Bowing out

The other day I had my epiphany /lightbulb moment and it went thus:

“The season’s over, move on”

Not much to say after that.

This is me bowing out.

Goodbye.

Gone for a while

I know, I know! I have been AWOL.

I am still in Nairobi and will be here until the new year Yippe!

Life has settled in and I am no longer suffering from newbie jitters.

My usual day starts off at about 7.00am and ends at about 11,00pm. Once Nikh and Babawatoto are off to school and work respectively, I pretty much have the rest of the day to myself. On a good day I run. On a not soo good day, I don’t. Right now it’s 50/50. Most days actually everyday, I am hope by 3.30pm and that’s that

The weather is absolutely surprising and I know I am not the only one taken aback. It’s cold and overcast like Europe. For real. And here is me who traveled with very very few clothes and shoes.. hell, I hardly had any shoes so nothing new there.

May I rant for a minute.. for a short minute. To my sisters with sexy long feet.. do tell, where do you buy your shoes.s.  I have been on the hunt for a pair  of closed flats and I tell you, there is NO WHERE in this Nairobi that has flat cute female moccassins in my size FOR REAL FOR REAL! . I would rather buy mens shoes.. ( which I am seriously considering .. and yes.. even mitumba do not have my size and I am having iffy issues with mitumba(second hand) shoes.. that’s just me…so for now mitumba is out of the running) than wear wrong fitting shoes.  Ladies for the love of toes, if it don’t fit don’t wear it. I have seen some ugly ass corns on toes… Jesus save the toes!

Anyway, I will be gone for sometime.. don’t know when I will be back here. Thank you for reading.

KR. Thank you for that lovely comment on the previous post. It actually got me out here. I totally concur.

PKW. Hope all is well with you and yours and thank you for clarifying.

 

Nairobi: Oh Yeah

It’s been three weeks since I last said anything here.

Here is why:

I found out I best blog at night. Though I have my laptop with me, I don’t always have the Safaricom broadband stick thingy with me. Hubby and I share it. Most times when I want to use it.. it has run out of credit or the credit will not upload.. Babawatoto has a love hate relationship with it. Last night he was cursing out Safaricom with a vengence. I stopped bothering with it after sometime and figured if I want to surf or blog.. just head on down to the the cyber cafe.

I never write on word then paste here. I tried it and it just does not do it for me.

There you have it. The reason for my silence.

I like Nairobi.  I love Nairobi. Sometime back I was saying to Babawatoto.. Kenya and Ug to me are like a starry night sky. BEAUTIFUL inspite of all the bad news and reality around. The stars are the goodness of Kenya and Kenyans in the midst of some much wrong and ills.

 

So much to say.. I just don’t know how to say it hence this disjointed post

I met up with PKW. She is lovely and very intelligent. I think we got on like a house on fire.  She says that I do not look like my blog. PKW.. that one still has me puzzled…. 🙂 you never did explain exactly how.. cause me and my big mouth jumped in 🙂

When I sort out what I have to say.. I will be back.

Have a fab Wednesday

Nairobi: oh love

There is a couple kissing and hugging  here in the cyber cafe and instead of it being gross and unsightly, I am actually smiling because they seem so in love.  We have the little room to ourselves and after he walks out I ask her how long they had been together. She giggles and says two years. She is pregnant, just came in from the docs and she  she was updating him on her doc’s visit. ( I do not hear thier conversation because I have my earphones on)

We chat a bit til he comes back and she introduces me to him. We chat somemore then I get back to my work.  Seems like she is leaving.. more hugs and kisses. It’s cute. You can see that he really likes her and she is just perfect. One of those pregnant women who is just fantastically beautiful in her pregnancy.

Love it’s a beautiful thing.

Confession

I want to go home to my house in Denmark.

It embrasses me to say that. Really it does

It brings tears to my eyes to actually say it because I feel that it means I am a wimp, a sell out, a “anajiringa” kinda girl.. but it does not lessen the feeling of wanting to go back.

So I analyse this feeling and I find out that what I really want is

The security of my life .

That is what it is.

Knowing my life, where my stuff is, how I do my weekly shopping, what my budget is, where my money comes from,

I hate living in the limbo that I have been living in for the past almost 2 months. Not knowing if it’s a go or stay.

So I end up just wanting my old life back, just so that I can have my security, my blanket called my old life.

Ok, go ahead and say it.

I’m out for now

 

Relocation Nairobi – About time no?

Blogging mojo is gone.

Still, I feel compelled to say something. Part of me feels like shutting the blog down once and for all.. and I will in the near future but not before I deliever on my promise to write about my “back to Nairobi” experience.

The one thing I must say is  Just like any city, the GOOD LIFE depends on the size of your pocket. There is nothing that is not in NAIROBI  and I dig that. Seriously there is nothing you cannot find in this city that you cannot find in another city and that has kinda tickled me.

Here is my bits of info based on my expereince about relocating back home. This is not a post for a “first timer to Nairobi”  This is for my people who have been away from home for many years and you are contemplating coming back.

1. Have a plan. I cannot stress that enough. Have a plan especially if you are like us, who were returning without any prior investments here. You gotta have a plan. it will save you lots of cash and agony. Your plan should include stuff like :  where are you going to live, buy or rent. can you afford the rent long term or not, if you have kids, what kind of schools and where shall they go, can you afford the fees long term or not. What kind of medical cover are you going to have. What is your source of income. income.. that pesky little big thing. Where is your money gonna come from????? Your plan has to be tight yet flexible .. oxymoron I know.

And that about covers it all.

Why so short.. because everything is in Nairobi.. seriously.

lol.

Seriously.

I will add though.. and forgive me if this will make some of you cringe.. but ifyou want to have the same life standard you have had while away.. you gotta have lots and lots of dough.

Right now as I type this, I really do not know if we are going to be here till the end of the year or not and that has been pretty frustrating for me. Why? Because I have been unable to pursue all the stuff I want to pursue. The reasons are almost legion but the main one is my makaratasi situation in Denmark and here.

From the looks of things it looks like our time here may becoming to an end by the end of next month.. I really don’t know and the adage “live a day at a time” has found new meaning in my life and let me tell you it SUCKS big time to have to live your life literally “one day at a time”. Tomorrow I could be back here saying that.. we are here till the end of the year as planned.  I am frustrated and really tryiing to be upbeat and positive about it all.

Otherwise,

I want to be here longer long enough to make something out of my career life here.. and perhaps end up being here forever.. but our plans were not tight. Yeah, I will admit it and we have to many loose ends in Denmark and other obligations there.. so.. ugh!

So that is my advice in a nut shell.

Take care lovelies.

Mrembo

 

Soon

I came to this here internet cafe with my laptop in hand to blog about settling into Nairobi.
Now I don’t feel like blogging.
The mood just left me like that.

So until another day, hopefully the mood will last longer.

I will blog.

For now, just know that all is going well.

I am adjusting and re-adjusting to being a real housewife with maid in tow.

Interesting feeling.

I know my previous blog post came across as major whine. That was far from my intention. What I do recognise now is that my frustrations (not to be shared here) made thier way onto that post.

I will be back sooner than later

thanks for reading lovelies.

Settling in Nairobi

Where do I even start. Seriously.. where..? Like how happy I am to be here. How fantastic it was to be reunited with hubby after a 2 month separation while he was here trying to get things sorted out. Or like how hectic it has been and I am not even working.

Where to start.

Here  is where.

We arrived  about 3 weeks ago. My first priorty was to get Nikh settled. It has not been easy for him. He still wants to go back to his house, his kindergarten, his toys and his home.  He even started wetting himself. So far this is not feeling like home and I have to admit that I am kinda feeling like that. Lost-ish.

Don’t get me wrong I am not gripping. What I need is to fall into a routine and that seems to be taking it’s sweet time. Today is the first time I have left little baby KK with the househelp. Her name is Bee (ok.. not her real name.. but for blog world purposes Bee will do).  I have had anxiety issues leaving her with the help.. today I finally stepped out in faith.  Nikh started school/nursery and that, thankfully is going well. First day he went, he cried and my heart broke. Next day he refused and I let him stay home.  Prior to that we agreed that he would go into school and tell his teacher he was coming the next day.

So off we went to school and he told his teacher he would be coming in the next day. Next day arrived and we went to school with no problem and have had no probs since. Glad I listened to mum who told me not to force him. She advised that everything was too much for him and I should let him control this little aspect. His school is in walking distance of home. Dad drops him off and I pick him up. Babawatoto’s work place is also in walking distance of home.

So what is Nairobi like?? This time round Nairobi has been weird. Wait.. don’t look at me like that. Everytime I have come home since I moved to Ug as a teenager and up to last year, I ALWAYS LIVED WITH MY MUM. This time round I have come to Nairobi and to my own place. Visiting mum and then going to my house was strange. I was a visitor in my mother’s house. Now do you get it. Trying to figure out that is expensive and what is not. What is our weekly shopping bill supposed to be like, what brands to buy. Jesus.. the flour isle has like7 brands of flour..and I have to decided which one and why. Let’s not even start on the rice isle. yes little things like that. Then folks telling you not to shop there.. but here or that market and me feeling overwhelmed. Oh and dollars.. fuck me.. there used to be a time $100 was lots and lots of money. Now $100 is like chips.. seriously. When I last LIVED HERE 500ksh was lots and lots of money. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around paying kshs 450 for a meal

I travelled with my in-laws and that has added an interesting aspect to being and seeing Nairobi. It is their first time outside Europe. Seeing Nairobi through thier eyes has been funny and sad. See I never saw the poverty around.. things were just as they are. For them it has been like being on another planet. I have had to answer questions like.. why are there no foot paths, why is that woman begging, where is the ambulance. What happens if one gets a  heart attack etc etc.. forces me to see Kenya through their eyes and it has not been so pretty. Part of me does not like seeing Kenya like that. On the good side they have also had some good experiences and have had a feel of “ubuntu” which they acknowledge is lacking in Denmark.

For me, Kenya is BLOODY EXPENSIVE. Salala.

We are here until the end of the year if everything goes well.. if not.. we will be leaving in about 2-3months time.

That’s that from me for now.

Oh and the moving to Kenya was the reason I started this blog. I wanted to document my time here.. don’t know if I will do that..

For those planning on moving back or wanting to move back.. I am thinking of doing a piece on how to do it when you finally decided. Little things like kids vaccinations, medical stuff, money .. etc. Look out for that.

Case in point. I took KK to AAR so that I could talk to the pediatrician and find out which vaccinations she should have by Kenyan standards. (for example Denmark does not give Hep A and B til the child is over 1 year and only when travelling, nor do they give BCG unless you ask for it because you will be living abroad for sometime. Here BCG is given at birth and HepA and B are given before child is 6 months). ThereafterI wanted him to look at her tongue and Doc did not have the spatula to look at her tongue nor did he have gloves. So there we both were trying to coax her to open her mouth so he could look at her toungue. Right now.. I have no faith in AAR yet they are supposed to be the better option… I am not bitching.. I just think if we are paying as much as we are paying.. surely….

take care

Mrembo

PS. Nairobi is not baby friendly. Take that from me.

Oh and I saw Churchill… 🙂

On the road

We will soon be in the skies on our way to Nairobi.

Very busy tying up loose ends and packing

don’t know when I will be back here

see ya soon

Cheap happiness

Ten minutes to ten pm

Can I do this in ten minutes. I don’t know. The good thing is that I will be going to bed with a smile. The babies were down by 8.30. I stayed in bed a while then got up because; Nikh’s bag and clothes needed to be ready for tomorrow, so did KK’s clothes. That done, I sat, ready to read but got caught up surfing and ended up here.

I am smiling because I saw  this picture

which just made me so happy. She sparkles. They radiate love.. in the words of Wanda Sykes “they are do it.. you can tell” I gotta say I agree. I don’t think they are fakes.. they have that certain vibe. I don’t follow American politics but you can be sure I follow Mrs Obama’s fashion. Did I tell you guys how I ended up calling H&M headquarters in Sweden cause I wanted the other dress and could not get it here in Denmark.. that is how much I like Mrs Obama. So much so that she tempts me into perming my hair.. the horror.. I know.. me who is so against the chemical crack (as they call it)

That brings me to the topic of beauty. I live in a village. That is what they call it here in Denmark. In this village people like to keep fit. Since the sun started shining it is like everyone thier mother and dog is out running. EVERYONE.. that is what it feels like. And everyone running looks good. The whole looking good thing has been on my mind. You stay here long enough you start buying into the beauty ideals that belong to Danes and not to people like me… Thin is the God of beauty. The slimmer you are the better. I find that I am slowly getting sucked into it.. until I see people like Mrs Obama.. who “looks” like me and I remember that beauty ideals are all relative. In Uganda we glorify thighs, hips and butt.

My humble opinion is the older you get.. you need to hold on to some level of fat. Yes I said it. Why because it keeps the wrinkles at bay. I see Danish women in thier 30’s killing themselves to stay thin and as a result end up looking older cause they are all lines and wrinkles in the face. It don’t look right. I usually joke with hubby that I need to go back home ever so often to recharge my batteries.. I am currently in need of a trip.

That said

A beautiful woman is has me in smile Ms. Beyonce. I like Beyonce I just don’t like her music seriously I don’t get it and I don’t get how she is so popular yet her music is sijui how (I don’t know how – very kenyan expression).  This video  though is making me happy.

I am going to do my best to learn the moves and maybe I will do a video for y’all 😀 not!

Goodnite and happy monday

10:13pm.

KK cried out.. I had to rush in a cover her. I think she got cold