You little stinker!

We had stinkbug invasions in Charlottesville. So much so, that we decided we could not beat them and should just accept them, and started calling them Sheildbugs instead. Well we thought we had left them behind. Doesn't it seem fair that if we have leg climbing squirrels, we should be safe from the smaller, stinkier pests? Well here we are in Nairobi, and there is a stinkbug. Just one, but let me tell you, where there is one, more will follow. Last night it was hanging around the sink waiting to commit Hari Kari in the dish water.

This morning Emma was motoring around the kitchen as she is wont to do while we make breakfast. We suddenly caught sight of her face, which was pulled into a contortion of disgust while drool was rolling down her chin onto her pyjamas. I immediately inserted my pinky finger into her mouth to see what disgusting thing she had found on the floor. Yep, you guessed it, the stinky, stinky and now masticated bug! UGH! UGH!

Emma update

I was zerbetting Emma's tummy the other day, making her laugh with a wide mouth and lo and behold! 6, yes 6! teeth are breaking through her top gum. Poor girl, no wonder sleep is a thing of the past.

Quiet behemoths in the night

I was cooking dinner and needed a plate, so I went into the other room and there in our front yard were Elephants! They grazed so silently, like grey ghosts in the after dusk light, that I almost missed them. I grabbed Emma and switched off the lights and we stood at the window and absorbed the munching, sighing and huffing sounds.

There were all sizes, from tiny babies to grandmothers that blocked out the moon rising behind them. They had no fear and came almost onto the porch to reach the sweet grass growing under our downspout. The herd moved slowly, taking what they wanted as they went past the house and into the bush. This is supposed to be a common occurence and it really makes living at Mpala a priviledge.

Battle won, but not yet the war

Spiro flicked his mangy tail at me from a tree outside the open dining room window. I said; "bring it on babe" and banged on the window glass. He ran away. Tasha 1 - 1 Spiro.

Home is where the heart is

I was reminded that I had written about the house but it was lost, so most of you don't know the juicy details. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a great room. All the rooms are large and airy with cement floors and wood ceilings. The furniture is sparse but adequate and mostly solidly made of pine.

One of the bathooms is just a loo and you have to put your foot against the door to keep it closed. The other is a full bath with a shower. The water is heated by solar power and as it has been unseasonably rainy we only have hot water at lunchtime before the thunderclouds roll in, and then only enough for one person. K and I have been trading off lunchtime showers on every other day.

The water is either from a borehole or is rainwater. The rainwater we boil before we drink and the borehole water is filtered as it has a high TDS (total dissolved solids.)

We do have a fridge with a tiny freezer but have to prepare food mostly from canned or fresh as the power to the house goes out from 10am til 6pm and then again from 10pm til 6:30am. The stove is gas and works really well. Everything bakes much faster that in ovens I have had previously so you have to watch carefully. Also the oven only has hot or not so hot as temperatures...

We have already claimed the house as our own, hanging the Velvet Elvii and spreading the mexican blanket over the couch.

The best feature of the house is the verandah. It is wide and the full length of the front of the house. There are two comfy chairs or a table to sit at. The view is outstanding, looking over hills green with acacias and then the foothills of Mount Kenya in the background. On clear days you can see the Mountain herself. You can often see Giraffe and Zebra in the distance. I am looking forward to putting some railings around the verandah so that I can hang out there without chasing Emma off the edge into the grass.

Uhoh!

There was a vervet on our verandah! Quite a big boy. I promise he won't go up my trousers. Heck, he could WEAR my trousers! He did go into the bathroom while we had the window open and door closed, so we know he is going to be a problem. Grrrreat.

Priscilla

Priscilla is the domestic who comes each day to clean. When I first heard that we would have a maid, I poo-poo'd the idea. After all, what else am I going to do with my day right?

The first day she came, she cleaned the floors. Then she did it the next day too. Washing floors is my absolutely most dreaded chore and she does it every day! What Heaven! What Bliss! She also washes the dishes and our clothes. That is really all that she does but wow, it makes a difference. No housework hanging over my head! No worries about what Emma is going to pick up from the dirty floors. (including Ghecko, mouse and squirrel poop) What is amusing is how now everyone has to take their shoes off at the door. You can imagine that the average Kenyan man is not so keen on that. It makes Priscilla giggle when I ask them to.

On the other hand, she has some definite opinions on how Emma should be raised. She has four of her own and we met three of them the other day. Firstly, Emma does not wear enough clothing. She should have a balaclava, a jersey, and jacket, socks and shoes. It's really hard to explain to someone who doesn't speak English that Emma is used to much colder climates and that the weather here is just balmy to us. (jeans and t-shirt most days) I have broken down however and unearthed shoes because I will agree that the cement floors are chilly. When Priscilla leaves I usually take the extra jersey off though as Emma gets red in the face and grumpy.

Emma already adores Priscilla and gets excited when she hears her voice at the door. Crawls speedily over to see her and then won't come back to Momom. Just one more person who is more fun than me, it's something I am getting used to.

Priscilla is the source of the name for my arch-nemesis. She can't pronounce squirrel as she speaks mostly Turkana and Swahili. Squirrel comes out as "Spiro". Spiro was a character in the Gerald Durrell books I read avidly as a child, (and still give me great entertainment as an adult) so it seems appropriate to name him that. My second choice was Voldemort.

Emma update

Emma is enjoying the really large space we have and is fully making it hers. We have set up two shelves of a bookshelf that comtain her toys and books and she has the best time unpacking them each day, like each toy is a whole new discovery. She also makes up little games for herself. She puts a toy on the shelf, then moves to stand on the side of the bookshelf and reaches around grunting like it is really hard to get the toy, peeking now and then to see how close her questing hand is. In the afternoons she likes a snack, a piece of apple or some cheerios in a bowl. Those she turns into a game too, but mostly it's a Momom game; "look Momom, I dumped all my cheerios on the floor, now you have to pick them up so I can do it again."
She is really close to standing. Quite often she will be leaning against a chair or the bookshelf and will let go to transfer a toy from one hand to another without noticing she is balancing on her own. She has also tried to stand up in the middle of the floor from downward dog, but so far these just result in faceplants and crying. I am teaching her to high five and it sets us both giggling. Me cos she really doesn't get it yet and her because she likes the little slap against her palm and my giggles. Then there is the opposite side to her, the dark side. At nearly nine months she has assessed that when we are having dinner, this is the best time to stick her fingers in the plugs/outlets. She spies it from a distance, crawls as fast as she can over there and pulls herself up on the wall. Then she looks back at our disapproving faces with a wicked, wicked grin and touches the outlet. She knows "no" and has chosen to ignore it. A swift smack on the hand had zero effect (maybe she thought I was high fiving with vigour?) So we hold her hands down against her body to make her stop. Anyone who has seen us try and horseshoe her into a carseat or stroller knows that Emma does not like to be restrained. So for the most part this is working. At least until we are trying to eat again, and she feels neglected.

She is definitely enjoying having me around all the time and has become super clingy. Crying when I leave to pee in the morning, even though she has Dadad, who, let's face it, is way more fun that I am. She is completely uninterested in the Dik dik or the birds and I can't wait for a Leopard or Lion to meander through our yard and see if she says "Kitty Cat!" as she was trying to hard to do at Grandma and Grandpa's place before we left.

Things that go bump in the night

Every night since our arrival we have heard the ominous and intimidating "whoop whoop" of the hyenas. Through the night you can track them as they move closer and then further away from the house. Mpala's director told us not to leave the house in the dark and wild zebras couldn't make me step off the porch when the hyenas start their evening's chorus. In fact, we lock the doors at sunset and don't open them again til sunrise. It feels silly to be paranoid but if my not so smart German shepherd figured out how to open unlocked doors, why not a hungry, (and in my demented mind; slavering) hyena?

Also, something is occupying the space between the roof and ceiling. I think actually a few somethings. There are squeaks that are likely bats, scritchings that could be birds and one really annoying, bouncy, thumpy thing which I think may be my arch nemesis.

Also we have a number of geckos occupying the spaces behind the curtains, pictures and dressers. They are at war. It is not a silent war. Who knew that they could even make noise? Let alone this much noise! Hissing, cackling, thuds and crashes abound each time Jason (the biggest, fattest one) faces off with one of the others. As far as I am concerned, there is no reason for his aggression, there are certainly more than enough bugs to go around!

sightings

A small bull Elly on the road in.
Impala also on the road in - appropriate
Dik dik, which they call Diki diki here. A couple of pairs live around our house and we see them all the time.
squirrels. grrr.
Zebra and giraffe who are slightly different from the one's we are used to.
Thompson's Gazelle, which are like sprinboks on steroids.
Goats and cows.

Many birds which will have to wait to be identified 'til we have a bird book.

The case against tight jeans

Today I had a squirrel in my trousers.

The chap who had the house before us was one of those people who thinks it's cute to feed wild animals. This included vervet monkeys, hornbills and a tree squirrel. The latter let me know earlier in the week that he should be admitted through the kitchen windows into the kitchen by tapping on the windows. When I denied him his entry he took it upon himself and has been coming in through any open entrance to the house. I have been keeping everything closed up except for the room we are in but today the maid opened the windows in the kitchen and then proceeded with her work in the rest of the house.

So I walked in on the little rotter digging through the trashcan and instead of exiting through the windows he ran for the first dark place he saw; my pantleg. He went straight up my calf, around my knee, where he had some difficulty, then up the back of my thigh, over my butt, up my t-shirt and out my sleeve. Leaving a trail of scratches, but thankfully no bites. All the while I was screaming my head off and leaping around trying to get my button and zip undone.

Thank goodness I a) have lost a little weight due to the lack of ice-cream, pizza and Chinese food and b) have been wearing the same trousers for four days so the blighter could make it up, up and over to escape finally out the back door between K's startled feet. I can't imagine what would have happened if he had encountered elastic, or a belt at the waistline.

It has taken me all day to recover from the fright and I am glaring pointedly out the windows at any and all squirrels. But I think he probably received as big a shock as I did and will not be back for a while. When he does return however, we will be ready for him. With a live trap so we can take him far, far, far away.

I also live in fear of the return of the vervet monkeys. Imagine one of THOSE in your trousers!

Arrived

We are here at Mpala and settling in. Of course there are bumps and bruises to deal with, very limited internet, and for four terrible days, no phone either. I have written a few posts offline but of course the computer ate the document somehow. So just keep checking back, when we get internet sorted I promise I will be a regular poster.

airports, airplanes and country of my birth

There is something otherworldly about the small piece of Nairobi that I have seen. Perhaps it is that all the scenes are like from a movie, the tall olive-green trees in a haze of dust, the transition from dirt to paved to dirt road, and the ubiquitous basket seller on the side of the road.

D's apartment is high up, looking out over the tops of the trees and I can hear the cars going by and the people speaking in a foreign language below us. It is a place of calm to drink tea and recover from 24 hours of travel.

We got in last night, very late after stopping through Brussels and Bujumbura. Emma was an angel and slept through most of the first flight and part of the second. She was definitely overtouched and tired by the end - as were we. We seem to not be too tired today as we all woke up this morning fairly fresh and Emma at least has napped. Now we are planning how to get out to Mpala and I almost wish we were staying here to watch the boughs of the huge Eucalyptus lean back and forth against the kitchen window.

There is something incredibly familiar about the smell here. It's acrid in the back of your throat but sweet in the nose.

The air is chilly, and Emma is unused to wearing this much clothing, each time we do her diaper she rails against putting trousers on, but man is she adorable in her little sweater. My brain is a little foggy and I feel like I could write a hundred little things about being here so will stop writing now, except to say that I adore parquet flooring.

You can Choose to be Embarrassed.

Emma, my mother in law and I went to the National Gallery the other day. Emma was awake for the whole trip through and was thoroughly enjoying the people watching in the French artists' exhibit halls.

When we got to the photographs of and by Allan Ginsberg, she decided that people watching was for the birds and it was time to be involved.

In public bathrooms that echo she has tested out her voice with a short, sharp and repeated "eh?" She loves to hear the sound it makes and listens to her question come back to her with pleasure. This is what she was doing in a large room in which people were taking themselves, the photos and the commentary written by Ginsberg very seriously. I found it highly amusing but didn't want to be the obnoxious parent who can't see that their child is annoying other people who want to be serious. To be honest, and maybe this is just my plebian self, but I agreed with her. The photos certainly warrented an "eh?" and the echoes were more fun too.

Headspace

The first leg of our journey is begun. The house was packed up and cleaned and all our worldly possesions are in a 10x10 storage unit. Minus 6 suitcases worth. Of course, as we were trying to fit everything into the truck, we were feeling very much like it would have been better to give most of it away. I realised how little attached I am to most of the things I put in boxes.

You never do know when nostalgia is going to poke it's thorny little head into your plans though. After a conversation with my sister I now wish I had packed my one remaining porcelain doll into a suitcase instead of a box.

This week of limbo is giving me time to adjust to the idea of where we are going and what our daily lives will really be like. Will I be able to walk outside in the nighttime and watch a heavy rain coming down, or will I then be sharing a porch with whatever large and potentially predatory creature decided to use it for cover? Will I be able to write this blog during the day or will I have to wait 'til the electricity comes back on in the evening? The hardest part for my personality is letting these thoughts flow out of my body and out into the world unanswered. I am counting the sleeps to when we walk in the door and see how we will live for the next year.