Walter on a Bed of Herbs and a Bus Full of Kenyans.

Many of you have asked how Walter is doing.  The dog loves Africa.  He loves it from the tip of his furry tail all the way to his wet nose.  It's like he wakes up every morning, stretches and shouts out, "I love Africa."  At least that's what Seth and I think Walt is saying.  And why wouldn't he?  Our town home is right next to the tennis courts and no less than 3 tennis balls wind up in our yard on a daily basis.  Our gardener, Bonifis, takes him on a hour long walk, ending with a visit to the dog park where he plays with Dixie the hound and Munga the shepard.  He lays on a bed of mint leaves and gnaws on his dog treats.  He sleeps on a sheepskin rug Seth bought on the side of the road for 1200 Kenyan shillings.  Walter loves Africa. 

Our car arrived last week.  We are beyond excited.  It is a beautiful, shiny, silver Honda CRV.  For the past few months we have been driving around in a mini van rental while we waited for our car to arrive from Japan.  Here in Kenya there is a rather ubiquitous form of public transportation called the "matatu."  Picture a minivan from 1984 with decals of Brittany Spears or other American pop icons all over and you will get a general idea of what they look like.  From what I understand, as we diplomats are forbidden to ride them, they are designed to fit perhaps 10 - 12 people. However,  I don't believe that I have ever seen a matatu with less than 25 people on it.  Yesterday I saw a mother on one with 3, yes 3, children in her lap.   You may even see chickens and goats strapped to the top of the matatu.  There are generally 2 people operating the bus--one to drive and another to collect the small fee to ride.  The second person also seems to have the job of hanging halfway out the window to wave traffic out of their way as they do not stop and are not concerned with accidents or passenger demise.  It is not uncommon to see a matatu in the ditch or turned over on the side of the road.  I tell you this because Seth and I's rental van resembled a matatu so much that we even had the Kenyans fooled.  The first few days we were here I kept thinking Kenyans were so friendly as we were out driving the pot hole ravaged roads.  They would wave and I would smile back.  How welcoming Kenyans were!  It was only after mentioning this to Seth that I realized that they weren't waving at us to say "Hello."  They were waving us down for a ride.  We could have charged prime rates and made some serious dough.  Heck, we could have strapped Claire to the roof with the chickens and sheep to make even more money with additional passengers.  Live and learn.



Needless to say, you can expect my blog to get more interesting as Seth, C, and I now have means to get out and explore our African surroundings.  And if we pick up a Kenyan and a few chickens on the way, so be it.