Let the Rainy Season Begin

Lunchtime here today finally brought some much desired sunshine.  Claire and I sat outside on the patio and had lunch, listening to the birds sing.  The rainy season is officially here and, according to the locals, will last throughout December.  Can't decide if a rainy season beats a Minnesota snow yet.  The rain is good, though.  Things were getting awfully dusty here.  As I said before, the soil here is a deep red and the bottoms of my feet are permanently stained that color.  Perhaps Crayola needs a new shade in their 

crayon box--Nairobi Red.  Hopefully the rains will help clear up some of that dust and we can breathe free again.

We had to go with another gardener instead of Moses.  Apparently, there was talk at the Embassy that Moses was quite "sneaky" (whatever that means) and Seth didn't feel comfortable hiring him.  We hired a soft-spoken man named Bonafis who will work Thursdays and Mondays.  Since he missed Monday of this week , he came bright and early this morning to get started.  I am not sure that our postage stamp of a yard necessitates having a gardener twice a week, but it is a good job for him and provides much needed income for his family. Plus, he will help me grow vegetables that I will feel comfortable eating and soon, making baby food for Claire from.

This weekend Seth and are going to go buy flowers and plants for our yard, as well as vegetable seeds. In order to reach the stands, it seems you must first find a spot on the shoulder to park your car, brave the crazy Kenyan traffic, and run like mad to cross the street to get to them.  There is no such thing as yielding to pedestrians here! I have added some pics of the roadside flower shops in this entry...they are from Seth's last 

visit to Nairobi.

On Friday I went to a class at the community center for washing and cleaning vegetables and fruits.  When I got there it was clear that I was the only "white" person showing up.  Everybody there was either a maid or a nanny sent to the class by their employer.  I felt ridiculously out of place but ended up learning a thing or two.  Later on I heard one of the maids saying that it was funny to see a "mazunga" at the class.  Today I asked one of the guards what "mazunga" meant and he told me it derives from when the Europeans first arrived in Kenya, the Africans noticed that the white people didn’t work very much.  They had a tendency to walk around and tell other people what to do. It is apparently not a derogatory term, but means that you are wealthy enough that you can be more relaxed and not work as hard as others.  It kind of makes me think of "whitey" or "honky" and I can't help but feel that there is perhaps some animosity behind it.  Although that could be my paranoia because I have not met an angry Kenyan yet. Seth is in the process of ordering me Rosetta Stone's Swahili so hopefully I will not be a total "mazunga" if I can speak to the Kenyan's in their native language.  A little effort goes a long ways...

Our air shipment has landed on African soil and is currently going through customs.  I am SO excited to start making things feel a little more like home.  Although I laughed when I saw our shipment list because it looked a little something like this:

Box 1: Baby items
Box 2: Baby items
Box 3: Baby items
Box 4: Baby items
Box 5: Baby items and bed pillows

Oh well.  At least Claire will have more than she needs and Seth and I will sleep more soundly at night.

Have a wonderful week, everyone...this Mazunga needs to go play with her daughter!