Taking a shower is an amusing endeavor these days. The borehole pump is broken and we have river water in our taps. Initially this was fine, the water was the colour of weak tea and you still felt like you were clean when you got done. In the past couple of weeks it has bucketed down and the river has swelled.

Now the water is more like builders tea, with leaves in it. Apparently the trick is not to use conditioner. A lesson I did not learn. The conditioner binds the mud to your hair and you are instantly blessed with dreads.

Emma is a bathwater drinker so you can imagine our reticence to bathing her in the tea. So we have come up with an overly complex plan. We take rain water and boil it in a pot, then use a UV light on it and then filter it. Then we re-boil it to be warm enough for her to bath in. We use just two liters for each bath and put her in the pool donated by a friendly visiting Mom.

This lovely clean water is too good to resist so often I take a bath in it too. Initially I would try and sit in her pool with my legs hanging over the end and pretty much just my butt in the water. When that proved ineffectual except for having a clean bottom I decided to stand in the water and use an empty yoghurt tub to "shower". In this way I get relatively clean.

 

Miscellany

There have been some large grey Heron's hanging around the Center recently and we have been speculating as to what they could be doing here. It has not been that wet that there could be an over abundance of frogs. Well Emma and I saw the answer in technicolour and up close a few days ago.

The heron was stalking the large pile of stones that protects the cistern up from up our house and suddenly it speared into the long grass with its beak. It held a mouse dangling from by the tail and let it wriggle there for a while.

Emma and I watched in fascinated horror, and on my part a little queasiness as the heron swung the mouse around and got him head first inside his beak. At this point the mouse started squeaking in pain or fright and I wondered at the wisdom of letting Emma witness this. I was so transfixed though that I couldn't move. A few beak snaps later and the mouse was in the Heron's gizzard where we could watch it wiggling and turning trying to get out.

Then the final horror as the Heron swallowed and we watched the still wriggling mouse get pushed down the gullet swallow by swallow. Even now, remembering and writing this down I feel a little like throwing up. Poor mouse, lucky Heron.

Emma update

Emma is now at 106 words and adding new ones every day! Her favourite of the week is Pawpaw. She has a little board book of fruits and we think she just loves the word rather than the fruit. She is also using "another one" and loves to point out things where there is another one; another one car, another one shoe, another one pigeon.
We are most excited that she is starting to string words together. Her first "sentence" being; "Emma come Dadad" when she wanted to go to K's arms. She can also count to three and when there are many of a particular thing she says; " wa, doo, tee, hamammam" as she can't seem to remember four.

How to drive yourself crazy

You could either do it a-la Jane in Coupling and open the fridge again and again to make sure the light has gone off or you can take the route I took last night as laid out below.

Settle your daughter back to sleep in the middle of the night. Then lie awake in your bed staring at the mosquito net and listening to the roof. Imagine that each conk, thud and nnk is the sound of a large and hungry predatory leopard crossing the roof to eat your baby. Then imagine you hear a noise outside that sounds like a leopard jumping off the roof. Leap out of bed, fight the mosquito net and dash to the window to peer out into the dark fearfully. Stand there for a while slapping at the mozzies munching your adrenaline fueled flesh and try and make cat shapes out of the bushes. Then convince yourself they were just the usual roof noises and there are no shapes in the bushes. Go back to bed. Rinse, repeat.

If you like, you can add the following:
Lie awake in your bed composing this blog and diligently ignoring the noises on the roof which really do sound ominous this time.

It's just not cricket.

Yesterday we went into Nanyuki to sign our lease and then stayed in town for a fundraising day of cricket. The cricket was to happen at the Braeburn school and of course we turned up on time but everyone else was on Kenyan time. So we took ourselves off to a coffee shop to waste a little time.

When we went back it was so a lovely scene. I have always loved cricket watched live. The hushed conversations of the fans on the sides, the quiet consultations in the middle of the pitch by the players and the muted thwack and occasional thud of the ball and bat connecting always makes me feel calm inside. In this scene the grass was a brilliant green and the players slow moving white against it. Behind them, and ignored was the statuesque mountain, wreathed in clouds and looking down ominously on the field.

We had a lovely morning of meeting new people and catching up with old friends but I also realised that this year is going to be hard work. It is always hard work to make new friends and meet new people. The first task of which is to remember their names, which neither K nor I are any good at. Ironically though, we are really good at remembering people's dogs names!

What's Next?

This is a question our little family has been asking every year since we got married. Four countries and ten houses in ten years. Last year this question led us to Kenya and this year it has led to us staying in Kenya for another year.

We will be moving to Nanyuki which is the nearest town and K will commute into Mpala three days a week. The little house we have found is on the same street as the Police Commissioner, which I am told means that when we lose power, have potholes etc, it is not for long. The house is much smaller and darker than our incredible house at Mpala but has the bonus of constant electricity and (Hallelujah!!!) hot water in the taps. No more splishing and splashing in Emma's used two inches of slightly chilled bathwater. The house has a lovely garden and porch so we will still have an outdoors to enjoy and we always have the option of going into Mpala with Keir for a day to visit our dikdiks and hornbills.

Most excitingly we have found a little school for Emma to attend, it is the Braeburn Nanyuki. The school has a lovely campus, in the shadow of Mt. Kenya with ranch style individual classrooms organised around gardens of different kinds and plenty of outdoor space for the kids to play in. There is also a petting zoo complete with turkeys! She will go for four hours, three days a week and initially I will go with her. It is really more like a play group than formal schooling and they focus on helping the children with language and social skills.

Walking around the school and watching Emma watch the other children and realising that we will be separated from one another gave me a heart stopping feeling of sadness and excitement. She is going to have so much fun being around the other children and having stimulation other than that which I give her. It also signifies a change in our lives, one where K and I are no longer the most important people in her life. I now understand this feeling of time fleeting by you that I noticed all adults have but did not feel as a child. It is knowing how precious and notable every single second of your child's life is, and knowing you will not remember each one but that they will come and go so quickly and never again be found.

Emma update

She is so excited about using words. Her current favourite is cow, which means cow, car and cloud. You know which one she means by the sounds she makes to accompany it. She has also become a big fan of pretending to drive the car, so we spend happy hours sitting in the car (when it isn't too hot) with her driving and me reading my book and making sure she doesn't break anything permanent. When she wants to tell me we should go in the car she points to her foot, which means go and then says cow until I break down and take her.

My current favourite is "whoops" that she says as "aaps". She says it for all kinds of occasions. When she drops something accidentally, when you drop something or even when she purposely drops something.

She has also discovered "no". She says it in such a cute way. You ask if you can have kisses and she tilts her head, shakes her curls and says; "Nooooooooooo".

Have you decided?

So the day after the leopard peered into E's bedroom window the head of security told us a scary story. A few years ago, the neighbouring house had a dog. There was a leopard who broke the glass in a window to get to the dog. Naturally we then moved E's crib back into our bedroom so that now she is just a foot away from me.

We have been taking the screens out of the windows, locking the doors and cringing at every ping or pong the roof makes. It is not a healthy way to live! Other news that I cannot decide if it makes me feel worse or better; leopards hang out around the center a lot and have probably been around before when we didn't know it.

Ask yourself: are you predator, or prey?

It's 11:19, 41 minutes from midnight. My legs are shaking, I have the beginnings of an adreneline headache and I feel like my whole body is twitching.

Just 10 minutes ago, Emma stirred in her bed, then woke fully and cried for me. I got up to go to her and as I did there was a really loud thumpety thump on the roof. It sounded like something really heavy landing and then running across the roof to the other side of the house. I went in to Emma, picked her up and shushed her, then lay her down. During this time there were a few quieter thuds as whatever it was moved back to our side of the roof.

It's full moon so I went to the partially closed curtain to look out at the landscape washed into pale shadows. My heart stopped. Something moved underneath the window. I thought at first it was the monkey that has been plaguing us. Then it slunk under the window ledge, from one window to the other. A full grown leopard! Shoulders tall as the window sill, heavy, muscled, soft and quiet. It's head perfectly balanced between it's shoulders and it's long tail hanging loose and straight behind. I quickly stepped behind the closed curtain and the leopard stood up on the sill and peered and snuffed at the crack in the closed window.

For a heartbeat we stood as we were, with just window panes and curtains between us. Then it stepped down and moved back under the window and around the corner. I dashed next door to our room, whisper-yelled to K to get in the room with me. He woke in a panic and came in with me. I felt the need to close and lock the door and then explained to him what I had seen. He appeared disbelieving but claimed to believe me. We stood for a while at the window, looking out, exclaiming in hushed tones at one another when suddenly I saw the unmistakable white butt of the monkey. It was up the pathway from the house, having just descended from the water tower. It froze, looking over its shoulder at the house. We froze too.

We could see the shadow of the roof on the ground, and it undulated as something slipped noiselessly along it. Then the gutter gave it away with a groan and the monkey sped up the pathway and into the bush. The leopard ran along the rest of the house, lept off the roof and onto the water tank, then down in a one-two-three motion and was off up the path as fast as a slip of the tongue.

Oh! Another thud on the roof as I type! We are both locked into Emma's bedroom, thankfully there is another bed in here. K has managed to fall back to sleep and I can hear his breathing in tandem with Emma's coming from her crib but I do not think I will be able to sleep. I will be lying waiting for tell-tale creaks and thumps from above.

Hippo pools - not just hippos.

Our friends came out from the UK recently and we decided to stop at Hippo pools to see what could be seen on our way to visit the Ranch house. The pools kept us entranced for hours and we never made it to the Ranch house.

As we rounded the corner on the drive to the pools, we could see the opposite bank between the thorn trees. It looked like there were large, slightly purple rocks covering the bank and as we came all the way around the corner we couldn't believe our luck. 14 hippos were out sunning themselves. What awe inspiring creatures they are! Purplish black except under their chins and bellies where they are a startling pink. Their heads are no less than a third the size of their bodies and their yawns remind you of how deadly those yellowed arm-width teeth can be. We watched the hippos for a long time. The adults watching long after the children had completely lost interest. They put on a perfect show for us, not just lounging around but also having occasional farts, rumbles, and laughs and even one disturbance when a young one got up before nap time was over.

When the children became too restless we decided to walk over to the falls on the other side of the curve in the river and when we came back we were stopped in our tracks as a large bull elephant took our breath away. He was also on the opposite bank, thankfully and we were able to go and stand safely close to the car and watch him drink. We quickly realised he was accompanied by another chap who also came down to drink. We were amused with watching them for at least an hour, during which time Emma's new bff "drove" the car and Emma had a fat nap in the back of the car. At one point the first elephant just had an itch he had to scratch and hilariously rubbed his not-insubstantial backside vigorously back and forth against a fallen tree.

While the elephants were there a zebra and some impala just couldn't get up the nerve to come down to the water. A few large warthog had no such compunction and rooted around in the dirt behind the elephants. Once the elephants left we started to notice the birds around the pools. A stunning pied kingfisher was darting about and making dives. A yellow billed stork was fishing with dedicated skill until he caught one that was just too large to fit in his mouth, no matter which way he tossed it in the air and he eventually lost it.

Into this scene of tranquility came the most graceful beast in Africa. Five giraffe, hesitantly came down to the river and drank. Or, in some cases, tried to drink. One couldn't get himself down far enough to dip into the water from the bank. They were very cautious about coming down to the water and when you see how they have to prostrate themselves, legs wide open to get to the water you can see why it takes them so long to come to the river. And also why they leave so quickly if disturbed.

This was easily my most pleasant morning spent at Mpala and I was so lucky to share it with really good friends. The day was topped off by large afternoon naps and a Thunderstorm that turned our driveway and front yard into a river. Mpala bliss I call it.

Vanquished: a tale of the final battle

This was the final straw. A beautiful new bowl for my birthday, some ripening tropical fruit and a rat-faced, fluffy tailed, flea-infested fruit bowl violater. Spiro came into the house, he sampled and was chased out by my irate self. He then came back with his little buddies and the three of them had a partaay on my mangos.

I decided it was time, no more Mr. Nice Guy, no more tolerance. I borrowed traps, I baited them with the self same mangoes they had already destroyed and I set them just inside the door. Hah! Snap! Bang! Caught four of the little blighters.

Oh the pleasure I took in finding them new homes. One lovely spot down at the river, all the Fever tree they could climb. On the road to Nanyuki, just a few more kms and they could become town squirrels. Plus on the way to the tower where they could flick their tails at passing researchers.

What bliss, what heaven, what open windows and doors!

But lo, there is a fly in my ointmenteth! Now a Vervet, large, unafraid and aggressive with balls the colour of the Windhoek Swimming Pool has found my bowl, and the stash of Avos on top of the fridge. This time there will be no mercy, I will give no quarter. We have already set the traps. He has eluded them, but I have at least .2% more genetics than he does in my favour!

Emma update

We had visitors recently who have a two and half year old boy. Emma was so in love with him. She followed him around and stared, learning as much as she could from him. The biggest development being that now she understands how to use words to communicate. Her babbling has changed from just chatter to being directed, She really wants you to listen and understand.

The other day she climbed up in my lap, looked at me with sparkling eyes and a smile and said "more booze?" I KNOW she didn't mean alcohol so we spent a frustrating 20 mins trying to work out what booze means. I never did figure it out.

She also learned the sign for more, which is to bump your fingers together. She does this while saying more. She has also learned the word for cheese. So anyone who has watched Wallace and Gromit will have a lovely visual when I say that she bumps her hands together and says "more cheeeeese"

At last her canines are showing themselves so now only the last molars and we are done! Cannot wait for that pain to be over.

Her little two year old friend had lovely wellies and we went stomping through the mud and puddles with him. She loved it so much that she regularly requests puddles and we are looking for wellies for her.

Cooking!

I had an exciting day! I made jam for the first time. Deliscious, scrumptious Mango Jam. It is such an easy recipe I don't think we will ever have to buy jam again.

Mango Jam Recipe

3 mangos
1 C water
1 ½ C sugar
1 Tbs vinegar
pinch salt

Peel and cut mangos into 1/2 inch pieces. Put in blender with water Bring to a boil on medium high. Then reduce heat to medium and boil slowly for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat to med-low and simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until thickened.

Move pot from stove and set aside to cool.
Transfer into boiled jars.

This recipe makes about 12 ounces.
Of course you can increase the amount if you need to.

Emma update

She is really getting into saying words. This week she has been interested in words beginning with "m" or with the sound "oo"in them. Of course, Moo was a natural starter but she has also started saying Broom, Room, Poop and Mole. Mole because I have a mole on my knee and she wanted to know (repeatedly) what it was. Then I showed her that she has one too and from there she just loves the word. Poop came from the large cowpats dotting the center recently and anyone who knows me, knows where broom comes from.

Most of her other "words" are sounds that are close to the word but the same sounds for a number of words.

"Ow!" for when she gets hurt and also "ow" for out.

"oh" for discovering something new and also for "open"

She has become far happier about letting me change her diaper and will even go into her room and climb up on the bed saying "Di" when I say it is time for a change. K yesterday told her that we would be going to Aunty D's house and she very excitedly said "Di!"

Miscelleny

Chocoholic
I decided that the size of my belly needs massive reduction and so I banned chocolate from the house. This has been a massive failure the size of... well of my belly. As I sit here I have in my mouth an empty spoon. What was in it? Nutella. I have raided all forms of chocolate in our house to get my fix. I even baked brownies one night. This is a lesson to me. Give up something else. And please - until you have played ring-a-rosie with Emma sixty-eight times in a row, don't tell me to get more exercise.

Boo
There is a group of students studying at the Center at the moment. They are very young and make me feel very old. Things that they do that make me feel old include the boys throwing water balloons at the girls and the girls not wearing enough clothing on chilly evenings. (Or warm evenings) A few of them like to jog around the ring road at dusk, and it makes me tut-tut that they could get eaten or gored by some creature. But here is the thing. It brings out the evil in me. I really want to hide behind a bush and then LEAP out at them with a ROAR. Even thinking about it I am giggling in a mini-me kind of way. See, you can feel old and still be completely juvenile.

The African Jungle
Recently our dining chairs were re-upholstered with a lovely giraffe print. Our couch is currently covered in some hideous palm tree sort of thing and we are going to get it re-upholstered too. I really want to do it in a zebra print to go with the giraffe. It is a large couch and it could be REALLY bad. There is a part of me, (perhaps I have some Mob wife in my heritage) that just wants a zebra covered couch. Emma and I can pretend to look at it through the binoculars, or pet it like we are in a zoo. I could make some fluffy lime green throw pillows to go on it. OOooh, I LIKE that!

Progeny
I think our Dikdik has had a baby. There was another family around but they never responded to my calls. Today I saw a family of dikdiks and when I called the female took a few steps towards me but didn't come any closer. We did think she was awfully fat for a dikdik, but had put that down to the banana peels we had been feeding her during Emma's dinners.

The Ants went marching two by two... Hurrah! Hurrah!

For months we have been plagued, literally plagued, as in, like a plague on our house, by ants. So many ants, millions, nay gagillions of ants. They have even been coming in through the cracks in the walls and floors of the house.

This is how bad they have been:
- When Emma has a cracker and is walking around the house eating it - you can hear them chanting: Crumbs! Crumbs! Crumbs! Crumbs!
- K, after cooking dinner one night, said to me: with all these ants around it's best just to cook with a lot of black pepper.
- They were in the fridge!
- anything left in the kitchen not immersed in water became immediately black instead of green/yellow/etc.
- We have not been able to give Emma milk at night because the ants climb INSIDE her bottle or sippy cup.
- If Emma spills food down her front, we have to change her clothes because the ants will climb her to get to it.

I instituted some house rules. Emma eats outside or in her chair and nowhere else. Dishes are immersed in soapy water immediately. All food products go into tupperwares. The drain in the back of the fridge where the ants were coming in is corked and released only periodically. All cracks in the house are gummed up with caulk.

Then at last some rain came. Oh blessed heaven, the ants have left! But, don't heave a sigh of relief yet! They have been replaced with beetles! Thin ones, thick ones, black ones, red ones. Ones as fat as your thumb! Beetles that click, beetles that clack and beetles you find in your bed! Also... beetles you find in your food. It's much harder to pretend; "oh my, that was a crunchy piece of black pepper dear!"

And a good moo-ning to you too Sirrah!

It has been so dry around Mpala that the ranch's cows have come down to the Center and our house to graze. This has been a fabulous opportunity for Emma to learn about cows and she is fascinated and excited each time they come through and has even learned to moo in a deep voice just like they do.

Yesterday they came through the yard slowly, crunching the grass and lowing almost mournfully. Emma and I dashed out as we do and sat in the comfy chairs to watch them go by. Presently the Askari who tends them came past the front of the porch where we were sitting. He was startled by us and looked askance in our direction but kept going. He collected the cows around the side of the house and while doing so kept looking our way. Then he moved across the driveway to the cows there but still kept looking at us. I was starting to wonder if perhaps he had not seen many mzungu (white) women and children and what was so fascinating about us.

Finally the cows and the staring Askari moved off and Emma and I sat in silence for a while looking at the view. Then it hit me. We were sitting in silence. For about half an hour we had been mooing in ominous tones, at the tops of our voices and with great gusto! The poor Askari - never mind mzungu... maybe just nuts!

Mmmmmmmmmmooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Belly Buttons and Umbilical Cords

Recently Emma has become even more obsessed with belly buttons, lifting everyone's shirts to see if they have one, what shape it is, and how fast they can suck in their belly when it is exposed to view. She also lifts her shirt to show you she has one too and pokes her bony little finger in as far as she can to whichever button is closest.

She still likes to put her finger in mine as she nurses to sleep. This slight discomfort gives me more than ample time to contemplate something I really would not think about at all. And truly, it is possible that belly buttons are in fact profound.

Of course our entire being exists because of our Mother and her body's ability to grow a human being, complete with passions, happinesses and toenails but here on each of our bodies is a very specific spot that, if we take a moment, reminds us of all that.

No matter your relationship with your mother or how grown you are, you can always put your finger in your belly button and remember that you reverberated with her heartbeat, bounced in each of her steps and had her love flowing down the umbilical cord and into you.

Emma update

I taught her how to play ring-a-rosie today and she loved it, especially the part where I fall down. It's a slippery slope though, because, as with all things energetic, she wants to play again and again. So I have to get up and fall down about a hundred times before we can move on to another game.

Her words are increasing but mostly she babbles in a language indistinguishable to anyone except her. She can say the following though:
Mom, Dad, cow, cat, there, hi, bye, where and an impressive array of animal noises. These include pounding her own chest and hooting like a gorilla, raising her fists like a boxer and growling like a lion and going bltthhhttt like an elephant.

She loves to play hide and seek, and likes to make you hide with her. This sometimes means that it is she and I hiding behind a door with no-one looking for us. We usually stand for a while, looking through the gap between the frame and door and then jump out at no-one. We were doing just this the other day when I heard her going blthtt like she had something in her mouth that was bad. When I looked down she had her finger on her mouth and was trying to say shhhh. Too cute!

Look around, this is your hometown

Driving around Nakuru I felt I was in a surreal time-warp. Knowing that these were the roads my parents (and I) travelled over 30 years ago. Each building held a possible conversation, a possible meeting, each grocery store could be a place where my mother chose what she would make for dinner. I had few details of where and what they did in Nakuru so the possibilities for connections were endless.

In a way this was good, it allowed me to just absorb the town, to revel in the feeling of strangeness and to try and imagine my parents as young adults with a new baby living in this place.

As a town it is no different from any of the others we have seen in Kenya with terrible drivers, red dust and brightly coloured advertisements every which way you look. So I allowed my imagination to roam free. Here was a clothes shop where Mom got the red and white nightgown she wore 'til the holes in it were so big it no longer provided warmth. Here were the offices that Dad went to visit clients in. Here was the Chemist my grandfather worked in, etc. etc.

It was in the midst of one of these reveries that K and D got very excited and pulled off into a neighbourhood, following signs for the Nakuru War Memorial hospital. We passed a funeral procession, and parked. Here was something I did not need to imagine. Here I was born. Here was a piece of me, of my lore. Perhaps it was my imagination run amuck but I did feel something, something like home, something like the comfort of a place well loved. I also added something new to who I am, here I visited the place of my birth with my husband, and child and best friend.