wrap up

I need to wrap up the stories on our trip away this weekend. More things are coming this week and I don't want to fall too far behind.  But before I get to that, I just want to say mention this:

Monday was Dexter's 33rd birthday, and Tuesday our 3rd anniversary.  On Tuesday night he got a wonderful email from the University of Colorado inviting him for an interview and bench test in April for their dental program. This was the fifth school he applied to, and the fifth invitation he got!  Pretty big accomplishment, if you ask me!  Colorado was my first choice because of their start date (January 2013) and because, hello it is in Colorado! (never been there, but all the pictures make me want to go).  But, we needed to let NJ know early, and we couldn't just wait around and hope the other schools would get back to him. What if they didn't? Seemed like too big of a risk.  So, we head to NJ next month trusting that God wants us there for reasons we can't see at the moment!  Perhaps we'll head to Colorado another time. . .

Now, back to the retreat, and the photos!

These are still from the cliff at the top of the crater. . .

 It isn't too often these days that we get a photo of just the two of us. This seemed like a good spot.

February 4, 2012

I had great hopes of getting photos of all the couples but that didn't happen.  We did get this one of the guys, though:

Jack, Tobias, Levis, Dexter (and Kyalo) Mang'oli, Chege, Franye

Isn't that an intimidating looking group?

But don't be fooled!! They aren't. . . 

 Do you see what Kyalo's doing? Digging in the dirt.  And eating it. 

early morning on the lake

We had a slow day on Sunday, with an easy breakfast, time by and in the small pool, and even a little service where we shared our goals/hopes for the year, sang a song, and prayed for each other.  God's beauty surrounded us so it was only appropriate to do this.  Before lunch, there were some raucous rounds of the game Pit (if you've never played, it is worth it!) and now I'm hoping for a "game night" before we go.

We ate lunch on that floating dock/restaurant you see in the photo above.  Kyalo had his first beets:

(I had mine, too, but I don't think I enjoyed them as much as he did)

And then, just like that, it was time to hit the dusty, bumpy road again, and head home.  It was a great time - with friends, getting away, seeing a new part of Kenya, etc.  I hope in the future we'll get to explore more of Kenya (on return visits, I guess) since there's so much we haven't seen!

weekend retreat

It is crunch time now, where we want to squeeze in as much as possible before leaving.  This weekend, seven couples from our Bible Study went to a camp in Crater Lake for a quick little getaway retreat.  The fact that this many couples could get together was really quite something, though we were sad that two other couples couldn't come. Perhaps next time!

In true Kenyan fashion, we left an hour or more after our intended departure time, but that didn't matter, as we had no agenda.  We meandered on our way, making a little stop at a public beach, where...we found these guys:

 flamingos!  

so this is where you've been hiding, huh?

Nyambura, Evelyn, Imma

After that little pit stop we carried on and reached our destination. We all had high hopes of an afternoon lounging by the pool, but everyone's response to the pool was, "it is really small"  "it is for chilling" "it is a bathtub" so we skipped the small pool and went for a small hike instead.

We wanted to get up and close with this guy:

(can you see the giraffe?)

And we did!

Once Francis scared this guy away, we carried on, and once we reached the top, we took a lot of photos.  Bear with me here:

 Janelle, Chege & Nyambura

The whole group!!

I look at this picture, and I think of that song from Sesame Street: "One of these things is not like the other. . . " because, aside from the obvious I'm white, and American difference, I am also the ONLY one in this group who is not a doctor.  In this group we have:  Three orthopedic consultants, an orthopedic resident, two general surgery residents, a pediatrician, two internists, an anesthesiologist, and one more that I can't remember!

That's a lot of doctors.

This is when I should be getting sick or injured...not when we're in the US.  

I think that's enough for now...I have more to share, but will do that later. We haven't had power for a while, and my computer battery is running low, and Kyalo is fussy, so I guess it is time to take him outside.

ten months

Today, Kyalo turns ten months. Double digits -- I'm not sure which is harder to believe that he's so close to turning one year, or that we only have on more of these monthly birthdays to celebrate in Kenya.

So today we headed out to the yard for the monthly round of photos...

Kyalo was more interested in watching men cut grass than posing for photos

{sorry so shadowy. apparently, I picked a bad time for the photo shoot}

This has been another good month (of course, they've all been great!).  He finally started clapping...something I wasn't sure he was going to get into, since most of his age-mates seem like they did it ages ago.  And most recently he's started walking around the house pushing things.  I wonder if he'll be walking soon?  I'm hoping we can make it through the middle of next month before reaching that milestone as I don't think a newly walking child on two 6+ hour plane rides will be that fun.

I took him to get weighed today. {I may be the only mother who does this so faithfully each month. It is fun for me, and it is just a little hop, skip & a jump down the hill to the hosp, it is free, and it is always entertaining.}  Usually, the weight is fairly straight forward and it is the height that causes issue.  Today, the three nurses who were there weighing him said that he weighed in at 8.5 kgs, which would be fine except that last month he was 8.6!  He eats non stop, so even though he's active, I don't think he's lost weight.  My arms feel tired quickly when holding him.  I asked them to do it again, same results.  So, I thanked them for their time {and didn't bother to ask about measuring him} and went to the private clinic to try on the scale there.  That scale didn't seem to be working properly, either, but it did give us a reading of about 21.5 pounds (9.7 kgs ish).  That seems a little high to me at the moment, but maybe not.

Surely this is an easy process in the US? Something I'm looking forward to is also know what percentile he falls in. I know it really doesn't matter...just something interesting for me to know.

I can't wait to see what milestones he reaches this month.  It is always an adventure!

breakout king

Since Kyalo's been crawling for a while now, we've had to be a bit creative about baby proofing the house, which basically means keeping him out of the fire place, protecting the projector and all the shiny black wires he seems keen to pull on, play with, chew.  Generally we try to barricade the living room area and that seems to do the trick. Over time, though the barricades have needed to get stronger and more secure.  And alas, he managed to break one down today.

He's such a little faker. . . screaming screaming screaming trying to get out, and then smiles the second he's broken free.

I love how proud he seems of himself once he's made it out (or in, as the case may be).

Of course, now that he's figured his way past our high-tech security, I'm not sure what we'll do!

what I'll miss

Doing a post on the things I'll miss about Kijabe could be a recipe for disaster: the things I'll miss are legion, and I'm afraid I may go on and on about it.  I'll try not to! Some things have been mentioned before, or go without saying: this community that surrounds us, especially friends Francis & Evelyn, the weather (back-to-back-to-back perfect summer days right now is hard to be beat), and then, when the weather turns cold, our fireplace to keep us warm, our house and yard, and so on.  But here are a few things that I may not have mentioned...

Yesterday & today, Dexter took Kyalo with him in the morning to the dental clinic.  Their day starts out with one hour of devotions, which gives me time to get things done without having Kyalo underfoot - or being afraid of waking him up. {A workout, some cleaning, work, etc}.

But more than that, most days, Dexter leaves at about 7:58 for the long walk down to the clinic to be there by 8. He comes home for lunch most days.  And I would say I pop in on the clinic 2-3 times each week to say hello to him and the folks he works with.  I'm guessing that I can't just show up while he's in class for a quick "hello."?  Lately I've been going on my afternoon walk a little bit later, so Kyalo and I go to pick him up and escort him home.

In our three years of marriage, we have lived and worked in the same place...having lunch together, walking to work together, etc. We're heading into the real world now, I guess, and I can't say I'm excited!

We get our fruits and veggies from the local "duka" (shop) just down the road, and Kyalo and I often find ourselves there, getting our onions and tomatoes, etc.  I love that the ladies who sell the veggies love Kyalo.  One even sings Kikuyu praise songs to him, and another almost always gives me an extra banana (for free!) just for him.  It is these little things that make life here both wonderful and quaint.

When we're on our daily walks, Kyalo and I will often bump into people we know.  We stop and have a quick chat and then go on our way.  I think little encounters like that -- even though they're brief and random -- have kept me from feeling too lonely or isolated here in Kijabe. 

Chai.  I love this milky tea that Kenyans have. Dexter and I put rosemary in it from our rosemary bush (just about the only successful thing we've grown), and it tastes so good to me.  Sure, we can make it in the States, with the tea from Kenya but somehow it just doesn't taste the same. I think the American milk has too much "stuff" in it - or the cows are eating vastly different things.

Other little things:
- hanging laundry to dry {yes, I really like to do that!}
- walking everywhere {which may, or may not, have something to do with my refusal to drive anywhere in Kenya.}
- the simple living we do here without even really trying

There's probably a lot more I could say here, but I'll leave it at that, as Kyalo and I are heading out on one of our afternoon walks.  I'll do a post about what I'm looking forward to in the US, too, just to keep things fair. 

whoops!

I forgot to post a picture of our happy little ranger from the weekend away.  Can't resist sharing it now.

 January 27, 2012

{perhaps he's excited about new cousin Vera Evangeline Mering coming in on the 27th}

Note the hands...he's finally clapping and he's doing it non stop now.  It seems to go well with his happy, easy-going personality.

We love this park ranger!

getaway

This weekend, we were going to go back to the UAE.  The main reason for this was to see this girl:

Shiny & me, Sept 2009

The Green House {let's have a moment of silence, as they tore our house down moments after we moved out!}

{not our best photo}

Shiny was practically our only friend in the UAE, and became a part of our little family.  We did so much together, and she's getting married in March. We would have loved to get back out there to catch up, hear about wedding plans, etc. Plus, I think I had all our meals mapped out for the time we were to be there.

But it wasn't to be. Reality checked in and we realized that time-money-energy is all running short, and it wouldn't be wise to go.  I'm still very sad about that.

Still, we needed a little getaway, a quick little jaunt out of Kijabe.  Dexter took Friday off from work and we went to Mbweha Camp for the night. This is a hotel (? can you call it that?) just outside of Lake Naurku National Park, in a private conservancy.  We spent a few nights in one of their partner places in the Mara during our honeymoon so knew we'd be in for a treat.  {Should you ever be in Kenya, I'd recommend it!}

We left in the wee hours of the morning to get a little game drive through the park in.  

Lake Nakuru

I'll never get tired of this view - even IF the pink flamingos have fled the scene.

When we went in October we didn't see giraffe too closely and as we were talking about that sad truth we stumbled upon these guys!

Dexter was being artistic with Kyalo's stuffed giraffe.  Here he is, looking out at his real counterpart.

After tooling around in the park for a bit we headed to the camp for lunch.  I completely forgot to take pictures of our cute little cottage, or of much else, really. I guess I was too busy relaxing! Even though we didn't do much while we were gone, it really felt like a nice escape.

This morning, before checking out, I wanted to get some photos of me and Dexter with Kyalo (feels like it had been a while), and it was at that moment that our camera's auto-focus decided to stop working {anyone know what we can do about that?}, so I wasn't sure how the photos would turn out. I think we still managed to get some keepers.

There was a little bridge right near our room, and I thought it would be cute to get some pictures there. They didn't turn out quite like I expected - the lighting was wrong (hello shadows) and Kyalo a bit uncooperative (hello squirmy) - but we did okay. 

I love these pictures of Dexter & Kyalo together.  Lots of love passing between these guys.

I also love vacation!