Birthday Celebration at the Tembo Club

Tembo is swahili for elephant. This place only serves Nyama Choma (grilled meat: in this case only goat and chicken) and sides (french fries, ugali - corn porridge). We thought this would be a fun place to celebrate Anderson's birthday. The kids got a kick out of the appearance and had a fun time running around on the lawn. The food was very good and the goat was much better than the first (only other) time I've had it. Much more tender. Tierney even tried the goat and said she like it and both Ashlyn and Tierney ate the ugali. They are getting a little more adventurous all the time.

Then we went to Africafe for some chocolate muffins and ice cream.

Learning New Things Every Day

Now that we finally have a nanny, I had part of a day to do some errands. Joey took me to the central market in Arusha as part of this. It's what you picture an african market to be (although relatively quiet on a Friday morning). Baskets on beans, meat hanging from hooks, piles of dried fish, produce, baskets, etc. You definitely have to be prepared to be hassled a little, but everyone was very polite even as they were trying to lead us to their stalls. I imagine that as a white girl with almost no swahili, I wouldn't get anywhere near the best price, but I figure another dollar won't hurt me, but it will probably help them, so that's fine. I also made a stop at the pharmacy with Joey (very helpful to go to a foreign pharmacy with a doctor leading the way). We went specifically to buy Benadryl for Ashlyn for her mosquito bites. Well, we learned that Benadryl has been banned in all of East Africa because it was being used to often to sedate kids (good thing we never do that in the US - ha, ha). We did get an alternative and she slept really well after taking it ;)

We got to see a few interesting things this week, too. We went out to dinner on Wednesday and there were vervet monkeys running along the wall - super fun for the kids. On Friday at school we saw a fruit bat hanging from a bush just outside the kindergarten area. It seemed to have a broken wing from one of the horn-billed birds. He didn't seem too bothered by us.

We've also realized that there are a few things that the girls (maybe even the boy) have gotten here that never would have happened at home i.e. Fanta (orange soda). Not surprisingly, they all seemed to love it especially after the 2.75 mile hike we did around the lake last weekend (even though they did say it was 'spicy').

We have been spending a lot of time swimming lately. The rains seemed to have stopped, so we aren't getting the relief from the heat. Between swimming at school and swimming at the local club, the kids are probably swimming 4 times a week. Tierney has improved dramatically since we've been here and Anderson seems to have no innate fear of the water. He just jumps in when you least expect it and he doesn't seem phased at all if his head goes under water...this probably isn't totally a good thing. TGT (the club that we joined) has workout facilities, pool (beautiful views of Meru), tennis courts, playground, rugby fields, and two restaurants (one fancy, one casual that is out on a lawn next to the playground). It's such a great resource and we're so excited that it's so close to school, TNC and our new house.

Birthday Boy

Anderson woke up this morning and says "MY birfday. Two!" while holding up two fingers. It's fun that he's so excited about it. We probably won't celebrate until Sunday since Ashlyn has birthday parties after school today and tomorrow and another on Saturday. Also our oven is supposedly fixed now, so maybe I can even make him some special treat. So, for today we started by a bike ride around Themi Suites with a stop to smell the flowers and then a morning nap (crashed in the chair by 10:30). Life is good for the birthday boy.


Things are looking optimistic to move into our house in about two weeks. Our friends are putting all of their items in storage and said we can borrow some furniture until our sea shipment arrives (which best case won't be until early March). That means we can have real beds and a couch to sit on - yeah! We're excited at the idea of getting out of the temp housing.

Anderson's first day with Mama Jackie was a success. And I did find out why she goes by Mama Jackie when her name is Martha...her eldest daughter is Jacqueline, so she's mama jackie. Mystery solved. When we dropped her off yesterday Anderson said "me, sad". The girls will get to meet her tomorrow morning before school. I've asked her to come at 7, so I can take them in without having to drag Anderson across town with me...I think I'm going to like this.

Here's a short video of Anderson when he found a butterfly (moth?) in our laundry room today. He got a little excited. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7LPYbjuFUw

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man!

Better late than never - zebra feeding

I keep forgetting to post this from a while ago (photo hijacked from Joey since I forgot the memory card for the camera - oops). This is Ashlyn , Anderson, Cole and Birch feeding the zebras (Tierney was there, too, she's just not in the pic).

Since we've been here Tierney and Ashlyn have been invited to 6 birthday parties (yes, we've been here less than 3 weeks)! We've declined only one so far, but this is crazy. I have no idea what presents to get and I wish I had stocked up on a few things before we left the states. Two are this weekend (not including Anderson's). More creative shopping to do.

Matt and I are researching dining tables and beds for the new house. I'm sort of thinking of something made from the old dhow boats (from Zanzibar)....

((I opened a can of diet coke today that was old school pull-tab)).

Meet Mama Jackie

Yep...I think we've found ourselves a nanny. Yeah! Her name is Martha, but goes by Mama Jackie (??? I'll have to ask her about that sometime). She used to be the nanny/cook/all around helper for our friends Paul and Fini (the ones with the zebras), so she came highly recommended. She worked for them for 12 years until the kids went off to boarding school. Anderson took to her right away and I even ventured off to the store all by myself without a single tear, and I also got to get an hour or so of work in while he was in the same room! While we are in temp housing, we've asked her to come 3 days a week until naptime. When we move into our house she'll become full time. I'm so excited. We walked her downstairs when she left today and Anderson wanted her to "come upstairs" again. High praise indeed.

In other good news, we signed a lease on our Boulder house starting February 1 to a couple with a dog and baby on the way. The house should be perfect for them. It's a good thing we now have the mortgage covered because I just paid $7.50 for a box of Cheerios - yikes!

((Why did no one ever tell me about the goodness of Nutella before??))

Lake Duluti

We went for an easy 4.5km walk around Lake Duluti today (Sunday) which is inside a forest reserve 15 minutes from Arusha. It was nice to be in the woods and see the old growth forest - huge sycamore figs and many other species I can't yet identify.


















We saw a few birds including:

• Malachite Kingfisher, African Pigmy Kingfisher, African Fish Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Great Cormorant, Little Billed and Little Egrets, Black Headed Heron, African Pied Wagtail, Black and White Casqued Hornbill, White-billed Buffalo Weaver, Starlings

Resiliency

Slowly we are catching our breath here and finding a pace and a set of routines that seem to work for now. I am impressed with the kid's ability to adapt- they have hit the ground running at school, have been to three birthday parties, have declared mango their favorite new food, are slowly learning kiswahili words and are able to talk about the different cultural practices here. Lisa is a champion as always. Her resiliency is fantastic - she's mastered shopping for produce and staples (4 different stores), driving in a place that makes Boston driving seem like child's play, staying home with Anderson all day and doing all this while I leave for a week after just arriving.

It feels good to be here. This was the right decision. This week I was able to attend a national chimpanzee conservation planning workshop is Dar es Salaam then hop down to Lusaka Zambia for other meetings and be home by 8pm Friday night. The response I get when I say I am living in Tanzania is so much warmer and positive than when I previously said Colorado. Folks I work with believe in being here to show a commitment to place and purpose. And while we are developing a routine, I realize we are still fresh off the boat have many things to learn and many things to get wrong and right. But I am assured that we will adapt and figure this out. We are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.

Birch

One other thing about the circus.....at one point during the show they asked for volunteers.  Birch turns around and says to Joey "raise your hand", so Joey did.  Then they chose another girl and Birch says disappointedly "she always gets picked".  Too funny.

ISM's Safi Circus

The girls performed at ISM's Safi Circus last night. I was so proud of them for getting up there with their classes after they'd only been at school for a week. I think they really loved doing it. Ashlyn's class acted as "mini beasts" (bugs). They've been working it into the curriculum and they've been busy identifying and finding bugs all around school and learning about how they move. They've learned that insects are important to life on earth how they are important for a food chain, etc. It's really interesting how they work it all together. Tierney's class' theme was "My incredible body" with the idea that the body is an amazing machine with special parts that do special jobs. They learned about the functions of different parts of the body and learned about how the body moves. So, for the circus they got to be the 'acrobats'. I was impressed with the whole idea as well as the circus itself. And this definitely wasn't something that you could probably do at a school in the US. They had kids climbing up ropes to the ceiling (with just a small mat underneath), etc. Very fun though.

Here are a couple of videos (apologies to non-grandparents watching):

Ashlyn's class entrance (she's second to last):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_k5w4TqOc8

Ashlyn 'performs' (very dark, sorry):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRBpYVs-zl0

Tierney's class as acrobats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTevGu3CZzk

Closing song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3T7_hmx4FA

Anderson even had a great time watching the performance. We also had a great view of Mt. Meru before the circus. Most days you can't even see it because it's surrounded by clouds, but not then.

The highlight of my day today was produce shopping. Ashlyn stayed home from school today for a special 'nap' day. She's been miserable and unreasonable and fell asleep on her teacher's lap yesterday (after a meltdown at drop-off). So, I had the pleasure of dealing with two overtired kids for the morning. Naps were finally had - yeah!

Tierney's new accent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr-5UzvWz7c

In swahili she says "Water. You understand English a little?" then switches to what she calls her "Swahili English"....I think she must have a few British kids in her class.

(This is a test to see if I can e-mail my posts in).

*** edited for correct link

Produce Day

Anderson and I started the day with a nice relaxed breakfast out on the patio (thanks to Joey for taking the girls to school)

Then Anderson and I went to buy some veggies and fruit because Tuesday is one of the two days that she comes to town. It's basically just someone's patio with crates of all the different things she grown on her farm. I ran in to our friend Fini there and she was showing me some good herbs to use in soups. Of course, i didn't know what any of them where and she doesn't know US names for them, so I didn't risk it today. Maybe next time. Joey and I did discover that she sells bags of mixed greens for salads - they look just like a bag of spring salad mix. Very convenient. Anderson loves looking into the baskets and pulling stuff out...although I wasn't too happy when he just picked up a carrot and took a bite out of it.

Yesterday I got to school a little early (President was in town and it had messed up my driving already that day) and Tierney and Ashlyn were on their way back from circus practice. Ashlyn's class is all dressed as "Minibeasts" and Tierney is supposed to dress in her yellow polo (still not quite sure what they do).

With the president in town yesterday, town was a bit difficult to navigate. I tried to get to the Meat King (local butcher shop) to do my weekly meat run, but I couldn't figure out how to get there with the main road through town blocked off. I'm sure once I figure out some back routes it won't stop me like it did yesterday, but after getting turned around twice I just gave up. Then again on the way home from school, the police rerouted me. Unlike the US, there was no detour route, just a "you can't go this way". So I drove down a random road until I just turned back around and hoped his motorcade had passed through. This was all after I got pulled over on the way to ISM. Still not sure what I did/didn't do, but the policeman waved me over. He asked me "Is he yours?" (motioning to a Anderson in the back). I answered yes and said he was cranky because I had to wake him up from his nap to go get his sisters at school. He then said "He's cute. Ok, move along". ??? I figured I was going to be asked to pay my "fine" right there or something, but I don't know the appropriate amounts, etc. so I was nervous. Good thing I had Anderson with me . Phew.

Just got a note from Matt that he got to have a one-on-one conversation with Jane Goodall today while he is at a workshop in Dar Es Salaam (capital of Tanzania). How cool is that?!

Back to the grind

It seems like the new routine has worn the kids out. After several meltdowns this weekend, we decided to lay pretty low today. We went to the fancy coffee lodge for lunch and actually got all kids to take a nap (at the same time!). The kids had a great time collecting all the fallen avocados around us. (I told Tierney and Ashlyn they could each bring 3 home if they promised to try them). Now that we are in the routine of school it feels like a regular Sunday night: packing backpacks, putting homework in bags, getting snacks ready, etc. (picture from dinner at our friends' Fini and Paul's house).

Tierney had her first birthday party on Saturday. We told her that she didn't need to go since she'd only been in school 3 days, but she really wanted to go. She was also okay with us dropping her off at the party and leaving. We were very impressed. It was a pool party with only girls, so I think that helped. The parents said she had a good time, but was quite shy. It turns out that this family also is renting a house from our landlords here...funny coincidence. The family is from Madagascar and they are in Arusha with the UN. Ashlyn wanted to know how they came out of the movie to live here ;)

Tonight I had my first Tanzanian frustration while cooking dinner. I was planning on making homemade chicken nuggets for the kids and baked parmesan chicken for the adults - not too hard when you have an oven that doesn't blow the fuse anytime it's been on longer than 5 minutes. At least I had boiled the chicken first (to try and tenderize it a little), so all I really needed to do was brown the outside. After blowing the fuse 5 or so times I finally gave up and had Matt cook them on the stovetop. It made for a much longer process (and a much crankier Lisa), but they were all eaten, so they must have been ok (or the kids were so hungry after waiting so long that it didn't matter).

I'm looking forward to a US holiday tomorrow, so that I can get some shopping done and just play with Anderson while the kids are at school. Ashlyn has her first birthday party after school tomorrow and Tierney is going to participate in ISM's Safi Circus that the school is putting on this Thursday (Safi means safe or clean in Swahili....not sure how a circus is safi?). She and Birch are a little late to the program, so I'm not exactly sure what her role will be, but she says she wants to be there for both the day and evening performances.

My next task will be to take some pictures of the local stores, sites, produce, and maybe even some of our temp housing (like this one in our dining area). I'm also trying to note the things that the kids are taking to...for example Ashlyn loves to use the bidet when she goes to the bathroom.

Matt takes off tomorrow morning until Friday night (to the capital of Dar Es Salaam and to Lusaka, Zambia) and David is also out of town most of this week (to Nairobi, Kenya). It will be a good test for Joey and me although it will be nice to not have to figure how they are getting home from work...this one car thing is hard when school and TNC are on the other side of town. I'm pretty sure this will be the week that I use the one box of mac and cheese that I have.

A little video of Anderson and his "dump truck"....I find it inappropriately hysterical how it sounds like (dumb f#*&)

First Day of School

So, today was the first day of school (and Ashlyn's official start of kindergarten). I think they both loved it. I haven't heard anything negative, and they didn't even complain that they had to eat school lunch - huge triumph! I think it helped a lot that Birch and Cole were there with them, so they had a built in friend already. They were so cute walking in to their classrooms this morning: Birch and Tierney were holding hands and Cole and Ashlyn were holding hands (even though Cole says that he's going to marry Tierney).

We also got a few more pictures from the safari on Sunday from our friend Lara. She had some good perspective shots. One of the river crossings and that's Tierney and Ashlyn looking out the sunroof at the giraffe.

And just so you don't think this is all fun and games. Here are pics of poor Ashy. She is ultra sensitive to mosquito bites, but last night the cleaning person left the screen window open. I think we counted 28 bites on her head, face and neck. Good thing she had long sleeved/legged pj's. She's holding up really well considering. I know if it were me, I'd be miserable.

Tomorrow night we are having dinner at our friends' house that have the resident zebras. We stopped by today and all 3 kids got to feed the zebras some bread. Anderson thought it was sooo cool and just kept yelling "Zebras!". Tomorrow I'll remember my camera.

Safari Day at Arusha National Park

We went out on a self-guided safari (well really we just followed our friend Charles in his car) on Sunday to Arusha National Park. David, Joey, Birch and Cole also went. It's only about 30 minutes away and so nice to have such a great resrouce so close. The kids loved it (as did Matt and I). We saw all sort of animals: giraffe, hippos, baboons, colobus monkeys (super cool b.c the have really long, fluffy tails that look like a skunks), buffalo, waterbuck, zebra, a chameleon, warthogs....I'm sure there's more. It was a driving adventure on total 4 wheel drive roads. Charles and his family have spent a lot of time in the parks, so he knew all the fun spots to go. We had several river crossings and some very steep roads. The weather was cool (needed long sleeves for most of the day), but it was great.

School starts tomorrow (Wed) - yeah!!!! And yes, our air shipment finally arrived. It was like Christmas all over again.

More pics posted here: http://tandapictures.shutterfly.com/

And we saw a really cool grasshopper that Anderson was fascinated by. It was near the banana tree at the TNC office. The kids liked to see that the bananas grew 'upside down'. Tierney was also intrigued by an avocado that fell out a tree right next to where we were eating dinner. Maybe I can get her to try one someday.

Finding our way

We went for an outing to Tierney and Ashlyn's school, International School Moshi, Arusha Campus, (ISM) yesterday. The kids had a great time exploring the playgrounds and we got to meet Ashy's teacher and Tierney's assistant teacher. I think they feel much more comfortable about starting school on Wednesday. After that we went to check out the house. The girls were so excited to show me how they wanted to arrange their rooms and they decided which room would be theirs and which one would be Anderson's. Still looking a little unfinished to me, but they still have more than a month until we need to move in.

Definitely feeling slightly more comfortable now. Been to several different grocery stores (most are more like mini-marts). I know that each place has slightly different things, but I can't for the life of me which remember which one has which (i.e. which one had the vanilla yogurt that Tierney likes and which one has the frozen samosas). Had to go to 2 different stores today to get bug repellent and I still haven't seen corn on the cob in the store, but it's readily available roasted on the roads everywhere...

Our air-shipment has been delayed. They say it will be here Monday (no customs open on the weekend). Biggest bummer is my coffee press. Very lucky that David and Joey live across the hall and the staff here knows we are together, so they don't seem to mind letting me in to borrow it. Good thing I packed all that stuff I'd need right away in that air shipment - ugh: diapers, wipes, mac&cheese, cereal, etc. I did find Pampers today, but I had no idea how many kilograms Anderson weighs. I think I guessed ok.

Tierney particularly has taken to Tanzania. Yesterday morning she said "Remember when we got here and it was dark? Then we got up in the morning and I could look outside I thought this is the most beautiful place and there's nothing like it in the whole, wide world." She's fascinated by all the people and always comments on the smells and the sights. Ashlyn calls Mt Meru (@ 15k feet)"The mountain that touches the sky". Probably because it is almost always has clouds surrounding the top. Anderson has been particularly clingy unless it's 1:00 am and then he wants to run laps in the apartment :p. The Tanzanians love kids. They are constantly being touched and tickled. At first it totally freaked them out, but now they seem to be talking to the people that are talking to them.

We just got back from dinner at The Masai cafe (I'm still confused about the spelling of Masai/Maasai - it seems to be different everywhere). Dinner for 4 adults, 5 kids (with drinks) was about $50 total. Very reasonable. I went to the local woman that sells produce and got a full reusable grocery sack size full of produce (broccoli, green beans, pineapple, tomatoes, lettuce and carrots)and it cost me about $4.00 (6,000 Tanzanian Shilling, Ts). It's nice that here it's cheap to eat local and healthy where in the US it's cheapest to eat crappy. Avocados are huge - about the size of mangoes. One trick I learned about how to tell if the local avocados are ripe is to shake it - if you can hear the seed rattle around it's ready to eat today or tomorrow. With a pineapple, if the leaves pull of with just a little bit of force, they are ready. See how much I've learned already? ;) Sunset is at about 6:45 and I think sunrise is about 6:15, but I actually haven't been awake to witness that yet. It's been raining alot, but hasn't slowed us down yet. It's been keeping the temperature very comfortable.

Tomorrow will be our earliest day because we are meeting friends at 9:00 am for our safari at Arusha National Park (we're just driving ourselves around). The kids are very excited about seeing some wildlife.

And so it begins....

We made it! After 3 amazing weeks on the road living with family, we left from Boston on our great adventure. Travel went surprisingly well for the amount of time and distance with 3 small kids. 5 suitcases, 4 duffel bags, 3 car seats, one pack and play, and one hour and a half delay later we made it on the plane.

Sad good-byes at the airport (and every other stop before), but the kids were very excited as were Matt and I. Luckily (for me), Matt got a first class upgrade to Amsterdam and after thinking about it (for about 30 sec) I got to take it. That lasted for about 5 hours (one beer, 2 crabcakes, and an ice cream sundae) until Anderson melted and only wanted mommy. It was great while it lasted, and Matt got to take advantage of it for the last couple of hours (for eggs benedict). Due to the delay in Boston we had to go straight to our next plane in Amsterdam, but kids got a donut, so they were happy.

We landed at Kilimajaro airport at 9:30 (and re-dealt with all the luggage) only to find out that the driver that was supposed to meet us was still at home because he thought we were arriving the next day - whoops. All worked out fine.

Our temp housing is perfect. 3 bedroom apartment (each with bath) with kitchen, living room, satellite tv and internet and a beautiful view of Mt. Meru.

After a late night we finally went to bed. I slept from 1-11:00am! I feel great today. Anderson and Ashlyn slept later than I did, so everyone was in pretty good spirits.

After a little playtime with new friends Birch and Cole (David and Joey's boys), we went to a hotel for lunch and a swim. The kids were fascinated by all the sights. Tierney said it looks and smells like a jungle and was very impressed with what the women could carry on their head. We made a family outing to the grocery store where there were no eggs or bananas, but I could buy fried calamari. Interesting experience. I think there will be a lot of peanut butter sandwiches in our near future. Tomorrow a woman from Moshi (nearby town) comes in to town with her (almost organic) produce. She comes in twice a week, so everyone plans their shopping around that. I'm curious to check that out. I also attempted, quite succussfully I think, driving today. Driving down the road was fine, but pulling in and out of shopping plazas, hotels, etc I almost always forgot to stay on the left. Also the signal is on the right side and I always turned on the windshield wipers to signal my turns.

Tonight we went to a very kid-friendly place for dinner with the other TNC families that are now living in Arusha. The kids all had a great time and the adults enjoyed a Kilimajaro beer or two.

Our air shipment arrived on a plane tonight, so we should get that in the morning. I don't even remember what I put in there except I know there's a coffee press!

All in all, we have been very lucky and the kids are adjusting well (even though it's almost 11 at night and Ashlyn and Anderson are still playing with no signs of slowing down).

(TNC kids. left pic: Anderson, Ashlyn, Malyka, Tierney, Birch and Cole)