birthday eve

This week, Kyalo turned one year old. I truly can't believe it. It has been a great year! 

I wanted to get a few pictures of Kyalo right before the big day, so I packed him up and took him to the Cherry Blossom park. Turns out we're either in, or heading into, peak season so it is very beautiful there right now.  We walked around for a long time, and I took lots of pictures.

 {april 2, 2012}

showing off the teeth that have finally popped through!

That evening, he opened a little gift from Grandma. Dexter was going to be home late on his birthday so we wanted to do a little something together.  Of course, we haven't gotten him any gifts ourselves.  Still...

oooh! cds from G-ma. Thanks, Grandma!!

It was a nice day.

the house

We're back in Mass now, here for the Easter weekend. It took about five hours to drive here last night...and Kyalo slept the entire way, bless him.  While we're home, I'm going to take advantage of fast and unlimited internet, and multiple parties to watch Kyalo to hammer out a bunch of blog posts.

I figure the best is to start from the beginning, so without further ado, the house!

 There she is!

But, before you get too excited, this is actually a four-family home. We have one of the apartments on the bottom floor, which means we get those great bay windows.  This was the first place of the day that we looked at when we were house hunting, and since it was the first of several appointments, we wanted to keep an open mind...there were things we didn't love about it (a small kitchen, little closet space, etc), and thought we might find something better.

No.

It was leaps and bounds better than everything else we saw. This is a first floor apartment (though there are a few stairs to get into that), has hard wood floors throughout, a large living room/dining room space, and good light. Most of the others we looked at were second floor walk ups - up steep, narrow stairs, and I was envisioning trying to lug Kyalo (and groceries, other things) up and down those on a regular basis. Not fun.  The last one we looked at - which we looked at as we were waiting for our landlord to come from NYC - was awful.  In an industrial, run down neighborhood, a third-floor walk up (but it felt like six) and was so steeped in smoke that I felt like we'd get cancer just from living there.

Suddenly, the first apartment looked much, much better.

We feel so blessed to be in this apartment, with its good space, accessibility to school for Dexter, the walkability of the neighborhood, and a pretty great landlord. 

 our little sickie, checking out the apartment

 kitchen

* some day, I'm going to have a kitchen with all the counter space and storage that I want. And the outlets will all be perfectly placed, too.  Until then, I'm grateful for this.

This hutch thing is in the hallway and provides a lot of necessary storage.  I wish it could be a bit decorative, but right now it is serving as a bit of an office as our printer and computers end up there.

{a little dark} the bay windows!

 our $250.00 Craigslist couch (and white coffee table) which is, so far, the only money we've spent on furniture!

 moving in mess

 G-ma came to help!

off to church

The other great thing about where we live is that we can see the New York City skyline.  Not a bad place to set up camp for two years!

adjusting

We're getting reasonably settled into life here in Newark...Dexter had a week of orientation last week which was a nice way to ease into our new life - for all of us! He had shorter, easier days.  This week the real work begins. Already tomorrow he has a meeting at 5 PM and has to be in class by 7:30 am on Wednesday. Sigh.

The past few weeks have been running around getting things done: setting up the house, getting car insurance, finding the local library (and going to story hour!) getting our New Jersey driver's licenses and other mundane things.  But it feels good to be checking them off the list.

There are a lot of changes for us these days, the biggest being Dexter's 12 hour days, once you throw in the commute time. It feels strange to blow him a kiss goodbye when I'm barely awake in the morning and then not see him all day. I miss being able to walk down to the clinic to see what he's up to.

There are other, surprising changes, too.  When in Kenya, I dreamed of fast, unlimited, reliable internet, which we most certainly did not have there.  But, it turns out that fast, unlimited, reliable internet is expensive, and at the moment, internet in Kenya was better! Imagine.  That's one of the reasons the blog has been quiet - I have to be careful with my time.

I admit, last night I was feeling kind of cranky and overwhelmed about everything and was only seeing the negatives: I have no friends, no sense of community, nothing to do all the day long, Kyalo's not sleeping well (again, or - has he ever?), etc.  But then, today, it was okay! We were able to explore the local cherry blossom tree park, and are getting to know the area a bit more. I'm on the hunt for (free!) things I can do with Kyalo.

It will take time for this place to feel like home, but we're getting there. 

And, in other news. Today is the eve of Kyalo's first birthday! And my dad's birthday. Last year he sat by the phone waiting for news of the arrival of baby Mulandi.  Feels like just yesterday, not a whole year...

reasons to celebrate

The last Sunday we were in Kenya, we spent the day with Francis and Evelyn.  For a long time, I had wanted to take them to a Japanese Steakhouse for a fun activity -- I knew it would be different from anything they'd done or eaten before, and therefore it would be special.  Francis tried sashimi (brave guy!) for the first time.  And Kyalo had his first miso soup. He devoured it.

We had a lot of things to celebrate for and with them.  In September, they celebrated 5 years of marriage, which is always worth celebrating.  As I mentioned earlier, Francis finished his five year residency program in Orthopedics.  In December, Evelyn graduated from a four year program in Internal Medicine. She was living in Nairobi for four years, and they survived the separation reasonably well. 

 and, if that cap & gown isn't a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is! 

here she is with her certificate. . .all official now!

We also wanted to use this as a time to say thank you for letting us take over their house for the last week we were in Kenya.  After all, for that week, their house looked like this:

are they good friends or what?

(and yes, we managed to get most of that mess home!)

It was also a time to celebrate Dexter being accepted to Dental school, and to celebrate our friendship in general.  I have known them for seven years now, and we have been through a lot in those seven years. They have been such good friends to us over the years.  They were there for the birth of Kyalo and have loved him since that first day. I am so sorry that they don't get to watch him grow up these next few years, but am so grateful for the time they have had with him already.   

They liked to walk around with Kyalo and pretend that he was theirs.

a cute little surrogate family

March 5, 2012

They are the kind of friends who call you from Kenya on the day your husband starts school, knowing that the day is long and lonely and empty.  It was wonderful to hear their voices and to fill 25 minutes of a rather bleak looking afternoon!

I know that, no matter where life takes each of us, that we will always be friends and will have many memories to hold us over the separation.

I'm also hoping they will both be able to visit us here in July. 

And this pretty much wraps up the Kenya stories! Onto life in New Jersey next.

family time

It seems hard to believe that two weeks ago today we were boarding a plane in Kenya.  Since then we've been in Essex, Newark, back to Essex and now, back to Newark for good. We moved into our little apartment -- with the help of my parents -- on Saturday and have been working diligently to get it set up as well as take care of all the odds and ends we need to before Dexter starts school next week.  There's still a lot on our to-do list, but we're making good progress. I need to hurry up and wrap up the Kenya stories so I can get pics of the apartment up. 

Naturally, before leaving, getting together with Dexter's whole family needed to happen.  So on the Saturday before leaving we all gathered together in what has become "our" spot to meet.  A local restaurant in Nairobi, it is where we met before we moved to the UAE in 2009, and where we met the last time we needed a gathering.  It is a nice place because it has outdoor seating and is fairly spacious. We're often the only ones there, but this last time we began to wonder if there's a reason for that...

It was a bittersweet time, always fun to be together, but sad realizing we just don't know when (or where) the next Mulandi family gathering will be.  Nadia, born in January has already changed so much and will continue to do so in the years we're here in school. And Kyalo and Andrew, just sixish weeks apart won't grow up (yet) to be the buddies I hope they will be.  God has those nitty gritty details worked out, in ways I can't even imagine.  The wait is just hard.

 our little bully, beating up his bigger and older cousin, Andrew

 Jackie, Andrew, Dexter, Kyalo (looks like Andrew doesn't hold a grudge)

 June, Nadia, Helen, Robert, Aidan

Helen & Robert

I can't stand all that beauty

everyone!

March 3, 2012

Dexter's parents (Buda & Mathe) and us

love this photo

It was hard to say goodbye to them...but we'll live in hope that everyone will come to visit!

the last supper

The week we left, in the midst of selling and packing as much as possible, relocating down to Francis & Evelyn's house, and so much more, we had a lot of good-byes to say.  I am not a fan of goodbyes; I think I've decided the best way to avoid them is to not make any more friends - saying goodbye is just too hard.

OK, OK. So that's probably not the best way to handle the situation.  If I don't make friends, I'd miss out on so much.  A perfect example of this would be my friend Jenny.

A mutual friend of Erica's, she had us up for dinner the week we arrived back in Kenya, which was perfect because we were living in the first of many temporary houses and didn't have much in the way of cooking stuff. From that point on, we would hang out every few weeks...as her busy life at RVA allowed.  We got a lot of walks, and a lot of meals, in over the year and a half we were back in Kenya. She visited Kyalo in the hospital, and loved on him a lot. 

To wrap things up nicely, she and her roommate Naomi, had us, and Francis & Evelyn up for a final supper at her house.  I always loved going to her house. Going up to RVA always felt like a retreat from the hard life (ha) of Kijabe, and her house is always warm, welcoming and inviting. She makes hosting and entertaining look easy!  She's been a teacher for three years at RVA now and is leaving in July...she has big adventures ahead of her...she's just not quite sure yet what they will be. But that's the fun thing about following God's lead; He always takes you interesting places.

Jenny & a squirmy Kyalo

me & Jenny

{*do I have a really large head, or what?}

Naomi, Jenny, me, {a very tired} Kyalo, Dexter

Kyalo, feeling a little sad to say goodbye to Jenny, but mostly ready to go home and go to bed.

The dinner with Jenny ended up being the first of about five goodbyes we said.  Guess we just weren't ready to make it final.  I'm so glad I got to know her, and it is a reminder to me that even though goodbyes are hard and sad, it is the people who surround me who make life rich and meaningful. If it weren't for the relationships I had in Kijabe, it wouldn't have been nearly as hard to leave!

the grandparents visit

About two weeks before we left Kenya, my parents came to town.  I always love having them visit, meet my friends and be a part of my world for a little while. This trip was a little different than just a social visit.  They were visiting schools in various areas of Nairobi to get a better sense of how schools are run in Kenya, and also to see if there might be others, in addition to Gentle Bells, that they will support.  Between their running around to the schools, and our getting ready to leave, we didn't actually see them too much.  I did get a few pictures, though...

so much love

On the Saturday that they were there, we had a Gentle Bells board meeting to discuss the way forward for the school.  That was also the day that our fridge, stove, couches, etc were being picked up by the girls who bought them. We were also going to be celebrating Esther's -- the headmistress of Gentle Bells -- birthday.  Her birthday is on the 29th of February, so I wanted to make a big deal about it.  I got up early that morning to work on a decadent chocolate layer cake (off the Hershey's can in case you want to give it a go).  And it was a total flop and fail.  It got stuck coming out of the pan and was in pieces all over the place.  I was a mess, Dexter banished me from the kitchen and assured me that once we put the frosting on it we could fix it.

We could not.  

The frosting made it look worse.

I was not willing to serve this cake - even though it tasted fine - to someone who only celebrates her birthday (technically) once every four years.  By this time we'd learned that the girls coming to collect their things were (surprise!) running late because the truck they'd hired had problems. So I decided to make another cake.  This time in a 9x13 pan because I was fairly certain that it would work.  But then I ran out of cocoa powder so I threw the cake in the oven and ran down to the duka quickly to get more so I could make the frosting.  I decided I would just make the frosting at the house where the meeting was, and all would be well.

Except, I was basically doing the recipe from memory and didn't add enough cocoa powder, so instead of a rich, dark chocolate color, it was more of a pale, milk chocolate color. Still, it tasted fine, and everyone gobbled it up (with homemade mint M&M ice cream, I might add).

 the birthday girl

 the offending cake - I had a much different image in my mind . . .

 The Gentle Bells board

It all turned out okay...the cake was made and enjoyed, the oven and other items taken away, and a successful and productive meeting took place.

And I collapsed, exhausted, at the end of the day.