Monday, September 22, 2008

Weekend in Ngong

Spent the weekend in Ngong at my Uncle Mike's house. Quite the relaxing weekend and got to see my great-grams who lives on the same property so that was great! This is the second time I've seen her since I got back and she is still in disbelief that I'm here - she once told me over the phone that she wasn't going to die until I came back home. Thank God she's still holding on!

Sunday was also my niece Aggie's 8th birthday! Kids really know how to hint...I got her a skateboard and so did her parents:-) She decided to keep both because the one I got her is a "stunt" board and the other one is a regular board - ok, as long as she knows what to do with the darn things, I'm good with it!

Halfway through the day, nephew Adrian says "look at the rainbow!" and I dismiss him because it hadn't rained so why the hell would there be a rainbow? And besides, I was in a food-coma and had my lawn chair in the perfect spot with half my body in the sun and the other in the shade. No way, Jose, I ain't gettin' up for nothing! But as with all little boys, this one wasn't giving up and I begrudgingly get up and of course, I'm looking west to east and I don't see a rainbow. Darn these kids...then he says, "no, up there!" Sure enough, I look straight up and before I am blinded I see an amazing rainbow that is in a perfect circle. The paparazzi in me heads for the house, grabs my camera thinking, "I could be witnessing some great event and here I am doubting a 4-yr old!"
I actually tried to take a picture of the rainbow with my Fuji FinePix s10000fd and could not take a decent picture (ok so if I bothered to read the manual maybe I could have found a way to take this blinding picture) so I decided to take video instead and then just broke down the video into a bunch of frames and this was the first frame. Like any self respecting research freak would do, I went online to find out what this thing was and tons of websites indicate that a full-circle rainbow is nearly impossible to view because the only way to see a full circle of a rainbow in the sky is to be above the raindrops and have the sun behind you. You would have to look down on the drops from an airplane. So considering I was not in an airplane, this is the coolest thing I've seen from the ground!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Proud Parents - Baby Kennedy




Congratulations to parents Jacob and Tia on the birth of their baby boy! This little fighter, all 8Ibs 6oz, came out into the world with a blast. Baby Kennedy had Meconium fluid in his lungs but after spending 5 days in NIC, doctors and God working together, this little tyke is finally home! I wish I was there with you guys!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I'm glad cats have 9 lives

As you will remember, my cat, Joi, has been very traumatized since we left the States. He is the arch enemy of Scooby, my sister's Spitz, and has been planning his escape since we got here. I am usually very vigilant about letting Joi out of the house but around these parts, I am the Nazi who will not let the cat out to get some fresh air. So, on three separate occasions, I let the cat out so he could enjoy the fresh air. In catspeak, Joi is thinking..."finally, out of this Alcatraz!" and he makes a jump for the high fence, clears it and is gallivanting the neighborhood. Needless to say, a day later, I noticed that he was hiding under my bed and would not come out for nothing. The only time he does that is when he is sick...and don't you know it, the poor thing was limping. I tried to find out what was wrong with his front right paw but could find nothing so we take him for his first visit to a Kenyan vet (Scooby's vet to be exact!).

Upon checking his vitals, the vet tells me that his temperature is the highest they have seen - at 41 degrees! The normal temperature of a cat is between 38 and 39 degrees and anything over 39.5 (103 Fahrenheit) is considered febrile (hyperthermic). The vet cleaned the cats paw with some hot salty water, gave him an antibiotic injection and proceeded to tell me that she had to keep him under observation. So, Joi is still at the vet hospital and the earliest they will release him at this point is Wednesday or Thursday. The vet thinks he may have gotten into a fight with another cat (our neighbors have 7 outside cats!!) and because the claws retract, the infection may be deep within his paw. I will definitely give you all an update as soon as I find out any more information!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Shipping Delays

I sent an email to my shipper to find out if my confirmation date of September 25th was still valid but I am disappointed to report that the answer is not promising. This is part of the email response to me:
"Your shipment left on August 28th at 12.00pm from our warehouse for Savannah or onward shipment to Mombasa but the trucking company could
not make to the port before the cut off time which was 4.00pm and therefore they put the shipment to leave on Sept 8th 2008. We had bad weather on the 26th and 27th and could not have loaded in the rain, the tracking No for the container is XXXXXXXX and the website is zimlines.com. The container will start showing movement from Sep 8th 2008 on the web."

I haven't been able to locate the zimlines website stated above but I googled it and came up with a website for ZIM Integrated Shipping Service and I think they are one and the same. The entry under my container number does not give any departure/arrival dates and only shows a size number "4" and "HC" under the type. At any rate, the site provides email addresses to the cargo shipping agents so I have just sent them an email to find out whether they can provide me any further information!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Job Hunting

I have been job hunting the past week and discovered that Kenya has requirements that I never gave a thought to before now:
*Some jobs require you to be a certain age or sex
*Most jobs require at least 3 referrals and 3 letters of recommendation.
In my situation, my referrals are proving to be problematic because they are all from the US. Friday, it was suggested to me that I find a local referral (not in my family) who has known me for a while and is in the business sector. Ok, let's think about this for a second...I have been away for almost 14 years so how would I have a local professional who has known me for a while? I've never been gainfully employed in this country so I'm not sure how they would think I would have a local referral?

Monday, September 1, 2008

My Birthday!

Today is my birthday and I must say ...I feel exactly the same as I did yesterday. None of that crap about being pensive and thinking about what I want to do with my life. Which is great because that means I'm not wiggin' out over being 30 something - I'm just happy to be home and hanging out with my sister!

I did like any renaissance woman would (with my dear sister in tow) - woke up at the crack of dawn, took pictures of the kids (my niece and nephew) as they got ready for first day of school, finally went to the bank to open some accounts, went to the mall for lunch, visited two aunts, tried to memorize the way to the kids school, got some amazing flowers and chocolate from Jonathan AND to top it all off...bought myself a birthday cake:-}. As Rachel Ray would say it, Yum-O!!

I'm also saying a special prayer for anyone that was in the path of Hurricane Gustav. Haven't heard of any fatalities yet so that is a huge PLUS! Also, the Army Corps indicated that the walls would hold so lets hope that holds true as well.