Life in Nairobi So Far

From today - March 24th. Due date is April 3rd, but for obvious reasons, I'm hoping the baby comes as soon as possible. Two of our biggest concerns are being stuck in the very tight parallel parking here at the apartment or stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital.
Our mornings are spent in kindergarten home school. Jack plays on the floor with trains, colors, and blocks while Tessa and I work together. Occasionally he joins in for reading and other activities. Temporarily home schooling Tessa is good practice as it appears that we will be home schooling once we move to Uganda as well. So far, it's going quite well, but I do wonder how it will keep going once the baby comes.
Tessa dancing to the Sheryl Crow song from the movie "Cars." Both kids love rocking out every now and then.
Blowing out the candles on her pink cupcakes on her actual 6th birthday. I could only find some odd floating candles in the shop, and only 2 of the 6 would light. We topped the cupcakes with ice cream and real strawberries - the biggest treat. We had already celebrated her birthday early with her friends in Musoma with a butterfly birthday cake, and I'm so glad we did - this birthday celebration was just the 4 of us, but was still fun (except when Jack blew the candles out first and got in a bit of trouble!).
Opening presents after breakfast on her birthday from care packages (thanks Wendy and Nana!) and us.
Kids get creative when resources are few. This evening Tessa decided to make herself into a pirate by coloring an eye patch and taping it to her face with Scotch tape - topped by a hat. I think Dusty got her to say "Arrgh" here. Cutest oddball pirate I've ever seen.
Care package arrived with Cinderella clothes for Barbie - thanks Wendy!
Wendy, my cousin, sent some Duplo blocks for Jack - they've seen a lot of happy daily use. We're so thankful!
A nice quiet activity - both kids reading on the couch.

Nairobi Bound

On Sunday, March 6th we will be making the drive from Musoma, Tanzania to Nairobi, Kenya. For the most part, I'm grateful to go, but there are a few disadvantages as well. Here's how the lists boil down:

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 Musoma

5. 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 Entebbe

7. 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!

Naming a Tanzanian Baby (no, not ours)

On Sunday we had the privilege of visiting our Tanzanian friend, Sululu, and his family at their home to welcome their new baby boy bringing a quilt that I had made for him. Sululu is the foreman for the construction work at the office, so Dusty is his "boss," and Sululu felt very honored to have his boss and family come to visit for chai time (mid-morning daily tea time).

Sululu has three wives and 12 children. The third wife, below, is the mother of the baby. Sadly, the family had just lost their nearly two year old boy a few months ago to a sickness which should have been preventable, so everyone has welcomed this baby boy with great joy.

We were only a bit surprised when they asked us to give the baby a name - this is not too unusual, but is a great honor, and we had not prepared anything. He already was given his family name from his mother's father, Maragesi. We decided to find a name in the book of Luke since that has been the book our project has been working on for a few years, and the first two chapters are printed in the family's language, Kijita.

Dusty selected Theophilus (the "most excellent" recipient of Luke's gospel), and I selected Simeon, the righteous man who was waiting for the Messiah and blessed Jesus and his family when Jesus was presented at the temple. The kids cast their vote for Simeoni (the Swahili version), so we went with it. Jack was curious about the baby, but definitely did NOT want to hold him.

Dusty read the story of Simeon from the book of Luke to the family and told them why we had selected the name. The family was amazed - Maragesi Sr.'s Christian name is also Simeoni! What are the chances of that? They knew God had truly chosen that name for this little baby, and we were amazed as well - it was truly a beautiful moment and a definite "God-thing" as all acknowledged. Maragesi Sr. nearly cried.Tessa couldn't get enough of holding the baby, even when he got her legs wet.

After chai, we began to say it was time for us to go when Sululu announced that the ladies were already making lunch for us. He said that giving chai to someone was nothing, but a meal must be served to honored guests. The ladies brought out the full spread: rice pilau, 3 kinds of meat, vegetables, bananas, cake, and ugali.

Ugali is the staple food of Tanzania. It is a corn-based mush about the consistency of play-dough which is eaten alongside other food and rolled in the right hand into a ball before popping it into your mouth. Our kids have never liked it; it's a bit bland and pasty, but when they saw that you can roll it around like play dough, they changed their tune to the delight of our hosts. Everyone laughed when Jack rolled it with both hands!

Finally our day with Sululu's family ended with a speech by Sululu, a prayer by his uncle, a prayer of blessing from Dusty, and a family photo. Maragesi Simeoni Sr. is sitting next to Dusty's left. It took a bit of coaxing and jesting to get everyone smiling, but it was well worth the effort - don't you think?

In the car as we were driving home, Tessa wisely told us, "Sululu's family gave us two presents today - the first was that we got to name the baby, and the second was a really nice lunch." What a great insight and attitude from a five year old!

Common Symptoms of Being a Missionary in Tanzania when...

1. You're the only person in the neighborhood who exercises for the sake of exercise, and everyone knows it.
2. You keep a frozen water bottle in the freezer to put in the fridge for power cuts.
3. You know instinctively which bumps in the dirt road to avoid and which you can pass over easily.
4. You only have one wardrobe, and it's for warm weather. Similarly, you get a bit excited when it's cool enough to actually wear socks.
5. You shop at the second hand clothing market for all your family's Christmas gifts.
6. Knowing every toilet has issues here, you ask the host what you need to know about the quirks of the toilet before you go to use it.
7. Smelling smoke in your house does not make you panic because you're keenly aware that it's just someone burning refuse outside.
8. Your language is laced with Commonwealth English. You go "on holiday." You were "in university" or even "in uni." You change "nappies." You put your trash in the "rubbish bin."
9. You know what it means when someone is taking a medicine ending in -azole. (parasites or worms)
10. You know that what looks like a squeeze mustard bottle on a restaurant table is actually filled with hot sauce.
11. You pack produce in your suitcase. (most recently butternut squash)
12. You don't think twice about seeing a dirt-colored cow lying down outside the grocery store door because you're so excited about actually going into a grocery store in the big city!
13. You arrive one hour late to a wedding and yet are still one hour early.
14. You understand why there is a sign on the toilet door saying, "Do not stand on seat." (Locals use squat toilets - ceramic hole in the ground - and aren't sure how to use a Western toilet.)
15. You can't leave your house without being frowned upon because you didn't wrap your baby in three blankets even though it is 85 degrees and sunny outside.

2010 by the Month in Pics

January - the typical excitement over opening a care package!

February - we're always trying to get decent family shots for the prayer updates and newsletters. This one is in our backyard.

March - Making Tessa's 5th birthday cake together

April - The kids love dying and decorating Easter eggs. This year we had letter stickers from a care package that worked nicely.

May - Mother's Day gifts that Dusty bought on a trip to Dar included Caesar salad dressing, a citronella candle, beet seeds, and pesto in a jar.

June - The Tanzanians and missionaries from our project came together by (ironically) playing each other in a "World Cup" soccer match, and everyone had a great time and felt more unified as a result. Since then we've had several more games with mixed teams.

July - Annual family photograph session on the Kenyan coast at our branch conference. Sometimes the best photo follows the silliest.

August - Tessa gets involved at the literacy workshop.

September - Dusty's birthday, hamming it up.

October - dressed up for the wedding of one of the translators, Shem.

November - mini-vacation at the Rondo Retreat in the Kakamega Rain Forest in Kenya. We let Tessa use our big and heavy camera to finally get a picture of the two of us together. She did a pretty good job!

December - Jack turned 4 on December 23rd, but we celebrated with a party on the Saturday beforehand. He loved his dinosaur cake, pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, and musical chairs. On the 26th he said, "Now I'm almost five!"

Christmas by the year since 2005

We moved to Tanzania on July 5th, 2004. Having finished language school, and on our way back to Dallas for the birth of Tessa, we spent our first Christmas in Entebbe, Uganda but I have no pictures of it available. I do remember making chocolate chip cookies on the floor of our friends' house as they were having their kitchen built. Here is one picture from each of the following years.

2005 - We were borrowing a house after moving to Musoma from Dodoma. There were no decorations, but we enjoyed spending the day with our Australian friends at their barbecue.

2006 - Obviously a big year! We were released from the hospital in Nairobi having given birth to Jack 2 days prior to Christmas. The challenge that day was then climbing three flights of stairs for Christmas dinner with friends.

2007 - Finally, our first Christmas at home since leaving Denver in 2003.

2008 - Christmas with my parents at their lake house in Texas, followed by a massive family gathering in Dallas. It was fantastic to be with family again after 4 hot African Christmases.

2009 - We enjoyed another quiet Christmas at home. The day was a bit cooler and drizzly, so it felt more like an American Christmas. We have no chimney, so Santa came into the house by the front door, since we "left a key out for him."

2010 - The kids are putting the first ornaments on the tree. As we set up our very fake tree, Tessa asked, "Did this come from outside?"

May you have a very Merry Christmas surrounded by love and laughter, gifts and treats, family and friends, music and morsels, and the love of Christ.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, but...

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, but now that we're in our sixth African December, I'm finally coming to terms with the reality of a Green Christmas.

What do I miss about American Christmases? Let's start with the leaves changing colors at Thanksgiving. We don't experience that here in any form, and somehow those leaves in America set the stage for the glory of the Christmas season in all its change. I kind of envy our Australian friends here who at least see nothing different in the climate here from the climate of their home Christmas. The picture below was taken on Christmas morning 2007 - Tessa put on her new dress and went out gardening, so you can see the type of weather we were having.



I miss my family and celebrating our traditions with them mostly - the less said about that the better, but also I miss seeing my breath in Colorado on a snowy or cold day and the breathtaking lights on the trees and houses of Dallas and the decorations in every home. Where does one hang stockings when there is no fireplace, and how does Santa get into the house with no chimney? We try to answer those questions every year.

I miss the holiday parties and gatherings. I miss the many scents of American Christmas - the pine of the tree, cranberry, apple cider, flavored coffee, fire in a fireplace, and turkey in the oven. And of course I miss the flavors of Christmas even if my hips don't! I miss the music in every store and home even though I have Christmas music here. I miss the choir concerts and singing carols and Christmas hymns with the congregation on Sunday mornings as there are no Christmas Swahili songs in churches here. The below picture was taken at a Christmas office party in Nairobi in 2006 as we were there waiting for Jack to be born. Tessa was not happy to see this friendly Santa!



In spite of all these things, there are many reasons to enjoy Christmas in Tanzania. For one, no one is marketing toys to our children or to us. It's much easier to celebrate simply without all the merchandising and temptation to spend unreasonably. Our kids can run outside without any thought to what they're wearing - no need to bundle them in mittens, hats, scarves, socks and boots only to have to dry those things when they return.

Our poinsettia and amaryllis bloom all year around in our garden. We sing hymns on our back porch every Sunday night, so during December we sing Christmas hymns. We decorate the house with a very fake and tiny tree we bought in Nairobi and hang small carved gourds on it. We've even found pine cones at the convent up the trail from our house, and the gardener there lets me collect them although he must think I'm quite odd. I've never seen pine trees anywhere else here. And our neighbor has a juniper tree, so I trim some of the branches to make an Advent wreath. The Jesse Tree and it's stories from the Old Testament and New Testament have brought a special emphasis on the history of Christ into our house in the last two years.

Below is a picture of our tree on Christmas Eve in 2009 after Santa had come (assisted by many care packages from the kids' grandparents). Looking at the bounty made us feel a bit appalled when we considered how few other homes here have any gifts at all on Christmas morning.



I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
Just like the ones I never knew.
Where the mongeese chatter
And pumpkin matter
Is cooked into pumpkin stew.

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
Looking at Lake Vic through the screen.
May your joyful spirit be seen
And may all your Christmases be green.

From our cheery green home to your white one,
Kim