July 1, 2014 - A Good Goodbye

Yesterday we said goodbye to Rose.  First on Friday night her fiance, Marsh, arrived from Kenya to help her get back home with all of her stuff.  It was nice of him to come pick her up.  Then on Saturday afternoon we had a goodbye party where she could invite all of her friends to send her off.  It was really lovely - all of her friends wrapped her in kangas (African cloth) and offered her words of wisdom for her marriage.  They all got to meet (and question) Marsh, and he gave a speech to them saying he had no idea she had such a wonderful network here in Dar.   She also presented us with a painting of our family that she had hired someone to paint for us.  It was a very thoughtful, special gift that we will always have.  On Sunday night we took Rose and Marsh out to dinner with our whole family, and yesterday we said goodbye ahead of their very early departure this morning.  

All of these events were a way of helping Rose and the kids and us process her departure and celebrate the next phase of her life.  While sad to no longer have her here, we are very happy for her.  Kristoffer, Grace and Noah are so far doing OK.  Rose and I were the ones crying last night!  We are happy, too, that we found a nice woman, Oliver (pronounced Oliva...like with a Boston accent!), to replace Rose and Rose was able to train her for a few days last week.  Two days in and so far no complaints. Fingers crossed that it keeps going well!  Aya likes Oliver a lot and the big kids are starting to interact with her a bit more too.  I am sure that will take just a little more time.

Here are some pictures that I don't think Rose minds if I share.  We wish her all the best in the next chapter of her life. Safari njema, Rose, na nashukuru sana.  Hongera!

We gave Rose a framed copy of this picture and will display one in our house as well.  It is important to me that the kids will not forget someone who was such a big part of their formative years!

Rose with the three women who used to be nannies for Grace's best friends.  In our first summer here they spent a lot of time together and became good friends!

With a couple more of the "dadas".

 Everyone at the party!  

(Christopher the cook to the left...Rose's fiance, Marsh, to the right.)

 The Happy Couple...ready to get married!

LMW

June 19, 2014 - Moving On

So I haven't written about it yet because it is a hard thing for me to write about.  But it's time to let you know that Rose, our housekeeper and nanny for the last almost-4 years, is moving back to Kenya and getting married next month.  We only have her with us for a short time remaining, and this is very big news in our world.

We are very happy for Rose (who I know often reads this blog...Hi, Rose!) and think it is a great next step for her life.  We never knew that she would want to stay with us in Tanzania as long as she had, and we are so grateful for the time she has spent working for our family.  

But at the same time, I credit Rose's presence and help for much of my sanity living in East Africa these last many years.  Our transition from Nairobi to Dar was very smooth, in large part because of her.  So I am particularly and quite selfishly sad that Rose is leaving because I do believe she is irreplaceable.  I am sure we can find someone else to work for us (working on that currently...) and we'll even find someone who we like and does a great job.  But she will not be Rose.  And considering that she is probably the person on this continent that I have the spent the most amount of time with consistently in the last 6 1/2 years combined I feel it will be a hard goodbye.

Grace and Noah took the news well and are talking about it a lot.  Noah asks her everyday, "Rose, did you get married yet?  When are you going to Kenya?"  Grace is telling everyone she knows that she has to get a new "dada" [means sister in Kiswahili and is used for a nanny/housekeeper] "because my Rose is moving back to Kenya to get married."  (Please note how much I love it that she calls her "my Rose.")  I am sure the sadness of the situation might not occur to them until after she leaves and doesn't come back.  Luckily, though, this lifestyle has helped Grace and Noah become pretty good goodbyers. I am sad on another level, though, that Rose will not be here with Aya...especially because they already get along so well!

But mostly, as I said, I do feel really grateful that we were lucky enough to find a woman who has really loved our children these years - especially because we never intended for her to be our nanny (note that we hired her to be a part-time housekeeper but on her first day working for us I was admitted to the hospital with complications in Noah's pregnancy and - ta da, Rose became our nanny just like that!).  When you live so far away from your own family, it is a blessing to have some extra love around for the little ones.  We have so many great memories of and with Rose, and she will always have a special place in our family's story. 

Rose is leaving at the beginning of July and next weekend we will throw her a little goodbye party here to send her off.  I'm already crying - ACK!

LMW

June 7, 2014 - Homecoming

The best part of our arrival in Dar two Friday nights ago, was that my friend came to pick us up at the airport as a surprise, with another driver and an extra car so we could fit ALL of our stuff (9 bags equal to 510 lbs of luggage + 7 carryons + Aya's car seat and stroller + 5 people).  It was a wonderful treat and helped me relax a lot even though Grace & Noah's car seats didn't arrive with us.  

Arriving at our house at about 11:00 at night, we were wondering if we would have electricity.  It was another gift that our electricy was working.  Thank goodness!

But that's where the "good news" stopped.  Our water pump was broken so we had no water at all until late the next afternoon.  We discovered the next day that both of our car batteries were dead dead dead.  AND, the worst, our house was covered in mold!  

It was a rookie mistake for us to leave our house so closed up during what turned out to be an incredibly long rainy season.  The air was damp and it never moved or circulated and it was so hot that the mold just grew and grew.  Rose has been furiously cleaning all week and we still keep finding it in new places!  We'll NEVER make that mistake again!

All of this is just to say that despite a very long 3-month break from Dar, it took just a few minutes for us to really "feel" the differences of being here.  I have to say I took these small inconveniences pretty hard the first couple of days because Aya - who had slept through our whole trip here - was WIDE awake our whole first night until 5 am.  That was brutal.  The next two nights were also not great before she started sleeping at more normal times by Monday night.  Once the cloud of sheer exhaustion lifted, I could see that these were really small problems on the Dar scale of "irritating" to "complete disaster".

And back to the good news, we've been welcomed back so warmly by all of our friends in the Nordic community and our friends in the more American-ish Friday happy hour community.  On Grace & Noah's first day back to school they were welcomed like rock stars!  They have been on a constant ride of play dates with good friends, and everyone has been very sweet on our little Aya.  

All in one week I felt like I experienced the high and lows of expat life here, but overall it is quite nice to be back in our daily life and in our own house.  I'm not perfectly well rested, but I'm also not doing too badly considering we have a 6 week old.  

Pictures of some of this week's events (playdates, circus and last day of school!) are coming soon!

LMW

December 20, 2009 - Good News/Bad News

The good news is that Grace is having a good time in Denmark so far...

The bad news is that yesterday she learned how to pick her nose...

LMW

August 18, 2009 - Good News/Bad News

The good news is that Grace is now rolling over regularly.

The bad news is that she started rolling over regularly during the night last night and after rolling from her back to her belly she would wake up, panic, and scream. And then repeat the whole thing again. There was, therefore, not a lot of sleeping in our house from 11pm to 5am this morning. Sheesh!

A bit more of good news is that it is 12pm on a Tuesday and despite being scheduled for no electricity our generator is running. I'll be interested to see how long it lasts!

LMW