December 24, 2013 - Christmas Eve / Juleaften / Big News Part 1

Our Christmas Eve/Juleaften was AWESOME.  We started by having breakfast with Grace and Noah's good friends Freya and Helena (and their parents, our good friends Mabel and Soren).  We all ate together really delicious food and the kids played and the parents talked and laughed and we had a great time.  They exchanged their first gifts of the holiday and it was a really great morning for all of us. Wish I had a picture of the grown ups!

We went home for mandatory naps - ALL FOUR OF US - and that was pretty awesome too.  When we woke up Kristoffer started to make traditional Danish rice porridge for dinner and I baked chocolate chip cookies for Santa Claus (and, you know, the rest of us).  Grace and Noah also delivered Christmas doggy bones to our security dogs before dinner.  

After dinner we finished watching the Nissebanden Julecalendar before it was time to light the Christmas tree, sings songs and dance around the tree, and open gifts (all but the ones from Santa Claus).  After all these years as a couple - more than 10! - I can still say, that one of my favorite "new" things that Kristoffer brought into my life is the beauty of a candle-lit Christmas tree. It never gets fails to just take my breath away - even a tiny, fake Christmas tree like ours.  

Grace and Noah opened many wonderful gifts (of which there are almost no decent pictures) including a wooden castle that they were instantly playing with, new dragons, puzzles, two new DVDs, and great new reading material.

But Noah's favorite, favorite, favorite gift was/is his REAL tools from Farmor and Hans.  Last night he even slept with the (real - honestly, not plastic) screwdriver!

And one of Grace's favorite gifts was her Lego "Friends" car, also from Farmor and Hans, that she put together with Far last night. He was very impressed with her skills at following the directions!

I think it was one of their latest nights ever - Grace and Noah didn't leave out Santa's cookies and milk until almost 9 pm...

and fell asleep even later than that because they were so wound up and silly (in their new Christmas/beach pajamas)!

 Kristoffer and I got new iPhones for Christmas this year so we didn't have a lot going on in the gift-giving department.  But he did give me something that I can FINALLY share here.  His contract has officially been extended past February, which is when it was due to end.  We have been waiting and waiting and waiting and HOPING AND PRAYING that we wouldn't have to move in February (jobless, homeless, no health insurance...) because that would be really bad timing with a baby on the way.  We found out two weeks ago that his extension and transfer to a new sector within the Bank was approved, but he did not get the official letter until this week and then apparently saved it for me to open for Christmas.  He is now a Water and Sanitation Specialist with the World Bank and we can stay in Tanzania for a possible three more years.  Job Security as our family expands = MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The first part of our Christmas 2013 was so lovely!  I am so grateful for a day of great friends and really wonderful memories for our little family.  Couldn't be more blessed!

LMW

December 18, 2013 - Christmas Spirit

I have been meaning to share a bit more about our Christmas activities around here but our internet has been supremely uncooperative (and we hope to be solving that problem this weekend).  It definitely feels weird to people who grew up in very cold and/or snowy places in the winter to be in Dar for Christmas, where it is just plain middle-of-the-summer.  It is really, really hot right now.  We’re back to the season of taking a few cold showers a day OR not leaving the air-conditioned house (which is tough!).  But with little kids who do not have a long history of wintery Christmases, there is no problem celebrating Christmas here for them. 

First we had to address the issue of how Santa Claus will get into our house. With Grace’s and Noah’s letters to Santa (see below) we sent him a special key to come in with their presents since we do have a lot of security and no chimney.  This was of great concern to Grace (thanks to all my Facebook friends who suggested the magic key for Santa!). 

We’ve decorated our (very) little tree to be quite pretty despite its size.

We have our nativity set out and an African nativity advent calendar growing each day as well.

The kids have been watching an old Danish Christmas calendar on DVD – one episode every day.  Danish TV does a story every year where each day in December there is a new episode leading up to Christmas, and Grace particularly loves Nissebanden i Gronland (circa 1989) that Farmor sent us to watch. They have also been opening up a Christmas/advent calendar where they each get one small (in cost, if not in size) gift each morning leading up to Christmas.

We made our gingerbread houses, as you’ve seen.  And there are little nisse/elves all over the house, with our stockings are hanging on window bars by our tree.

The kids had their Lucia celebration at school, along with making lots of Christmas decorations and other celebrations there with their friends.

Kristoffer and I have even been to two – soon to be three! – Danish Christmas lunches (Julefrokost); Grace and Noah even came to the one at the Danish Ambassadors house.  So we really have been in the spirit of the season, despite having summer weather.   Grace and Noah are getting super excited for Santa’s visit (despite worrying about him being overdressed for the Dar heat…and of course alternating every day between “naughty” and “nice”).

On the 24^th, which Kristoffer calls Christmas and I call Christmas Eve, we will have a brunch with our friends in the morning before having an afternoon/dinner/evening/dancing around the Christmas tree/exchanging gifts on our own at home.  If I can come up with a Catholic mass to attend that will not be completely miserable (no fans or A/C, no seats, hundreds of people) then we will go to church (that would be a Christmas miracle, I think!).

On the 25^th, which I call Christmas, the kids will open their treats from Santa and we’ll have a cozy morning at home before going to a lovely brunch at one of Dar’s nicest hotels…probably followed by some afternoon naps and maybe a trip to the beach.  We expect quite a few Skype or Facetime calls to America and Denmark – especially with the news of Bonus Baby being opened Christmas morning.  THAT will be awesome and I do feel a wee bit like a little kid anticipating the opening of that secret envelope. 

We’re mixing new and old traditions, still working out what a Welsien Family Christmas looks like since it is only our third time being “alone” without our either of our families for the holiday.

Despite missing our families, there is something a little bit WONDERFUL about not dealing with international holiday travel (oh God, the snow storm in Amsterdam last year when trying to get to Denmark!) and lugging so much STUFF everywhere!  There is also something sweet about having one special Christmas on our own as a family of four before we become a family of five.

Christmas is in the (very hot, humid, muggy) air in Dar for sure!

LMW

December 14, 2013 - Christmas "Lordag Slik"

Kristoffer grew up with the tradition of having "Lordag Slik" (Saturday candy) as a kid. This meant that he didn't get sweets or anything during the week, but would also get candy or some kind of treat on Saturday.  It is something we try to do with our kids too, which not only limits them asking for cookies and ice cream or candy during the week, but gives them something special to do on Saturdays when we go to the store and they can pick something they want.  We do make exceptions now and then, but we try to stick to it.

And today we had a very special kind of Lordag Slik because we made "gingerbread" houses! I think my mom started this tradition when my oldest nephews were very small, and she still does it every year with whichever grand kids she can get her hands on. Making these houses involves using graham crackers, frosting and tons of candy.  Totally awesome! Last year Grace loved doing it with her cousins at my parents' house and she has requested doing them before Christmas several times since then. 

So when I went to the US I stocked up on supplies which Grace and Noah have been watching and waiting for these last several weeks.  And we decided that today was the day...so it was sort of like Lordag Slik on speed :)

What I liked best about the process was that our family sat at the table having fun together for more than an hour, listening to Christmas music, getting a huge sugar high and being super silly.  It was awesome. There were definitely challenges though...such as the melting frosting making it pretty difficult to STICK anything and the somehow stale graham crackers being pretty soft and breakable. But hey, we are surrounded by development challenges on a daily basis here so perhaps it was just fitting that our houses felt a bit "East African" anyway.  It was messy and fun for all of us.  Grace wanted our team to copy a lot of what Far and Noah were doing so they were more the idea team, but ours turned our a little bit neater and more organized (if I do say so myself).  Noah was very serious about unwrapping all of the different candies, and eating them!  Grace was hoarding her unused stash for later and was concerned with decorating the whole "compound" with  an external (candy) wall, just like all of the compounds here.

Such a fun family tradition that we all enjoyed, and we briefly Facetimed with my mom so she could chime in, which made her feel close even though we are so far. Happy Holidays! 

LMW

December 13, 2013 - Mixed Day

Grace woke up yesterday morning with a cough and stayed home from school, but otherwise didn't seem too sick.  She slept through 8 hours of the night with no problem, but at 4 am suddenly had a fever and a hard time breathing.  The doctor told us at 8 am that she has advanced bronchitis which is almost pneumonia and to carefully watch her breathing.  He started her on antibiotics and a ventolin inhaler.  Not great, but at least we got in early to see the doctor. 

There was a show at their school today; Scandinavian countries celebrate Santa Lucia (St. Lucy) every December 13th in costume and song, and our kids missed it last year when we were in Denmark so were particularly excited about today.  Today was also the last day of school in 2013.  The school said Grace could come just for the show and the medicine brought her fever down temporarily so that she could participate. 

See some pictures and video clips below.  In general, it was very cute (minus the mom I almost got into a fight with because she was standing up in front to film her kids so that nobody else could see their kids!) and, thankfully, very short (less than 10 minutes of actual singing!) so Grace did great.  And when you could see Noah he looked adorable too (no stage fright as long as he was with Gracie - and at one point you can see him kiss her shoulder), but other kids kept blocking him so he was hard to see (you gotta get a little taller, Buddy!).  

I cut down the 7 1/2 minutes of video to three 30 second clips.  They are not great quality but I was on the floor and am not very tall anyway.  Also, kids were hard to see and I couldn't zoom.  Sorry, but hope you can find Grace & Noah!  First two songs are in Swedish (I think) and the third song below is in Danish (but it was really long, so I didn't share the whole thing).

Unfortunately, not too long after the show her symptoms got a lot worse.  I think she overdid it, and I feel awful about that.  We ended up back at the doctor's office for a nebulization treatment when her lips turned blue and she really couldn't breath properly.  Her oxygen level was down to 89.  So she is better since the nebulization but we will be back for a few more treatments tonight and tomorrow.  And by the then the other medications should be working on the infection.

Whoever heard of a little kid getting pneumonia in the middle of the super hot season?!?!  Or maybe it has to do with the rain and humidity?  Whatever it is - BAH HUMBUG!

So the kids were cute, but this Mama has been running around all day and is exhausted.  Just praying this is not an omen of how the next three weeks with no school (and no nanny) will be spent!  And today's silver lining is that my two very good friends brought me special deliveries today:  one of them arrived with flowers and one of them brought me coke and chocolate.  What more does a girl need when she's having a bad day?  Thanks ladies, I am so grateful for you!

LMW

December 12, 2013 - Just Silly

We are in the season of "short rains" here (although I think it is already supposed to be over!) and Grace and Noah love to play in the rain in their boots and with their umbrellas. I have no idea what happened to the umbrellas on Monday - but Kristoffer took this video of them playing in the rain.  They were wet and silly - it is so much fun to be a kid!

LMW

December 11, 2013 - Blog Books

We would like to say a very big THANK YOU to Jean (Bibi) and Jen in NYC for one of the best gifts we receive each year.  Since we began our expat life, they have been closely tracking our blog and each year they publish it into a hard cover book for us (in 2012, we got two books!).  The collection stands proudly at the top of one of our bookshelves. These books are truly our family's story (beginning just four months after we got married), and serve as Grace and Noah's baby books as well! I usually buy them each an extra copy so that they will also have them throughout their lives; if they ever have a question about what it was like spending their early years in Kenya and Tanzania, well, they have all the answers right at their finger tips. 

We love, love, love these gifts, Jean and Jen (and we know how much hard work it takes to produce them)!  Thank you so very much!
Love, Lisa, Kristoffer, Grace & Noah (and BB in the future!)

December 10, 2013 - Sharing is Caring

Even though we live in a developing country, our life is pretty much a totally "expat bubble," where we mostly interact with other expats, our children live very comfortably and very rarely interact with this country's poverty/reality at all.  Of course we want to protect them from seeing "too much" at their ages, but wherever we will live in the world - be it Kenya, Tanzania, Denmark, America or somewhere else! -  there are people who have much less than we do and whose basic needs are not met.  Granted there are different kinds of poverty in these places, but I believe it is important that our kids start to learn about this reality, even if in a relatively protected way.  We have so much to be grateful for, but sometimes it takes seeing what others do not have to help you feel grateful for what you do have.

So my idea for the Christmas season was to take Grace and Noah to visit a Tanzanian orphanage.  One of their teachers is involved in a small orphanage here and agreed to take us there.  During the past week, I've had the kids going through their playroom and bedrooms to find toys that they don't play with very much (or in some cases toys that are duplicates of other toys!).  We felt strongly that they had to pick the toys themselves and agree (ok, I suggested some things to give away but they did not accept all of my suggestions and Kristoffer reminded me that that was OK!) or else when we got to the orphanage there might be conflict.  So it was two shopping bags of toys and puzzles in good condition that we brought, along with some clothes that the kids have outgrown.  We talked to them a lot about giving things away before we get new presents for Christmas, about what they might see or experience at the orphanage, and why these children don't have mothers and fathers and toys.  

There is only so much prep we could do though, and then we just had to hope for the best! Yesterday was a holiday here so Kristoffer didn't have to work, and off we went for our visit. My expectations of the orphanage were pretty different than reality.  The house had just been renovated in a way so that it was painted nicely and didn't smell bad or have a lot of trash around it, even though it was in a slum about 30 minutes from our house.  This was much different from the orphanage we used to visit in Nairobi, which was really dirty.  There were 25 children living in this house, but many of them had gone on some kind of trip for the day with the head Mama of the house.  So it was a small group receiving our gifts and it was probably much easier for us than if all children had been there.  (We learned that there used to be 65 kids in that tiny house, but that a Norwegian man donated a house to the others moved to live in that donated house.)

We spent one hour with them, trying to teach the children (some 14 year old girls, boys, and then some younger kids...but most of the small children were not there) how to play with the toys.  It was interesting because they don't speak English and we don't speak Kiswahili (well, Kristoffer does...but not the me, Grace or Noah), so we were using the toys to communicate.  Some of the children were definitely trying to hoard the toys - that is pretty understandable - and they were not really used to saying thank you, but that was also OK.  We also left some more toys from a friend of mine so that when the Mama returned she could distribute them to the children we didn't see.

Grace and Noah were shy and awkward when we were there, but not unfriendly or rude.  Grace said to me more than once, "I think we made them happy."  She could see that in their small house there were not any other toys. So while it is a big life lesson that we need to reinforce repeatedly throughout the future - I do feel this was a good introduction at an appropriate time of year to teach the children about giving to those less fortunate than we are.  They will not miss those toys (even though they were really nice ones!) because they have so many others, and they did not begrudge the other children because they could see how little they already had.

This was a parenting win, as far as I am concerned, and I am interested to see how much (if at all) they process the experience in the coming days or weeks.  I hope it made Grace and Noah feel good on some level...it certainly made ME feel good.  Here are a few (iPhone) pictures - all of the kids there wanted to use the camera or have their picture taken...even if the quality is not great.

Grace and Noah learn at school that sharing is caring, and that was definitely true today!

LMW

December 9, 2013 - Intermission

Tis the season to be jolly...fa la la la la, la la la la!

Bonus Baby was 20 weeks old on the inside yesterday and is scheduled to be born 19 weeks from today.  S/he is moving a lot more these days, which I enjoy (always at 9 pm!) and it's also nice because Kristoffer can feel bigger movements with his hand now.  The kids are not quite patient enough to wait for the kicks yet...but soon!  They can't wait to feel movement in there. 

My pregnancy feels good except for two things, which are hard not to complain about (although I am trying not to complain too much): the heat here (ahhhhhh) and my sciatic nerve pain.  I am doing some helpful exercises but think I will try out some acupuncture soon.  Each pregnancy this symptom has come earlier and stronger so I am expecting that my last months will be unbearable unless I get a little more relief.  For the crazy heat, there is just nothing I can do but stay inside in the air conditioning, which I'm doing as much as possible.  But life does involve going outside!  

20-24 weeks is my favorite time to be pregnant because I still feel cute and everything is pretty centered/contained.  After that I start to be more swollen and wobbly and uncomfortable.  So I'm hoping to enjoy the next month of cute before my maternity clothes start to be too tight!

We are happily cooking away at the half-time show.  Hard to believe there will be another person with us here so soon.  We are ALL very excited for the Christmas morning reveal of the baby's sex.  Grace is even practicing reading the words "boy" and "girl" so she can make the announcement.  Stay tuned :)

LMW

December 8, 2013 - Ladies Man

Our sweet Noah has friends of his own now, and they are both girls!  It is crazy cute.  Every evening at dinner when we ask him what his favorite part of the day was he says, "Playing with Helena and Maya."  At school they are three peas in a pod and have a lot of fun together.  Makes us happy that we are good friends with both girls' parents too :)

Up to no good in a bush!

At a birthday party!

Getting closer to three years old, he is such a big boy now!

LMW

December 7, 2013 - Email Hackers

Have you ever received an email from a Nigerian hacker – where he acts like he knows you and is somewhere having a big emergency and needs you to send him money ASAP?  Or the email comes from a person you know whose account has been hacked and your “friend” is asking for immediate financial help!  Quick!  Get to a Western Union!

Well, we had that happen once to me when we lived in Nairobi (from the email of a person we knew there) and we decided to have a little fun with the hacker.  So I played along with it, getting as much information as I could, and eventually said that I too was in London and would be happy to meet up to provide the money “she needed”.  Of course the hacker eventually figured it out when I wrote:  I know you’re a hacker and you’re not getting any money from me!  But this week Kristoffer found himself in the same situation and also had a little fun.

If you’re interested in playing along, here is a guide for pranking your hacker:

Hacker:

Did you get my previous email? its very urgent please.  

Kind regards

Timothy

Kristoffer:

I didn't get your email. 

Hacker:

Please I need your urgent assistance, am currently in Manila city, Philippines, for a short vacation and my bank is having some network problems, can't transfer out here. am stranded and confuse right now, please can I get 2,500 USD from you or whatever amount if not all, I will refund you the money in few days as soon as I return, please get back to me if you can.

Kind regards

Timothy

Kristoffer:

But I thought you didn’t like east Asia? How did you go there? Was it to watch the golf tournament I know you like?

Kris

Hacker:

Thanks for your prompt response so sorry i never mention about my trip to you, i will explain better to when i return in few days all need now is to sort my bills here, please let me know if you can raised me some funds here, so i can forward you m detai, i will pay you back as soon as i return. hope to read from you soon.

Kind regards

Timothy

Kristoffer:

But already I owe you even more. Should I just send you the whole amount? 

Hacker:

Thanks, please kindly help me have the money sent by Western Union Money Transfer.to my name and the Location below.

Name: Timothy Kosgey

Location:  35 Newport Boulevard, Manila city, Philippines

Country: Philippines

Send me the details of the transfer as soon as you are done.

Kind regards

Timothy

Kristoffer:

Shouldn't I send it to your Bank Account instead? I spoke to my bank about the transfer and they advised me to transfer the funds instead. Especially when it is above USD 10,000! What do you think?

It's funny that you now sign with your full name, I kind of like that better!

Just hold on, the transfer can happen very quickly!

Best,

K

But then our friend Timothy must have realized he was being played (I think Kristoffer pushed it too far with the 10k).  Also, at some point the more emails they send the more information you have to report them to the server, increasing their chances of being “caught” (whatever that means).

We found this interaction to be very amusing!

LMW

December 6, 2013 - The Penguin Dance

On Tuesday, Grace had her dance class' final performance of the term.  They performed "The Penguin Dance" as you can see below.  Grace's Nene and Pops really enjoy that she danced to some classic music :)  It was cute, and you can actually tell from last year's performance that she has developed a bit!

Our sweet petite penguin (middle) with two of her friends:

Also, just a little recognition that Kristoffer and I arrived in Africa six years ago today with six suitcases and no children.  It truly blows my mind where our decision to move to Kenya for two years has taken us.  We're not in Kenya anymore, but Tanzania isn't so far off.  Unbelievable!  Happy African Anniversary, Kristoffer :)

LMW