September and October

I guess it's finally time that I write some more. Things are going well in Nairobi.  Some of you may have heard about the problems with Somalia but we're ok.  We've stopped going to big malls and such but it seems pretty safe.  The above photo is from a trip we took to Ngong Hills.  It's a beautiful place that overlooks the Rift Valley.  We had a wonderful picnic with some new friends and had a great time.  

 

The next few photos are of Phoebe and Greta at their preschool.  Both girls love it and Phoebe is learning to read.  She gets fired up when she has homework!

This next photo is primarily for the benefit of Mom, Dad and Amy, and anyone who has lived or traveled in England and Scotland.  When we were kids we used to go eat at Wimpy's all the time.  It was a poor substitute for a McDonalds but it was all we had.  It was pretty cool to find one here in Nairobi.

I thought this next photo was pretty funny.  I asked our housekeeper to get us some chicken for dinner...she did just that:

Head and all...eeew

Mattie and Emma are now on the swim team and had their first swim meet.  Neither one did too well but they had fun.  Emma forgot to touch the wall to stop her time so she came in dead last even though she swam well, and Mattie did this weird flip on her back thing to take a breath (she was nervous) so she didn't do so well either.  There is another meet this Friday so maybe they'll do better!

This next photo is of our house and dogs.  It was such a pretty day and the dogs were behaving so I had to take a photo.  We have a wonderful house and a great yard for the kids to play in.  Such a difference from the mud pit we had in Phnom Penh for the girls.

The following photos are of Halloween.  We went trick or treating in the U.S. Embassy compound with some friends and had a fantastic time.  It was almost like being in the States and the girls had a great time.

The shoes really didn't work but who knows, maybe they had crocks in medieval times!

As a side note, that broom is not one we made for her witch costume, it's our regular broom for the yard. 

Strangely we didn't have a crown in our house so we improvised.  Actually, an intern at IJM was kind enough to produce this beautiful crown for Greta who went as Cinderella. 

Mattie went on a field trip to a Tea Farm and learned all about how tea is made.  There are farms all over Kenya that have been owned for over a hundred years by British people who came to Kenya in the late 1800's early 1900's.

Mattie is always asking questions!  This woman's grandfather is the one who started the farm.  They are/were great friends with Jane Goodall.  How cool.

So that's about it.  Mattie's and Shawn birthdays are coming up so that'll be fun.  Hope all is well with everyone!

CIAO!!

Kenya Bound

So it was finally time to head to Kenya.  Shawn went a week early, so it was left to the girls and me to finish up packing and get everyone to Kenya.  There were quite a few glitches along the way.  Shawn had to close out the bank account (I'm a mere woman so not able to do that) so he took most of the money with him to Nairobi to pay the various bills there.  No problem though, I have an ATM card and it will work just fine.  Also, we sold our car and that money would be coming in soon.  Seems like an easy solution, but nooo, it didn't work out quite like that.  To begin, and I am going to have to live with the shame of it all, I accidentally cut up my ATM card.  I grabbed it instead of the expired credit card I was supposed to cut up.  Ok, no problem, the car money is coming in soon, so I'll just be frugal for a few days and it'll be all good...right...wrong.  The family we sold the car to, who will eventually be up for sainthood , was accused of money laundering so their accounts were frozen and no money could come in to Cambodia.  Hmmm, what now.  Called my lovely friend Elizabeth and she agreed to let us use her bank account to wire money.  Poor mom was running to the bank every day as I frantically called her to send me some money.

All the while Shawn is having a terrible time trying to find a house in Nairobi.  Prices are fairly high and it's absolutely necessary to be safe so he was having a time of it.  After he had to pay somewhere in the vicinity of $700 for one, yes ONE extra bag (you can imagine the rage he felt when Quatar Airline told him this news) then with me cutting up the card, the money laundering, the hoping beyond all hope that there would be enough time to transfer the dogs in Bangkok to Kenya Airways and the sheer sadness about leaving Phnom Penh, it was a bit of a stressful time.  Our friends in PP were amazing though and we miss them terribly.

I'm sure ya'll are tired of me writing and want some pictures.  I have to say that Shannon from IJM gets the grand prize for helping us at the airport.  We did have two more people from IJM who picked us up from our house and drove the bags and the dogs to the airport.  Shannon hung in for the long haul and Shawn and I are sooo grateful to all the IJM Cambodia staff for all their help, and especially Shannon.

I think we had 6 carts or something equally obnoxious.

This is the brother in law of Amanda, one of my closest friends in Cambodia.  Amanda was returning from Singapore at the same time I was leaving so we got to hang out in the airport for a while.

Shannon with a cart

I will say that the people of Thai Air were absolutely fantastic.  They were helpful with the kids and the dogs and when we arrived in Bangkok they had a private van waiting to take us to our next gate.  I will say the dogs did make it on the airline and the girls and I went to get a bite to eat at Burger King.

We arrived without major incident in Nairobi.  Shawn was able to come into baggage claim to help us so that was great.  We had to wait around 4 hours I believe for the dogs to get cleared.  They lost them for a while in the airport but after about 3 hours I (Jenny) got a little...let's say huffy...and proceeded to be a tad bit more forceful with the staff.  Emma heard Vesta barking as I had parked myself in an office area and refused to leave until they found my dogs...they were behind some boxes.

It's pretty cold here and the girls were freezing while waiting for the dogs to be located.

Anyway, our second saviors of this whole journey are Ashley and Mac Magruder.  They were introduced to us via some other IJM people and this couple agreed to keep Ares and Vesta with them until we could find a house.  They had the dogs for over a week, and were already taking care of another older German Shepherd.  They were/are so gracious and kind to help us that way.

We then ended up staying at the hotel for a little over a week, in one tiny room.  We were REALLY cramped, but that was all good. 

The girls started school just a few days after we arrived.  They love school and are having a great time.

 

Our first road trip outside the city was quite eventful.  We had a nice trip but got to see zebra and baboons which were the highlight of the girls trip.

It was a fun trip, and I'll try and do a better job of keeping this blog up to date.
CIAO!