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.