large and small adventures…

We survived moving day. Well, just barely. Poor K made it up the driveway to our new house in Bulawayo right before he passed out. Well not literally passed out but he certainly pushed it more than someone with strep-throat should. K slept most of the day on Thursday while I tried my best to direct the movers with the rest of our team. I’m pretty sure he has had a fever for the last several days. If fact funny story. We left Friday for our visa trip to South Africa and normally fly out of the Harare airport to Johannesburg (Joburg). However, now that we are living in Bulawayo we are now flying out of the Bulawayo airport, which is a converted airplane hanger. Needless to say its a very small airport and security is pretty minimal. In fact I left my leathermen in my carry-0n and it was discovered in the x-ray scanner, no big deal I was allowed to take my knife into a room with all the checked luggage and slip it into my bag. Simple.

After than minor knife debacle it was smooth sailing until we landed in Joburg. We dis-embarked (I love that term) the plane and quickly got into the non-African residence line to go through customs. We’ve done this four times now so it’s not really anything we think too much about. However, this month at the front of the line there was a man standing behind this camera asking everyone to take off their glasses to have their faces scanned. No biggie I thought, things are always changing and you just have to roll with the punches. I got scanned no problem. K got scanned and the man politely asked to speak with him in private. Ok… not really that bad right? K came back in line and I inquired as to the conversation the two shared. K looks at me totally serious and says that he needs to go with the man to the airport clinic after he is cleared through customs. The camera which the man was standing behind was a heat sensor camera and it detected that K was running a fever. So in my not-thinking insensitive way I say “Well that sounds exciting.”  Little did I know that K had already gone to defcon 1 (which is the highest deacon, not 5), imagining quarantines and anal probes. His response was not so light hearted.

We were quickly cleared through customs and ushered to the airport clinic. K was directed to fill out some paperwork and then the woman behind the desk took his temperature with an ear thermometer. She acknowledged that he did in fact have a fever and that he was experiencing flu like symptoms, but okayed him free to go. We were in and out of the clinic in 5 minutes and to the luggage carrousel in no time. K turns to me once we were on our own again and says “That was close I was almost quarantined.” I in turn said “I know it was kind of exciting.”

Ah the adventures we have. I’m pretty sure our mom’s are doing some deep breathing exercises right now. Don’t worry Moms we are good. I currently am sitting at our favorite coffee shop in Joburg enjoying a beautiful coconut latte and loving free unlimited wifi. Life is good.

We are going on a big 8 day road trip through Swaziland and down to the coast for snorkeling beginning on Monday, but for now we are resting and loving our king size bed. K is on the mend and I’m loving every adventure large or small.

the great eye debacle of 2012 part two…

That knock came about 4pm when K phoned and told me he would not be able to make it home that evening. Several thoughts ran through my head. “What!” “No drops?!” (At this point I was freezing empty soda cans and placing them against my eye to numb the pain… needless to say I was really looking forward those drops) I tried to play it off that it was no big deal, cause I knew that K wanted to get home as much as I wanted him home that night. It just wasn’t in the cards. Driving at night isn’t recommended here inZimbabwe. Highways are extremely dangerous due to poor vision and car hijacking road blocks. Our team as a rule does not drive at night. So when K was doing the math on the hours he still had left to travel and the time the sun was due to set he knew he just wasn’t going to make it. I’m proud of him for making the right call… but at the time I was having a hard time seeing… literally I couldn’t see so much out of my right eye.

But being the strong independent type I told him to be safe and I’ll be just fine alone for the night. Now I’ve spent the night alone many times. I used to house sit all the time for friends and never thought twice. But of course it’s different when you are living inSeattleand can call a friend or my cousin Kenny to come spend the time if you get nervous about being alone at night. K knew I would get a bit nervous so he suggested having our housekeeper stay the night. Perfect idea, except I had just seen two women walk by with suitcases on their head heading for our housekeepers house; she had over night guests staying with her. (For the record I’ve never once seen her have overnight guests, but Wednesday night she had a full house.) And I had a very empty house. But I kept myself entertained with bad TV shows and perfecting my frozen soda can rotation so that my eye was always numb.

I went through the evening routine, greeting the guard that comes at 6pm (its always wise to be nice to the guy who guards your house at night) turning on the right lights and locking doors and closing windows so that bugs don’t come in. (I mean the bugs come in just at a slower rate if you close the windows) I was feeling good, the electricity gods were on my side because the power remained on the entire evening and I didn’t have to mess with the generator. (thank you electricity gods) It was getting close to 8:30pm which I’ve determined bedtime. (Not time to sleep but just time to be under my mosquito net in bed, don’t judge the night life in Gokwe is pretty chill, like there isn’t any)

I curled up in bed with my computer and began watching more stupid shows and listening for anything out of the ordinary. I was growing tired so I decided to turn of my computer and go to sleep. Besides the dreams of hatching bugs inside my body the night passed without any excitement. (which I am grateful for) K arrived just after 7:30am which stories I’ll leave for him to share. But I began the drops for my eye and saw results in the color and felt relief from the pain.  I had one last trip to visit some government officials on Thursday so I quickly thanked K for the drops and hopped in the car to set out for the day.

That evening we packed the remaining belongings of our little home and prepared to leave the next morning. We laughed as we compared our last move from our condo inSeattleto our move from Gokwe. Each move was stressful and eventful in its own way. I did miss all our friends coming over and helping pack like they did in ourSeattlemove. But we had way less things to pack in Gokwe.

Now we are inHararejust waiting to see if the proposal we submitted to OFDA will be approved. OFDA has given us a timeline of 4-6 weeks until we hear back on a submitted proposal. IF we get the green light then K and I will be moving down to a small town called Plumtree with a college of ours and we will be starting another rainwater harvesting project. If we get the red light well then we will have some decisions to make. Plans are very much up in the air right now but we are enjoying our adventure one day at a time.

sage advice…

“Could you give me some advice?” Came the question from across the pool in Cape Town, South Africa. I looked up from the book I was reading and saw that K was looking rather serious.

“You know cause you’ve been here and you are older and wiser.”

Now he was grinning but trying to keep it under wraps like he was being serious. On a normal day I wouldn’t generally take that from him but it was February 6^th, K’s birthday. So happily I played along and said I would glad to impart wisdom to his young and inexperienced life.  I think there was some kind of wisecrack about my being experienced but that was beside the point. K always like to remind me that I’m older… and for the most part this doesn’t bother me, for the most part. But this idea of being wiser has been in my head for the last few days. So here you go K, your official advice for your 29^th year of your life. Enjoy.

1)   Don’t buy cheap tuna… My mom told me this one and her reasoning was you don’t want to know what’s in the cheap cans. Sound advice if you ask me.

2)   It’s possible to find comfortable shoes that are cute… don’t settle for less.

3)   Learn to knit… seriously it’s addicting.

4)   If you don’t like a certain kind of food say you are allergic to it, no one ever pressures you to try something you are allergic to.

5)   Sing while you work… I would say whistle but we both know I can’t whistle to save my life.

6)   Write more letters.

7)   Color coordinate your books, oh wait I’ve already done that for you. Your welcome.

8)   Keep learning the message in Matthew 9:13

9)   A little bit of bleach goes a long ways.

10) Always try to try.

11) Plan for things to be harder than you imagine. (I’m still struggling with this one)

12) Always look to see if there are worms in your fruit before you eat it.

13) Do not wear the same color shirt and pants at the same time. Unless you are going to a white party or wearing black to make a statement.

14) Travel with a roll of toilet paper.

15) Have lots of adventures.

16) Everyone sweats, so don’t worry about it.

17) Be generous… not that you need to be told this.

18) Laugh a lot… cause it makes happy when you are.

19) Be spontaneous.

20) Buy something without checking the price… there is crazy freedom in it.

21) Tell the people you love that you love them.

22) Make lists.

23) Run for fun, not cause you feel like you have to.

24) Sing the wrong words to a song. (I dare you)

25) Take time to tinker.

26) Don’t be too hard on yourself. I know you are a firstborn but just try.

27) Dream big.

28) Know that sometimes its okay not to barder over twenty cents.

29) Keep car dancing, its my favorite.

Happy 29^th birthday K. You are more than I could have ever imagined as a best friend and husband. Life with you just gets better and better.

Love your older and wiser wife.

what are you eating?

It’s the classic question that anyone who has traveled internationally gets. Sense most everyone is so keen on knowing our diet I decided it was worth blogging about. We are living with our friends Gene and Melba who have been living here in Turkana for 16 plus years. Their kitchen is fairly American, and we have been eating typical American fare during the week. (however, I have discovered pizza rice, which I’m totally loving)

The work week in Kenya is Monday through Saturday… I know like we need another day to work, but I’m trying to play by their rules. Saturdays are team meeting days, where Gene and Melba and the team of nationals sit down and discuss projects, up coming events, and overall administration. It’s a really great way of hearing from the team how things are going. After the meeting we all have lunch together. Lunch is ordered out earlier that morning and someone has to go pick it up. The meal is very Kenyan and parts are extremely good.  First there is the chapati, this is like flat bread and you use it to wrap around the ugali, which is kind of like collared greens but not really. And then there is the goat stew, I’m gonna be honest and tell you that goat and I do not agree. I have liked it in my mind to the mutton that was served to me at Capenwray, in England. Both the goat and the mutton taste as though you are eating the oldest and grumpiness animal you could find. Long story short, it’s not my favorite. However, I will eat goat in a samosa. Samosas are the best. They are deep fat fried bread pockets of goat meat and spices… its brilliant.

Anyways that is what we are eating… what are you eating?

its that thing of where the back of your knees are sweating…

Life seems to be pretty normal these days, which is strange because our days are nothing like our life back in Seattle. We were enjoying a few days of “cool” but we are back to sweating all day long in the high 90′s heat. But we are feeling right at home.

Sitting in church.

There are still a lot of humorous experiences, for example: in Turkana the work “Ok” sounds a lot like my name. Therefore, if I’m not really paying attention I think that I’m being called. In the market the other day I totally thought this guy knew my name and I’d never seen him before. He was coming toward me and I was getting ready to greet him, cause I don’t want to be rude. Yeah, he walked right past me chatting on his phone and I was left with that embarrassed feeling that you hope nobody has noticed.Also another crazy thing here are the shipment deliveries. I was always impressed with our UPS guy in Seattle. He often delivered to our place after 6pm which in my mind was pretty late in the evening to still be delivering packages. However, here in Lodwar the deliveries come at all hours. One evening we were up chatting in the evening, it must have been after 10pm, maybe even closer to 11pm. There was a knock at the door and it was the guard telling us that there was a truck outside with a delivery. This truck was making deliveries in the dark of night, and I don’t think it’s ever been before 9pm  that we’ve gotten a delivery.

I’ve been given the chance to use some of my other skills beyond the computer. The other day Melba asked me if I cut hair. Little did she know that I’ve got a long history of impromptu hair cuts. I have also baked several loaves of bread since I’ve been here. Its crazy how fast the dough rises in the heat here!

Smiling boy in church

Life here has taken on a pretty normal routine, and its one that we will be sad to see go. We’ve got a little less than two weeks left in Kenya.  There is still a lot of work to be done before we go, and we are anxious to complete all our projects before we leave. Thanks for all your emails and notes, its always great to hear from family and friends!

let me introduce you….

Let me introduce you to a traditionally dressed Turkana woman. Most traditionally dressed Turkana live out in the bush, however you do see them in Lodwar as well. These woman wear beads around their neck to show wealth. The more beads the more wealthy they are. They only have braided hair on the top of their head. On special occasions they wear this red looking paint on their head and neck. The red paint has a pretty pungent smell to it. They also have these traditional tattoos in really cool patterns all over their body. To make these tattoos they use thorns from a tree that is poisonous. They prick themselves with these thorns in patterns and as a result from the poison they have little raised marks in patterns on their skin. It looks really amazing on their black skin. It would probably look like I got eaten by some crazy bug if I tried it.

The Turkana people are animal herders. They herd sheep, goat, and camels. (PS camels are ridiculously silly looking when they run) The Turkana people speak Turkana, and its the only place in the world it is spoke. The Turkana language is among the hardest languages to learn, two weeks in and I’ve got “hello” and “thank you”. I’m feeling pretty good about my progress. Also the Turkana people have a great sense of humor, which makes them really fun to be around and work with.  I’m sure I’ve been the cause for a number of laughs through out the last two weeks! I don’t mind, I can’t understand what they are saying anyways.