to forgive others for an offense, that he will take our pain away, and that's one of the miracles of Christ's atonement. I know that's true, because I've personally felt a burden lifted after I asked for help to forgive. Anyway, interesting meeting.

We finally figured out how to get money out of the ATM, and did some decent grocery shopping. I made sandwiches for the first time today with cheese and deli meat and lettuce, and I was completely surprised at Andre. I counted five times that he said "Wow! Thank you!" "Who made the lunch? Thank you!" "Yay! Thank you!" He was so excited to eat a meal that was familiar to him that he expressed genuine gratitude five times! In Lehi, he would have taken one look at the sandwiches and would have said "Awww! I don't like lettuce!" or some other complaint. It made me happy. Yet another objective for this Kenya trip being fulfilled!

Lost

A couple days ago, I got lost on a matatu. We have no car. We have to rely on the public transportation or our feet to get us around. We can take a tuk-tuk, which is a three wheeled covered motorcycle with a bench behind the driver. Or we can take a matatu, which is similar to a jeepney in the Philippines, but it's more like a 12-seater van which people cram into. The matatu is much cheaper than a tuk-tuk. I had the three kids with me, and I was trying to get home from City Mall. I asked one of the conductors if he was heading to Nakumatt Cinemax (the nearest landmark by our house). He said yes. I said "You will take me ALL the way to Nakumatt Cinemax???" He said yes again. I paid him our fare, and we started driving. 

After a while he said he wanted me to pay more because it's a long way to my destination. I refused. He said this matatu is going to the ferry. I said I'm on the wrong matatu and I wanted my money back, etc etc. It was ridiculous.

I wasn't completely lost. I had a map in my mind, and I knew which way I should be going, so I knew I could get home on my own if I needed to, but he ended up dropping me off at an area where another matatu could take me to Nakumatt Cinemax. And then this kind young man who must have been riding in the back of the matatu said he would show me where to go. And he walked with me ALL the way to the next pick-up area (through a very slummy part of town, during rush hour) and waited with us until we got on the right one.

I felt like Heavenly Father sent an angel to help me. He was so nice and was able to calmly explain to me what the sign on the matatu should say for next time, and where my stop is and everything. I felt very protected and grateful for that man.

Outside the Wall.

Surrounding our house is a cement and stone wall about ten feet high with hundreds of pieces of broken glass and bottles cemented into the top edge of the wall, and then on some sides, there are several rows of barbed wire above that. The only way to get into the property is through a red gate that has a series of latches and locks. You have to buzz to get in, and then Lenik lets you in if you're an expected guest.

Because we live on the top floor, we can see over this wall into the neighbor's property on the south side. Our neighbor lives on a little farm with geese, turkeys, chickens and goats. The property itself is pretty large to accommodate the animals, but the home is a small shack with walls made of mostly mud and some sticks and rocks. The roof is made from scraps of corrugated metal layered in such a way to hopefully keep out the rain.

I haven't met them yet, but I've observed that it's a family living there with parents who look about our age. They have a son who looks about Paulo's age, a daughter around Andre's age, and a son who's probably around two.

The other day, Hunter caught Paulo peering out the window for a really long time at their home,

and then he said, "Daddy, I want to do service. How can I help them?" I've been thinking about it, and I've decided I'm going to figure out how to make some kind of cookies or something, and muster up the courage to introduce ourselves. Then the kids can be friends. I'll let you know how it goes.

Nothing is EASY here.

I don't really like to sound like a complainer, but I'm being real here. My house, I am happy to report has many "perks" for Kenya (minimum requirements for the US, I might add). But each "perk" has an annoying inconvenience to go along with it.

The house DOES have hot water for the showers--you just have remember to turn on the switch to the small water heater that is mounted to the wall above the shower a few minutes ahead of time.

The showers DO have decent water pressure--you just have to remember to switch on the water pump BEFORE getting undressed.

I DO have a washing machine for my clothes--it just has a quarter of the capacity of my old washer, and it uses a TON of water. It's being worked on as we speak because it's broken. I've been hand washing everything while waiting for it to be repaired. I hang my clothes to dry, btw.

I DO have a refrigerator--it's just that I have to remember to wash my produce BEFORE putting it in the fridge or else tiny bugs will crawl down from my bananas, spread out to all areas of the fridge and die there.

I DO have running water, but we've been advised not to drink it. So, I have to pump drinking water through a Seychelle filter that Mom and Dad told me about, and I have to dip my washed dishes in bleach water, and I also have to use the pumped/filtered water with added vinegar for washing my vegetables.

I DO have flushable toilets, I just sometimes have to flush a few times to get them to completely flush.

I'm just realizing how easy I had it before. It takes so long to do things here that I am seriously considering getting house help.

Invitation to Dinner

I forgot to mention that at church, I made friends with a woman named Miriam. She was so kind and said she lives not far from the church. She invited us to come to her home afterward. I accepted the invitation, and we walked with her

(not that short of a walk after all--it felt like a mile in my uncomfortable shoes, but probably less) to her home. She said, "My home, very small, but 'caribu, caribu' you are welcome any day, any time." Her entire home is smaller than our kitchen. Her "front room" was BARELY big enough for an old love seat, armchair and small coffee table. Like imagine you're packing those items in a walk-in closet and have only enough room to walk in between. They had sleeping rooms in the back. I didn't realize it, but we had passed through the "kitchen" on our way into the living room. It was just a tiny space where she cooks over her fire stove on the floor, and she had a few shelves of pots and dishes.

Anyway, I was SO PROUD of the boys. We had had a conversation with them before we ever left the comfort of our Lehi home, and I told them, "Kids, one day we're going to be invited to eat with a person from Kenya, and they're going to be very poor and it will be a big sacrifice for them to give us their food, and I want you to be brave and eat the food, even if you don't like it." I didn't expect that we'd be doing just that only a few days after arriving, but she prepared this lovely dish of ugali, which is made from corn meal, and it's like a loaf or cake--think of the outside of a tamale. And she also made this other dish--I can't remember the name, but it's basically like a savory cooked kale dish.

Anyway, it was very flavorful and good, and my sweet boys--after I discreetly reminded them of our earlier conversation--ate until they were full. Miriam and her husband, Fred, were so kind and soft spoken. There was a strong, good spirit in their home.

It was an amazing experience. I'd like to have them over in return. I feel a little sheepish having such a huge home in comparison, but oh well.