nyam chom

When I was first living in Kenya, I joined a Bible Study that dramatically improved my time here.  It gave me some of my best friends, and, of course, a husband!  It is one of the things I missed most while living in the UAE.  We have quickly jumped back into it since returning, and while many of the people have moved on, we're enjoying getting to know the new members.  Just about everyone is medical so most conversations somehow turn to medicine or medical illustrations.  I'm thinking about charging 10 shillings every time something medical is mentioned.  At the end of a month I could be one rich girl!

Anyway.

One thing we're good for is a party! In this case, it is a "nyam chom" -- basically a BBQ. Nyama Choma is Swahili for roast meat, but somehow it has come to be associated with goat. A married couple leaves at the end of this week to join a 5 year Neurosurgery program -- yes, both of them!  So we gathered to say farewell and godspeed.


Dexter with Tobias, an Orthopedic Consultant

men. fire. good.

meat.  we had 8 KGs of meat -- or 1/2 a goat.

Naomi, who's part of the couple leaving, Francis, and Mang'oli.  Do you see the JOY on their faces? That's what meat does!

Me, Jenny (a teacher at RVA), Naomi, Francis, Mang'oli

and, the final product

Typically the meat is chopped up right from the grill, so if you're not outside at that exact moment, you'll miss your chance! Fortunately, there was plenty to go around!

I made triple chocolate brownies (sorry, no picture) which were easy and yummy, and surely healthy and low fat ;)

There will be more of these in the future -- perhaps we'll have a house warming gathering when we actually move in!

Our House

We have been (patiently?) waiting to get into our own house since May, and finally the light can be seen at the end of the tunnel -- October 15 is the do-or-die deadline we've been given.  The family that had been living in it has moved out, and we've given a long list of repairs to the hospital to handle.  The house is very old, possibly one of the first batch of houses built in Kijabe (if house #31 is any indication, anyway) and needed some serious repairs.  We are eager to get in, but many people have told us that we should make sure all our requests are finalized before we move in, so that's just what we're doing.

The following photos will be the before-before photos.  These are the before any hospital repairs.  Our hope is that after the hospital has done their repairs and we move in, we'll do others like painting, fixing the gardens, and other "Mulandi touches". We just don't know what those might be yet.

 

So that's the outside of the house.  The previous family was kind enough to leave us a couple of big rose bushes, but we're hoping to dig out the rest of the stuff and plant a big beautiful garden of native flowers.  Of course, I have no idea what that is, but we'll learn.

Now, let me take you on a tour.  Proceed with caution. And one other word.  The family was actually in the process of moving out when we took these photos, so that is why some of the photos have things in them still.

These two photos comprise of one big room that is the living room (with fireplace) and dining room.  We hope to paint the fireplace to a white or different color.  The hospital has repainted the walls already and taken down the weird wood trim in the center of the walls.  

Kitchen, with minimal counter space:

Fortunately, the hospital has built us a new cabinet (where the red gas cylinder is) which adds a lot more counter space.  We hope that we'll have new white/grey tiles before moving in.

The "breakfast nook"

We already have a little table to go here, and since we won't get our dining room table until November, I imagine lots of time spent there!  The windows are small, so we're hoping to paint the walls in something bright and inviting to cheer the small space up.

Laundry Room:

The sinks are gone, and the pipes are, too.  We'll put our washing machine in the corner, and our fridge on the other corner since it is too big to fit in the kitchen.  :)  And, we hope the floor will change here, too.

I'll wrap this up now with some shots of the bathroom:

The pipes have all been torn out, but we're not really sure what is going to happen next :)  And the white tile is going to be replaced with a blue tile. The blue is darker than I would prefer, and probably won't match the things I picked up from Bed, Bath, and Beyond (or something like it) while I was home this summer.  But, if we wait to order tiles that we would want we may never get into the house! You learn to pick and choose your battles, and we'll hope that visitors can imagine everything matching.

And, the loo:

You are probably wondering the same thing I am:  How did anyone tolerate such a toilet situation?  I have not managed to find an answer to this!!  We believe that this toilet will be replaced and that there will be new, clean tile place 4 feet behind the toilet.  

I'm sure these photos don't leave you eager to visit us, but we promise that it will be much, much better by the time you come!  I'll end the tour here.  The three bedrooms remain: Master Bedroom, Guest/study, Guest/Nursery.  Photos will come some other time.

It is not an understatement to call this a "fixer-upper" is it?

light

One of the nice things about living in Kijabe is the breathtaking view of the Great Rift Valley, and watching the way the light bounces off of it.   Here are some photos, from different times of the day, to show you what I mean.

Early morning light:

This photo was actually taken by Dexter, who has the unfortunate habit of waking up at 5 every day.  This was taken back in May, when we were living in different temporary housing, and had a great view of Mt. Longonot. There was a lot of rain then, so the mornings were often cool and grey.  I was snuggled warmly in bed, of course.

Early Evening Light:

Unfortunately, this picture does not do justice to how spectacular the sky looked. The streams of light touching down into the Valley are breath-taking and always cause me to pause a few minutes.  I will never get tired of this view!

And then, a sunset.  There are some pretty great sunsets here.  Here's just one example:

Need I say more?

birthday surprises

Back when we were still living in the UAE, I began to plan our summer vacation.  I knew I wanted it to be long and relaxed, and to give us a good chance to catch our breath after moving from the UAE to Kenya.  Plus, it had been five years of living overseas, and the longest break I'd had was about 3 1/2 weeks. I was ready to relax! As I began to look at dates, it seemed to make sense that we stay for my mom's birthday on August 4.  So I had us flying out of Boston on the 5th.

And I had no idea what we were going to get her as a present.  I was hoping that "our presence is our present" would be sufficient!  :D

In the end, though, we were able to come up with the greatest of all gifts!

There was joy:

and surprise:

and general happiness:

I'd say this turned out to be a winner of a birthday present, wouldn't you?

And here's a picture of me, about 11 weeks along:

I'm not showing much, yet, and can still (thankfully!) fit into most of my clothes.  Mostly I'm including this picture because of the sunset over Mt. Longonot.  When we move to our new house (2 more weeks?) we won't have these views any more! 

Anyway, so far, all is going well. I feel great!  I haven't craved ice cream or pickles or Taco Bell at 2 AM -- which would be a big problem living in the middle of nowhere as we do.  I am grateful that it has been so smooth so far.

Keep coming back for more updates and "baby bump" pictures as time goes by.
 

more construction

Internet has been unbelievably bad lately.  It is really frustrating (and challenging since so much of what I do is internet-dependent!)  And then we've had a week of visitors.  First, our friend Jonathan who used to live in Kijabe, but now lives in Texas as his wife is in medical school, and then my dad, who came to Kenya for the weekend.


I know.

He was coming to check out the Gentle Bells construction site and make some new plans and just generally get a sense of where things are going.  In the midst of a crazy weekend and a lot of time at the school, we were able to mix in showing him our new house, breakfast at RVA with a friend, and a visit to church.  Here are the latest photos from the construction site.  It is an evolving process, and plans keep changing and being updated.

In the weeks since we were down at the school, much has happened.

The floors and walls have been plastered:

Window frames have gone in:

(and you'll be glad to know that the frames are red to match the school uniforms!)

stones continue to be cut and prepared  by hand.  When you see how smooth they are it is quite incredible to see how they do it:

and water continues to be delivered but I'll have to post a photo of that another day as internet seems to be slowly dying again.

I hope it won't be a week to my next post!  There's lots to talk about, and I am supposed to be taking (and posting) a photo a day. Whoops!

lazy Saturday

Today has been one of those rare days when we didn't rush out the door for Nairobi.  Instead, we've had a nice, relaxed Saturday.  Feeling that there was "no food in the house" I wasn't sure what to do for breakfast, when I managed to throw together these omelets stuffed with onion, peppers, mushrooms and cheese with fried tomatoes. (Lesson learned here). Eating them outside for a picnic breakfast started the day off right!

After breakfast we got to go look at our new house!  After 5 months of living in suitcases we look forward to unpacking and calling something "ours."  It needs a bit of work before we move in, but we're hopeful it will happen in the next 3-4 weeks.  Then we're going to start painting it in colors other than off-white/beige which seems to be the standard hospital color.  

Stay tuned for before/after photos!

construction

While living in the UAE I discovered something new about myself.  I really like watching the progress of construction.  There was a housing unit going up when I moved there, and after I got married, we were supposed to move there in three months.  I was weekly going to the house to see if there were any significant changes.  Of course, not much typically changes in a week, and there were a lot of problems with this project and it was significantly delayed. In fact, we never got to move in as it finished just as we were leaving the UAE.

Fortunately, the CURE hospital has many projects going up here in Kijabe, so I get to watch the changes!  But even more fun than that, we are supporting a school down in the valley, and a new 5-classroom building is going up.  And thankfully the progress so far is much smoother and faster!

A current classroom:

The new rooms on August 13, 2010 (with Mt. Longonot looking on):

 

And on September 4, 2010:

As you can see, big changes!  Construction on this building should be finished by the 15th, then they'll move on to some other projects.  Many more stories and photos of this special school will come.  In the meantime, check out the website for Gentle Bells.

.beauty.

One of the best things about living in Kijabe is the surpassing beauty of the flowers here.  The climate, usually warm and sunny, but with periods of rain, seems to be the ideal situation for gardens and flowers.  Many of the houses have stunning gardens that are filled with diverse and interesting plants and the variety of colors is breathtaking.  You should visit and see for yourself!

Then, there's the random plot of land that is carefully tended to, but seems to be owned by no one (it lines a driveway to several houses).  In it, there was a spectacular rose that I did not get a photo of, and this interesting flower.  I don't remember seeing them before.  I have no idea what it is, other than beautiful!

Pizza Pizza!

This week, for the first time, I made pizza from scratch. I'm not really sure why it took me so long to do it, because it was fairly simple (if you don't mind working with dough, of course!) and tasty!  I look forward to perfecting the art of pizza in the coming months, and experimenting with toppings.  My brother makes grilled pizza and comes up with interesting toppings -- Brussels Sprouts and Bacon? -- and while I don't think I'll be that adventurous, I see this as a fun activity in the future.  Maybe we'll have "top your own pizza" parties!  There's not much to do in Kijabe so you have to come up with your own entertainment!

Our toppings were more conventional.  Mushrooms, red & green pepper, pineapple, and bacon and onion for Dexter's.  (I'm weird in that I don't generally like meat on my pizza!)  Next time, I hope I'll make my own sauce.

All in all, we were all pleased with the experiment. Our only disappointment was that it was gone so soon!

What would you recommend for a topping?

True fans

Being born in Boston means one thing: I am a Red Sox fan.  I should probably be a Celtics, Patriots, & Bruins fan, too, but understanding one sport is all I can really handle in life.  I think I chose wisely.

Here is evidence that we love the Sawx:

This photo didn't quite have the pizzaz that I was envisioning.  But, as I've said, I'm learning things still.  The bucket in the corner is evidence that Dexter had spent the morning clearing 2 weeks' worth of Kijabe mud and dust off the car!

Day One

Well.  

I've finally decided to join the blogging world.  This comes mostly under pressure from my friend Alisa who has started a new project of taking -- and posting -- a picture a day for an entire year.  Since I have a new Nikon D90 camera that I barely know how to use, and will hopefully be moving into a new house and will make a lot of changes (improvements!) to it, she thought I'd be a good candidate to join her in this project.

Living in Kijabe, Kenya, means that I am going to have to do this at the whim of the internet. Today has not been a good day.

So here's my first photo offering:

I made these lemon-cranberry scones on Saturday, and since I love to bake, I thought it would be a good photo to start with.  There will probably be a lot of pictures of food in the months to come!

I realize this blog is a bit boring at the moment. Bear with me as I figure out how to use this thing.  I hope my photography will get better over the course of the year, too!  I welcome any tips or suggestions.