Ugandan Fun

We just returned from a fabulous trip to Uganda.  I don't think we could have asked for a better weekend or a better group of people to share the experience.  Along with our amazing driver Javan, our friends Matt (a medical student who we met in Eldoret two years ago), and Erin and Kurt (Erin is also completing a global health residency at Duke) came along for the weekend.  Ellana was absolutely amazing, and despite a steady cough, she showed little signs of her illness from last week.

I should preface the trip by saying that Steve and I have been to Kampala numerous times and spent over a month there in 2008 working at Mulago Hospital through the Duke Neurosurgery in Uganda program.  I also was fortunate enough to work with a fair trade, handcraft organization called Uganda Crafts 2000. Uganda Crafts was started by an incredible woman named Betty Kinene, who is disabled and needed to support not only 10 biological children, but 10 additional adopted children after her husband was shot and killed during the oppressive Obote regime in Uganda.  Uganda Crafts now supports around 200 artisans who are either disabled, orphaned, widowed, or HIV positive.  One of the most amazing moments in my life was when the daughter and assistant director of Uganda Crafts, Ninah Kinene, actually visited Durham about a year and a half ago and stayed at our house.  I was really looking forward to going back to Uganda Crafts and seeing Ninah again.

Daddy and Ellana at the Ugandan border

We arrived in Kampala on Friday early evening and had a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Khana Kazana.  We have a few good Indian restaurants in Eldoret, but in our opinion, none of them really compare to the Indian food in Kampala.  Ninah and two of her sisters met us at the restaurant, and then we went back to our hotel, the Golf Course Apartments, to chat.  I really enjoyed seeing Ninah, and I think she especially enjoyed meeting Ellana as I was several months pregnant when she was in Durham.  We were also pleasantly surprised with how nice the hotel turned out to be, and our view of the Kampala Golf Course was amazing.

View of the Golf Course from our room

Ninah and I

Saturday morning we started walking around the city in order to show Matt, Erin, and Kurt some of the main sites of the downtown.  They were all impressed with how safe the city is as well as how easy it is to walk around.  Steve and I were also impressed with the brand new shopping mall called the Nakumatt Oasis, as it has even more selection than our new Nakumatt in Eldoret.  We took everyone to Uganda Crafts, and then ate lunch at a really cute outdoor restaurant.  Matt and I were really excited to have milkshakes as we have been trying to find them for weeks in Eldoret!

Ellana shopping for baskets

Kurt and Matt shopping for ties

For dinner we hit a local Korean restaurant that Steve and I had tried a few times.  Luckily Matt, Erin, and Kurt were all relatively knowledgeable on Korean fare, so we had a wonderful family style meal.  I couldn't tell you most of the names of the dishes, but it was definitely delicious (although it felt a little strange to be eating Korean in Uganda).  I think that our driver, Javan, enjoyed the experience, even though he thought it a little odd, as well.

Ellana eating noodles at the Korean restaurant

Outside of the main part of the lodge in Jinja

Sunday morning we left for Jinja where Matt, Erin, Kurt, and Steve rafted the Nile.  Steve and I rafted three years ago, and as I had a pretty rough experience (I still have scars on my knees from one of the class 5 rapids), I decided that rafting was not a good idea for me.  Ellana and I enjoyed hanging out at the lodge and watching all of the monkeys right outside our door.  She makes a great monkey sound that is kind-of like "ooh-eeee," and I didn't think she was ever going to get tired of watching them.  The lodge has a combination of tents, dorms, and chalets, and we stayed in one of the chalets.  Of course I was so ready for Ellana to walk, but considering that our chalet was basically on top of the Nile, it definitely made me nervous for her to be out of my sight for even half a second.  Everyone enjoyed the day, and although the rafting experience has changed due to a dam being put in the Nile a couple years ago, Steve was glad to have gone again.

Javan, Steve, and Kurt after rafting

Monkeys outside of our chalet

Erin, Ellana, and I

We woke up to monkeys running around on top of our chalet this morning, ate breakfast, and then drove home.  Ellana had a great car ride home despite only napping for a grand total of 45 minutes the entire trip.  Once again, I think we're all hoping to make it back to Uganda as soon as possible!

Ready for another weekend getaway

Steve, Ellana, and I are so excited to be taking another short trip this weekend to Uganda.  The past couple of weeks have been really cold and rainy, so we are hoping for some warmth and sun in Kampala and Jinja.  We are going with some of our friends here at the IU house, so hopefully Ellana will be on her best behavior!

Ellana has finally decided that walking will be her most common form of getting around, so we had our first experience with a truly walking toddler in the grocery store earlier today.  Her favorite things were all, of course, at her level, so she enjoyed stacking some soap containers and touching the bags of powdered sugar.  I'm also a little embarrassed to admit that her current favorite foods are Pringles (or as she calls them "Gingles") as well as some pop-sickles that we found that are kind-of like Flavor-Ice.  She doesn't understand that Pringles are not breakfast food as they are the first thing she wants in the morning and typically the last thing she wants at night.  She loves them so much that she throws a fit if I don't let her eat them while we are in the grocery store, and she doesn't even want the cashier to take them from her when its time to pay.  She shouted "Gingle" to the cashier the other day until he gave them back to her, much to my horror, but everyone in Nakumatt seemed to think it was hilarious!

Ellana also recovered today from her first real illness in Kenya.  She started coughing early Wednesday morning and could not keep anything down yesterday until dinner.  By that time she was finally acting like herself and woke up acting completely fine this morning.  We were so glad as we were nervous about having a sick toddler in Kenya!

We also have successfully found a second babysitter as Sylvia ended up not working out last week.  For some reason she stopped returning phone calls and showing up, so her cousin, Sharon, has taken over.  So far, Sharon has been amazing, but we are a little sad that she will be leaving for school in Nairobi in a couple weeks.  Her sister will be taking over at that point, and if she's anything like Sharon, I'm sure everything will be fine.

Steve's OR frustrations have continued the past couple of weeks as last Wednesday the hospital was out of oxygen, and this week they neglected to tell him that the medical students had exams that physicians had to proctor meaning that none of the difficult surgeries could be completed.  Thank goodness the Duke team arrives in less than two weeks!

I will be writing more as soon as we return from Uganda.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Our "unique" way of serving fondue

Ellana playing in bamboo curtains at a friend's house

Dinner Party

Ellana fell asleep on our walk home

Outside of Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital

MTRH sign

A little piece of Heaven at Kiboko Bay

We just made it back from a near perfect weekend in Kisumu that was only slightly tarnished in the last five minutes of the trip home when Ellana got really carsick.  She acted completely fine afterwards and greatly enjoyed taking a bath with her friends the two duckies and tiger, so we weren't too worried and just attributed her sickness to the car ride home.  The weather was absolutely terrific in Kisumu, and we really couldn't have asked for a better couple of days.

I cannot express how excited I was to arrive in Kisumu and to feel warmer temperatures.  We got to Kiboko Bay resort late Friday afternoon and Steve and Ellana had just enough time to sneak in a quick dip in the pool.  Ellana loved the kiddie pool so much that she started saying pool constantly, and we had to be careful about saying that word too long before we were planning to go swimming.  Friday evening we watched a beautiful sunset over Lake Victoria and had appetizers of guacamole and cheese samosas, and then had our favorite fish masala (or fish curry) for dinner.  As I said in the last post, the resort has eight tented camps which are basically tents situated on permanent foundations.  In general resorts of this nature are actually quite nice, and are a very popular type of lodging in East Africa.  We had a king-size, four-poster bed that was amazingly comfortable, and I wish that we could have the same down comforter in cold Eldoret, as it was really too warm in Kisumu to fully appreciate it.  The bathroom was once again large enough for Ellana's pack and play, and we were very excited to have a shower with not only warm water, but also good water pressure.  Amazing what we are thankful for these days!

The pools at Kiboko Bay

After some guacamole

At Sunset

Saturday morning we took an hour-long boat ride on Lake Victoria.  We were able to see lots of birds, a few  hippos, and hear the history of Kisumu and Lake Victoria.  Kisumu has traditionally been a port city on the huge lake, but there has been a decrease in the amount of products being shipped across the lake over the past several years.  The Kenya side of the lake also tends to be dirtier than the Uganda or Tanzanian sides, but our guide couldn't explain exactly why.  The boat ride was very enjoyable, and Ellana particularly enjoyed it when we were going faster, although she did not want to wear her life jacket at any point.

She loved it when we were moving quickly!

Fishing and restaurant area of Kisumu

Once we got back from the boat ride, Ellana took a long nap, we ate lunch, and then spent several hours at her new favorite place.  She enjoyed playing with the other kids for the most part, and she enjoyed making her ducks "quack" in the kiddie pool.  Kiboko Bay is very popular with the local community, and we saw some beautiful wedding pictures being taken.  As if the day could get any better, we were told about and invited to the first ever "Nyanza Wine Carnival" that was going to take place that night at the resort.  Basically, all of the Kenyan alcohol companies were showcasing their most popular wines, and the whole wine tasting was completely free of charge.  We actually really liked a white wine that is made in Kenya.  In addition to the tasting, the resort was providing lots of free appetizers to go along with the wine.  I don't think I've seen Steve so happy since we got here, and he was like a kid in a candy store running around to all of the booths!  Ellana finally had enough of the fanfare around 7, so we retreated to our tent to watch our current favorite family movie "The Lion King."  We all crashed really early as the sun and pool  (and wine) had worn out all of us!

A delicious Kenyan wine

Our tent at Kiboko Bay

Daddy and Ellana eating masala chips

After the pool

Sunset at Kiboko Bay

During wine tasting

Nyanza wine carnival

This morning we ate breakfast, sat by the pool, and then left Kisumu around noon.  I think we're all hoping to go back to Kiboko Bay as soon as possible!

No surgical gauze?

Steve has promised to do a guest blog sometime soon, but as I stated earlier, his biggest difficulties in operating have all revolved around a lack of equipment.  When he arrived at the hospital yesterday morning, he was informed that there was no surgical gauze meaning no operations in the hospital could be started.  I asked him if this hadn't been noticed the day before, and he said that OR crew had responded, "well, we had some yesterday."  Ultimately someone had to run into Eldoret to buy some which meant that the cases were delayed even more than usual.  As I have said multiple times, Steve is really looking forward to getting some more supplies when the Duke team arrives!

Other than his OR day yesterday, Steve, Ellana, and I are enjoying settling into our daily schedules and routines.  This six months for us in Kenya will be the longest we've spent in Africa for one trip, and it is nice to know that we can actually feel like we are living here, rather than knowing it will be for a very short time frame.  Our longest previous trip was to Tanzania several years ago, and two months there was just long enough to feel settled, and then we had to leave.

My current schedule is normally the following:  on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have been going to Imani.  Sylvia arrives about 8:30 and I try to sneak away without being seen.  On my walk to Imani, I've discovered an amazing bakery that has the best vegetable pies that I have ever tasted.  The bakery also offers a chicken, meat, and cheese option, but the vegetable ones have just the right combination of potato, carrot, bell pepper, and spice, and two of them makes a perfect lunch (although I'm sure not the healthiest).  I pick them up normally on my walk through Eldoret to Imani, and I justify the calories because my walk there and back is over 1.5 hours.  I'm still working on the operations aspect of Imani, and instead of getting frustrated with the systems, I'm trying to learn as much as possible so that I can make some incremental changes (although I'm finding not getting frustrated to be extremely difficult).  On Tuesday and Thursday, I stay home with Ellana, but the days are broken up with my bi-weekly Kiswahili lessons.  I'm really glad that I took Kiswahili classes at UNC this past year, as I feel as though I can often at least understand the context of a conversation.  Kenyans tend to insert lots of English and slang into their Kiswahili, so actually speaking is still quite intimidating!

We're also enjoying getting to know many of the ex-pats who live and work here on more full-time basis.  Last Saturday we had a fantastic meal of shepherd's pie made by one of the ladies who helps place orphaned or abandoned kids in the various orphanages in the area.  Elizabeth actually took us to one of the orphanages on Tuesday, and we were amazed at how well the organization is run.  At that same dinner, Ellana loved hanging out with one our friend's puppies, Miwa, as they are about exactly the same size.

Ellana and Miwa

This coming weekend, we're going to take a short trip to Kisumu, which is located on Lake Victoria and is about 2 hours from Eldoret.  One of our favorite little resorts, called Kiboko Bay (kiboko means hippo in Kiswahili), has about eight "tented" or permanent camp sites, a wonderful restaurant (I can't wait for the fish curry), and a small pool.  Kisumu is much warmer than Eldoret, so we are looking forward to some warmer temperatures as I'm a little tried of the cold mornings and evenings.  I know I have to be careful saying that with extreme heatwaves happening all over the US!  Needless to say, we're really ready to get out of Eldoret for a couple days.

Nakumatt- our of our favorite shopping spots

Outside of Nakumatt

Ellana and Andy with their favorite guard, Silas

Ellana after a bath

Ellana and Silas

Frustrations

So the "little" frustrations have started to become major headaches.  I haven't blogged for several days because we haven't had the internet since Sunday.  I know that having the internet is truly a luxury, but when we have become accustomed to having it(and Steve has been trying to get everything wrapped up for the Duke group coming in September), not having it becomes a real pain.  I FINALLY convinced Steve that we needed to buy a modem (that was about $20) that would allow us to get on when this happens, so I have been once again happily surfing the web this morning.  We've also had some major leaks in our house, so we were out of water for the day on Tuesday.

The good news is that Ellana has her own room!  She seems to be really be liking it as she has been sleeping really well the past few nights.  The only issue has been that her baby monitor seems to be the only piece of electronics that is highly sensitive to the change in voltage and outlets.  We've tried every combination of our converters and adapters, but the only thing that will work is batteries that appear to run out of juice after each night.  We are trying to get a new monitor from one of the baby stores here, but no word on how long that might take.  Ordinarily I wouldn't worry too much about the monitor, but I really cannot hear her from our room, and we have two other roommates in our house that we worry she might wake up in the morning.

On another positive note, I feel as though we made real headway at Imani yesterday.  We've established a "system" for how the order process will work, and I also worked with one of the managers to develop a spreadsheet that determines the amount of time each order should take to complete.  One of Imani's major problems has been that orders are normally several months overdue meaning that once the order is finally complete, the customer has decided that it is no longer needed.  We are hoping that some of our new processes will help to eliminate this problem.

Inside Imani Workshops

Our dining area- Ellana even has her own table!

She is very independent!

at Oasis- they serve burgers and milkshakes

All of our guard dogs

Outside Imani Workshops

Some of Imani's jewelry

more jewelry

Eldoret Market "West"

Yesterday morning I decided to brave the large outdoor clothing market called "West."  I had heard from many at the IU House that if one was brave enough to dig through the enormous piles of second-hand clothes (mostly from the US) some treasures could be found.  The market is only on Fridays, and each of the vendors receives huge bundles of clothing that get opened that morning.  Now, I don't even enjoy "digging" at places like T.J. Max and Marshalls and especially not garage sales, but in search of a cultural experience and some clothes for Ellana, I thought the market sounded like a good idea.

One of the administrators at the IU House, Purity, was also in search of some hand towels for the compound, so she kindly offered to be my guide.  Once we stepped out of the car, she reminded me to keep my bag very close at hand.  My first thought was what have I gotten myself into this time!  I couldn't believe the sheer size of the market, and I had never seen anything like the huge piles of "forgotten" clothing.  At least I knew a little about what to expect as I had seen a documentary on Al-Jazeera a few years ago when we were in Uganda that traced a clothing bundle from the US to a small village in Tanzania.  I felt a little guilty going to the market as the rise of second-hand clothing in Africa has replaced many of the textile businesses that formerly flourished here.  However, the combination of the increase of inexpensive clothing and Africans desiring to follow western clothing trends has led to the development of these markets existing in most villages throughout the continent.

Many items had tags from places like Goodwill or stickers that looked like someone would use at a garage sale.  Each of the vendors has his or her own tarp for the clothes which is extremely helpful given that all of us shoppers were squishing around in the mud.  Purity's strategy of attack was to seek out a pile of children's clothing and then try to grab something from the bottom in order to basically turn the pile upside down.  Then we would just start to pull things out that looked like they might fit our children (she was also trying to dresses for her eight-year-old daughter as well as for a friend's daughter who is the same age as Ellana).  I was really amazed at the labels that I saw:  Osh Kosh, Carter's, The Children's Place, and babyGap, among many others.  I found it difficult to tell the true quality of clothing as it was incredibly wrinkled, but I was also amazed at how stained some of the clothing was.  At first I thought we would never find anything, but then we hit a gold mine at one of the vendors.  I found two pairs of pants as well as a dress from the Children's Place for all of about $2 (200 Kenyan Shillings).  Each of the vendors shouts out prices for the clothing at each of the stations, so there is little room for negotiation.  We tried to hit as many of the children's clothing vendors
as possible, but given the size of the market (I would say it was at least as big as a football field), there was no way to see everyone.  My most treasured find was a Children's Place sweater in perfect condition for 40 bob ("bob" is what the Kenyans say for cents so it was about $.50)  Ultimately, I ended up with the sweater, two pairs of pants, one pair of jeans, one dress, one shirt, and one Osk Kosh jumper for about $5.  I think Steve was pretty proud of me as he gets a little frustrated with my typical attempts at "bargain" shopping in the US!  I just wish that I would have had my camera with me, but I will go back again, if only to take pictures!

I was definitely experiencing sensory overload at the market, and was intending to walk to Imani immediately, but I was starving and my head was spinning, so I stopped at one of the hotels in the center of town and had a  solitary lunch of vegetable curry and chapati, which was actually very nice as no one was shouting mzungu at me (I was probably the only foreigner at the market), and I generally eat with Ellana sitting on my lap meaning that most meals are extremely chaotic.  I took some notes from the morning and made a list of some of the things I needed to do at Imani.

Sylvia is back, thank goodness, so she spent most of the day with Ellana.  Ellana seems to really like her and is already comfortable with her.  I'm extremely grateful as Ellana has been experiencing lots of "stranger anxiety."  I guess it is a lot to ask of a toddler- first we moved her to a new continent, and then we just expect her to get along with everyone and to let them all hold her!  She is continuing to walk more often, but still prefers to get around more quickly on her knees.  Her vocabulary, however, is rapidly expanding.  Her favorites are ball, tree, go-go(for a car or anything with wheels), uh-oh, ga-ga (for her friend Gavin), and I swear she said rocket the other day (of course courtesy of Little Einsteins).  I also got her to say please this morning, but I doubt she understands what it really means yet.

We plan to have dinner this evening with all of the families with kids at the IU House compound, and Steve is on call this weekend, so hopefully no big emergencies will arise.  I think we are overall adjusting pretty well and are trying to work through the minor frustrations that we face living here.  Generally, I think we are trying to genuinely enjoy our time here knowing that it is going to pass very quickly.

Oh, "Its" a girl!

One of the major cultural differences that I'm currently realizing is that Kenyans don't generally feel that certain colors (let's say pink) generally apply to female clothing and that others tend to be associated more with male clothing.  When Ellana was first born, for some reason I didn't want to have anything to do with pale, baby pink, but I often got frustrated when she was wearing yellow or green and people would comment on my cute baby boy.  Consequently, I started buying more and more pink which seemed to solve the problem.  Ironically, now most of her clothing is pink, but I cannot count the number of Kenyans who have first assumed she is a boy and then when I say, she, they exclaim, "oh, its a girl!"  I have been laughing about this with my other mom friends who have boys clad mostly in blue, and Kenyans seem to think they are girls. 

The same problem appeared when my friend Nick, the MBA working with Imani Workshops, was assisting with the inventory count.  He was trying to divide the baby sweaters into male/female categories, and when he put the bright pink sweaters in the female pile, the artisans looked at him as though he had lost his marbles.  It turned out the feature that determined the "sex" of the sweater was not color, but whether or not the sweater had a certain type of button.  Go figure.

Our new babysitter, Sylvia has been sick the past few days and went to the hospital yesterday.  I tried to contact her again this morning, but haven't heard how she is doing.  Please say prayers that she gets better soon!  Consequently, I haven't really been able to work at Imani much, and I'm so ready to get back into the groove.  I have a meeting this afternoon, so I think Ellana is just going to tag along!

Steve has a full day of cases lined up today (his regularly scheduled operating days are Wednesdays and Fridays), and the other days he either spends in the clinic or doing research.  He also did a big lecture for about 30 medical students at 7 am Monday morning, and I think we were all impressed with the turn out!  We have been trying to finalize all of the details for the Duke Neurosurgery trip in September as well as for our other family members and friends who will be visiting the next few months.  We cannot wait to see everyone and show them more about our lives here!