March 17, 2012 - Catching Up

We have not had any Internet other than on our cell phones this week, and I can’t blog from my phone.  I think the Internet situation is actually the most frustrating part of being here. 

I last left you with Grace and Noah both a bit sick.

Tuesday followed up with me being sick as well.  Kidney infection.  I had been brushing off my symptoms as related to the heat or jet-lag, but on Tuesday they were undeniable.  I was promptly loaded up on the strongest antibiotic around.

Wednesday morning I went to my first “spouse club” meeting for UN/World Bank spouses.  It was a very nice and diverse group of women, but just as in Nairobi the group is a little bit consumed with conducting proper meetings and fundraising, which are not super high on my list of priorities just right now.  I hope to make connections with some of the women who have smaller children, and I also learned about two other “newcomers” groups that I will try to participate in a bit as well.  As I told my mom, when you move to some place new it is important to cast your net wide in order to find some fish worth catching. 

The big event came towards the end of the day.  I went to show Kristoffer where to put the diesel in the generator and I received (what felt to me like) a really big electrical shock!  I have never had that experience before, and it was extremely unpleasant.  Painful even.  I was instantly worried about my pacemaker.  My google-search-from-my-cell-phone indicated that it is very unlikely that harm came to my pacemaker, particularly because it was probably not “on” at the moment I got shocked.  But I felt weird until the next morning.  Sheesh. 

The kids have been eating and sleeping better; for Noah this is all dependent on him not getting too hot.   Sometimes I feel bad keeping him home in the house most of the time, but when we take him out during the day he really doesn’t do so well.  Luckily his virus seems to be gone and he is generally much more himself.

Thursday was a big day for Grace, as we headed to her school for the first day.  I stayed with her the whole time from start to finish (as the school requested) and was very proud of her.  The school is very different from her school in Nairobi, so I think it was good that I stayed to give her a bit of security as she figures out this new place.  She didn’t talk to other kids or play with them, but she did listen well to the teachers and she ate really well at snack and lunch.  She didn’t speak too much Danish, but seemed to understand a lot of what was said.  They even sang one of the songs she knows pretty well (tak, Farmor!).  And when we left she said she wanted to go back the next day (too bad school was closed on Friday for a teacher’s meeting!).  There was no crying at all, so I think it can be counted as a big success.  She will adapt quickly to their new systems and the teachers say that in just a few weeks (or less?) she will easily be speaking Danish, and a little Swedish and Norwegian too (like some of the other kids).  Looking forward to taking her on Monday and maybe leaving her alone for a bit of that time too.

Thursday was also the day that our security guards started.  We have a day guard, whose name we still can’t understand (is it awful if I just refer to him as DG from now on?) and a night guard named Abdullah.  Seems like a pretty boring job to me just watching our house and opening/closing the gate as needed for 12 hours, but it does make us feel a bit more safe.  At night, we are basically like a fortress.  There is a guard at the first gate which gets to Mr. and Mrs. S’ house…along with 3 dogs – 1 German Shephard and 2 Dobermans…and then another gate with our guard before our house.  Just try!

On Friday Kristoffer didn’t work (still has a couple of “getting settled” days he can take off) so we ran a whole bunch of errands, including trying to get new and improved Internet.  The verdict on that is still out, but at least we have something for now. Kristoffer and I went out to dinner last night at an Italian restaurant.  We sat outside and it was my first time being out at night here.  I was really paranoid about getting bitten so I am not sure I relaxed enough, but the food was good and it was nice to see a little bit of the night life.

It’s great that our generator is working (even though it tried to kill me, and yes someone will be checking on it this week to make sure it is properly grounded) because we haven’t had any outages this week.  Kristoffer is in a good routine of running to work Monday morning, biking home and then to/from work the rest of the week, finally running home Friday afternoon.  I am more and more comfortable driving around by myself.  The only weird part for me now is going in reverse because I can’t seem to get used to looking over my left shoulder instead of my right.

Today we were invited to the home of some friends of friends from Nairobi and had a lovely few hours with their family and another friend.  Their oldest is 5 ½ years old and Grace really warmed up to her so it was a great connection to make.  They have been very helpful throughout the process of our move, even when we were still in Nairobi and I was emailing a million questions. 

Speaking of Nairobi, there are SO many Nairobi "people" here.  In addition to meeting one American woman who had her baby a few days after Noah was born in our Nairobi hospital, at the clinic on Wednesday I bumped into a woman who was actually in my little Nairobi book club. I didn’t know her very well and had forgotten that she moved here almost 2 years ago.  CRAZY!  And so nice to see a familiar-ish face!  In the spouse club there were two other women who had moved from Nairobi in the last year. 

It took me 11 days before I had my first “holy crap, I live here” moment, which I think is not too bad (I definitely had that moment a lot earlier on in Nairobi).  I almost cried for no reason at all…or just because sometimes it feels a bit overwhelming.  But mostly it has still been easier than I expected it to be. Rose seems to be doing well here so far, and I thank God that she is here. 

I am hoping to blog more regularly again and will eventually get past doing just a day-by-day play-by-play…but as I have not been able to email much this week I figure it is still the best way to keep our families and friends informed. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – the only Irish thing I have found here is the butter (don't ask me why they have Irish butter!?) but the kids were dressed appropriately for the occasion.  If only our Internet was fast enough to post pictures L.  Something to keep striving for...

With only a few more mosquito bites under our belt (I think we’re still in single digits), we are doing pretty well in Dar  Hope the same for you wherever you are.

LMW

March 12, 2012 - The Down Side

We were bound to have a tougher day and that came today. 

During the night the rainy season officially started with a big storm, complete with rain, thunder, lightning and some serious wind.  We lost power, which caused Grace to wake up because she was so hot, which caused Noah to wake up because he always wakes up when she screams.  From 2:30 to 4 am Grace was in our bed, where we were hot and sticky and not sleeping.  At 4 am the power came back on and we persuaded her to sleep in her own A/C.  Even though the power went out again at 6 am, she managed to sleep until 8.  But I was tired from all the opening and closing of windows (more labor intensive in our house than you would imagine) and coaxing of children.  We should now have a few weeks of rain and then a cooler season starting in April.

When Grace officially woke up, she complained of stomach pains.  Her complaints worsened along with her symptoms.  Noah has had diarrhea since Thursday (after his brief fever) and she started with it today.  By noon, we were at the doctor’s clinic.  A blood test* indicated that Noah just has a virus, which he has seemed prone to his entire life, but Grace actually does have a bacterial infection and was started on antibiotics.  We also learned that Noah’s “heat rash” is really a fungus.  Awesome.  I did like the doctor, a German lady, and thought she was good with the kids.  Obviously trained in tropical medicine, she knows her stuff.  But the clinic is not just for kids and is pretty much the only place for anyone to go, so it really busy with lots of waiting.  I guess that’s just something we have to get used to.  At least it is only 3 minutes away, unlike our 20-minute drive to Dr. Nesbitt in Nairobi.  I am hoping that both kids getting sick the first week is not indicative of how often they’ll be sick in the next few years.

The reality of living here is setting in a bit more, as the doctor told me, “You’re not in Nairobi anymore!”  She was referring to the water and how we have to be WAY more careful because the water is just full of parasites and bacteria.  We thought we were being careful, but somehow Grace got infected in just a week of being here so obviously we weren’t careful enough.  We are trying new strategies now, and we are probably going to install a fancy water filtration system in the house to help us keep vigilant.

When we got home from the doctor’s office, our generator was working!  Mr. S’s son came to tell me that he bought a certain amount of diesel for it but that I should buy more because who knows how long this outage will be and it is already dwindling.  I left the sick ones home with Rose and brought one of the shamba boys, Emmanual, with me to search for diesel (something I never actually had to do in Nairobi, even though lots of my friends had to do it).  The gas station I went to was out of diesel so I ended up going right back home.  This was an interesting car ride because Emmanual doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Kiswahili (unless we just wanted to say and goodbye to each other over and over again).  We were pretty quiet.  At home Mr. S’s son knew another place to try so he came with me this time and taught me how to go about buying diesel for one’s generator.  Never something I thought I would know how to do, but lets it add it to my expat-resume.  When we got home, he had the boys poured the diesel into the generator, but they spilled some which caused a shut down and now it is not working exactly as it should.  Of course!  So tomorrow the company will come back.  PRAY that it gets us through the night because it seems there is no end in sight to this power outage.

Before and after the diesel drama I made two different trips back to the doctor with samples from the kids.   So it was kind of a crazy day. Thank God for Rose. Both kids in bed now, neither feeling 100% great but hopefully on the mend.  And I am hoping tomorrow is less eventful.

LMW

*Note the difference between G & N, each getting the same finger-prick blood test.  G cried before, during and after for about 5 minutes in total. Very dramatic.  When the lab guy pricked Noah’s finger he smiled and giggled.  It was the highlight of my day I think!

March 11, 2012 - Striking Gold!

So much to say.  Not enough running internet to say it!

Friday we hit the expat jackpot when we went to a “Happy Friday Playgroup”, with at least a dozen other expat families who get together at a different house each Friday to kick off the weekend.  An American colleague of Kristoffer’s was hosting, which was great, and a former colleague of mine at UNICEF (who moved here in August) was also there.  So awesome!  Could not have asked for a better event in our first week.  The bad part is that we didn’t bring Rose with us, so spent most of our time running after Grace and Noah instead of collecting phone numbers (expat note: must collect phone numbers!), but we did have several good conversations with people and hopefully made ourselves known as the newbies in town.  People couldn’t believe we were out and about already J Most people that we’ve met here are American or Danish!  I am going to call Dar “Little Denmark” in fact, because I can’t get over how many Danes are here.  Everywhere I go, I hear people speaking Danish!

Saturday’s successes involved purchasing a washing machine, finding an Italian gelateria, and finding a new little grocery where they sold good cheese options at more reasonable prices!  I officially know 3 people here and saw 2 of them when we were out.  Definitely a small community.

Today’s success involved going to the Dar es Salaam Yacht Club  (DYC) for an hour (where we saw the 3^rd person I know!).  It felt like being on vacation with our feet in the beautiful Indian Ocean.  We have to be recommended by someone who has been a member for at least a year before we too can have membership and regular access to the DYC.  We managed to find a Dane who will play the part so hopefully in another week or so we will “accepted” to the club and will have permanent weekend plans at the beach.

Biggest challenges remaining: internet and Noah’s adaptation to the heat.  I think Grace is coming around (although has definite anxiety about starting a new school soon), but Noah’s little body is really having a tough time.  We continue to work on mosquito prevention.  Keeping ants, geckos and flies out of the house is also an ongoing venture.

On the agenda for this week: introductory doctor appointments for the kids, my first “spouse club” meeting with other expat spouses, and hopefully spending some morning hours with Grace at her school before she officially starts.  Our generator is close to being installed and some other improvements have been made on the house.  We are in good shape!

 LMW

March 9, 2012 - Who's Got the Power?

Yesterday was all about power.  Our electricity went out at 9 am and we assumed it was a usual power cut.  But then Rose remembered something and discovered that we were actually out of “credit” with the electric company.  Let me explain.

You have to pre-pay for your electricity here.  You go to the power company – they have little shops set up all over the place – and you give them some money and they give you a receipt with a special number on it.  Then you go home and find your electricity meter, which is flashing a big 000 since you have no credit, and you type in your special number.  Then the meter shows the amount of money you paid and as you now use your electricity the number dwindles away until your credit is gone.

Ok!  So this was my first day home alone with K back at work and I was excited about the possibility of going out to buy more credit for both electricity and my new cell phone (pretty much the same system as the electricity – you buy credit and spend it down – which is also how we did it in Nairobi).  Rose sort of told me where to go to buy the electricity (she did it last week) and I got into my little Rav4 to explore on my own. 

The place was so close to our house – like 90 seconds drive (or I suppose a few minutes if one wasn’t afraid of fainting in the heat) – that I drove by it, and while trying to find a place to turn around I saw a sign for another similar place.  So I drove a little further until I found it, but of course the “machine” that lets you buy this electrical credit was not working there.  There was a little convenience store so I went in there where I found out I could buy both electrical and phone credit.  The manager was very nice and laughed at me when I told him, “I’m really new here!”

I safely drove myself home and proudly showed Rose our electrical credit.  Go me!  I’m officially independent and didn’t hit anything while driving on the “wrong”…I mean left…side of the road.  It was a very good feeling (even though I was driving granny style – really slow!).

Next problem: in the time that I had been out buying credit, the power did officially go out so that even if we had credit, we would have no power.  This turned into a 12 ½ hour outage during 97 or 98 degree heat (that’s like 36 or 37 degrees I think). We kept waiting and waiting, and getting hotter and hotter.  Noah won’t sleep when he is really hot so he didn’t nap all day.  Grace begged to watch a show but nothing was charged or working so that was impossible.  Both kids spent most of the day naked and playing in a big laundry bucket full of water (somehow it was better than the bathtub that they refused).   We took one field trip – yes, I drove again! This time with passengers! – to the air conditioned grocery store, but I had spent most of the money I had (and still don’t have my own ATM card) on phone and electrical credit that we couldn’t buy much and couldn’t loiter at the store too long.  To be honest, I told Kristoffer that I was too hot and exhausted to cook hot food anyway and he ended up going for pizza at 7:30.  Perhaps that made me a bad housewife on Day 1 and yes he was the one at the office all day, but at he had A/C and did not have two crazy-hot kids. The Dar version of me is a work in a progress.

At 9:30 or so last night the power came back on.  It turns out that a big transformer for the whole area that we live in blew out, and they are waiting for parts from Japan to arrive to fix it. I have no idea what is powering our electricity in the meantime.  Kristoffer went out with one of the boys* around the compound and typed in our electrical credit so that we could all get some nice A/C sleep last night.  Phew.

 *There are two “shamba” boys living here, working for the landlord **doing various jobs around the compound for them and now us (sweeping our driveway or bringing us a paraffin lantern at night if there is no power).  There is also a “fundi”, or carpenter, on the premises.  His name is Bahati and even though I can barely communicate with him, Rose and Kristoffer are doing a good job and really like him.*

**From now on, I will refer to the landlord as Mr. or Mrs. S.**

So yesterday I felt powerful because I could drive by myself, but powerless because we literally had no power.  Our generator is supposed to be installed and running any day now…but the electrician is not very predictable even though he keeps telling Mr. S that he is coming.

Today we have only had one short power cut but otherwise it is cooler today and the power is on.  Grace happily had 30 minutes of charged iPad time and Noah even took a little nap.

LMW

March 7, 2012 - Cooling Off

Today was a little cooler here, which was nice, and we had a drizzle of rain.  Kristoffer and I found a shopping mall about 6 miles from where we live.  It was not as fancy as a Nairobi mall, but it was air conditioned (I think it was the first A/C mall in East Africa?) and had a lot of great stores.  Two of the stores were like Walmart (or, I suppose, Nakumatt) and we found lots of good stuff at better prices than the small grocery store near our house.  This was exciting!  Unfortunately our washing machine did not survive the move.  We aren’t sure what happened but we can’t get anyone to fix it so we were actually shopping for a new one.  Hate to spend the money, but I think this weekend we’ll buy one that we saw today. 

Kristoffer also bought a really cheap bike!  Because the cost of fuel is much more expensive here (at least than the duty free fuel we bought in Nairobi) we are trying to be a bit more conservative with driving.  Kristoffer is going to try to bike to and from work (or somedays even run if it is not too hot).  He thinks it will take him 20 minutes, which will give him freedom from the normal commuting traffic and will build regular exercise into his day.  We hope it works well - tomorrow he'll try it out!

The biggest bummer of the day was that Noah is a bit sick.  He has a little fever and is just not himself at all.  The poor little guy.  It is too soon to be malaria, particularly because he hasn’t been bitten by any mosquitoes yet!  But if he isn’t better I will take him to the clinic tomorrow.  It is likely to be just an unfortunate coincidence that he has a virus just a few days into Dar…but we don’t mess around with fevers in this place so we’ll get him checked out to be on the safe side.

Kristoffer is back to work tomorrow and I am on my own.  Who thinks I will really miss Charles? (I do!) Wish me luck!

LMW 

March 6, 2012 - Inaugural Blog: Life in Dar

(Note: For now we are using a slow USB-modem – kind of like dial-up – because proper internet is crazy expensive. It took 9 minutes to load a "new post" page on the blog alone.  Sigh. We were spoiled in Nairobi when it comes to Internet, but we'll keep looking for a better option here.)

We arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at 8 am on Sunday morning.  Our trip was long but not too tough all things considered. Grace, Noah and I traveled by ourselves from Boston to London where we met up with Kristoffer to fly on to Dar. Our original plan was changed at the last minute because our first flight was delayed, but that ended up being a blessing in disguise and it all worked out well.  The kids had a lot to see and do in business class.  Lots of space to roam around and buttons to push.  There were no major crying incidents or tantrums and both kids got a little sleep – although not at the same time, so I was pretty tired.  When Grace saw Kristoffer in London for the first time, she tried to run under a security rope to get to him before she was re-routed through the metal detector.  In London, our business class tickets were great because we could shower, eat well, have a “kids room” to let the little ones free, and I even had a little massage.  Phew.  That made the 9 ½ hour flight to Dar easier, and with another pair of hands it was over pretty quickly.  We are now permanently spoiled after having flown business class.  Economy is going to be tough for the next three years (the World Bank flies you in business when you move to and from only).

The airport in Dar is very different from the one in Nairobi – smaller and brighter, seemingly not as “official” and even hotter.  Getting our visas went smoothly and Kristoffer had asked some porters to gather all of our bags, so once we were properly paid up and stamped, we basically walked right outside to meet a driver from the World Bank who would bring us home.

Driving 20 minutes from the airport to our house (with no traffic on a Sunday morning), the word that came to mind was “quaint”.  Now I don’t actually think that is the right word, but it is maybe the closest to what I mean.  The city does not feel as urban as Nairobi…fewer high rise buildings (if any?), no matatus (another kind of mini-bus called a dala-dala, but they seemed much less crazy), and not as many people walking outside.  The HEAT seems to be a big factor in all of that.   It is just smaller and more “African”, if I can say that respectfully.  It is just not as built up as Nairobi, which is not at all a criticism.  And, I should add that there is a lot of construction all around us so perhaps it is following in Nairobi’s path.

We arrived at our house and Grace greeted Rose with a HUGE hug. Noah looked at her like, “Wait, don’t I know you?”  She was very happy to see us and I was relieved she was here.  Upon walking into our house Grace started jumping on her mattress (it is an old one that we use as a trampoline in our play space) and rediscovering her old stuff.  When she saw her little frog potty she exclaimed, “I think that frog potty missed me!”

And so it was a very easy and pleasant introduction to Life in Dar.  Our house is big and nice.  It is brand new and some little things are still being tweaked and improved here and there.  Our landlords are a lovely Tanzanian couple who live in the house next door (on an adjoining compound) and are going out of their way to accommodate our wishes.  They are EXCELLENT first-time landlords, particularly compared to the ones we knew in Nairobi.  Score one for Dar.  As nice as it is, the house does have some “interesting choices”, we like to call them.  For one, the urinal in the downstairs bathroom.  I’ve never seen a urinal in a house before!  Not sure if that is a Tanzanian thing or just the builder’s preference?  But quirks like that make it kind of charming and I feel that Kristoffer really lucked out in finding this great house.  We will make it our own with a little bit of time.

Our first night in Dar was…HOT.  One power outage (still waiting for generator to be installed! Things don’t move quite as quickly here as…in Nairobi…cough cough…) with no A/C gave the kids a heat rash.  Once the power came back on, Grace’s A/C was leaking so we couldn’t leave it on and she barely slept that night until 5 am she was so hot and jet-lagged.  Noah’s room had A/C but he was also awake for most of the night.

This led into our second day here, which everyone has been saying was the hottest day they’ve had this hot season.  Like so hot we didn’t care about eating.  So hot we took 3 “cold” showers during the day – and I say “cold” because our water comes from a big, black tank on the roof where the water basically cooks until we use it…so the “cold” water did not come out THAT cold!  It was so hot that even Kristoffer almost fainted.  Grace was MISERABLE and almost sick.  In the dining room and our bedroom the A/C was working and did help.  The quick trip we took to see the beach was just that – QUICK – because it was just too hot (the water was warmer than a bath tub).  My hair is like one big helmet of frizz, and we’ve learned that Noah also has curly hair (what little hair he has in the back that is…sort of like his Pops!).

We also visited a local grocery store.  I was surprised to find a Subway there.  The store was much smaller than Nakumatt in Nairobi…but if you’ll recall my relationship with Nakumatt you’ll know that I was not sad to say goodbye to that nemesis.  This store was small and organized.  I found what I needed.  The produce looked better than at Nakumatt, although there was not as much of it.  I saw mushrooms yesterday and when I went back to get them today realizing I wanted them for dinner, they were gone. Lesson learned: if you see it, buy it because it will be gone tomorrow.  I did find and buy Nairobi-priced cheese (like $10ish for a pack), but when I took it out for lunch today it was really, really bad.  Lesson learned: really try to avoid the cheese.

Night number 2 (last night) was better for Noah.  He woke up twice during the night but easily went back to sleep and ended up getting a total of 12 hours.  Because Grace slept for most of the day yesterday, she never really went in to a deep sleep until almost 5 am again and then we woke her up around 10:30 to try and break this cycle.  At 9 pm tonight (typing this) she is still awake bouncing around the house.

Now about the mosquitoes.  Our compound gets sprayed once a week and we will spray inside our house about twice a week.  The spray is seriously toxic though, so I am not thrilled about it.  A necessary evil, I fear. For nighttime, I bought the kids a whole bunch of the lightest weight long-sleeved zip-up pajamas.  But, it is WAY too hot for them if their A/C is not working.  Grace slept in only a t-shirt but Noah’s A/C was working so he slept in the jammies.  We lathered them up in kid-friendly anti-mosquito lotion for their exposed parts and with their nets down they did not get any bites.  I, on the other hand, got 2 bites.  Bummer L.  It was bound to happen, I guess, given that I was running around from kid to kid the first two nights.  I have decided not to take anti-malarial medicine because it is not sustainable for the long-run that we are here and I’m not excited about the possible side effects (stomach issues, etc.).  The medicine is also not great for kids, although they are allowed to take it.  If we get sick, we’ll get treated.  Kristoffer has also had a few bites.  We’ll just do our best – particularly in May, June, and July, which is “high malaria season”.   

Today we visited the medical clinic that all expats use and I registered our family with the doctors there.  The kids will go next week for check ups and their latest shots.  I asked the doctor a question because I have been having an eye problem since we got here.  Burning and itching on my eyelids.  Not my eye itself, just all around it.  She thinks it could be an allergy or some kind of reaction to the heat, so we’ll see how it improves with time. 

We also visited Grace’s school today!  We got a tour and I met the headmistress and several teachers.  They are very eager to welcome Grace when she is ready to start in hopefully just another week or so.  It will be a very different place than her school in Nairobi, but I think she will really like it and it will be SO good for her (and really cool!) to be at a Danish-speaking school.  We went in the middle of the day – peak heat! – so Grace was not very happy (I think “wilted” is the best way to describe her in the heat).  We’ll try to bring her a few more times before she starts to get her more familiar with the people and the place.

I also drove from our house to the store today.  Kristoffer goes back to work on Thursday and then I’m on my own so I have to start getting comfortable behind the wheel.  Luckily, nothing is really more than a few miles away.  If I can just remember to stay on the LEFT side of the road (particularly when turning!) I think we’ll be OK.

It seems like in a few more days the kids will be over their jet-lag and onto a more normal schedule.  There is a flow of workers doing things on the house, but at some point that will stop and we will start feeling like we really live here.  I look forward to visiting the World Bank someday soon to see what Kristoffer is up to, and also to meeting some new people (Potential friends? Please? Anyone?).  Every day is a learning experience, for sure.

All is well in Dar so far!

LMW

March 1, 2012 - Checklist

Since moving to Tanzania almost one month ago, Kristoffer has accomplished a lot.  With a little prep work done by yours truly, but really mostly on his own, he has managed to:

ü Find a great new house

ü Import our truck of furniture and everything else from Kenya to Tanzania

ü Unpack the truck full of stuff into our great new house

ü Buy a car

ü Enroll Grace in a Danish-speaking pre-school

ü Help Rose (our housekeeper from Nairobi) get settled

ü Start working at his great new job with the World Bank

ü Research grocery store prices to prepare me for the fact that we will no longer be eating cheese.  Ever.  Or almost ever.  Like maybe for our wedding anniversary we’ll splurge and buy 100 grams for $19.

ü Scope out the “yacht club”

ü Find the best Italian restaurant (where do they get their cheese?!) 

And maybe he has done even more than that!  He has been a great scout for our family, and now that the toughest part is over the rest of us will join him.  We will leave for the airport at 5:30 pm on Friday and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, expect to walk through the front door of our great new house approximately 32 hours later. 

I swore that I would NEVER travel internationally with two little ones by myself, but that was logistically and financially impossible for this trip.  The best we could arrange is for me to fly a third of the way by myself with the kiddos (overnight…pray they sleep…pray they sleep…pray they sleep…pray they sleep) and meet up with Kristoffer in London.  Then we will all travel to our new home together (via Nairobi…which will be kind of weird).

I think that I am as prepared as possible, and will do my best to keep everyone calm, cool and collected.  With a little help from the iPad, TSA (sheesh, of course I have a pacemaker on top of two little ones), British Airways staff (with whom we don’t have a great track record BUT we’ve never flown business class before so we think that they are supposed to be much nicer to us this time) and all of the nice business people who will be THRILLED to see me and my cherubs in their cabin of the plane this time around…we will make it to London with no drama at all and will be very, very, very happily reunited with Kristoffer/Far.

All things considered, I think our transition so far has gone as well as possible, with great thanks to our families in Denmark and the US, and especially to my parents for letting us take over their home for over 2 months.  But alas, it is time to leave their retirement community and get on with a life of our own. 

I know the challenges will be new and different (have you heard about the price of cheese over there?!  Ok…sporadic electricity and HELL-like heat and malaria will also be tough…) but I am ready to meet them.  And Kristoffer keeps assuring me that once we adjust to the challenges, we are really going to enjoy living in Tanzania. There is a lot of excitement here (Grace is just bursting!) mixed with nerves and a little bit of fear, to be fair. 

So wish us luck.  Pray to the Travel Gods and whomever else you can think of for the smoothest 32-hours-of-international-travel-with-small-children imaginable.  And I will check-in from the other side whenever I manage to find Internet access (not yet at our great new house).

The next time I blog, our Life in Transition will finally be Life in Dar. I hope you’ll keep reading!

LMW


p.s. I also managed to ship off 285 cubic feet of our stuff from my parents' basement to Dar so that we will actually have 95% of our belongings all together in one place.  I am really excited to open all of our wedding gifts again in 8-10 more weeks!

March 1, 2012 - Boston Children's Museum

Today was our last full day in the US and we went to the Children's Museum with my parents.  This was great because all of our stuff is packed and ready to go so there is not much for the kids to do at home.  It was also a yucky, rainy day so it was great for the kids to be busy and active indoors.

I took more pictures of Noah because Grace was too busy to catch her in a still shot :)  You can see the theme of the trip below...basically, Noah trying to do whatever his big sister was doing!  It was a fun day and a nice way to close out our extended in Massachusetts.

LMW

February 26, 2012 - Happy Birthday, Grace!

Our Gracie Girl had many requests for her 3rd birthday party.  She really hoped for:

• a dinosaur cake
• Cars napkins
• Dora plates and cups
• some kind of dinosaur game
• some kind of Dora game
• pizza

And, I have to say, that with all of the changes and transition in her life the last few months, not the least of which has been the absence of her Far while he has been getting Tanzania ready for us, I was just very happy to give her all of the above.  So she had a day full of what she wanted. I didn't harass her to eat and, in fact, she only ate candy and cake and ice cream and a little pizza. I let her watch as many shows as she asked for.  I let her play the iPad for as long as she wanted.  It was her THIRD birthday and every time she said something about being happy, I felt so happy for her.  She had three cousins over for her birthday party today, and it was really fun.  The few tears she shed (it is REALLY hard to share your birthday presents with your little cousin on your birthday!) were quickly forgotten amidst all of her happiness.  The hardest part of today was that Far was not with us, but we talked about him a lot and during her bath Grace said, "I really miss Far," so I know that she was thinking of him.  

I have no idea how much Grace weighs (guessing at 26 lbs) or how tall she is exactly.  I think she LOOKS like a 3 year old, albeit a petite one.  She is stubborn, which can be challenging for the adults in her life, but can also be endearing.  She is really into some American cartoon shows right now about words and spelling and vocabulary (Super Why and Word Girl and Dinosaur Train, for those American parents out there).  She can now draw a person that looks like a person and a letter M that looks like a letter M (most of the time).  She has a brilliant imagination and in these few months of transition, it has really been her savior because she has had the company of some wonderful friends to play with, like Dora and Boots and Swiper and Benny and Tico and Isa and some dragons and some dinosaurs!  She does not want to grow her hair long or wear a barrette, but she also refuses for it to be cut.  The big present she wanted for her birthday, which we gave her before Kristoffer left, was a Cars bike with a Dora helmet.  That is the ultimate Grace...she's not REALLY girly...but has a little bit in her still.  She says mature things like, "Mama, we need to figure this out..." or "I need to talk to you about something..." or "Good job, Mama! I am proud of you, " or today this cracked me up, "Noah is too young to drink that," because she is SO old and wise now!

I am eager to get Grace back to a nice daily routine and into a preschool (we leave for Tanzania in 5 days and she is enrolled to start as soon as her jet-lag ends!). I am eager for her to have her own space and schedule and life back.  And I hope she knows that despite all of the crazy changes in our lives lately, as far as we are concerned the sun still rises and sets with her, and always will.  I hope she had a wonderful birthday...I am a proud and lucky and blessed Mama for sure.

Here are some birthday highlights...

First of all...riding her birthday bike a couple of weeks ago after she got it.  She LOVES it and we were impressed with how quickly she could do it so well!

Big girl asleep last night...just before midnight and her third birthday.  I am that crazy stalker mom taking pictures of my daughter in her sleep.  Yes I am. 

Of her many gifts, her Dora shirt that says "Ready for a World Tour", seems most appropriate for the week ahead of us.

When Grace saw her dinosaur cake (which should get it's own blog, really) she said, "Thank you, Mama! I love it!" and gave me a big hug.  It was a labor of love (that my own mother helped me with) that took many hours and lots of concentration.  But I did make it and it made her happy all day long - so it was totally worth it!

Grace spent some time playing with her brother today.

 And reading the new books that Farmor sent her.

 She sang several songs throughout the day (including "Happy Birthday to Me!")...

...and was very excited when Nora, Sean, Molly & Auntie Meghan brought her a guitar to play with!

Then came our birthday party games.

First there was a "dinosaur egg" hunt.  I think this was the biggest hit of all the things we did.  She was really bummed when all the dinosaur eggs were found!

 Then we played "Pin the Tail on Swiper"...

 ...and had toy car races.

Next came an old-time favorite of Grace's...playing the invented game of "racquet balloon" (I think you'll find the rules of the game self-explanatory):

We followed up the games with a movie and the girls were all cuddly in Nene's bed!

Finally, it was time to EAT.

First pizza!

 Then, dinosaur cake and ice cream!

We ended the day with a dance party and after her cousins went home, Grace closed down the house with a little concert on her new guitar.

You only turn three once and she did it in style.  Happy birthday to our Super Gracie Girl!

LMW

February 22, 2012 - Gratitude Journal

I have seen other people do "gratitude journals" on their blogs and have always liked the idea. The impetus to start one here is three-fold: 

1. We have been in transition for over 3 months now, and I have just been a horrible blogger. This makes me sad because I really enjoy blogging. I hope keeping this journal will help my blogging become part of my daily routine once again. And I hope that our Internet in Dar will cooperate once we get there. 

2. I often feel - particularly during transition and also in anticipation of moving to a lesser developed country - that I focus a little too much on the negative or difficult aspects of daily life, instead of being grateful for all of the wonderful things. I hope this journal will help me remember and appreciate the good stuff. 

3. It is Lent and I am once again faced with the notion of "giving up" something, which I have never been a fan of. I understand the purpose of making a sacrifice during Lent and I very much support people trying to get closer to Jesus that way, but I also have not found that giving up something like chocolate, for example, has ever helped me appreciate Jesus' sacrifice in a more meaningful way or has even had any kind of long-term impact on my life. So, instead I try to "do something extra" instead of giving something up. Usually, I do this privately but this year I am starting my gratitude journal online for Lent and hope that by naming or describing something I am grateful for each day, I will honor the spirit of the Lenten season and keep my gratitude alive even beyond Lent. 

Please check out the new "page" on this blog (the fourth tab at the top) to read my new Gratitude Journal!

LMW

February 14, 2012 - Sibling Valentines

Grace and Noah are a serious duo-in-the-making.  Noah adores her.  Everything about her.  He walks to her in an all-out attack to give her a big hug (especially in the evening before bed) and doesn't even mind when she totally freaks out and runs away, dragging him behind her.  He is a sidekick to her superhero, although in time we'll see if those roles remain or reverse!  Grace loves Noah most of the time - except when he steals her cup (one of his favorite things to do) or goes in for one of his hug-attacks - and she tells him so often. She is always thinking about him and what he's doing.  She talks to him and bosses him around; sometime she mimics me so accurately in an attempt to parent him that she is also a mini-mother!  She is usually very sweet to her brother.

On Valentine's Day it is easy to remember romantic love, but today I choose to highlight pure, innocent sibling love [maybe because my romantic love is across the ocean in Tanzania right now - more on that later].  One of the cutest things this duo likes to do is "muscle" (we call it that, anyway) - or wrestle around on a bed or the floor.  Noah is a particular fan of rough-housing with his sister.  As you can see.

Thank you to Kristoffer for the beautiful flowers he sent and some delicious Godiva that he hid for me to find today.  An even bigger thank you, though, for these two crazy kids...who are a testament of love on Valentine's day, and every day.

LMW

February 2, 2012 - Top Ten List (!)

Top Ten Things You Can Find in Tanzania

10.  Malaria (and various other tropical diseases)

9.  Tanzanite, the precious gemstone found exclusively here

8.  Proper Kishwahili (as opposed to the slang-ish Kenyan version)

7.  Around 130 ethnic groups and languages

6.  Dar es Salaam, one of the world's largest natural harbors

5. Zanzibar, a famous island getaway

4. Ngorongoro Crater, the largest complete crater in the world

3. The Serengeti National Park, considered to be the best wildlife reserve in all of Africa

2. Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa

and the #1 thing you can find in Tanzania...as of February/March 2012...

The Welsien Family

Congratulations to Kristoffer on [finally] officially accepting a position with The World Bank in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where we will be living for the next 2-3 years.  Kristoffer will begin working in about 10 days and the rest of us will join him once he finds us a great house (fingers crossed!) and gets all of our stuff from Nairobi.  In Kristoffer's gig as Country Officer for the World Bank, he hopes to work with the new Country Director in Tanzania to secure and implement positive, sustainable development solutions in the country.  It has been a 9 month+ process from applying for the job in April to signing the paperwork today, and we are very relieved.

We are excited for some new perks of living in Dar, such as greater security and being right on the beach.  We are also interested to see how we handle some new challenges, such as insane heat and rampant malaria.  Rose, our beloved housekeeper/nanny from Nairobi, will continue working for our family in Dar and we are so thrilled that she'll be with us to assist our transition.  Particularly for Grace and Noah, it will be great to have her around for some added consistency in their daily lives.  

Making our second logistical move will be easier in many ways than our first time around because we know so, so, so much more than we knew in 2007.  But in some ways it was easier last time because it was just the two of us carrying a lot less precious cargo than we have now.  

We hope you'll keep reading to learn along with us as we begin our new Life in Dar.  

LMW