Mountains Never Meet -- Now in Paperback!

I'm pleased to announce that after a few weeks of setbacks, Mountains Never Meet is now available in paperback at CreateSpace. It will follow on Amazon in about a week and I am working on additional distribution channels for both the paperback and e-book editions.

I'm so excited, you guys. It's been a busy few months (an updated Bamako post will follow in a few days -- let's just say I have left Bamako about 6 months earlier than expected, due to the security situation). I'm so happy that after everyone's been asking about the paperback I can finally offer it to you.

Thank you for hanging in there!

Also, I will be removing Mountains Never Meet from the Kindle Unlimited program in one week, on February 10. So if you've been meaning to read it for free under KU, please do so now! Click here to go to the Kindle page. It will still be available on Kindle for $2.99.

Nairobi

What makes me feel strange as an expat, especially one who has lived in Africa and visited Nairobi, is that there was a higher chance someone I knew was going to be at that mall then at any of the locations of any of the shootings that have happened in the United States recently. To my knowledge no one I knew was there; but I haven't heard much from Nairobi on Facebook. Has the government locked down on Internet usage?

I'm glad it didn't happen at the mall I've been to in Nairobi because I didn't want to have too clear of a picture in my mind of people running through the food court and Nakumatt store; images of those places have jumped to the forefront of my mind in the last twenty-four hours.

When you go into malls in Nairobi, Hyderabad, Bangkok, Singapore, there are security guards and metal detectors. But there's also sort of a vacant stare in the eyes of the security guards. The metal detectors offer a false sense of security. And they can't stop a hand grenade that gets thrown before the bad guys even enter the mall.

Sunny at Fabling said some of the things I've been trying to articulate today. Malls are the safe havens for expats overseas. It's where you may find the most Starbucks-like cup of coffee and Western fashions. It's where you'll see an English-language movie. It's where you'll bump into just about everyone you know on a Sunday afternoon. In the summer it's where you go to escape the heat. In Hyderabad, since the parks were closed during the day, the mall was where I took a Muffin who was just learning to walk so she could wander around; I took her as soon as it opened in the morning before there were too many people and she ran up and down the halls freely. As much as I avoid malls when I'm in the United States, overseas they are the place to be when you feel a little homesick.


I mentioned to Mike yesterday that I'm ready to head back overseas. Life is almost too easy in the United States, not counting the tragedies that have happened here recently and in other parts of the world. I'm trying to relax and enjoy the conveniences of American life. But there's a void. A void that exploding malls isn't going to cure me of. I've been working on this post on and off for several hours, watching the news from Nairobi worsen by the hour. Nairobi was never a place I wanted to live but I enjoyed visiting there; even the terrible airport started to feel homey after so many layovers there. After several months of nonstop living in Burundi, landing in a country where English is spoken is always refreshing. I still want to get back overseas somewhere.

Weekly SD Blog RoundUp Call for Entries

Meow, the cat's out of the bag now. I'm a State Department blogger, for those readers who know I'm overseas but don't know why. I try to play it cool, focusing on being overseas rather than why we are overseas. But many other SD bloggers have been kind enough to link to me and comment so now it's my turn to repay the favor. I'm hosting the State Department Blog RoundUp this week.

I like the "optional talking point" idea from last week. Here it is: International Bathrooms. Not necessarily in our housing, since housing has been discussed quite a bit lately (although you're certainly free to discuss it some more). I'm thinking more along the lines of the best and worst at the airports and hotels we tend to pass through regularly, funny misunderstandings, etc., and not necessarily limited to your post. Vacation destination bathrooms count too.

For example:

In Poland the bathroom doors are marked with circles and triangles. I used the men's room once and walked into a second men's room before I realized this.

The bathroom stalls in Brussels airport are narrow. At 32 weeks pregnant with my carry-on bag in tow I could not turn around!

The Tribe hotel in Nairobi has an open floor plan, which means the bathtub is in the room and the toilet and shower are behind a glass partition. The Raddisson in Delhi also has glass wall on one side of the bathroom. You have to be really comfortable with your roomie to stay there.

At a particularly nice restaurant in Burundi, I was not startled by the unisex bathroom stall. What startled me was that the men's urinal was installed directly outside that door, with nothing partitioning it from view. I had to walk past a man using it to enter that bathroom. He didn't seem to mind.

Don't get me started on some of the less-than-ideal conditions we faced in Tanzania. My first experience with a hole-in-the-ground bathroom was at a gas station/convenient store outside Moshi. It wasn't until several rest stops later that I realized what the raised blocks on either side of the hole were for.

As noted before, the theme is optional. If you have anything else to share this week, leave me a comment or send me an email. Please let me know by midnight Thursday, U.S. eastern time.

The next few weeks are open for hosting. If you're interested, check out the calendar.

Quiet Time

I was thinking of going running this morning but when I woke up, and no one else was awake, I decided to indulge in quiet-time morning activities like drinking coffee and watching CNN sans commentary. We have family visiting us here and while I think everyone's having a good time, this country is starting to feel small.

It's been fun showing off Africa to people who have never been here before, people who have only heard our stories and seen our photos. We started in Nairobi, which to us is the big city. While we marveled over bookstores--with English-language books even!--and elevators and coffeeshops, others worried about pushy craft and safari vendors and overpriced taxis. I impressed all with my bargaining skills at a market. I'd seen something in a shop for 6,500 shillings (about $85), and at this little craft market the vendor opened negotiations with a bargain price of 6,000. I talked him down to 2,000 (about $25). I probably still overpaid, but at least I played the game and didn't overpay too grossly. It was something I really wanted and the only souvenir I bought on the whole trip. And it gave Mike's mom a good story to tell her friends back home.

Now we're at our home in Buj hoping that when folks say they really do enjoy all the doing of nothing that gets done around here, they mean it.

Mall Culture Shock

I'm in Nairobi for a couple days. I arrived this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm taking a work-related exam that I've been preparing for for weeks. Nay, months probably. Today should be a day of relaxation and mental preparation. I was doing fine with the relaxation bit until I left my hotel this afternoon to explore the shopping center next door. It's been a long time since I've been in a big mall-like atmosphere and I was looking forward to the change. 

I barely lasted an hour in the mall-slash-food-court-slash-supermarket -- with a movie theater, gym, water slide, and mini-golf course -- before I'd had enough. While I enjoyed the novelty of shopping in a gigantic grocery store and picking up some Thai take-away, I didn't enjoy the crowds. A mall is a mall, and the crowd in Nairobi is just as obnoxious as the crowd at Potomac Mills in Northern Virginia. At the time I was there, the mall seemed like it sprawled on forever. But now that I think about it, I don't think it was anywhere near as big as Potomac Mills. 

I spent most of my time wandering around the supermarket. It was like a Wal-Mart, with food and other groceries alongside electronics and other household goods. I just wandered around, marveling at how much stuff there was. There's so much stuff out there to buy! What do you do

 with it all? Where did it all come from? I've found that I don't notice I'm missing things in Bujumbura until I go someplace else and see them. I realized that there were many things I wanted, but very little that I actually need. I was completely paralyzed by all the choice. I managed to remember the snacks I'd intended to buy, just before throwing up my hands in frustration. I'm at the point in overseas living where I can't tell the European brands from the American grands anymore. But I did get a kick out of the Malaysian version of Pringles, Mister Potato. (Unfortunately they contain gluten, just like their American cousin.)

But even as I was trying to ward off panic attacks, I was still thinking about how I want to go back to eat dinner at either the Chinese or Japanese restaurant tomorrow night. And how I want to pick up a few groceries for Mike since I have the opportunity. I'm hoping that just like in the States, Monday night at the mall will be a tad slower than a Sunday afternoon.

(The photo is from A Geek in Korea. Mall security guards where eyeballing me all over whenever I pulled out my camera. I decided Mister Potato wasn't worth jail time or anything. I managed a couple shots of the mall, which I'll show off when I get home and have my uploading cable.)

Things to do in Garmisch when you're dead

I'm in Garmisch, Germany, for a work conference. It's supposed to be all magical, adorable, and Bavarian, but we're staying in a American hotel, with American food, American faux-German decor, U.S. currency, Americans and their silly English language... it's not really Germany.

So why the giraffe picture? Because I had a 10-hour layover in Nairobi and I busted out of the airport for the afternoon, despite the expense. I went to the Giraffe Centre, where you can hand-feed giraffes and look at warthogs. Then I had a very tasty chicken curry lunch at a nice restaurant. I did a little shopping, spending way too much money on touristy crap.

Then I took the red-eye to Amsterdam, then Munich, and then I took a train to Garmisch. Oh, and guess what? When I got off the plane in Munich, my luggage did not! And it's freezing in Germany, at least compared to Africa. I didn't have a long-sleeved shirt or jacket with me, so froze waiting for my trains. It was raining when I got off the train in Garmisch; the cab driver thought I was crazy. Luckily my bag showed up later that night, actually right before I fell asleep. I was so relieved!

I was enjoying filling up on American food for the first couple days but now I just feel full.

Signing off in a moment. I've been uploading photos. But the battery charger for my computer isn't working and I want to conserve the energy. Pics are here.