Being foreign again

At an outdoor Swiss museum with all kinds of old houses and traditional demonstrations.


At a restaurant/hotel over a lake near Brienz, before an amazing hike to a huge waterfall.


In the gondola on the way up to see the Matterhorn, which was topped by clouds most of the day.


Playgrounds everywhere! With amazing views and gorgeous weather! Wow - we really miss playgrounds in TZ.


Jungfrau - a very tall mountain. The kids got to play in the snow, and had a blast till their hands got too cold.

We're blessed to have parents who have taken us on a family holiday to Switzerland. My parents helped send us here, and Dusty's parents are spoiling us here. It's fantastic to be with his family again and to have a real vacation surrounded by the amazing beauty of Switzerland.

It's funny to notice and experience:
-straight hair because the dry Swiss air has zapped our Tanzanian curls, even though it's been rainy every day.

-everything happening on time - the trains leave exactly when they say they will, and everything else is beautifully efficient.

-cold weather, fog, drizzle, snow. The cold air was a challenge for our packing since we barely have any clothes or shoes for cool climates.

-summer light - it's 9:00pm here, but feels like it's 6:30 because the sun sets so much later here, therefore we keep forgetting to get the kids in bed on time because it seems so early.

-clean water!! We can drink from the tap - wow! Bath water in the kids' mouths? No problem!

-we look like everyone else here, which feels great, except that they keep speaking German to us.

-mountains, snow, glacial lakes, waterfalls, cows and sheep with ringing bells.

-glorious cheese, yogurt, turkey meat, strawberries, grapes, and I could go on and on. Dusty would add all kinds of beef and pork too. Suffice it to say that we are thrilled with real grocery stores and all kinds of restaurants. It is odd, though, to shop in a grocery store and not be able to read any of the labels.

-all kinds of transportation. We've been in quick, smooth, and fun airplanes, boats, gondolas, cable cars, and buses (not so fun on curvy mountain roads). The kids rode a zipline - does that count?
Jack's in train-heaven, coincidentally matching this one.

Kidisms:
-Tessa looking at a woman in high heels, "She has nice shoes. They have sticks on them."

-Tessa at 7:00pm, "But it's not bedtime! It's morning."

-Jack, "Where's our home now?"

-Tessa, watching a bear and her cubs, "I'd like to have a cub. Ellie could play with it." (Ellie is our dog.)

Conversations in the Animal World

This afternoon we were surprised that Ellie did not meet us at the gate when we got home from doing errands in town. A minute later we heard her barking in the backyard, and we recognized it as the type of barking that means business with another animal. She was having a little chat with a kenge (monitor lizard). Kenge occasionally come for social visits. We like them. Ellie doesn't so much.

Ellie: "I'm howling at you so you know how I feel."
Kenge: "If I stand on my tiptoes, you'll think I'm really big."


Ellie: "Sorry for the sudden invitation, but would you like to come to my bowl for dinner?"
Kenge: "Um, no..."


Kenge: "But I do love to tango."
Ellie: "Oh, me too!"


Ellie: "Hey! Don't turn your back on me! You get back here! Last chance for dinner..."
Kenge: "I've really had enough of this. Where's the exit?"


Ellie: "Fine. Whatever."
Kenge: "Whatever. See you next time."

Having had the vet out here this morning to give Ellie her rabies vaccination, we decided we didn't want to call him again to come out to give her stitches or pop her eye back in place, so we called Ellie off the kenge and are hoping that by now, the kenge has found his way out of the yard. Plus, we like live kenge, not dead ones.

By the way - how great is it that the veterinarian, on one day's notice, will come out to our house on his motorcycle, stay for tea, give Ellie a shot, and the whole thing costs about $1.25?

The Name Game

Our names get a bit warped out here. Let me give examples:

Kim: The brand name for shortening here is "Kimbo," which is my parents' pet name for me. I recently gave my name to a shop clerk while buying sodas for a church event. He wrote "Kim" as "Camel." That was a low blow.

Dusty: Very tricky for Tanzanians to say, so he usually goes by Dustin, which is pronounced like "Dastin" and is frequently said "Datsun." Yes, you remember those vehicles from the '70's, right? When we first got here, he was occasionally referred to as "Bwana Vumbi" (Mr. Dust).

Tessa: Before she was born, we asked Tanzanian friends to pronounce a list of names so we wouldn't burden a child with a butchered name. Our friends said "Tessa" properly, and we went with it. What they didn't tell us is that in Swahili it means "torture." Oops. So we frequently find ourselves explaining that it is a short name for "Teresa" even though that's not her name. "Tesa" is also the name of a laundry soap here, so that brings a nicer connotation than torture - don't you think? It turns out many here can't say the 'e' in her name the way we say it, so it comes out as "Tassa" or "Teesa."

Jack: With Jack we went with a name that is also used here, Jackson. We knew we would call him "Jack" though, and because Tanzanian names almost always end with a vowel, we knew they would call him "Jackie" which sounds like a girl's name to us, so before we knew it, we were calling him "Jacko" as a preemptive strike against "Jackie." However, people now call him "Jakobo" thinking his name is "Jacob."

Hill: Having a complicated maiden name, I thought no one could screw up "Hill." I mean, it's a common noun with only one syllable and only one spelling. Wrong. When I showed up for my first prenatal appointment in Nairobi when I was pregnant with Tessa, I found they had written my last name as "Hell." Yep.

Fortunately I go by "Mama Tessa" almost all the time, which is the normal format for parents' names here - they stick Mama or Baba (Father) in front of the eldest child's name. Because of this, it's funny that you can know someone quite well without ever knowing their first name.

More on Tanzanian names at a later date. Till then, this is Camel signing off on behalf of Datsun, Teesa, and Jakobo.

May 22 Update:
We took Jack to the clinic to submit a "sample" to be tested for parasites. It came up negative! But we had a classic name mix-up, this time with evidence:
Our friend, the doctor, wrote Jack's second name as "Dusty," and the receptionist took it one step further.