The One Where Andy Goes to Olorgesailie

Last week, we had several visitors in from out of town. While we had somewhat of an agenda for their visit, I had a surprisingly difficult time coordinating a weekend activity. Things just kept falling through. Some people we planned to spend time with had to cancel plans at the last minute and since our out-of-town guests had already been to parts of Kenya before, I was unsure of what to do with them for the weekend. As we debated our options, one of our guests, Mike, began telling us about an archeological dig he worked at many years ago as a PhD student and how he wondered what, if anything, still existed given all the changes to Kenya that had occurred since last he lived here. This seemed like the perfect adventure and we made plans to head out that Saturday, find the site, and see who in the local community that worked with Mike might be around.

I arrived at Mike's hotel the next day to see him, along with our other guests Chris and Lindsay,  ready with provisions for the days journey: lunch for us; bread, flour, sugar, tea, and cooking oil for our hosts, if we could find them.

We headed South towards Karen and then through the town of Ngong at the foot of the Ngong hills (and yes, this is truly the first time I've used that line from Out of Africa, but that's really how we went),  getting into more rural country and descending into the Rift Valley. This descent is much different terrain-wise than the route we normally go when heading West. Mike pointed out various geological features and landmarks along the way, including the home of the famous Richard Leakey, who discovered the site we were headed to.

The road descending into the valley started off as a nice two lane road. The further down the valley we travelled, the narrower and shoddier the road became and the more desolate the area was. Even Mike at one point questioned whether anyone still traveled out this way. 

Finally, we saw a sign in the distance: National Museum of Kenya - Olorgesailie Pre-Historic Site. 

It was still here! And apparently was a tourist destination, given the other signs alongside it indicating a museum, gift shop, and rental huts. Mike flagged down some kids in the distance and after some negotiations in Swahili, they agreed to find Mike's old assistant, Kakai, who still lived in the area and apparently was now a village elder.

Since it was clear it would take some time before the kids returned, we drove to the site, parked, and had lunch in the picnic area before Mike showed us around the grounds and reminisced about his years living in this country, pretty much by himself, digging in the dirt. 

Maasai men with expanded earlobes fold them up when working

We returned to our vehicle we saw the boys from the road with several other men, including an older man that Mike new was Kakai. After many handshakes and several embraces, we all were invited back to Kakai's village for a visit. 

I'd had the chance to visit a Maasai village before when Kerry and I got Mosby, but I soon realized that Mosby's village was more modern and that Kakai's was very, very traditionally. The villagers were excited to see us and after we exchanged greetings, we were taken on a tour of the houses ("bandas") and got an update on the weather, cattle, and local population.  

One of the great aspects of making a trip like this is that you get to travel to parts of the country that remain culturally authentic and active. The locals--predominately Maasai semi-nomadic herders--still dress and live very traditionally; they aren't done up for the tourist market or herding cattle in Salvation Army handouts. They are poor by Western standards, but have all they need to live and are quite happy and proud of their lifestyle. We all felt very lucky to be invited into their homes if only for that fact alone and I could see why Mike was so drawn to this place in his youth.

Shortly after we arrived, the kids became enamored with Lindsay's blond hair and immediately pulled off her hat and started to play with it. 

Additionally, one of Kakai's sons, Eric, demonstrated the way Maasai count on their fingers. No one in our group had ever seen anything like it; it's unnecessarily complicated and apparently only goes to 100, which made me think of this old sketch comedy routine about the biggest number ever being 100 (kind of have to see it for it to be funny). Here is the photo demonstration of counting 1-10 in Maasai.

As the late afternoon set in, we decided it was time to leave. Half of the village, it seemed, needed a ride down the road to the nearest town, so we piled into the car--ten deep, I think--and headed out. We got to town, said our goodbyes, and made a few promises to return with photos from the day and some other supplies. I hope to get back some day soon.

The One Where We Go to the Mt. Kenya Safari Club

Our most recent adventure as a family was spawned during the dark-days of the Christmas/New Years season.

Alluded to in our last posting, those two weeks in late December and early January were hell: a house will limitless problems, including loss of power, loss of water, and a mystery dead animal in our ceiling that we couldn't find and was stinking up the place (turns out it was a dead rat). Added to that was that each family member got some type of illness--possibly rat related--and Aliza had a particularly rough patch with a cold and a fever. Following a particularly soul-crushing night of crying baby and no sleep, we went to the travel agent the next morning and booked the first trip we could find out of Nairobi. Our option, the Mt. Kenya Safari Club.

As you can see in the link, the Mt. Kenya Safari club is located at the foothills of the famous Mt. Kenya and was the business venture of golden era movie star William Holden in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was Kenya's golden era for rich people going on real safaris (when you could still go on a real safari).

Several people at work had raved about it and said that it also was a great place to take children, so we were eager to check it out.

We packed up the car early Saturday morning and headed north towards Mt. Kenya. The area we were headed, Nanyuki, was very close to where we stayed when we went to the Aberdares Country Club, we knew the road well and enjoyed a fairly leisurely and relaxed drive. Nanyuki is located on the equator and the town has developed a pretty good cottage industry to capitalize on that. Since Kerry and Aliza hadn't been up this route before, we stopped to snap a picture of Aliza on the Earth's waist.

Ten minutes later we were at the lodge. It was fantastic. The main lodge and the rooms have grand views of the mountain and everything had the vibe of a quality-run hotel (which is was). Our room wasn't available right when we arrived, so we took the opportunity to take a relaxing lounge on the well manicured lawn. We are pretty much permanently outfitted to lounge in a yard or in a field these days--two of Aliza and Mosby's favorite activities--and we enjoyed the nice breeze and the smell of fresh, non-polluted, country air.

We finally got into our room, which was great, minus the fact that we were next door to a French family that seemed to have a weekend long game of trying to make as much noise as possible for as long as possible, and our room seemed to be located right next to the empty bottle and firewood collection point. This was our only major complaint the whole weekend, but since we were there to relax, we didn't mention it. 

We had a few hours till dinner and after looking at the list of activities, decided that the best activity would be to go to the animal sanctuary located at the property entrance. The sanctuary was a hold over from the Holden legacy and is home to a small variety of animals being rehabilitated for eventual release back into the wild. This was a perfect activity for the three of us and Aliza seemed to get a kick out of seeing all the animals, although when it came time to feeding them, she was actually more interested in the food, despite my creative photography that suggests otherwise. 

The sun was starting to go down, so we went back to the room and got changed for dinner. As we learned in Zanzibar, romantic dinners have given way to the speed date; we're in and out in less than thirty minutes. We've taken some perverse pride in the ability to logistically accomplish this, but as a general rule, there is nothing to be smiling about a rushed dinner at nice hotel.

We headed back to the room following the meal and Kerry got Aliza ready for bed. Once the baby was asleep, the two of us sat out on the porch with a couple drinks enjoying the stars and the cold night.

We woke up Sunday morning and decided we wanted to take a walk before we checked out. The only option that really fit our timeline was walking around the entire property. While it was nice to get out and move around, it was basically walking around a golf course and we all decided it was rather lame. So we went back, packed up, and I had the hotel pack us two box lunches for the road. 

It was a great weekend get away and totally recharged our batteries from the previous weeks. We already have reservations to go back and are looking forward to taking advantage of a few more of the amenities.

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.