Three

Joel is three!
It is fun opening presents, some of them all the way from England!

Despite not yet knowing many people in Nairobi, we had a lovely time celebrating his third birthday, with cake and snacks in the garden during the sunny afternoon.
We were pleased that a friend, Kay, from London could be with us on Joel's birthday weekend and also some friends from Dodoma who are staying in Nairobi for a few weeks. They are here to await the birth of their 5th child at a well reputed Nairobi hospital, so it was great to catch up with them and their 4 children. It was also fun for Esther, Ben + Joel to spend time with their Dodoma friends!
Joel had a star cake (which required extra research to bake, as the high altitude in Nairobi changes the way cakes cook in the oven!!), decorated by his brother and sister. He was a bit shy with all the attention, but Dad's shoulder was a good place to hide while everyone sang, "Happy Birthday"!!

Time for cake and snacks...

..and a snapshot with Kay and the birthday boy in our Nairobi backyard:

Nice memories of a happy day! :-)

News from Nairobi

Life in Nairobi is so very different from our life in Tanzania!

One of the big things is that we really feel the busy-ness of Nairobi, being the bustling city that it is. The pace of life is so much faster than we are used to after Dodoma. I barely have time to sit at my computer to update "Living in Limbo"!
We feel rather like country bumpkins who have landed here from a different planet that was far less developed. We are struggling to get used to the bright lights and busy roads of a real capital city, as opposed to Dodoma which was only ever a capital city in name and by virtue of having a Parliament building. In every other way, Dodoma was slow-paced, peaceful, with little traffic and not much in the way of places to go or entertainment.
In contrast, I now seem to spend a fair bit of time sitting in my car, alternatively (depending on my mood) trying to enjoy the sights of Nairobi while stuck in traffic OR fighting off the frustration of being stuck in a hot metal box surrounded by a multitude of other vehicles!
Last week, I took these pictures. Our home is just a stone's throw away on the left...but I can't get there until everyone else moves!

Behind me, the traffic just keeps building up:

This is Saturday morning; we are hemmed in on every side!

Despite the heavy city traffic, we are discovering that Nairobi does have its advantages. There is plenty to do in Nairobi to provide entertainment, with lots of scope for family outings. It is amazing for us to have access to so many facilities after the acute lack of them in Dodoma! We want to make the best of this while we are here, so we have been out and about on some fun family outings on Saturdays...such as...

1. Our visit to the Giraffe Centre, where you can stand up on a tall platform to feed the giraffes by hand, dropping cereal pellets onto their long, black, sticky tongues!

 

 It was amazing to get so close to these graceful creatures!

2. Another Saturday and this day's outing was to the Elephant Orphanage:

Initially unimpressed, even Ben could not fail to be charmed by our very close encounter with these gorgeous baby elephants! Seeing these abandoned babies being bottle-fed was a moving moment:

These young elephants are cared for after being discovered in the wild. Often their mothers have fallen victim to the wicked crime of poaching. Baby elephants cannot survive without their mothers. They need to be bottle-fed for 3 years and then they begin a slow programme to get them ready to move back into the wild. We were inspired by the fantastic work of the Sheldrick voluntary trust, helping these gentle giants survive in a harsh world.
It was incredible to get so close to the elephants...

 ... we even got to stroke a couple of the calves!

 We watched, enchanted, as they drank...

 ...and played:

We got a bit dirt-stained by flying mud-splats as these cute calves happily splashed in their waterhole! Our muddy decorations served as a little reminder of a great day out!

 

3. Last Saturday, we headed out for a wonderful walk (or bike-ride for Ben and Joel, who opted to take their bikes) at Nairobi's Karura Forest. We walked 5 and a half miles and everyone enjoyed the exercise in beautiful surroundings!

We enjoyed the pretty butterflies and loved the rushing waterfall and tall, shady trees:

It is a treat to be able to access these special places. The best thing is, there are still lots of other outings on the list of places we have yet to explore in Nairobi! Since we now think that we will be here until at least July, I had better get out my diary and start planning ahead to fit these in before our possible July departure to Juba!

Nervous in Nairobi

Driving in Nairobi is proving to be a terrifying experience! BUT I am out there doing what I have to do, getting on with the driving in order to get around this big city. Here's the proof... although the picture does not do justice to the fear and trembling I am feeling as I drive nervously around Nairobi!

So what makes me so nervous to drive in Nairobi? Well, here a few factors:

• The huge number of cars on the roads here has increased faster than the infrastructure, meaning that roads are crowded and poorly equipped for the volume of heavy traffic. There are multiple traffic jams up and down Nairobi's hilly roads.
• Nairobi's high crime rate. I hear of car-jacking incidents, theft through car windows (one lady we know of had her necklace snatched off her neck as she sat in stationary traffic with the car window wound down), hold-up situations where armed gun-men on the street demand money, bags and jewelry from motorists while pointing guns at the car (I heard that one of these incidents happened last week not far from the children's school). 

I have been briefed that it is always best to drive with all windows up, all doors locked and never to stop for so-called "emergencies" on the roadside. The first week that we were here, I saw a lady apparently having an epileptic fit on the road, with another lady bending over here looking very concerned. Unsure what to do, I phoned another local MAF lady. Her advice?

"Never stop! This is a very common scam. It could be an ambush to get you to stop. If you do, the criminals will jump into your car for a car-jacking". 

ARGH!!! What a terrible thought! Especially when Joel is almost certainly going to be belted into his car-seat. I don't even want to think about what the possible consequences of that could be...

• Lack of respect for road rules. Not much different from driving in Tanzania in that area! Here is a shot of my drive to school with Esther and Ben one drizzly Nairobi morning:

 I am second in a line of cars trying to turn right from a single-carriageway onto Nairobi's very busy Gitanga Road. Two cars in the queue behind me obviously got fed up with waiting in line! Instead, they have jumped the queue- one car to the right of me and one to the left, driving up the muddy pavement!
The car to my right has now blocked the right hand lane on our road, meaning that another vehicle on Gitanga Road is unable to turn into our road and is forced to wait, stuck in the middle of the heavy traffic on Gitanga Road, creating a worse blockage!
 Meanwhile, there seemed to be a problem with the minibus, which was holding up traffic too. You can see a man in dark red clothes who hopped into the centre of the road to do some impromptu directing of traffic to try and clear up the tangle of cars! When I eventually edged forward to take my chances on my right-hand turn, he kept hammering on my bonnet to get me to follow his directives, but I am also advised that it is best to make my own decisions to get through these messy traffic muddles.
At least all this drama makes the school run interesting, even if it adds to journey time and to my stress levels!

• Lack of road markings. Several 4-way junctions that I am obliged to use when getting to shops or to school have absolutely no markings, no traffic lights, no round-about, but there are so many cars each trying to get through; to the left, to the right or straight. Not everyone indicates. For me, these junctions are knee-wobbling moments in my Nairobi driving experience! It is a test of sheer aggression to push through the other cars to get to the side you are aiming for, mixed with the need to be highly alert to where other motorists may be headed! Last Thursday, I saw 3 car accidents at 3 different junctions before noon! The cars involved had all been bumped by cars coming from another direction. This does not exactly fill me with confidence as I brace myself for each new junction challenge!

• Just when I was celebrating the fact that I was out and about in the car, I came back down to earth with a literal bump, as I realised the extent of Nairobi's pot-holes! Here's a couple of minor ones outside Esther and Ben's new school:

I am nervous about getting a puncture or breaking down with all these pot-holes- the last thing I want to do with a car full of children on congested city roads, with opportunist robbers apparently lurking around every corner!!

• Traffic police are often out in force looking for opportunities to book motorists for driving offences. If I inadvertently offend, I could end up in jail for a few hours and then in court to plead my case. Last week, our American neighbour was arrested for doing a U-turn on a main road and a Swiss MAF colleague arrested and hand-cuffed for changing lanes on a roundabout! That scares me!

To counter the nerves and to keep on driving, I have been given some sound advice about driving here. The first one is my favourite!

1. Drive like you're the only driver who is sober
2. Stay on high alert- check mirrors, check mirrors, check mirrors ( for motorbikes over or under-taking, men pushing trolleys, cyclists and pedestrians, as well as other usual vehicles or even the odd horse or camel we have spotted on the roads here!)
3. In traffic jams, stop your car a few feet away from the vehicle in front: enough space to be able to get out if you need to but not enough to let an unscrupulous driver push in front of you! It's a tough one to judge...
4. Be nice, be polite but be careful what you say to traffic officers if they stop you - and swot up on Kenyan road laws! Keep all your relevant documents to hand.

So much to remember! So many hazards! It's scary, but it's necessary to drive in this city, so here's hoping that the nerves and trembling ease off over time!!

New in Nairobi

So here we are in Nairobi.

And here is a view of our new home and the gated street in which we are living...
The Yellow House- our Nairobi town-house home:

The MAF compound view from our front door. Our door opens onto a sea of concrete with a distant vista of the heavy locked gate at the end of the mini-street, barbed wire, electricity wires and tall buildings!

Out the back, we have a little yard with a shady patio...

 ...and a tall banana tree which was laden with almost-ripe bananas until last Saturday, when Andrew decided to harvest them. Here are the harvesting action shots...

Down come the bananas, crashing through the leaves and creating a heavy hazard as they pick up speed on their ground-ward flight...

Having some bananas from the tree in our garden made me feel a little bit like we are still living in Africa. Other aspects of life here do not feel anything like the Africa we came to know and love in Tanzania. Nairobi is a well developed, cosmopolitan city with a high crime threat and with an easy availability of goods we only dreamed about when we lived in Dodoma. In many ways, it is the opposite of Dodoma! It is a tough adjustment for us to a very different type of African living.

There are other obvious differences too- look at the beds in our house:

 It was startling to come into a house where beds DO NOT HAVE MOSQUITO- NETS!!! Apparently, there is very little malaria in Nairobi, partly because of its high altitude. This is very different from Dodoma, where a mosquito net is a necessity and becomes a part of the whole bed-time routine.

However, having said that, there are still mosquitoes! Their midnight whining is incredibly frustrating as they fly low over sleepy ears. I am getting a bit fed up with their rude awakenings in the wee small hours! First there is the sound of the low whine... then the lights go on, bursting into my consciousness. Next, Andrew's mozzie-chase begins, which starts by Andrew flapping about the room brandishing a cloth to swat the little monsters, jumping over the bed, muttering as they escape the swatting implement... and then finally, "victory!" as they are duly caught and squashed! Peaceful darkness resumes and sleep seems so wonderfully close again... until... bzzzzzz- it all starts over again!! I have to say that I am sitting in Nairobi wishing that I had packed our mozzie net in our suitcase!! Instead, it is sitting in one of our boxes in Dodoma, all packed up for Juba!! I may just have to drive down to one of Nairobi's many shopping centres and invest in a new net- but driving in Nairobi is a whole new challenge for me and not one that I am relishing! I think I will write more about that new challenge on my next blog entry...

Limbo Land

Until December 15th 2013, we fully expected that, by the end of February, we would be on our way to our new home in Juba, South Sudan. But December 15th marked the sad date when fighting broke out in the world's newest nation.

Since then, we have been strongly advised that now is not the time to take a young family into Juba! So we find ourselves living temporarily in Nairobi. Here, Andrew can work alongside MAF Kenya with the possibility of flying into South Sudan as a Kenya-based pilot, once his air-law exams are passed and his caravan flying hours are at the required level.

We are not sure how long "temporary" means. Looking at BBC news is disheartening. Conflict continues and the situation in South Sudan remains too volatile for us to move into, but judging when exactly will be the "right time" is going to be difficult.

In the meantime, we will remain in Kenya- living in a strange state of limbo, not sure how long we will be here, how settled we should get, how much effort we should put into joining in events in Nairobi.

Most of our belongings are still stored in Dodoma. Our temporary house in Nairobi is kitted out with borrowed MAF housing equipment, which is useful to have and many of the kitchen items are lovely and shiny and new. However, I miss those extra home comforts...such as lamp-shades on the glaring light bulbs suspended above our heads, a doormat to prevent muddy footprints, our rugs to take the chill off the cold floor and cushions to relax a little on the rather hard MAF sofa! I miss our own familiar bedding, our pictures and family photos which would brighten up the bare, white-bland walls of this rented house. The children miss their toys and books and Joel keeps asking for his sand-pit from the Dodoma garden! It is hard to know how many home-based items we should go out and buy and then sell on later, or should we rather just wait until our own goods get here? First, Andrew must get a Kenya work permit in order to import goods and secondly, we must decide whether our boxes should come here to Nairobi or be flown direct to Juba- if we are to move there anytime in the next few months?

So this is an unusual time, with many questions that cannot yet be answered. So for this period, my blog is named to reflect the life we are living right now as we wait, on hold, in Nairobi- a land of limbo for us!

Goodbye Tanzania

This is the last time I will write "Tales from Tanzania". We have now officially left the country we called home for the last 4 years. 

Tanzania will always hold a special place in my heart. 

It is the country where my children have grown from babyhood to childhood; where they have celebrated most of their birthdays.

For Joel and Ben, it is the only home they remember and for Esther, it is the home where she has lived the longest period of time and been the most settled. 

Joel took his first steps on Tanzanian ground and learnt to talk here (even a little bit of Swahili to add to his English!). 

It is in Tanzania where Andrew has completed and enjoyed his first assignment as a MAF pilot.  

It is the country where I have learnt a new language, learnt a new culture and made some deep and wonderful friendships. 

It is a place where we have been privileged to meet incredible people, see incredible scenery- and also survive brief encounters with some rather frightening wildlife!

Tanzania is a land where we have had to step out of our comfort zone into unfamiliar challenges and sometimes intimidating situations- but we have experienced the amazing help of God through all of them and we have learnt from them. 

It has been the place where we, as a family, have made some amazing memories. We will always be so thankful for our time in Tanzania!

It was with heavy hearts that we left Dodoma last Monday morning, on a MAF flight bound for Nairobi. I think the only Parker who didn't cry last Monday was Joel- he was too confused about what was going on with all the upheaval and activity!

The Dodoma international MAF staff came to wave us off at Dodoma's tiny airport. Our Swiss friend and Andrew's MAF colleague was the pilot in the caravan plane, which taxied slowly up the runway to the place where we were all waiting. On seeing the plane, my mouth went dry and my adrenaline level was at an all-time high, as its arrival marked the final task- that horrible flatness of having to say our last goodbyes, mixed with the anxiety of all that lies ahead and the organisational pressure of making sure we had all our bags, all our passports and, of course, all 3 of our children!!

Thankfully, Ben was on good form to lighten the mood as the plane came to a stand-still!

 
Another passenger, unrelated to MAF, kindly offered to take a group photo of us all. It was a surprisingly civilised photo, as those final moments felt completely confusing for me! We all managed to untangle
 from the chaos of hugs and recover from tripping over bags with blurred vision from teary eyes, admidst all the shouting of final promises to email and Skpye! It's lovely to have this photo of us all at the airport and nice of the unknown American girl to be so thoughtful.

Our friends then gathered around us to send us on our way with prayers for safe travels and for our future paths, wherever they may take us. Then it was time to look resolutely ahead- to walk to the plane and to climb aboard, Esther and Ben holding tightly to their teddies, who have been a strong source of comfort for them in this transition (and thankfully get to travel free on MAF planes!). We managed a few waves out of the plane window before the aeroplane engines kicked into action:

The plane lifted off the tarmac just at the point where the MAF hangar stands. A fresh barrage of tears was unavoidable as we saw the hangar staff all gathered at the open hangar door, waving up to us as the plane ascended...and began to soar...

We snatched a final peek at our old home, behind the large white hangar building on the left of the runway:

We had our last view of Lion Rock and the area around MAF, looking unusually green in this rainy season.
Goodbye, Dodoma! Goodbye Tanzania- we will always be grateful for the privilege of 4 years spent in this peaceful African country!

...2 hours later, we landed and disembarked at Nairobi's aiport:

Hello, Nairobi. Hello, Kenya. But that is a whole other blog.

Going, Going...

Going, going... and almost gone.
Our final few days were a blur of goodbyes and making the most of time with our friends in Dodoma, alongside packing up the house to leave it empty for the new MAF pilot family from Finland and trying to sell the final goods that we could not take to Nairobi. It was a busy, busy time.

In the last few days, there was one lesson that I tried to learn- but failed miserably. It was the task of How to Smile for the camera when the lump in my throat was hurting so much that I couldn't speak and the tears in my eyes threatened to spill over at every moment. Leaving our friends in Dodoma was so hard. There were many occasions when we were trying to get a last photo with friends and the person behind the camera yelled, "Smile!" When part of your heart is breaking inside, it is very hard to contort your face into a smile. A grimace was sometimes the best I could manage- so this is my disclaimer for some of the strange expressions in the following pictures!

There was the official MAF farewell in the hangar, with all the Dodoma staff present:

Some of the hangar staff:

Look at the beautiful "Goodbye Parkers" cake:

There was the farewell to our wider circle of Dodoma friends, both MAFers and non-MAF, on the Friday evening in our garden:

  

There was a very tearful goodbye in our empty home on Saturday, with my lovely language helper, Mama Kambenga. She wrapped us in a kanga and prayed blessings over Andrew and I before we parted ways. The emptiness of our room reflected the empty feeling in my heart. With moving to a new country, it was painful to say goodbye to this very special friend who has had such a positive impact on my life. The new tears came and hurt my already swollen eyes, but it was impossible to keep the tears at bay, on both sides. We have no idea if we will ever meet again.

On Sunday, the goodbyes multiplied at our final visit to church at Dodoma cathedral. We had a final family shot (with Esther and Ben's very special friend joining us too, which seems most appropriate as some friends here have become as close as extended family):

I struggled over the weekend with saying goodbye to Jane and to Pendo. They came to clean up for us one last time, then helped to clear out our home, as they took the final items that we had given or sold to them including our bed, curtains, cupboards that we had brought in our container from England 4 years ago.Here are all the remaining household items- Going...

 ...going...

 ... gone! And then Jane and Pendo were gone too-  another tearful farewell after a final hug with Joel!

Over the weekend, we finished packing the suitcases ( all 17 of them!!) to take to Nairobi with us, where we will be based for at least the next 3 months, a temporary home while we wait to see how the situation in South Sudan works out. The rest of our household goods which we packed in November and December will remain in storage in Dodoma until we know where they should be sent; until we know where our next home will be!

Finally, all our stuff was gone- and so were the Parker family. The MAF home and MAF furniture are all that remain. Moshi took the opportunity to have a good look around the house before I closed the front door for the last time:

 She then followed me out onto the patio for my final photo of the place we have called home since 2009. Moshi knew something strange was happening. Sadly, we have had to leave her behind in Dodoma, since we cannot take a cat to Nairobi and then move her again, maybe, in a few months. It has been especially hard for Esther and Ben to leave their pet behind, even with the new pilot family promising to feed her after we go. Poor Moshi. Another sad goodbye as we prepared for our final flight out of Dodoma last Monday...