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.

The One Where We Finally Drink Camel's Milk

It's been almost a year to the day since we first started blogging about our little adventure here on the Dark Continent--little over a year, actually--and there has been a tremendous amount of change for the family: new jobs, new friends, Mosby, and most recently the addition of a beautiful baby girl. It's amazing to think how far we've come since we first stepped off the plane in July 2011 and that we are already past the half-way mark in our tour.  But one thing we set out to do from the beginning somehow just never happened. That thing? Drinking camel's milk. But more on that in a little bit.

The 20th of August was the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, where all practicing Muslims are to fast during the day in an attempt to bring themselves closer to god. It also was the date set for the election of Somalia's new government. If you'll indulge me for a brief history lesson, Somalia has not had a functioning government in over 20 years and the country since 2006 has been dominated by a militant al-Qa`ida affiliate. So this election was a fairly big deal for the people. It also was a public holiday in Kenya.

Given the convergence of these two events on the same day, Kerry decided we should invite some friends over and indulge in a feast of Somali food. Neither of us had ever tried Somali food before, but Kerry stumbled upon this website dedicated to Somali cuisine with what seemed like some great recipes. We scoured the options and pulled out several dishes that seemed to make up a fair representation of Somali cuisine and not just appropriated Italian dishes from when Somalia was an Italian colony back at the turn of last century (though we did have one macaroni dish just as a safety). Kerry hired her language instructor and another Somali woman to prepare the dishes for us in hopes of getting a little more authenticity to the meal. Since we weren't sure how the food was going to turn out or how much we would have, we decided to keep the invites low, though as it turned out the food was great and we ended up making enough for three times the number of people we had come. 

Somali's are deathly afraid of dogs, so Mosby had to spend the majority of the time outside before he got a nice long walk from Lukas.

Just a random picture of Kerry and Aliza that I like

The food was excellent; much more flavorful than anyone expected. Most of us were expecting something like Ethiopian food or more Middle Eastern food, but it was more like South Asian cuisine. Camel meat makes up a significant portion of the Somali diet, but we opted out of the camel dishes.

Which brings us back to the opening point in this post: camel's milk. Kerry requested that our chef's bring some fresh camel's milk with them for us to sample and we got out shot glass for everyone to try. Even though it is the namesake of our blog, both Kerry and I were admittedly a little nervous about trying it, not really because we were afraid of the taste but more discomfort over where they got it (I mean, who's milking a camel in the middle of Nairobi?) and what might happen to us after we drank it. But, curiosity got the better of us. We bellied-up to the table, took a glass, and tossed it back. By and large, it was indistinguishable from cow's milk but it has a very smokey flavor to it, which had to be intentional in the way it was prepared, but we never got a square answer from the Somali's. Either way, it was a good conversation piece as all the guest dared one another to take a shot. I'm happy to report that the majority did.

So the Somali feast was a success and Kerry and I got to cross off one of our goals set over a year ago. We still have a few more goals to reach over this next year; we hope they all go down as smooth (sorry to end this post with a rather bad play on words, but I couldn't resist). 

The one where I just post a bunch of photos of Aliza to make up for being so delinquent on here (Kerry)

Dancing to Daddy's songs

Getting ready to go to a party for the opening of the Olympics

First time in the front pack

Pooped through all of her clothes one hour before bathtime so she's hanging out in the sack

Giant sun hat

Out for a walk with Mosby

The One Where We Go to the Aberdares (Andy)

The Girls' had been back for almost three weeks and we pretty much hadn't done anything outside the house, let alone outside the compound (outside of Kerry and mine's 2nd Anniversary dinner, which was fantastic); everyone was finally on a (semi) normal schedule and Grandma was in town for another couple days, so we decided to take a little trip. Given that we are now traveling with a small baby, now, we had to find some place that was within a reasonable driving distance, could affordably house the four of us, and was somewhat baby friendly. 

For sometime I've been harboring a desire to go to a place in the central highlands known as the Aberdares Forest. The Aberdares area--approximately two hours North of Nairobi and close to Mt. Kenya--is known for a couple of things, most notably coffee production and being the final resting place of the founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell. 

Being a coffee drinker and an Eagle Scout, and having a desire to travel in the mountains, I felt the Aberdares fit the bill.

I did some asking around and heard about the Aberdares Country Club, an old colonial-era farm that had been converted into a small resort. The website looked promising and the kicker was they rented two bedroom cottages with fireplaces, which in winter in the mountains comes in handy (it gets down to a nippy mid-50s at night). 

We got kind of a late start on Saturday, having to go back to the house for a forgotten bag then backtracking a second time because of a traffic jam that occurred right before getting on the highway. Those minor bumps aside, we had a smooth drive through the countryside; Kerry snapped a couple of typical scenes one encounters on the rural highway, though we missed the guys selling strings of fish to people in the public taxis (Matatus) at the rest stop (can you imagine riding in Kenyan public taxi with a bunch of dead fish?? Yeah, so can I). 

We arrived at the lodge and it was everything the website and TripAdvisor made it out to be. We checked in to our cottage and were greeted by a couple neighborhood animals. 

We had ambitious plans at the start of our journey to do a game drive or a walking safari, but really all we wanted to do was hangout, enjoy the view, and catch up on sleep. 

Kerry and I left Aliza with grandma that night and enjoyed a nice dinner in the old dinning room and sat outside with some drinks and enjoyed the night air. We got back to the room, made a fire, and passed out.

The next morning, I went in search of early morning coffee and was able to get a nice silhouette of Mt. Kenya. By the time we all went for breakfast, however, clouds had consumed the mountain and no one believed me when I said it was where I said it was. Following breakfast, we decided that we would skip our previously planned walking safari for additional lounge time. We packed up just before lunch and headed back to Nairobi.

So while we didn't actual get to see the Aberdares forest--or the grave of Lord Baddon Powell--the Aberdares and the Aberdares Country Club remain on our list of places to travel back to.

The one where we survive the flight back to Kenya (Kerry)

Since I never seem to have time to actually write this, (even now, I am just procrastinating from doing my Somali homework, truth be told) it is going to be heavy on the photos and light on the text.  After much preparation and planning for every possible contingency, we made it through three airports, lots of security, one layover, two 8 hour flights, and one surprisingly fast visa line.  Thankfully my mom was with Aliza and I and she was an amazing help and frankly, I have no idea how one does it on their own.  I mean, how do you even go to the bathroom on the plane if you are traveling alone with a small baby, let alone collapse your stroller, pull out all the diaper cream and take your shoes off, etc for security?  


Aliza did really well, she barely cried on the plane and slept right through the layover.  I had her suck either a bottle or a pacifier for every landing and take off so her ears did not pop and she charmed everyone she met.  When we landed in Nairobi, we were all exhausted, but happy to have made it in one piece and soooo excited to see Daddy!  Here are some photos of the journey:

At Dulles Airport with Andy's parent's who graciously helped us get situated before the flight.  

Chillin on the plane

The captain has removed the fasten seatbelt sign and you are free to move about the cabin

 Napping with Daddy on the first day home

Family walk to show her around the hood

She is fascinated by all the trees here