it's the little things

There are things about our lives here that we'll never have anywhere else.

My oven has only two settings: on and off. Also, one of the stove top buttons shoots off across the kitchen floor when the oven is preheated.

I have seen the following on motorcycles(not including the drivers of the motorbikes):
A three seater couch
A cow
Five children in school uniform (yes - that makes a total of 6 people on a bike)
A half dozen six foot two by fours
A rain water barrel the size of two bathtubs
A bathtub

Diarrhea meds with ingredients banned decades ago by the FDA and costing 50c

Invasions of flying, black crickets who can't navigate in the air

Restaurants with four dogs who put their heads in your lap while you are eating and a cat who wanders across the table.

Trucks where you can see all four wheels because the axles are so damaged the truck drives sideways towards you.

Speed-bumps are built exclusively by women. There is no explanation for this, it apparently "just is".

Obstacles to driving which include: cows; camels; sheep; goats; bicycles; motorbikes; trucks driving sideways; people; giraffes; donkey carts; trucks which can't make it up hills. Frequently all of the above will be on the same piece of road.

Class board follow up

Here is Em's board as they have worked on it further. It is just lovely how each day the teacher talks through the board and the children enthusiastically discuss and point and name all the points on it.

Valentines Preview

We lie on the bed, my toes touching his
and our arms touching across the pillows.
We make a heart shape in which she is
snoring softly, head against his chest
and feet tucked into my armpit.
Saturday nap bliss.

A day all about the babies

Today we drove out to a friend's house for a pancake breakfast (with chocolate chips!) She lives on Elkorama which is a farm adjacent to Mpala so it is always quite a drive, but we often get lucky and see some wildlife.

Our first sighting were some lovely Giraffes, a male, a female and a baby who only just came up to his Mom's tummy. Not a great photo as I only thought to get the camera out when they were moving away from us.



Then as we were coming up to the house we stopped for some ellies and quickly realised that one of them was not much bigger than Emma! Well... maybe a little bigger, but SO cute. He was with two other elephants, a large and a medium sized. He was horsing around with the medium sized one and she was doing her best to ignore him. I decided she had to be his older sister.



I liked this pic that K took of us watching the ellies, not just because it is Emma watching elephants but also because my hair looks awesome.

Soon after we arrived L told us that one of her guides had found the cubs of the leopard who has been eating the rock hyraxes from outside her house. As an aside here, the hyraxes climb into her engine block to hide from the female leopard. A fact that just tickles me for some reason. The girls climbed into the car and K stayed back to tend the bacon and Emma. We drove almost to the border of Mpala ranch, and then drove some more into the bush and off the road, watching out for thorn branches whacking into the car. Then we parked and walked down a hill and back up the next and up onto a kopje. (Rock outcropping with ubiquitous fig tree growing on top.)


Now during this little walk I was becoming uncomfortably aware of a number of things.
a) I did not bring my hat and I was definitely wearing town shoes.
b) Where there are baby leopards there is a mother.
c) I have previously had a close encounter with a leopard and didn't like it.
d) The bush around us was getting thicker and harder to see through.
e) I was the last person in the line of people walking towards the kopje.

Thankfully we arrived as this somewhat horrifying list appeared in my mind. We hung back while one of the guides hopped up into the rocks to check for the adult leopard. I was glad not to have his job. Then we clambered through the grass and came upon a large rock wedged between two others making a sandy bottomed cave beneath them. Initially I had a bad angle and this is all I could see.

Then I moved around to the top of the rocks, casting about with a wary eye for a cross mommy and got a look at the babies. Oh how lovely! Bundles of fur, confused and squirming, not looking at us and with dark spots and squashed faces! There were three but I only saw the two. I was completely enchanted for a few moments just looking at these tiny helpless creatures and imagining the graceful predatory lives ahead of them. Then one of the few swahili words I understand made it into my consciousness. Mzea. Wait, isn't that like, Daddy? Or Man? or possibly Big Man? Turns out the guides had seen a male leopard hanging around that morning as well as the female. My reptilian brain began to chitter in the back of my head in quite a severe way and I was more than happy to traipse off into the bush again. Leaving the cubs snuggled together in the shade and dust.




I have also added this blurred one as a demonstration of my hands shaking after the mention of Mzea.

And here we are again...

Day zero of chocolate free household:
- Notice that noticeably less of feet are showing beneath belly. Not pregnant, so not a good sign.
- Also notice that belly no longer goes away when flat on back. See point above re pregnancy.
- Decide to have a chocolate free home.
- Walk resolutely past chocolate aisle with no signs of weakness in grocery store.

Day one of chocolate free household:
- Morning, no problem!
- Afternoon, discover unexpected boon of half a bounty bar in bedside table. A little old with a few ants but who cares!

Day two of chocolate free household:
- Can we still call it day two if chocolate was consumed on day one? Confident head nod. Yes!

Day three of chocolate free household:
- Nutella by the spoon, use plastic spatula to get remnants from jar. Search rest of pantry for more.

Day four of chocolate free household:
- Eat the following snacks post dinner;
small amount of old ice-cream, mango flavour. (It's like eating fruit.)
ginger cookies
popcorn
cup hot milo

Day five of chocolate free household:
- Gibbering wreck by lunch. Cursing fact that car is in shop, consider walking to find chocolate.
- Question husband intensely as to whether he may have some hidden in his office.
- Consider baking chocolate cake.
- Instead, surf cooking websites to look at pictures of brownies. Promise myself to one day make these:
http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2012/02/02/simple-super-bowl-sunday-dessert-mini-peanut-butter-brownies/

We'll see what day six brings. I'm rooting for acceptance and closing my belt.