At Home in Kitale

So, this is not the once per week schedule I thought I'd maintain on this Blog... Life gets complicated in a transition like the one we've been going through. Mostly our experiences have been very good, especially the time we got to spend with family and friends as we traveled from Bakersfield to Seattle. This is a shot I took of Kathy with her brother Scott and sister Mary Ann at a lunch we shared just before we left the Bay Area

We've just published our July Newsletter (if you don't get it and want it, email us and we'll be glad to sign you up) which shares a bit about our experiences settling into our new home in Kitale. It was a real process. We went shopping for the big household items in Nairobi, knowing that we'd have a better selection and possibly better pricing. The store we brought from agreed to deliver the goods to our home for next to nothing, less than $15.00. They could do it because they make weekly shipments to their store in Eldoret (about an hour's drive from Kitale) and then could send the goods on from there. We thought we'd get the goods within five days, but it took about a week and a half. But, eventually I got a call from the store that the goods were on their way.

Given that our access driveway is narrow and has a ninety degree turn halfway to our gate I was wondering about the delivery, but the truck that came was small enough to navigate the turns. Soon the two men were off loading the cooker (stove), the washer and drier and the refrigerator. Here is a shot of them unboxing the refrigerator. Once it was in place we had to let it sit for 24 hours to allow the mercury in the system to cool and stabilize (don't ask for further explanation - it's what we were told). But the end product is that we are keeping and preparing food, though that is a subject for another time.

One last thought - at the end of the afternoon where we had all the help unpacking from our Kenyan staff wives, we finally got to sit down at our dinning table, in our dining room in our home in Kitale and have our first meal together. One of the ladies snapped a shot of Kathy and I. If it looks like the day has been a little long...it had!