Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

The family enjoyed a few days off thanks to a combined--but unintentional--US-Kenya government effort giving us the 24-26th of December off. In addition to using that extra time to spend with family and friends, we also spent it with pretty much non-stop rain and house plagued with so many issues we began to think it was haunted.  But more on that later.

The past week has seen a flurry of Christmas cookie making and parties at co-workers homes. Our first party was on the 22nd and it was fantastic. Our friends have an excellent house for entertaining and it was one of the few days without rain, so we got to enjoy some great food and conversation in the perfect setting. There were a ton of kids running around--a staple of parties these days--and our hosts provided a bouncy castle, swings, and toys galore to keep both children and parents content. Even Santa Claus showed up, making at least one party goer very happy.

But eventual, the party broke up around 7pm when all the kids under three collectively broke down and the first wave of party goers left.

As mentioned earlier, the holiday season was tempered by near non-stop rain and house problems. The rain has been very strange, as December is supposed to be the warm, dry season, here and we aren't supposed to get any serious rains until March. However, the past week as been as rainy as any of the rainy seasons we have encountered living here. The irony of all the rain is that we ended up not having running water in our house for days, due in part to the storms breaking pipes and disabling the primary pump system on our housing compound.  A few hours without water is a minor inconvenience; but several days without water when you have a small baby and have been doing a flurry of Christmas cookie making and cooking borders on catastrophe. But, everything eventually was fixed and life resumed.

Christmas Day was a big day because it was Aliza's first Christmas. Like most kids her age, she doesn't understand gifts or what to do with them and focuses on the wrapping as the primary source of pleasure.  Her grandparents were extremely generous to her for her first Christmas, which is nice in and of itself, but more so because Santa's gifts got hung up in customs and didn't arrive in time.  But she was happy just the same:

That night, we had a big dinner at our friends' house a few doors down, enjoying all the Christmas dinner staples and some welcome Christmas cheer.

On the 26th, the last of our three days off, we celebrated Boxing Day, an old english tradition that seems to have lost popularity over the years but still is a government holiday in most Commonwealth countries. The purpose of boxing day is to provide gifts to your employees to say thanks for their service. Given that this assignment allows us to employ people to help us around the house, we definitely wanted to take the time to say thank you and what better way to do it than host a party for our staff on the official day of thanks.

We invited (almost) everyone that works for us or has worked for us over the past year-and-a-half: Eric, Peter, Lukas, Phoebe, and Grace. Peter and Grace were unable to attended, but everyone else did, including Emmie the dog.

We had a nice spread of American junk food and the movie Home Alone playing in the background. We had Crackers and a small white elephant gift exchange, too, which everyone enjoyed.

We are truly thankful that we have been able to find such great people to work with since we've been here. They have been a tremendous help to us--especially as our family has grown--and we are glad to have them as part of our lives.

After the new year it will be only six months before we return home; six months that likely is to go quickly. As we move forward it was nice to have the past week to reflect on all that we have accomplished since moving here and all that lies ahead for when we return. All of it is wonderful.

The One Where We Spend Thanksgiving in Zanzibar (Andy)

September and October were fairly hectic for our family. The three luxurious weeks we spent back in the States were drowned out pretty much upon return by a baby that spent the first week jet lagged, the second week sick, and the third weekend cutting her first teeth. Work was also very busy, all of which combined to make our vacation seem like a distant memory. During the height of all this, Kerry and I decided that we needed to plan a getaway for November in order to regain some sanity. With Thanksgiving approaching, we decided that a four day weekend would be the exact amount of time we would need to recharge. As you will recall from last year's post, we spent Thanksgiving on Safari in the Masaai Mara with Kerry's parents. We decided to continue our trend of non-traditional Thanksgiving destinations because both of us were feeling somewhat homesick after being inundated with emails, Facebook posts, and Skype calls about the beautiful fall weather back home and all the fun that surrounds that time of year, that sitting around our house in Nairobi would bring us down even further. So, we decided to cross off a destination on our Africa bucket list and booked a trip to exotic Island of Zanzibar.

Like many Americans, I didn't know Zanzibar was actually a real place. It evokes to much Disney movie wonder to actually be real. Zanzibar is, in fact, real and its history is anything but a fairy tale. It's most famous/infamous as the primary hub for the African slave trade and a port-of-call for many a pirate ship. Today, it's mostly known as one of the worlds spice capitals and for its amazing beaches (that part is like a movie). Several of our friends and co-workers recommended we go, and when we heard it was easy to get around with a small baby, we booked immediately. 

Since we've made several trans-Atlantic flights with Aliza, we assumed our hour and fifteen minute flight would be no problem. We packed tactically: only carry-ons, baby food, diapers, and toys strategically located throughout all our gear. Everything was set. Then we got to the airport and discovered the plane was a regional jet and our carry-ons wouldn't fit. Then we got to the gate and found out the flight was delayed an hour. While I won't bore you with every detail of what transpired next, but suffice it to say that our plane was delayed for one hour approximately five separate times and that we likely still would be there had a certain set of passengers with a small baby seen the writing on the wall and started prodding the Kenyans into action. Eventually, we made it on the plane and into the air.

 We had to make a short pit stop in Mombasa before heading to the Island

Finally made it

Zanzibar is 90 percent Muslim but doesn't have a large population. The people are colourfully dressed in traditional Islamic grab and very friendly. The drive from the airport to the hotel took us through rural banana and coconut groves. The weather was perfect, but fairly humid. Since we were delayed basically all day, we missed out on some crucial beach and seafood eating time. But just being able to get out of Nairobi and spend time in a tropical setting was great. 

We booked ourselves into the Bluebay Beach Resort and Spa, which is located on the Northeastern coast of the Island. Since it was the off season, we got a great price and the place wasn't overly crowded. We ditched our things and immediately checked out the pool and the beach, which is where we would spend the next day and a half.

On Saturday, we booked a driver to take us to the old capital city of Stone Town. Since we were travelling with a baby we new it was probably best to pick out a couple of strategic locations and aim for them rather than meander around town and be lost right in the middle of a baby breakdown. So, we picked our three places, parked the car, and began our walk. 

Stop number one: the boyhood home of Freddy Mercury, the lead singer from the rock band Queen.

It doesn't get more random than this. I truly had no idea that one of the most famous singers to come out of the 70s rock scene was born here to parents of the British imperial high commission back in 1946 when Zanzibar was still a protectorate of the crown (yes, I got most of that from the Internet. For the rest, feel free to visit here). There isn't much to see except the main entrance--the house is now a boutique hotel--and numerous picture of the man in various flamboyant poses and impressive moustaches. Nevertheless, it was a great find and beat most of the Queen exhibits I saw at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Stop number two was to the Zanzibar Curio Shop. This was a recommendation from a guide book and was a shop filled with an absolute ton of random antiques; not the regular Afri-crap that one normally encounters on tours of African cities. The amount of stuff was overwhelming, and we could have spent an entire day looking around, but given our time frame, we settled on an antique bank and an old map of Africa and went on our way. As we walked, we stopped in a couple of shops to buy picture frames carved in the traditional Zanzibar style.

I've never seen two people so happy to be standing under a bunch of lose electrical wires.

The final stop before our return to the car was at the Zanzibar Coffee shop, were we stopped for a quick drink and to get out of the rain.

Travelled all the way to Zanzibar to sit next to someone from Montana…or at least a really big fan of Jon Tester

We called it a day and headed back along the harbour to the hotel for an afternoon at the beach, stopping along the way to get a fresh coconut from the side of the road.

Dinners at our hotel were served later in the evening, which cut into Aliza's bedtime. But on the last night she seemed to be doing fine so we decided to try our luck as a family for dinner. 

Aliza was doing fine, in part do to a great trick we picked up form Aliza's aunt Jen: chewing on a bread stick. This kept her occupied throughout the majority of the meal.

The next morning we took at stroll at sunrise for one last look at the beach and one last feel and smell of the salty ocean breeze.

The return flight to Nairobi was on time and went relatively smoothly, but it was fraught with its own headaches (literally);  airport staff that all wanted tips, from the bag handler down to the guy that randomly walked into the bathroom after I was done using it; and a small, cramped air plane filled with Africans. I guess maybe no great vacation goes unpunished. We definitely want to take another trip here before we leave and if you are ever in this part of the world, make it a priority to visit.

The one with some milestones (Kerry)

Here is another installment of my lazy blogging where I mostly just slap up a bunch of photos with captions and call it a day.  This update is long overdue, but anyway, on November 4, Aliza turned 6 months old, she was dedicated to the Lord at our church here in Nairobi, she got two teeth, and she ate her first solid food, butternut squash.   It was a big day.  

Dedication at Church

Celebrating with her friend Kyle

Not so sure about the food

The One Where We Finally Have a Weekend to Ourselves (Andy)

This past weekend was the first weekend in a long time that we've had together has a family with minimal interruptions. As we noted in our last posting, we recently returned to Kenya following three weeks of leave back in the US. We spent the following week getting over jet-lag and getting Aliza back on her schedule. I then had to leave again to attend a conference in London, during which time I missed getting the cold that took down both Aliza and Kerry. And while a week in London sounds nice--and generally is--all I really wanted to do was not be traveling. I did, however, get to spend time with our friends Jeremey and Janell, who live in Cambridge, and who took me out to an excellent restaurant on the edge of the city where we got to catch up and plot their potential trip down this way.

I returned to Kenya late Friday night and, unfortunately, that was when Aliza's cold was at its peak. She slept terribly and, as a result, Kerry and I didn't sleep well either. Saturday was pretty much a wash, but we took a nice walk around the neighborhood and spent some time out by the pool. We decided that if the weather still was good on Sunday, we would take a family outing down the street to walk around Karura National Forest. We are embarrassed to admit that, despite being literally 5 minutes away, we have never actually been there in the year-and-a-half we've leaved in Nairobi. This was a factor of three things: 1) I didn't actually know where the entrance was; 2) there was a problem with crime in the park a few years ago; 3) a couple people have reported seeing cats, specifically leopards, on the trail. I didn't buy that last one, but certainly there are some extra variables to consider when calculating taking a walk in the woods in Africa.

With the weather holding, and having had sorted out the entrance issue several months ago, we packed up the family after lunch and headed out. As you may recall from previous postings, Mosby hates riding in the car and generally dislikes anything that strays from his established set of routines. So while this trip would afford him great sniffing opportunities, they didn't really outweigh his desire to get in the car and leave home. But we paid our entrance fee, bought a map, and decided to take one of the loop trails that would take us through the woods and past a waterfall.  

The trails really are beautiful and there is some wildlife to be seen. We saw two Duikers (similar to deer) and a handful of colobus monkeys. I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of cats. Despite traveling with my knife and an ASP in my pocket--and my faithful guard dog--I wasn't totally convinced I would be coming out the other end of the forest if we encountered something. Luckily, we just came across more people like us out for  pleasant day in the woods.

Shortly after we returned home, we got a call from the front gate that we had a delivery. My bar had arrived!

Months ago, I contracted Morgan, a local carpenter, to make me folding bar similar in design to ones I'd seen online. He had made someone else one and while I could tell from photos online that the craftsmanship was a little rough in some places, it still was what I was looking for. I chose to get mine made from Mahogany given the availability of the wood here and the more reasonable price you pay for it here than back home. The price I ended up paying for mine was worth it just for the wood, so that fact that it also happened to be shaped like a bar was a bonus. 

I might mention here my ongoing curiosity over the following bottle of bourbon, called John Lee bourbon. This is the only real bourbon sold in Kenya outside of the US and other western Embassy commissaries. The bourbon is definitely drinkable, but my real curiosity is over the bottle itself. I just can't quite figure it out. 

The markings indicate that it is distilled in the US, in Kentucky no less; yet, there is no address for the company. Additionally, you'll note the random logo photo of U.S. Grant on the front of the bottle. What's he doing there?

I have reasoned that either this brand was the preferred choice of U.S. Grant during his drinking days, or there is someone in "Kentucky" (i.e. Kenya) with a very skewed understanding of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. I haven't searched for the real answer online cause in many ways I prefer to leave this one a mystery.  

That's all for now. Time to enjoy the last few hours of peace before the week begins.

The One Where We Go on R&R (Andy)

We arrived back in Nairobi on Thursday following a very nice--and much needed--R&R back in the States. It's not necessary to detail the entire three week trip, give that the majority of it was spent doing nothing but resting and relaxing, hence R&R, but I will give you the overall gist. 

We left Nairobi on Sept 13th following being stuck in traffic for almost two hours where we witnessed the car in front of us, which also was stuck in traffic, get its side mirrors busted off by robbers. Luckily they just lost their mirrors; the mirror thing is generally part one of a two part operation that ends with you being carjacked. Aliza was getting fussy sitting still for so long, so our R&R was off to a tense start. Luckily, the first leg of the trip was uneventful, save for a woman on the plane being put out by having to switch seats with me so I could sit next to my wife and child, which both Kerry and I found odd (did she really prefer to sit next to a potentially screaming baby that wasn't hers?). 

Beginning of flight #1

The seven hour layover in Amsterdam was brutal, but we did manage to find out that Schipol airport has specific quiet rooms for people with children, which were fantastic; unfortunately, we didn't discover them till we almost had to board for the next flight. 

Kerry and Little A taken advantage of the comically oversized cribs

Aliza demonstrating to the folks at Schipol airport her newly discovered ability to scream.

They also have a hotel in the airport that rents rooms by the hour. In any other circumstance, that would seem pretty skeevy, but for the wary traveler with children, it is a godsend and we will utilize it during our next flight back home. I don't remember much about the second leg of the trip or the drive to Pennsylvania because i was exhausted.

We had an excellent visit with Kerry's parents back in PA and enjoyed the beautiful weather and the life of leisure that you get to live while you are on extended leave. We worked out, had great food, and went on a number of great walks along the rural roads looking at the farms and getting to experience the beginnings of fall in the US, which is definitely my favorite time of year.  

Aliza seeing her first field hockey in Mechanicsburg

We then spent a great week down in Virginia with my parents and I got to catch up with with my brother and his family and some other good friends we haven't seen in a while. 

We also spent the day with our friends Chris, Fitz, and Amanda at the Watermellon Park bluegrass festival in Berryville, which was awesome and definitely on our list for next year. We also utilized the time to do a little preliminary house hunting for when we return next year.

The big event of the trip was going to Philadelphia for the wedding of Kerry's brother, Chris, and his fiance, Colette. My parents also came up to join us to help out with Aliza while we were doing wedding stuff. We all stayed in the really great Independent Hotel in downtown Philly right near terminal market.  We had a nice time catching up with Kerry's side of the family during the rehearsal dinner and at the reception held at the Philadelphia Racket Club. Aliza was passed around from relative to relative and seemed to take all the traveling and the gawking in characteristic stride. We finished up our leave back in PA doing last minute shopping and packing before the big trip home. 

While coming back to the US was easy for all of us to adjust to, coming back to Nairobi is taking us a little longer. The first leg of the fight from Virginia to Amsterdam was pretty miserable despite our good luck in getting a last minute upgrade to business class. Aliza cried for the first 30 mins of the flight and the KLM flight team wasn't really on top of its game. Short layover in Amsterdam before our final flight to Nairobi. That flight turned out to be the best of the lot as we were able to sit in the upstairs of the 747, which gave us more room and less noise and the flight team was fantastic. 

Our bags were pretty much the first ones off the carousel--a first for us at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport--so we cleared customs in a hurry, found Peter waiting with our car, and flew home in record time. Mosby greeted us with his traditional happy dance and I impressed Kerry with my ability to pass out solidly from 11pm-6am and not be woken at all by any of the noise she or Aliza made throughout the night. Since then, Aliza has had trouble getting back to her normal schedule but I think in a few days she will be back to normal. The weather is gorgeous here and while it was a truly fantastic trip back to the States, it's nice to be done with traveling for the time being and back in our own home.