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.