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.

All we need are sunny skies...

30^th May 2011. The rainy season seems to have taken a bit of a rest so we’ve been enjoying some beautiful sunny days in Nairobi, with plenty of time in the garden and out walking the neighbourhood. There is nothing quite as magnificent as the blue of the African sky, and just seeing it makes me feel happy and more at home.

Evan takes time to smell the daisies

 Can you believe that tomorrow, we’ve already been here for 4 weeks. I can’t work out if time has flown or dragged. Some days it seems like the one, and some days the other. But we have made progress. On Friday morning the first part of our curtain order arrived – the sheers or netting. Never in a million years would I have thought I could get so excited over net curtains! Although still empty and echoing, they have made our house just that little bit more ‘lived in’ and of course, provide a little more privacy. Two of the windows are very high – they’re over the stairs and right at the top of the double volume entrance. With no ladder even remotely high enough, the curtain hanger man did some monkey style acrobatics and climbed his way up. I could barely watch it was so overwhelmingly dangerous. Obviously Health and Safety measures aren’t really that important up here…

Yay for net curtains.

Yesterday we went out for lunch with some new friends to a lovely outside restaurant called the Verandah which is inside the Utamaduni Craft Centre in Karen. The weather was lovely, the company great and the food good too. Evan had fun on the jungle jim and slide with the other kids and generally enjoyed a change of environment. He is the Duracell bunny though – busy busy busy – the little man never ever stops for a second. It was so great to see him interacting with other children, he hasn’t had much of that over the last 4 weeks (been stuck with boring mummy) that we have decided to start him at the nursery school this week Thursday. The class is for 3 hours in the morning and he will go with his nanny. Depending on how he does, we may keep taking him twice a week until the term ends at the end of June.

At the Verandah

Checking out a giant masai askari

This afternoon Evan and I are heading out to a 4 year old birthday party, which will be a great opportunity for us to meet some more people in the area and start blending into the community. Wednesday is a public holiday, so Mark will be off and I’m busy researching something fun for us to do in the area for the day. I’ll let you know what and post photos for sure later in the week.

Out for a walk with my 3 favourite boys

Wishing you a great week xxx.

Potholes, Peas and Piety

25^th May 2011. It has been a while since my last blog, mostly because not too much new has happened. We’re just settling into a routine, finding our feet a bit more every day and easing into Kenyan life. I did want to post some pictures of the most amazing dining chairs ever – we went for lunch on Sunday to the Karen Country Lodge and the restaurant furniture is so cool – but on the way home (walking) I somehow managed to lose my camera case. Inside the case was my card reader, a very handy little gadget that cost me just about nothing in Singapore 2 years or so back. And as the original USB cable goodie that came with the camera is packed up in a container somewhere, I’m unable to download any pictures. Damn shame to lose the reader as they cost a fortune over here.

Moving on, the other thing I wanted to post pictures of was the size of the potholes in our area (probably all over Nairobi), let me tell you – Jo’burg cannot even begin to compete. When we’re out walking we zig from side to side of the roads (no pavements) dodging them and hoping that we don’t either get whacked or sprayed with mud when we’re vying for the same tiny piece of good road space as the cars traveling by. It is the one thing that’s good about not having a car yet, not having to negotiate the potholes. Once I get the pics downloaded, I may still post them, just so all my friends in JHB realise just how little you have to complain about.

 Do you know, there are no frozen vegetables here? Well, none that I can find anywhere. Not that I’ve ever been a big user of them – but when it comes to peas – they are the way to go. The only other time I’ve ever used fresh peas is when Evan was just starting up on solids and I was determined to be über-mum and give him only fresh, wholesome food and veg. He didn’t like them much unless they were blitzed into oblivion and hidden in heaps of yoghurt. And he had good reason – they’re a bit hard and taste a bit too earthy. I guess that either we need to start liking them, give peas a skip altogether or take it as a new business opportunity. Outside of the pea issue, the fruit and vegetables here are amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything better, I’m even eating bananas which have never been on my list of things worth consuming.

 Another thing I notice wherever we drive or walk in this area is the number of convents, seminaries, missions, friaries and monasteries there are around. I’ve decided that Karen must be the spot that every Christian denomination picks as the training ground for their future clergy. I’m not sure if that is because it is such a beautiful place or if it was because they felt it needed some religious direction. Despite all these many spiritual places, I can’t find the local Anglican church…

Take care & I’ll post again soon, xxx.

Retail therapy & exercise

19^th May 2011. This week has gone surprisingly fast without Mark here, can’t believe it is Friday tomorrow and he’ll be home late in the evening. I think it’s because I spent time doing the two things that are bound to get the endorphins bouncing – exercise & retail therapy.

When I say retail therapy, it wasn’t the type that where I got to indulge myself with lovely goodies; I went furniture shopping. We need another bed (too many rooms in this house) and study furniture so Dun, our driver, took me furniture shopping. Most interestingly, the furniture ‘showrooms’ are all located on the side of the road. Their factories are elsewhere, but you do your looking and buying right there on the pavement. Even better, you look at what they have and photo albums of what they’ve made before and then put the bits you like best together and it is made just for you. The wood is beautiful, very good quality mahogany and the craftsmanship on show looked fantastic. But the most amazing thing is that this bespoke furniture is ridiculously reasonable. I cannot believe how much we’re getting for our money. Hopefully the final product (ready & delivered in 3 weeks) will live up to expectation. I’ll post pics & let you know…

None of the rental properties in Nairobi (well, none that we saw) come with any light fittings. Our house has so many lights – 83 globes in total to be exact, a fact I know because I’m in the process of changing them all to energy saving bulbs so that they don’t completely chew the batteries in our inverter when the power fails (an almost daily occurrence) – that you can imagine how many light fittings that means we need. So while cruising the pavements, I found some hand woven ‘balls’ that I really liked. I bought some for the house and then placed and order with the guy for sconce covers as the house has at least 3 (sometimes 5) double sconce lights in all the rooms. He is going to weave them for me to match the ‘balls’ and I’m looking forward to not looking at bare globes this time next week.

Woven light fitting

One of the many sconces in our house

Percy also scored in the retail department, with a brand new bed. The only thing is that he’s not the only one who’s taken a fancy to it. Evan is a big fan and thinks it’s the perfect spot to watch TV from.

Being without a car and not having too much to do with our time, means that we’ve been walking. Walking and walking. It is a pretty good way to explore our area and find our bearings. I don’t know how many kilometres we’re walking in a day, but I think it is a fair amount. Evan is usually pretty happy checking out the scenery and smiling at the people we see along the way from his pram, but after an hour or so, he starts getting a little bored and cranky. Percy loves the first 30 minutes, then we have to stop so he can have his water break. After the break, he usually manages another 5 or 10 minutes before sitting down and ‘saying’ no more. At this point I have to load him into the basket at the bottom of the pram and push him too. Everyone who sees us had the biggest laugh and often ask me why he won’t walk! Let me tell you though, that extra 8.5 kg in the pram makes itself felt on the uphill climbs. Who knows, maybe it’ll be the best arm exercise ever and help tone up these flabby arms of mine!

One very funny side note on Percy is that both his breed and his name seem to be rather alien to the locals. So the new nanny, the complex guards and the driver all call him “Pussy”. Not the most flattering name for a boy or a dog really!

Chat soon xxx.

Off to the fair

15^th May 2011. This morning I had the blues and felt a little (or even a lot) sorry for myself. Being alone in Nairobi with Evan while I missed my friend’s 40^th birthday brunch in Jo’burg really amplified the loneliness of starting out in a new country with no support system. It’s been so long since I last did it, I think I’d forgotten just how isolated you can feel.

So I decided to clear my head and take Percy (on his lead) and Evan (in his pram) for a nice long walk around the area. About a kilometre from our house is the Waldorf School, and outside I saw a sign for an “Ecofair”. All the stalls were busy setting up and some of them looked really interesting, so I decided to return later in the day (without Percy).

Once Evan had eaten his lunch we went back out on another walk to the fair. It was so interesting – fantastic organic and ‘green’ products with the most stunning craft work and knitwear (not sure you need much of that here in Kenya, but stunning, none the less). Evan had a total blast in the kids’ playground, including his first time ever on a swing – which was a massive hit!

 One of the stalls sold the most beautiful picnic blankets with traditional Kenyan fabric on one side and then a waterproof layer on the other. I didn’t have enough money with me to buy one, but most definitely will soon. I got chatting to the owner of the business who was lovely and lives just a few roads away from us – so perhaps another opportunity to make a friend just there.

The other great thing was the food. Specifically an Indian stall that had the most amazing smells wafting out into the fair, compelling me to stop there for sure. I bought a ‘take-away’ paneer palak with naan bread which I ate for dinner. Delicious, very spicy, but delicious.

I’m still feeling homesick and a little sad, but at least we got out the house today and did something, saw people and had some new experiences and enjoyed the sunshine. 

All in all, not a bad day in Africa.

Giraffes and more

14^th May 2011.  Yesterday Mark had the afternoon off and we took Evan to see some giraffes at the Giraffe Centre, conveniently located in the same suburb that we live in, Karen. They are the most adorable creatures, with those huge eyes and never-ending eyelashes. The giraffes at the centre have all been rescued and are very tame – visitors can feed them and stroke them. Mark and I really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure Evan really understood what we were seeing. He was a bit surprised when one of them licked his hand (Percy licks him regularly), but overall – he wasn’t nearly as impressed as we were!

Mark & Evan feed a giraffe

 While we were there, I saw my first cat in Nairobi. (Although, when we were out on a walk earlier this week, I saw a rat that had been run over in the road … and let me tell you, it was bigger than some cats I’ve seen in my life. I’m hoping desperately that we never get one of those at our house!). Anyway, this cat was happily snoozing on the stairs and all I could think about was our lovely cats, Thandi & Billy, that we left behind in Jo’burg. They are ‘boarding’ with a good friend Viv, whose love for cats is legendary – so they’re in a very happy place. Kind of like being told you have to leave your house, but you can stay indefinitely in the penthouse suite at the Michaelangelo hotel. So while I know they’re in good hands, I still miss them terribly. Especially at night when they used to come and snuggle up with me. Viv – please give them a big cuddle from us?

 The very missed Thandi & Billy

The other thing I did yesterday was to take Evan to his new nursery school to register him to start in the new school year in September. He got all shy and clingy when introduced to his class – but then warmed up to all the toys and the slide. I can’t believe my little boy will soon be going to school! Even if it is only for 3 mornings a week and accompanied by his nanny! Speaking of which, we did decided on one, and Grace is starting with us on Monday morning.

Mark left early this morning for his management conference at the Vic Falls. He has a stopover in Jo’burg both on the way there and the way back, but I’m sure the event will be stunning! Maybe when the next one comes around in 2 years time, Evan will be old enough to leave with someone for a few days and I’ll be able to join Mark and have some R&R too.

Evan 'driving' as Mark left for the airport this morning

 A special shout-out to my cousin Ande in Melbourne who turned 40 today and then to my good friend Louise and my sister-in-law Cheryl, who turn 40 tomorrow. Wishing all of you a super birthday and fabulous decade ahead.

Happy weekend everyone xxx.