Greeted by an Army

Arriving at our Airbnb apartment on Thursday night, we felt great relief that our driver spoke Swahili and could explain to the guard who we were.  At 12:30 am we put a call into the landlady and thankfully she answered and confirmed that we were the ones to give the key to.  There are so many little steps of faith one takes when traveling internationally.  So many undergirding systems in place that at first glance are unknown and one just has to trust that, eventually, it will work out, maybe not exactly the way it was pictured, but it will work.

The apartment fits our needs well.  The boys, like puppies, ran around opening every closet and trying every light switch.  As the boys opened and closed the heavy light-blocking shades, we first spotted what would become the target of an on-going battle: an army of little, buzzing insects.  In our jet-lagged, confused state, we found some insect repellent and put it on the boys' faces and necks and then soon after, collapsed into bed.

We slept, and we slept until nearly 10 am, something I don’t think I’ve done since the Saturday mornings of adolescence.  At noon, we decide to wake up Joel and Kyle since all we had in the kitchen to eat was salt, only to find that an army had attacked them in the night.  What was once creamy white skin was now covered in over 100 tiny red dots.

We soon found out from the landlady’s nephew, Alex, that at sunset we need to close up the apartment and spray the rooms with insect repellent.  Huh, first system missed- daily fumigation.  I found some comfort in that we had begun our daily regimen of malaria medication, but the medication did nothing to ease the itchiness of Joel’s knee covered in at least 15 bites, swelling by the day.  Welcome to Kenya, boys.

On Saturday, we decided to go to Nairobi’s Arboretum.  First we needed to clear up the confusion with the Uber driver as to where we wanted to go; it’s amazing how 2 people speaking English can completely not understand one another due to a difference in accents.  Once there, we walked around trees planted over 100 years ago by a group who had a vision and foresight for the future of Nairobi to protect green space within the burgeoning city landscape.

After waking through the forest for about 15 minutes we came across a group of high schoolers, who greeted us warmly.  One of them asked if she could join us for our walk.  As we strolled together, we assured her that most of America is not like the soap operas she idolizes, and that yes, I clean my own house.

As we approached a bamboo outcropping, a group of school children on a field trip joined us to observe the two adult monkeys and one tiny baby monkey moving about in the upper branches.  As I was looking up and taking in the differences between the “New World” monkeys of Latin America and the “Old World” monkeys of Africa, I didn’t realize the “army” that was gathering around me.  This army  surrounded me too and gave me no escape.  When I looked down, little round faces with huge smiles looked up at me with hands extended in a greeting of welcome.  Now this kind of greeting is right up my alley.  I began to shake their hands while they touched my arm, and as I did, more and more came over.  In their beautiful Swahili accented British English, the sing-song quality of “Hello, nice to meet you,” rung in the air.  I looked around, none of my family was in sight.  “Sure,” I responded, to the question of whether I would be in a picture with the school group.  Instead of the traditional, “cheese” that precedes a picture in the U.S. they sing words back and forth to one another.  How much in the hearts of Africans is expressed through a song? A singing, smiling army- now this was a memorable greeting.

Life is filled with unexpected mosquitoes, but also the song of children.
                 

A mini-world: an International Airport

It’s been 19 years since I’ve crossed the Atlantic.  19 years since I’ve felt the disorienting effects of jet lag, made even worse by a somewhat restless 7 year old trying to sleep on my lap in what to our confused bodies was the middle of the afternoon.  19 years since I’ve had a perfect European croissant- both flaky and wonderfully chewy.

The dreary skies of lowland Amsterdam, remind me of my hometown in Western Michigan, where the Dutch, sensing a place of home, settled in droves.  I find it fascinating how the familiar drives a human heart, even when we are in search of something new.

My ears perk once again to the music of new languages.  This “mini-world” of an international airport reminds me of the vastness of our world, the depth of culture, and the beauty of difference. 

Toddler Care 101: Day 1 at New Life Orphanage

Awkward.  That’s how I felt when I walked into the room for babies from 1 to 1 ½ years old.  I had hardly ever helped with babies before, especially when there were eight of them and only 3 actual workers helping.  During my first day helping at New Life Children’s Home, I didn’t know what to do.

When we first walked in the door, we were introduced to Maria, the administrator of this home, one of the 4 locations in the New Life family.  She said that they were celebrating their 25th anniversary, during which they had saved over 2000 babies.  This particular home was the first home they had acquired, and it can house up to 55 babies newborn to three years of age, although right now it only has 35.  Still, 35 babies is a lot of mouths to feed when you’re operating strictly on donations.  It's also a lot of clothes to wash, and we could see that in their laundry area, with three large washing machines and many lines of clothesline strewn around them. (people do not buy dryers in Kenya)

After we took a quick tour of the house, we were shown up to a room with eight babies ranging from 1 to 1 ½.  There were only 3 assistants, so we were a welcome addition.  Right then they were getting their “fruits”, which was pureed orange goop that I wouldn’t have touched if I was starving.  I’m sure the babies liked it though, because they clamored at the person feeding them to give them more.

After they were fed, we played with them.  I don’t know if you’ve played with a baby lately, but they sometimes lose interest in something just a few seconds after they’ve started holding it.  However, other times they will play with something until you have to take it away from them when it’s time to go.  For example, I gave one of them a pink plastic cash register to see what he’d do with it, and he picked it up, dropped it, and did it over and over for the next 10-15 minutes.  Another kid would hold something for three seconds, but then lose interest in it and want something different.  All included, babies have an attention span for only certain things, which, in my opinion, is something we all have in common, from time to time.

The play area is off to the left

Finally, we took the babies outside and they played around there.  Some of them were starting to learn to walk, so they would take pushcarts and push them all around the lawn.  Others were content to swing in a baby swing and look out at what everybody else was doing.  I put two in a plastic wagon and pulled them around in a circle for five minutes, and they were perfectly happy just to sit there, until they weren’t, and they started getting squirmy.  I was amazed at how the regular workers could keep track of everything that was going on when there weren’t five extra sets of hands to help them.

As we were sitting at dinner later that night, all of us kids expressed having felt awkward that day, especially when we were playing with the babies.  However, I feel certain that we will all be very comfortable there before we leave.

-Kyle Wilson and Family

Clearing the Jet Lag Fog

Hello from Nairobi, Kenya!  Thank you to each of you who have texted, called, or prayed for us in the last week.  We so appreciate your care for us during our adjustment to this new place!  We've been asked great questions, so I thought a blog post with an overview of our first few days in Nairobi would be fitting.  Our days have been full and the first few were lived in a fog of jet lag, but the fog is clearing and we are soaking in the sights (and sounds!) of the capital of Kenya!

A brief synopsis:
Wednesday-3:30 am- Denver airport- checking in 9, 50 lb luggage pieces (several were full of donations for the orphanages- thank you!!), and we also had to carry 6 computers and equipment for Kevin’s new Kenyan team members. 

Friday- 
1 am- arrive at our AirBnB apartment after layovers in New York and Amsterdam. 

Slept until 10 am and made our way to a restaurant for lunch and the grocery store, since all we had in the apartment was salt :)

You can't believe how tall the cactus grow in Kenya!

Saturday-
Still in a jet lagged fog and slept until 11:30 am!
Highlight of the day: a trip to the city’s arboretum

Sunday-
Went to church- a lovely church we can walk to where the Kenya director for Food for the Hungry attends

Karen Blixen's Home

Took an uber to Karen Blixen’s home (the author of the memoir that Out of Africa is based on)  We had lunch on part of the property that used to be her coffee plantation. 

Walked to Oloolua Nature Trail that had a waterfall, a few small caves, and a great vine for swinging!  Without sign posts we got very lost, but were thankful for a road nearby and an uber ride back to the apartment. 

Monday-
Kevin’s first day at the FH office and our first day of school.  
There was a family of monkeys we watched in the trees and apartment rooftops across the parking lot from our apartment balcony! 

Seth and Joel made friends with other children in the apartment complex-our little ambassadors :) They were playing a jumping game with a vine Seth pulled down from a tree.

Adjustments:
ALWAYS remember to look right first when crossing the road!  Since they were colonized by the British, they drive on the opposite side of the road. 

Our apartment has a few maintenance issues….today was the first day since we left the US that I’ve had a hot shower….well, at least that helps clear the jet lag fog!

Even though most people speak British English, they do so with a Swahili accent.  Swahili is definitely their heart language, so at times, language can be a barrier to understanding.

2 of the 3 kids have already had a stomach bug- bummer :(

Learning new processes:

A wonderful adjustment is to the price of flowers-

$2 for 18 fresh roses! 

Having to fumigate our bedrooms at night!  We didn’t realize the necessity of this and the first morning Joel and Kyle woke up with over 100 bug bites! 

I still don’t know what to do with our trash??? Plastic bags are banned in Kenya and I couldn’t find anything disposable to buy in the grocery store to hold our trash!

Mpesa- a system of transferring payment instead of using cash- great idea, no idea yet how to use it, or install it on my phone….a task for tomorrow :)   

The Trip Home

We had an interesting time going to the USA. Our trip home from Costa Rica was the opposite of “pura vida”.  (Pura vida is a Costa Rican saying for "great life") At the airport we had to wait and wait for one extra day to take off.  Before we took off, I was a little worried. When we were taking off, I was glued back in my seat.

We flew 2 long hours to get into Florida. I felt overjoyed when I could see the land below me. I watched the ground until we landed in Florida and when I was in the plane I saw 5 baseball stadiums, 2 tennis courts, and 1 beautiful sunset.

In Florida, we literally needed to run to the gate. For the second time, the plane took off. We flew another 2 hours, and we landed in Detroit.

When we arrived, I felt really tired. I thought Joel was lucky because he fell right asleep. Mom and Joel stayed with the luggage and the rest of us went down the elevator into the parking to try to find our mini-van. My dad looked at the text that said where the van was.  Because he was so tired, he thought it said “A1” and it really just said “A”.

We asked security people if we were in the North Terminal and I wanted to speak Spanish to any brown person I saw.  We went one more row over and I saw a car that I thought was ours, but it wasn’t, it just looked exactly like the car we had in Costa Rica for two months. Finally dad saw a little hitch and said, “Maybe that’s out car.” Then we went dashing down the parking lot.  Kyle said, “There is only one way to find out if it is ours.” He went to the passenger side window and looked in. He saw his Humphry book and said, “It is!” After we loaded up the van, we decided to get some fast food for the first meal in Michigan. There weren’t any other options at 1:00 am. I ate all my fries and then fell fast asleep with a hamburger in my hand.

Even though it was a rough time coming back from Costa Rica, we were never becalmed.

-Seth Wilson

Leaving Costa Rica with a Bang

I was sad to leave Costa Rica. It was an unhappy ride to the airport. When we got there, we waited and read the book, Carry on, Mr. Bowditch while we waited for the line to check baggage to open. When it did, we quickly checked in our baggage and walked to the family security line. It was a lot shorter than the regular line. Soon, we were at the food court.

We got to the food court, at about lunchtime. We were hungry, and we decided that we would eat a little bit now and a little bit in Ft. Lauderdale later that day. It turned out that the prices were outrageous! We had about a half a sandwich each, and then we walked to our gate. We met a really nice college student there. We sat there for about a half hour past the scheduled departure time, and then we had to change gates. Our next gate was in the basement!


After sitting there for another 3 hours, the attendant said our flight was canceled. We would have to say in a hotel overnight. We got our baggage, and then we waited for a shuttle. And waited. Finally, there was one to pick us up. We stayed at CityExpress and they had great dinner of rice, chicken and salad.



The next day, we had to check in all over again. We went through a gate change again that put us in a basement gate again. We boarded at departure time. Finally we were on the plane!
 
Since our plane was delayed, we had a very short layover in Ft. Lauderdale. We ran all the way to our gate except for when we were in security and customs. We made it with only a minute to spare!


It was almost midnight when we finally felt the brisk air of Detroit and we were ready to get our baggage and go. But then this announcement came on the intercom. It said, “Due to an overcrowding of baggage on carousel 2, the baggage from the flight from Ft. Lauderdale will be on in about 3 minutes. Since we couldn’t leave without our baggage, we went to look for our car. Our grandparents had dropped it off in some part of the airport’s parking structure, and they told us the general area. It took about 30 minutes of looking to find it. When we got back, our bags were ready to go. And go we did, at about 1 o’clock in the morning.


-Kyle Wilson

Journey to Colorado Springs

We made it! After two weeks of bittersweet goodbyes and packing in Michigan we arrived on Monday, March 28th. (our new contact information is on the sidebar)


To answer the question several of you have asked, "Well, do you like the house?" The answer is Yes! We all love the location, the views of the mountains, and the access to both things the city has to offer (shopping, events etc.) and also trails and open space parks for biking, hiking, and exploring. It doesn't quite feel like "our place" yet, but every day that sense is growing.

View of Pikes Peak from our front porch

We are not quite as overwhelmed with boxes and unpacking as we were 2 weeks ago, but the task of settling in is still a pretty daunting one. We've decided to make a "Stepping Stones" list of all the little discoveries and accomplishments that are helping us "cross" from living in Michigan/Costa Rica to Colorado. Getting library cards and meeting a neighbor are just a few of the things on our list!

We've had warm enough weather to bike in shorts and tee-shirts and also have had a big snow storm! Well, of course, for Michiganders "big" is relative :) The kids were thrilled to have snow to play in for the first time this year. I was a little less thrilled since that meant finding the boxes with all the winter gear!

Our first family bike ride

First Colorado snow storm