Why I'm looking forward to being in Nairobi:
1. The climate! It's nearly 6,000 feet high, so it's always cooler there, and we've been dealing with heat like we've never known in Musoma. This has been more difficult being pregnant, but also because with 7 hours of daily electricity rationing, we frequently can't run a fan.
2. Electricity! While we're being cut daily, Nairobi folks are getting cut 3-5 hours only once a week.
3. Nakumatt - a real grocery store (plus) to make meals so much easier! Think Target - Kenya style. The kids think it's a treat to climb into a shopping cart. When you ask Jack "where did you learn that?" he often says, "Nakumatt," but why he says that remains a mystery. At Nakumatt I can buy...
4. ...Pasteurized/Homogenized milk! No more buying milk from the bucket on the back of the milkman's bicycle, boiling it, letting it cool for hours before putting it in the fridge (if it's on), then scraping off the cream in the morning.
5. Bathtub! We are staying in the apartment where we stayed when Jack was born, and it has a bathtub, which we don't have here in Musoma. Here we use big laundry basins for the kids. My pregnant body and I are looking forward to experiencing something resembling weightlessness, and the kids always have a blast in a real bathtub.
Tessa in the tub at the Nairobi apartment right before Jack was born.6. Restaurants! It will be very nice to not have to cook every day for every meal, whether we go out or order take-out on occasion. We have four restaurants in Musoma, but two of them only serve fish/chicken and fries, and the other two sometimes make one wonder if it would have been better to stay home and cook/clean for ourselves.
7. Ant-free home. We are currently experiencing the worst ant invasion we've ever seen. Maybe this is because we're in the dry season, but we've had several dry seasons without problems like this. They've invaded our entire kitchen - even the fridge, the floors, the back porch table, the dining table, the dog's dish, and sometimes the toilets too. We put out ant traps, but they march on, so we've taken to spraying them with a water bottle that has 10% bleach.
8. Paved roads. Ok, I know there are many roads in Nairobi with frightening potholes, and lots of traffic, but the 4km dirt road we must use to get to town here in Musoma is definitely NOT agreeing with my pregnant belly. It is a rough drive on all of us, plus we've had to use a detour since Sept/Oct as they have been slowly working on a 3/4 km stretch. Today was the first day we noticed something resembling pavement on that stretch. My patience has ended, and I don't want that road to be "the straw that broke the amniotic sack."
9. Hospital! The books tell me I could have the baby any day now that I'm in my 36th week. Being in the same city as a really good hospital will provide relief from anxiety for me - I do NOT want to have a baby in Musoma. I've only had one prenatal visit this whole time, so it will be good to finally meet with the doctor who will be delivering the baby and finally get some prenatal (and natal) care.
The hospital where Jack was born and #3 will be born if we can make it through traffic! 10. The baby! We're all eagerly anticipating seeing and getting to know this new person in our family. Hopefully we can choose a name during the eight hour drive to Nairobi!
What I'm not looking forward to about being in Nairobi:
1. Having to borrow someone else's washing machine as the machine for the apartment complex is broken. Fortunately we can buy and use disposable diapers and let the cloth diapers wait till we're back in Musoma.
2. Cooping up the family in a small 2 bedroom apartment with parquet floors which echo. And no garden with a lovely view of Lake Victoria like we have here!
3. Making new friends / reestablishing older friendships - finding friends for the kids to play with might be a challenge as many of our friends who used to live in Nairobi have now moved away.
4. Homeschooling Tessa while entertaining Jack and then adding an infant to care for on top of it all. Can I keep up with her curriculum? Thank goodness it's only kindergarten - surely I can handle that, right?
Tessa in front of her school in Musoma5. Nairobi traffic. Anyone not having experienced it might not believe me when I say it is my number two cause for worry about having this baby (see #7). I do NOT want to deliver a child in our truck!
6. Dusty being in Entebbe, Uganda for the first 5 days after we get there - I have a lot of phone numbers of friends and a good taxi driver's number just in case I need to make a run for the hospital! However, I'm looking forward to this opportunity for him to see the city where we'll start living in 2011, get to know the team members there, look for housing, and get a better understanding of what his role will be... as long as he makes it back to Nairobi before the baby.
pregnant with Tessa in 2004 in front of our office in Entebbe7. Delivery with no hope of an epidural - enough said. I am NOT a "natural" kind of gal when it comes to childbirth.
So I only came up with seven disadvantages, and I'm sure I could have listed more than ten things to which I'm looking forward. It must be a good plan!
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