Monday, May 21, 2012

Well I think we are settled. Some of our boxes are unpacked and others have been unpacked and repacked into other boxes until we get some more furniture to hold everything. Our little house is fantastic and perfect for us. It will be home for a few months until other housing comes available. There are four small houses like ours in a small research camp that is being built to host researchers. We are the first to move in so we are working out the bugs – literally! The camp is about 12kms from the main office which means that we get a small game drive everyday to and from the office. I’m sure that will bring many adventures to our day. Not too many people have to watch out for elephants on their drive to work.
Corinne is settling in great. She has endured the cold temperatures at Bryan’s parents house (cold being 10-15 degrees)
and now coping with the heat of Tsavo (hot being 30-35 degrees). It’s hard to believe that she is 4 months old today. She is enjoying all the attention and often I have to go looking for her because someone has taken her to show her off. It’s great to see how well she makes friends and smiles at everyone. We made a grocery run into the nearest town this weekend and when we walked into the shop everyone stopped to see the adorable little white baby. I like to think that she is a show stopper because she is so cute but it’s probably because they are shocked at what a neglectful mother I am to not have her dressed in a hat, sweater and socks no matter how hot it is.

It is so great to be here on many levels and we are excited about the adventures that living and working here will bring. Now we just need some visitors …

Monday, May 07, 2012

Where in the World are We?!

So ya I know it has been a while since I posted. Life has been a little busy since Corinne arrived. We packed up in Calgary and flew out February 19th. Our first stop was Kenya to introduce our little one to friends and family there. After a few days Bryan flew down to Zambia to start work while Corinne and I stuck around for a few more days in Kenya. Then on March 3 Corinne and I flew to Zambia to join Bryan. We thought that would be our last flight in a while as we unpacked our things in Zambia and set up our house. If we only knew what life was to bring...

Zambia is a fantastic country and we really loved it there. The people were so kind and life happened at a slower pace than anywhere else I had lived. The traffic was manageable and the shops had anything a heart could desire. We found a great little cottage to live in just outside of Lusaka on 25 acres with plenty of birds to keep me occupied. It felt great to finally be home. Corinne was a superstar through all the travel and adjustments. We got into a bit more of a routine and she continued to grow and mesmerize us with all her developments. I really enjoy being a mom and I am so thankful to have such a healthy, sweet daughter.

Bryan and I tried to get out of Lusaka as much as possible and see the country. We were able to spend a weekend at Lake Kariba and another weekend at Victoria Falls. Zambia is very beautiful and the roads were easy to travel on. It was such great opportunity to see a part of the world that many people can only dream of seeing. Victoria Falls was more amazing than I could ever imagine. We were there at the end of the rainy season so the falls were massive and overwhelming. It was hard to wrap my mind around what we were seeing - well worth a trip from anywhere in the world to see them. As we were enjoying Zambia and getting to know the country a bit, Bryan's job was not going very well. He loved the work that he was doing however some of the other details were not falling into place. So we had to make a very difficult decision to leave the job which would mean that we would have to leave Zambia. Within a week of making that decision we found ourselves back on a plane and heading back to Kenya.

After arriving back in Kenya, the company that Bryan worked for last summer offered him a position. Obviously this is the shortened version of the story but you will have to get the longer version in person over a cup of Kenyan tea or a glass of wine. So Bryan accepted the job offer and we will be moving to Tsavo sometime next week. We are very excited about this opportunity and so happy that we are back in Kenya to stay. Life is slowly moving along and we are getting things in place to settle down. This week we make the big purchase of a car which means that even though we are still homeless, we can live in our car if necessary :) Thankfully with Bryan's parents here in Kenya and plenty of good friends with spare rooms we have felt very wanted which has made this transition so much easier. Just a couple more weeks and we are hoping to unpack our bags for good.