Bags are packed

 

24^th June 2011. WooHoo, the day has arrived & we’re headed off ‘down South’ to Jo’burg late this afternoon for a few days before our holiday in the UK.

I will do my best to blog a few times while we are away and update you with what we’re doing, but overall – I expect to be quite quiet for the next two weeks.

Wherever you are, enjoy yourself & we’ll chat again soon xxx.

Fathers' day and more

19^th June 2011. Happy fathers’ day to all those of you who qualify, most especially to my Mark and to my Dad – my very favourite fathers in the whole world. We’ve had a great day here in Nairobi, even if it was a little chilly for the first half of the day. Mark got spoiled by Percy and Evan, he received a pictorial history of Kenya book to learn more about our current country of residence. He also got a trip to the spa this morning for a pedicure and massage – both of which he thoroughly enjoyed. After his morning of pampering (I so definitely married a meterosexual) we headed off to lunch at the same restaurant we went to last Sunday, the Talisman. It was doing a roaring trade today, but we still had super food and a great time with Evan in the playground.

Mark & Evan swing together

While we were sitting at our table, it struck me that despite its 3^rd world location and reputation, Nairobi is positively cosmopolitan. In just our small section of the restaurant I heard American English, UK English, Spanish, Swahili and French. While we were in the play area, a dad told us that his 20 month old son was speaking words in 4 languages – Italian from his dad, French from his mum, Swahili from his Ayah and English from his kindergarten! The only one word Evan can say is “Yay”, so we’re a long way from that kind of multilingual ability. I’m sure that during our time here, we are going to be fortunate enough to meet people of many nationalities and that our boy is going to get a very broad view of the world, even while living in a town in Africa.

After lunch we went to meet up with new friends; Brennen, Kate and their lovely son Thembi at a place we hadn’t yet been to called Mattbronze for afternoon tea. It is a gallery of bronze artwork ranging from sculpture to tableware to jewellery that has a small coffee shop attached. The work is amazing, but super expensive – there was a bronze bird piece that was going for USD40,000! I held onto Evan like my life depended on it when we were browsing, as I could only imagine what it would cost me if he grabbed something, as at times, he is truly a weapon of mass destruction.

The other thing I did this week was to start a vegetable garden. Actually when we moved in there was already a veggie patch that the gardener who was living here established. It had Sukuma Wiki (I kind of Kale that is a staple food here) and Spinach growing in it, quite abundantly. Our nanny picks her lunch from the patch almost daily – but still we had a heap that was just going to waste. I thought it would be far more productive if we grew a bigger variety of vegetables and of course, some things that we actually eat too.

The new veggie patch

I really like gardens, I love the thought of growing my own food – but I’ve yet to be convinced of the actual merits of doing the gardening itself, myself! So I called in the complex head gardener, Josphat, and struck a deal. If he and his crew planted, maintained and nurtured my veggie patch, they were welcome to share in the produce when they made their lunch every day – in return I would buy the seeds and pesticide that are needed. Obviously it was a very agreeable plan to him, as within the hour all the old plants had been removed, the soil tilled and the seeds planted! Apparently by next week there will be seedlings which can be planted out and then a couple of weeks after that our tomatoes, onions, chillies, coriander and basil will be ready for eating. I’ll definitely post pictures of how they turn out – be it good, bad or ugly.

I am so excited that this time next week we will be in South Africa catching up with friends and family before we head off to the UK.

Can’t wait xxx.

Ticking Boxes

14^th June 2011. We would like to join the local golf and country club, not only because Mark is having intense withdrawal from his weekly game of golf, but because it is a great place to meet people and become part of the community. I naively thought this would mean that you just paid up your joining and annual membership fees completed a few forms and there you go. In practice however, it is quite a process. First we had to be introduced by a standing member of the club, and seconded by another – which luckily we managed to get done. Then our application was scrutinized (and apparently, sometimes even investigated) by the committee before we made it to the balloting phase. I know I mentioned this in my last blog, but really not being very experienced at the whole country club thing, I didn’t actually know what balloting was. On Thursday evening we got all dressed up and headed off to the club to meet the balloting committee. Effectively, it’s a bit of an impromptu interview – you have to meet the members on the committee, tell them a bit about yourself etc. and then get them to sign your ballot paper. There are 12 people on the committee and you need 10 of them to sign your paper before you are admitted to the club. Only 6 members were at Thursday night’s meeting, so we met them all, repeated our story and smiled a lot, thankfully receiving all 6 signatures. We now go back this Thursday to do it all again, hoping that more members come through and we get the final 4 that we need to join. I cant wait for it all to be finalized as the club has great facilities (not just a golf course) that we can use – I’m planning to frequent the gym and take Evan swimming as they have a heated pool and perhaps even take up some tennis lessons. Yup, it’s expat living at its finest really.

Karen Club

On Sunday we discovered an awesome restaurant not far from us at all called the Talisman. Since having Evan, and more specifically since he became a toddler and is as busy as a proverbial bee – our restaurant criteria has changed significantly. Luckily in Nairobi, this doesn’t limit us to the Spur (although there is one in another suburb called Westlands), but does definitely affect our selection. The food at the Talisman was amazing – we feasted on a wide array of starters, ranging from tempura sushi rolls to pork belly medallions while sitting outside enjoying a great afternoon of sunshine. Evan particularly enjoyed the Feta and Coriander samoosas and garlic prawns. The garden is big and very kid friendly with swings and slides and climbing frames, keeping him happy and making sure all of us had a good time. So good in fact, that we are going back this Sunday for Father’s Day lunch.

Evan had his 3^rd day at school yesterday and he’s doing better and better. No tears, although he’s still clings to Grace’s legs a lot of the time. He even played with some kids yesterday for a while, so we are making progress. He has 2 more days this week and 3 more days next week before the holidays start, so hopefully when we begin the new school year in September he will be completely comfortable in that environment and start participating and enjoying it more. I’m not sure exactly how we’re going to fill our days in the very long 2-month holiday, but we’ll work that out as we go.

The very best new development is that Mark has finally got his proper work permit for Kenya. Only took 4 months, a mountain of documentation and reels of red tape to achieve. So finally, our container and my car can ship from South Africa. Our container is due to sail on the 20^th of this month and my car shortly afterwards. So at best, our worldly goods will be here in mid July, at worst, mid August. It is going to be like Christmas unpacking our stuff and making the house our own. Evan is going to be thrilled to have all of his toys and books back too. Although I have to say that it is amazing how little you can make do with when you have to. We’ve actually managed pretty well with a mostly empty house, minimal kitchen equipment, only one room with curtains and just one small TV.

When we arrived in Nairobi at the beginning of May I knew that we’d be returning to Jo’burg at the end of June en route to the UK for a holiday that we planned ages back. Knowing that I only had to manage an 8-week stint before I could go home and see my friends and family made the initial move seem a little easier in my mind. But 6 weeks into our lives here, I think we’ve accomplished a lot and come a long way to settling in. We have a house, we have a great nanny for Evan, we have started making friends, we’re 4 signatures away from being members of the club, Evan has started nursery school and Percy is completely comfortable. So even though I’m still very much looking forward to my few days in Jo’burg and our trip to the UK (especially as it includes tickets to one of my all time favourite bands, the Foo Fighters, concert), I think we’ve definitely ticked more boxes than I’d anticipated and that we are going to make Nairobi work for us even more when we get back from our break.

Look forward to chatting with you again soon xxx .

Tough day for Evan

8^th June 2011.  We were up and dressed early this morning (the being dressed early part is very unusual for us), ready for Dun to fetch us for Evan’s first day at school. Evan was very excited to be going out in the car and full of smiles, singing away in his car seat. He got even happier when we picked up Grace - his nanny, or ayah as she’s called here - at the top of the road to the school, as here in Kenya, kids of his age are accompanied to nursery school by their ayah so that they have a personal carer with them at all times.

Evan & Grace start school

 Then we got to school, and more specifically to his class – the Dudus. He met his new teacher Sara and all of a sudden, he was stuck to my knee like super glue. It took some serious work to distract him with some of the many toys that were around to a point that he disengaged himself from my leg.

Meeting his teacher, Sara

When I said good-bye, he burst into a torrent of tears. Grace quickly picked him up and the teacher said I should leave a.s.a.p. I could hear him crying all the way as I walked back up to the car park. Needless to say, my heart was busy breaking into little pieces and I had to remind myself how badly he needs interaction with kids his age and that this will be good for him in the long run.

I then went to a shopping centre called the Junction in Lavington for the morning. I haven’t had 2.5 hours to cruise a mall by myself in forever. Unfortunately it’s not a very big mall – but I had breakfast, read the paper from cover to cover and browsed a lot. I had to find a pair of trousers as well as I only packed jeans in our luggage (didn’t think I’d have much call for smart clothes) and tomorrow we are being balloted into the Country Club and jeans aren’t allowed. They have Woolworths here, but oh my goodness, the import mark-up is extreme – there is no way I could pay that much for a pair of Woollies pants. In the end I got a pair at Mr. Price, also at a largely inflated price, but at least I got them.

After my morning out, we went back to the school to fetch Evan. I walked down to the Dudu’s class and Evan was sitting with Grace while all the other kids had their lunch. He blanked me completely for the first few minutes (like he was angry that I’d left him behind) then came running to me and once again, glued himself to my knee. He hadn’t had the best morning, the poor boy. He pretty much stayed stuck to Grace all day and although he played with her and the toys, he didn’t play with the other kids at all. He only took part in one of the activities and painted a fish, but other than that, he was Mr. Loner today. 

Evan's orange fish

He fell asleep in the car on the way home and proceeded to have a 3 hour nap. This school stuff is obviously tough on a little boy! He has a day’s respite tomorrow, then back to school on Friday again. With any luck, it’ll get better and better and maybe soon he’ll be crying to stay when I go to fetch him.

The week that was

6^th June 2011. The last week has been pretty busy really. It seems that after a month in Nairobi, we are definitely starting to settle here and create a life for ourselves.

Last Monday we were kindly invited to a birthday party for a 4 year old girl at her home here in Karen. Evan and I went off and had a great time. I met quite a few new people and after clinging to my knee for the first 2 hours, Evan also had a blast. He spent time on the jumping castle, in the swing and playing on the grass. But most of all, he spent time eating. Since we’ve been here, he’s been a bit of a fussy eater (to say the least) preferring cereal and yoghurt to all else offered. But not at Tori’s party. He ate 9 of pork sausages (the cocktail/chipolata ones), a heap of pineapple slices, chips, popcorn and then to finish up, chocolate birthday cake. After all that food and playing, he was no trouble at all to put to sleep that evening.

On Wednesday the 1^st June, it was a public holiday here – Madaraka day - which celebrates Kenya’s self-rule and independence from the UK in 1963. It was great to have Mark at home with us and we gave the driver the day off and just literally hung out together.  Even better actually was that Mark took over morning Evan duty and for the first time in 15 months, I got to sleep in! I’ve been up by 5.30 (often earlier) for so long, it was bliss to stay in bed until after 9.00am.

Evan’s hair grows like a weed, and it was getting more and more evident every day that it was once again time for a haircut. He was pretty well behaved when he started going to the hairdressers at about 6 months of age, but he has regressed rather badly as he’s got older with the previous two trips being screamathons. So off we went on Thursday morning to a random hairdresser that we saw advertised by signboard on the road, Salon Jaqi’s. I think Evan may be the first child that they’ve had as a customer, but they welcomed us none the less. A young guy came over and we put Evan on my lap, tied on the apron goody and all went well for the first three snips of the scissors. Then Evan realized what was going down and he cried like he was being beaten. Gut wrenching sobs and screams of agony filled up the salon. The poor hairdresser, he didn’t know what to do and I could see him get more nervous and uptight with every scream but I made him push on. We left there with the most diabolical haircut – but at least it was shorter. I had to do some trimming and fixing up while he slept later that afternoon to bring it back to some sort of okay-ish-ness. Needless to say, we won’t be heading back to Salon Jaqi any time soon … and I don’t think they’ll be at all sad about that.

Evan's bad hair day

 On Saturday, some new friends invited us to join them for a tea / light meal at the Muthaiga Country Club before going to the Soko Soko fair where they had a booth promoting the magazine that they publish. The Muthaiga Club is beyond colonial – it’s so on point in terms of it’s décor and ambience, it really could be a set for a movie set back in the fifties or sixties when colonial Africa was de jour here in Kenya. Kids are pretty much not allowed anywhere except the pool area – which is currently closed for renovation, so we were very quickly moved to a small garden area adjoining the ballroom where a table was set up for us – and there is even a bar that women are not allowed to enter. It apparently takes about 18 months to go through the process to join up, providing you meet the club’s requisite standards of course. We then drove a few minutes away to the Soko Soko fair. I love Arts and Crafts, so browsing for me is a pleasure, but Mark not so much. So after speeding around the different stalls and buying some quilts (we so needed some extra blankets) at one of the booths, we spent some time with Evan in the kids’ play area before heading back home.

Riding a sheep

Enjoying the slide

 And something else great happened on Saturday, our new bedroom furniture was delivered. And some study furniture. It has been great to sleep on a good bed again and I’m typing this seated at a desk rather than on a couch – so all round, a much better environment for my back! Now just 8 weeks or so to go before our container arrives and we get our earthly goods back; then we’ll be truly at home.

Yesterday started out super lazy, we were still lounging around in our pyjamas at 11.00am – the only thing missing was the Sunday Times really! Then in the afternoon we headed out to another new friend’s house (the same people from Monday’s birthday party) and just hung out at the pool, in the garden and trying to watch some of the Roland Garros final on TV. Evan didn’t want to swim, but had a blast playing with their two labradors and even more – being the centre of attention with their two daughters who kept him busy and running for a lot of the afternoon. All in all, a great weekend really.

On to other things, I have discovered a delicious new fruit. I’d seen them in every fruit/veg shop I’d been in and eventually asked the counter lady at Karen Provision Store what they were. She said it was a tree tomato & very kindly gave me one to taste – yum, yum, yum! Apparently they are also called Tamarillos elsewhere in the world and even more interestingly, apparently they are grown in South Africa. Well, I’d certainly never had once before, but now I’m a huge fan. They are great as they are, but also outstanding in a smoothie mix with pineapple and passion fruit. I think I’m going to buy something new that I’ve never tasted every time I go shopping and see if it leads to more great food discoveries.

Yummy tree friut

Mark is away again this week, but we’ve got some stuff planned so we’ll keep ourselves busy quite easily I think. Evan starts his nursery school on Wednesday, so hold thumbs that he takes to it like a duck to water – but I’ll update the blog with pictures and news of that later this week.

Take care & love from Nairobi xxx.