Kristoffer and I are having a pretty low-key Valentine's Day: we had a lovely brunch this morning and are going out to dinner and a movie tonight. We also managed to buy some new plants today to replace a few that have recently died (read: we have or our staff has killed via over-watering). Last night, however, was a big night out for us. Our neighbors/friends, Mike and Caroline, took us out to dinner to say thank you for lending them our house for their family reunion when we were in the US and Denmark over the holidays. They took us to what many consider to be the best restaurant in Nairobi, which we had not been to before. It was incredible! Kristoffer found good vegetarian food and the rest of us enjoyed fresh seafood that was absolutely amazing. We had a lovely, lovely evening and look forward to taking our next guests there (Mom and Dad!) because it was definitely the best food we have eaten in Nairobi.
This morning we also had an interesting meeting. Earlier this week we wrote a letter to our landlord to complain about the sketchy practices of our caretaker, Hillary. She was very glad to get our letter and came for a meeting with us and him. Actually, he received a "warning letter" about his job from her yesterday and then came to talk to us directly. He continued to be sketchy making up excuses that didn't make sense and begging us not to tell that he owed us money (too late! that was in the letter! but at least he did pay us back, finally!). He was clearly terrified of getting fired, which we can understand because as it turns out he has FOUR WIVES to support. Even sketchier! Anyway, we were very polite but clear and honest, letting him know that his performance is not acceptable to us and that if we didn't complain to his boss we were sure nothing would ever change. She really appreciated the direct correspondence and seemed very proactive about changing some policies on the compound that will decrease his sketchiness. We think he will give us no more trouble as long as we live here (except for probably harboring deep resentment towards us) and we are really happy that we know our landlord now and can go directly to her with our concerns (instead of going through the property management company). She even said she wanted to meet the baby! All in all, we are very satisfied with the outcome of writing that letter.
Finally, as you can see from the poll, voting has closed and most voters believe that Simba is a boy. I am not yet convinced that we don't have a little girl with a big attitude on our hands but, with only three weeks left to go, we will certainly find out soon enough.
LMW
