Half Way!

We're Half Way Home.

Our trip is 22 weeks or 154 days. Today we are 77 days from arriving back home.

July is touted here as being the heart of Winter. We have seen the phrase "Bundle up for July" around. We are now a week into August and it seems maybe the notion of just July being the coldest is not entirely correct.

After the cold of July and before we realized that the trip was nearly half over, we really started missing some of the things from home:

1. Reliable Power - Though we are grateful for the apartment generator and would really hate to think of how much life would be unbearable without electricity, we long for reliable electricity service like at home.

2. Reliable Water - We boil about 5 litres of water a day for drinking. Each set of 3 apartments stacked vertically share 2 cisterns on the roof. Also there are two large cisterns near the compound wall. Also, because the Water Heater has its own power switch, it can be used as a small cistern. Even with all this, there is something of an empty feeling when you turn on the tap and naught but air comes out.

3. Soft beds - The matresses on the beds are foam pads, similar to matress pads sold at home to add to an existing matress, on top of wooden slats. Oh, for the feeling of flopping onto our queen bed at home, full matress and box spring.

4. Comfortable furniture - The cushions on the chairs and sofa are thinner than the bed, only about 2 inches thick and not at all firm, so you are actually sitting on wood covered in a few sheets of fabric.

5. Reliable High Speed Internet - For the first 2 months here, 2-4K/second was the best we could hope for (Dial-Up Speeds). Since the Law students left, it has improved as we can get 10K/second or maybe a little more. We are far away from home with its 200-300K/second speeds.

6. Clothes Washing Machine - My duties as Mr. Mom or House Husband include, cooking, washing dishes, and washing clothes (most other cleaning is done by apartment maid each day). Though the process of preparing food, cooking, and washing dishes makes my back ache because of the height of the kitchen counter, it is washing the clothes by hand in the bathtub that really bears upon me. At home the laundry may take all day to do, but it doesn't take ALL DAY.

On an up note, the food is better here. Nairobi is at the stage that the unprocessed food is still cheaper than the processed, so we are eating better than we did at home. Also, though I would lament not having a car here, I realize that it is the US mentality: Walk 20 feet from the front door to your car, drive, get out and walk 50 feet and sit for 8 hours. We walk about everywhere we need to go here and shopping is about the only reason we leave for trips around here. Though Toni rides matatu some, she still walks 10+ km on an outside working day.


Life here is interesting and we are adapting.