There are some really great things about living in our house. For me, I love that we can walk on our street. It is very quiet with compounds of houses only (no apartments) and so much security. Our security guards call Kristoffer "Mr. Kris" (which he can't decide if he likes or not) and they are more strict about letting people into the compound than at our old apartment (which is a good thing). Christine said that it was like "Fort Knox" getting in to our house the first time she came. The compound is very secluded and quiet. We have already gone on two nice long walks, and Kristoffer has even gone for a morning run! Another thing I love is that our compound has a generator because, even though we lose power just as often as we did in the apartment, the generator kicks in right away and power is restored immediately. It feels like a luxury here but I am loving it! I will not miss 8 hour power outages for sure!
Speaking of luxury...we are finally caving in to the pressures of living in a developing country and are going to hire "staff". Our house comes with "SQ" (or servant's quarters) for two people, but I think we will only hire one - and we haven't decided if that one will live with us or not (depends on the person we hire I think). We are interviewing a woman named Mary on Sunday to be our housekeeper and cook. Isn't that SO crazy?!?! If you had ever asked me when I could imagine myself hiring a housekeeper/cook before living in Kenya, I would have cooly answered, "Well...the year after never of course!" And now here I am, imagining how nice it will be not to spend half of every weekend cleaning our big house and food shopping, and half of every night cooking dinner and cleaning it up. Mary supposedly has a license from a catering school and knows several styles of cooking (we'll have to see if one of them is "vegetarian"). If not her, than we'll find someone else. In Kenya, hiring domestic help is a big part of the economy and there is no shortage of (inexpensive) labor. We've also found a driver, named Justice, to use consistently instead of a taxi because he is a little cheaper, and Kristoffer will occasionally employ the compound's gardener to help with our backyard (rent includes maintenance of the greens in the front of our house only). Did I mention that our house has rose bushes?! There are at least 5 of them, in all different colors, and I think they will be really beautiful once we learn how to take care of them. When Kirsten and Hans are here we plan to ask for their help - they are great gardeners!
This week we picked out a paint color and Kristoffer painted one of the walls in our upstairs living room the other night. It is a creamy/orangey/yellowy color - very warm and friendly. It looks great on one wall but might be too strong for much more than that so we will pick out one shade lighter and have some other rooms painted in that (rest of the living room, hallway and entryway, kitchen). I think it will take us awhile to furnish and decorate the house entirely, so right now we are just focusing on key rooms where we spend most of our time. This weekend our hunt for furniture will continue.
As for me, I have come in to the UN three times now. I have to "check out" as a volunteer before starting a consultant's contract; "checking out" means walking around to have all kinds of people who never even knew that I was a volunteer sign off on a piece of paper that I have returned everything I never borrowed from their department (technology stuff, finance stuff, etc.). It actually takes awhile to do this and most people are like "Who are you?" when I ask if they will clear me as a departing volunteer! Sometimes they will give me a little speech about how the UN needs good people and do I really want to check out? That is when I say that I am waiting for my consultant's contract to be processed so the UN isn't losing me, but that I am rather happy to expect a pay check in the near future.
But about that contract...it seems that it had been approved while I was away but that in the last few weeks there has been a salary adjustment, and I will now be getting paid at a higher rate. Because of the new salary, though, the contract has to go through the entire process of being approved again which will take between 2 and 3 more weeks. When it is finally approved, Kristoffer and I expect to be travelling a bit with his mom and Hans. Ideally, I will start working part time next week "off the books" and will then pick up full time "on the books" when Kirsten and Hans leave. It is sort of confusing, but hopefully will work out for the best. I am lucky that UNICEF has been very patient with me and that my boss is still giving me a contract. She is on leave for the next several weeks anyway and I will be working for an Italian woman who is in charge of the education emergency now; from what I understand I will mostly be organizing, analyzing and finding meaningful ways to report data that people have been collecting for months but haven't really done anything with.
Finally, today Kristoffer and I realized that we actually know a lot of people here! This is sort of a surprising revelation to me because I have been gone for awhile and because I still think of us as being new here. During lunch in the UN cafeteria though, a few women I know came over to say hello. Kristoffer had also seen a few people he knew and I found out later today that some of my UNICEF colleagues were watching us eat but I didn't notice them. Kristoffer and I are now sort of having a contest to see which one of us is more popular. As we were leaving we saw two of WFP Danish guys talking to one UNICEF American women and were like, "How do they know each other?!" We joined them briefly and then as we walked away from all of this Kristoffer said, "It is a really small world here, isn't it?" because eventually all expatriates (expats) know all of the other expats!
Before I sign off, I'll just add that I think it is great that Kristoffer has blogged a bit more. He has the great fortune with his job to be able to see parts of Kenya that average tourists and international business people do not see. His views of "real Kenya", as opposed to the happy little expat bubble we live in, are very valuable and I am always grateful when he shares these stories. I also hope to eventually acquire a few stories of my own when I am working more!
LMW
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