29th July 2011. I can hardly believe that on Sunday we’ll have already been back in Nairobi for 3 weeks. Proof that time flies even when you’re not so busy!
When the summer holidays hit (which is now in Nairobi as most of the schools operate on the UK calendar) it is so obvious that we are living in an expat environment with everyone packing up and heading abroad for their holidays. Almost all the people that we’d met prior to our leaving for the UK are out of town, most of them until late August. So it feels a bit like the beginning again, with nothing going on socially. We have however made it as members into the Karen Club, so hopefully soon that will allow us to develop some new friendships too.
Mark is currently in Nigeria on a two-week trip, but before he left he played a couple of rounds of golf, so he’s starting to feel more at home now that he can swing his clubs again. The club also has a pool with a little play area, so Evan and I have been visiting regularly to burn off some his extreme energy and get a change of scenery too. Yesterday we had lunch there too and Evan discovered the joys of tomato sauce – it was so funny watching him aim his chips at the pool of sauce and then get them into his mouth, very messy but very funny.
One of our friends, Clare, headed back to South Africa last week for a month and very very kindly has allowed me to use her car while she’s away. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of freedom when I get behind the wheel. Actually, just knowing it is parked outside and ready for me when I want to use it makes me happy. Although our driver Dun is great, the ability to be spontaneous and just do what we want to do, is amazing.
So obviously, from the above paragraph you’ll have worked out that my car is still not here. And neither is our container. The container is apparently in the process of clearing customs (has been for nearly 3 weeks now), so I live in hope that one day I’ll see it parked outside our house waiting to be unpacked. My car has apparently set sail for Kenya, but it’s anyone’s guess to when I will actually have it again. The whole business is so far out of my control that it is impossible to get stressed about it, as there is absolutely nothing I can do to change the situation – just got to go with the flow.
When we got back from our trip I had Evan in a Summer School programme at the Waldorf school just down the road twice a week. I thought it was running throughout the holidays, but when I walked him there on Monday morning with Grace, I found it was closed and was only a 2-week programme. Such a shame as Evan was loving it as they did heaps of singing and dancing (his favourite things) and they have the best playground and swings. So he’s back to only having Grace and I for company for a while! He has started saying a new word – ‘no’. Usually in the sentence ‘oh, no, no’ when he doesn’t want to do something, eat something or doesn’t get his own way. And when he’s really frustrated, it comes out as ‘oh, no, no, NOT.’ Very cute but also proving again how stubborn he can be … which of course, he can’t get from me, can he?
Our veggie patch is absolutely blooming. We have so much delicious coriander and basil I’ll need to start bottling pesto next week to make sure we use most of it up. The tomatoes and onions are doing well too, it’s just the habaneros that are taking quite a bit of time to sprout. I was even thinking of making it a little bigger so we can add baby marrows and peppers going forward. Will have to speak to Josphat the gardener and find out what we can do.
Before I leave you, I just want to send heaps of love to my friend Shanda who is going in to have her little boy on Monday morning. I wish I was in Jo’burg to help her do everything she needs to in the next 48 hours to prepare for his slightly early arrival and to be there when the blessed bundle arrives. You’ll be in my thoughts S, I am so excited and happy for you.
Have a super weekend all xxx.
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