That Room

I wouldn't sign us up for Hoarders, but we collect stuff. Mike has his cameras and his bike parts. I have fabrics and bits of paper. We both have CDs and DVDs that have been listened to or watched once. We both have old clothes. Occasionally we do go through our stuff and pare it down a bit but we still end up with that room. That room where boxes remain unpacked and stuff that we need to keep but don't use ends up. All the moving around that we do hasn't cured us of our habit of collecting things and holding on to them forever. We moved in together about eight years ago and I'm afraid we might still have boxes from that first apartment stashed away somewhere.

We've lived in our current house for almost a year. We moved in just before Christmas and the last delivery of our household effects was on New Year's Eve. So I decided that before the end of the year, I want that room cleaned up and organized. I've had a junk room rather than a sewing room and office. It was a room that Muffin had never even seen because the mess was piled so high. Even when the mold hit, I braved the room long enough to rescue some fabric but we never go to the rest of the room.

When Mike had last Friday off and we had a full staff of housekeepers and nannies to keep Muffin busy, Mike and I went in and tackled that room.

It's still not perfect but it came a long way that morning. I've sketched out a couple little work tables to be made and I've figured out my storage needs. I've found homes for two sewing machines, the printer, and the scanner. All the fabric is on shelves. Our housekeeper gladly took some of the craft supplies that I felt I no longer needed. Her daughter and young cousins keep scrapbooks and love getting my crafting hand-me-downs. Muffin sneaks in there now and marvels at the fabrics, anxious to touch them all, making little "oh, oooh," sounds.

I can't wait to start using my new sewing room office.

P.S. We've been doing some big cleanups around the house, and one morning we put out several garbage bags, including one from the catbox, because, well, we have a cat who uses the catbox so we have to throw it away. Within an hour, every garbage bag was gone from in front of our house except the one full of kitty litter. It took several days for that one to disappear. The ups and downs of having a "private" garbage man. He doesn't really have to take anything he doesn't feel isn't worth sorting through to see what can be resold. Eventually it all disappears though.

Slow Week in the Hills

It's been a slow week here. One of the highlights for me was finding fresh thyme at one of the grocery stores. Four trips out to the quarantine office and Ellie is now here not only in actuality, but legally as well. I bought Muffin some over-priced t-shirts and shorts from the British equivalent of Old Navy here because I was afraid that if I waited for mail-order from the actual Old Navy, she would have outgrown everything I ordered by the time it arrived. We saw the neighborhood Rolls Royce. We saw the hot-pink Mercedes that's owned by someone out in HITEC City. It's been too hot to go outside and have any fun.

Yup, exciting.We're in a summer slump I guess. I hope we can get out to the mountains in a few weeks for a short vacation. We need cooler temperatures and a change of scenery.

Thankful for the Little Things

My Facebook status this morning:

I should be taking a shower, or baking cookies for tonight's dinner, or wrapping presents to mail home, but instead I've gone for a run and I'm enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, being thankful that Sophie sleeps in later than I do.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First Impressions of Hyderabad

It's not the poverty-stricken India you see in movies, but you can tell the poverty is nearby, just under the surface. It's a big city, so quite a change from Bujumbura, but more orderly and clean than I expected. The traffic sounds aren't bothering me as much as I thought they might, even though they are pretty constant throughout the day and night.

We saw a cow in the road actually crossing at a crosswalk.

The signs are not succinct. I saw the familiar "Children at Play" image, but accompanied by the text, "Stop and Kindly Look, Then Proceed."

I'm totally confused by the twisty roads and by driving on the left-hand side. I'll be making good use of our driver.

Indians aren't afraid to show affection for any baby they see. Muffin's cheeks have been pinched by more strangers in the last few days than the entire previous three months of her life.

The red meat is lamb and sometimes goat.

The papayas are better here than in Bujumbura. It's not mango season yet, but we've heard they're pretty spectacular.

Baby's First Passport

We are getting settled, or as settled as one can get for six weeks, here in D.C. Mike's back to work and I'm spending my days with Sophie. Babies are miracles and all that, but they're also kind of boring. Yet somehow I don't have any time for reading or writing. Even the boring parts of the day are baby time-consuming. (We also have some internet issues that limit my time online even more.)

Yesterday we submitted the forms for Sophie's passport. We went to CVS for her passport photo. She was amazingly patient as Mike held her up in front of the screen. Pretty much everyone in the store stopped what they were doing to watch the six-week-old baby get her passport photo taken.

In other news, I'd like to buy a new phone for going to India. I'd really like to treat myself to a smart phone, something I can use for internet, twitter, facebook, skype, etc. (My phone in Burundi didn't even do text messaging. I crave more technology.) I know so little about the newest  phones, is all that even possible? I've been told I should look at unlocked quadband phones. Can anyone out there in international blogland give me any advice?

Another Packout

Hooray! We recently found out that we are authorized another small packout from our vacation location in Rhode Island to Mike's training location in D.C. This solves our problem of how to get everything to D.C. But it also means quite a bit of work in figuring out what to put in this shipment and what will fit in the car. (Our previous plan was to rent a trailer and shove everything in without thinking about it too much.) We've had a rough couple of nights with the baby, but with movers arriving on Friday morning -- hopefully well ahead of any hurricanes that may be headed our way -- we are powering through the organization of crap.

As it's the last week of summer vacation, we're also trying to do all the summery things one last time, plus visit as many people as possible since they won't see Sophie for a while.

And we're doing it all during a heatwave and impending hurricane. Yay summer!

Re-entry Notes

1. High-speed internet is so awesome I can't even talk about it.
2. It's not shorts and flipflop weather every day in New England. I have to check temperatures and dress appropriately. Long sleeves? Socks?
3. Is it important for me to know who people like Snooki and the Kardishians are? They seem to be everywhere yet I can't figure what they do exactly.
4. I can only spend a maximum of twenty minutes in a large store, like Wal-Mart or even Stop & Shop before I get a headache. Too much stuff! Too many choices. I need toothpaste. There are literally a hundred different options.
5. Speaking of large stores, I'm also overwhelmed by large parking lots. And how they are mostly empty these days.
6. A good hotel is also so awesome I can't even talk about it.

Long Week

It's been kind of a frustrating week. Shortly after the phones went dead last weekend, due to stolen cables, the internet just up and disappeared for two days. Since it's been back, it's been as slow as molasses. I've been wanting to put some nice photos up on the blog, but they are literally taking hours to upload and then the internet connection, or the electricity altogether, blinks out and I have to start over again.

The floor in the living room is falling apart. I don't know exactly what's going on under the tiles, but they are popping up and making creaking sounds. The landlord has been in and out all week with contractors and on Monday they'll start ripping up the floor. I really hope it's not termites, but it probably is. This house is going to need to be completely de-bugged, tenting and all, when we move out before the next tenant moves in.

Work has kept me busy this week, which is good. But it also makes me sad because I'm starting to prepare my office for when I leave. This program has been my baby since the first day I arrived and on one hand I'm burning out a bit, but on the other, it's still mine and I'm not working that hard in finding a replacement for me. I'm going to have to soon, though.

Mike's been back in D.C. for almost two weeks, and last week I was fine. But this week I needed help. I know he's not having all fun and games himself, either. He's been sick and I don't envy his 24 hours of flying time this weekend while fighting a cold.

However, I have a weekend of couch-potato-ing ahead of me. Mail arrived today, and with it Project Runway Season 6 DVDs and a case of Annie's gluten-free macaroni & cheese. I need comfort food and comfort tv right now.

And Then the Stomach Bug

I've been struggling all week to come up with something positive or at least novel and interesting to write about. But I'm at a loss. It's been a week of ho-hum to not-so-great.

I had a stomach bug that kept me couched on Monday and Tuesday. When I was finally feeling good enough, stomach-wise, to drag myself to work, I was overcome by the aches and discomfort of pregnancy, which everyone assures me is normal but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

Our housekeeper is sick. No, it's not the end of the world that we do our own laundry and cook for ourselves for a few days. I'm worried about him. He worked half-days on Monday and Tuesday and we haven't heard from him since. It could just be bad cell reception -- the network is terrible here and he lives in the mountains far out of town, where the reception is even worse. My fear is that he has malaria. He looked terrible on Tuesday. I tried to send him home right away but he insisted on doing a few things around the house first. We're hoping that if we can't get in touch with him via phone this weekend, we can get a message to him through our gardener on Monday.

One more thing. I'm generally extremely patient with the mail here. I know it's going to take at least two to three weeks to receive anything, so I order something, forget about it, and have a little surprise when it arrives. But the one time I really need something, of course the mail is six weeks late. I ordered my textbooks in mid-January for courses starting on March 1st. I was so proud of myself for thinking ahead and giving myself plenty of time. The latest news I have is that the mail might arrive next week.

That's it. I'm tapped out for now.

Please Don't Pave

Last Saturday morning we heard some machinery going up and down the street (unusually early, I might add, since most commercial work doesn't begin until after 10 o'clock on Saturday mornings). The machine was grading the road. We live on a rutted dirt road. At first, evening it out seemed like a good idea. Until it occurred to us that grading it might be the first step toward paving it.

Several issues.

First, we live on the edge of a blind corner that's also a three-way intersection. While there's little traffic on this road, we've had more close calls than we should have with drivers coming around that corner as we're pulling out of our driveway. Keeping it unpaved will keep people from driving even more quickly and recklessly.

Second, this is a small road with nothing but a handful of private residences along it. Why would they pave it before any number of the chewed-up, pot-holed, much more travelled roads in the neighborhood? We suspect it has to do with the owner of the ridiculous house at the end of our street that was under construction for over a year and finally seems to be near completion. We've deduced that the owner must be a wealthy Burundian, perhaps even a politician, and he may have enough influence to get the road he lives on paved.

Third, we've enjoyed the charm of our dirt road. The only consolation I have is that it takes so long to pave roads here, I might be gone by the time they actually get it done. But that makes me sad, because I'm not ready to leave yet. Looking at my calendar yesterday, I realized I leave in only four months. I can't believe it's happening so soon! There's so much to do to prepare for moving that the time is going to fly by.

In need of the three-day weekend

It's been a rough couple of days. I hate to say they've been bad days, because in general life is pretty good. We're not having earthquakes or blizzards or anything like that. Maybe I'm just having trouble adjusting to being home rather being on vacation.

We got back on Tuesday afternoon, twelve hours after our scheduled arrival time on Monday night. Our luggage followed about twenty-four hours later -- which is actually a pretty good record for Kenya Airways. Jetlag and fatigue kept me from working a full day on Wednesday, but I at least sorted through over two weeks' worth of emails, even if I didn't respond to them all. Thursday was somehow one of the most productive days I'd had at work in months.

But by Friday I was crashing again. Just a series of unfortunate events, you could say. I woke up in a panic because I'm having trouble finding a place to rent while we're home for the summer and the internet was down so I couldn't go online and scrutinize rental listings. I pretty much had a meltdown and got irrationally mad at Mike for no reason. Then I accidentally cut myself on a super-sharp Wusthof kitchen knife. Luckily Mike was able to butterfly bandage it, so now it's healing nicely and I won't need stitches. I just have to avoid infection. After that I found out that the satellite service won't be broadcasting any of the Olympics except for a daily one-hour highlight show. This is a real disappointment, because I love the Olympics. With the Summer Olympics they had about five different channels going twenty-four hours a day. You saw all the sports and countries that aren't generally shown in the United States. It was awesome. But thanks to NBC's propriety broadcasting, I haven't even seen a glimpse of the Opening Ceremonies. (The internet connection isn't good enough to stream any of it, so don't bother suggesting it.)

Plus it was ridiculously hot and humid yesterday. I know, I know, I complained of being chilly in California. But it wasn't just me noticing it yesterday. Several people commented that it was definitely warmer than usual, especially in the evening. Even with the air conditioner on as high as possible, I still tossed and turned all night being too warm.

Mike made excellent coffee and pancakes this morning. But he also accidentally set off the house alarm while I was dozing.

I'm really looking forward to this three-day weekend to recover from my vacation and my first week back home.

Hiatus

Yes, we've been on vacation. We've been doing our part to keep the economy afloat by shopping at Target and eating at Uno's. We've been enjoying staying in our old neighborhood, although we could do without all the chatty people in the breakfast room each morning. We've loved seeing friends. I'm not loving the relatively chilly temperatures. (I know it's one of the warmest spots in the United States right now, but forgive me. I live on the equator. To me, it's chilly here.)

We thought about buying a house, but the stars are not aligned in our favor at this time. Maybe over summer vacation.

We've been buying new clothes instead of doing laundry. We bought several pounds of chocolate chips. I got my Mac fixed, somewhat. We love high-speed American internet. We don't love all the commercials on the radio and television.

We've taken care of some doctors' appointments -- all healthy. Mike's been indulging in my Pizza Safari, as I sample gluten-free pizzas throughout California. We're eating our favorite Mexican foods and sushi. We've probably gained a few pounds in tamale weight alone.

On Sunday we begin our thirty-hour trek back to the Buj, away from Peets and Starbucks. I'm not looking forward to all those long flights and long layovers. But I miss the cat and I miss being back at the home base.

Just holes in the roof

That's not exactly what I want to hear during the rainy season.

I was cleaning up in the guest bathroom yesterday when I saw a patch of sun on the wall that I'd never noticed before. Between the unusually brilliant sunshine, a series of open doors and curtains, and two hanging mirrors between the front door and the bathroom I thought it wasn't impossible that the sun was coming in through the front door and somehow being reflected on the bathroom wall. 

Out of curiosity I tried tracing the beam of light from the wall back to the door. As many curtains and doors as I closed and as many overhead lights as I turned off, I couldn't make the patch of light disappear. When Mike walked by after a few minutes of my fruitless investigation I asked him if he thought he knew where the patch of light was coming from. 

"Holes in the roof. I didn't mention it sooner because it hasn't started raining in through the ceiling yet."

I looked up to the bathroom ceiling, and sure enough, I could see several bits of light up above me. The ceiling is made up of what I thought was strips of dark wood and light wood, but apparently the "dark wood" is actually some kind of screen or cloth. When it's brilliantly sunny outside, you can look right up through screen to the roof.

But Mike's right. For whatever reason, it's not actually raining through the ceiling.

In other news, the turkeys were delivered about 10 minutes after we arrived home from dinner on Thursday. Still frozen, so we can use them later.

Also, in two days we're taking off for a mini-vacation in Kenya, where we'll be meeting up with some of Mike's family. We haven't seen any family members in over a year.

Oh, and we finally got our haircuts.

Sunday Fail

The day started with all sorts of promise. I miraculously felt fine after staying up later than usual with good food, good wine, and good friends. I made some good coffee and started the laundry with 30 cloth napkins. The napkins are part of my festive touch for the table setting on Thanksgiving. They've been sitting in a box for over a year so I thought they could use a wash, dry, and iron.

While the napkins were in the washing machine I went to my boss's house to go over a few details for Thursday. I'm happy to report that we've found a convenient, monkey-free location for the buffet table. 

When I returned home I put the napkins in the dryer, did yoga for about 30 minutes, then was so relaxed I fell asleep for nearly an hour. When I woke up from my nap, my head was in a good place regarding Thursday's event. By now, everyone is laughing over the fate of the turkeys, agreeing that we can roast a half dozen local chickens if the turkeys don't arrive in time. 

I got my napkins from the dryer and brought them upstairs. I tried to open the ironing board, but some screws that hold the legs in place are missing. With Mike's assistance I set it up with the board just sort of resting on top of the legs. Good enough. I grabbed one iron. It looked like it had been dropped, and a wadded up piece of paper was stuck into the little opening where you add water. I pulled it out to add water, but couldn't get it back in. Hmm. I grabbed the other iron. I plugged it in and nothing happened. Ironing Fail.

Somehow our housekeeper has broken the ironing board and two irons, yet he still manages to iron every bit of clothing within an inch of its life (even the underwear!). So I decided ironing the cloth napkins would be one of his chores this week. He's obviously got a system for it.

Then Mike and I decide that it's really time we got haircuts. We are getting shaggy and we've been putting it off for several weekends. We only have one more weekend free before we go on vacation and see Mike's mom for the first time in over a year. We want to look presentable. But while Mike was eating lunch, he got pili-pili in his eye (the super-hottest hot sauce on the planet, made from local chili peppers), and cleaning that up delayed us a bit. By the time we got out to the salon, it was 10 minutes before closing time and they weren't opening the gate for anyone. Haircuts Fail.

We considered going out for ice cream because we were feeling sorry for ourselves for not succeeding in Burundi today, but the ice cream place we like isn't open on Sundays. Luckily I remembered that before we drove all the way out to it. We called a couple friends in hopes of just stopping by to chat, since we were on the road, but no one was answering their phone or radio. At home, the satellite isn't on because of the never-ending battle between Mike's employer and DSTV and the bill-paying methods, so we can't even lazily watch documentaries on British History Channel. Afternoon Distraction Fail.

It's hot this afternoon and we are laying around being lazy and cranky. Sometimes c'est la vie en Burundi.

"Bring me the ranch dressing hose!"

--Homer Simpson

We're heading into that time when we seriously think about where we'll move to next. We probably won't find out until December but we have lists of cities to ponder and we can submit some preferences. Some of our top choices in Africa and Asia have already been taken, which is disappointing. But we have plenty to choose from and I think we'll pretty much be happy anywhere we end up. We can keep ourselves entertained.

I did a super-scientific analysis of the list based on benefits and perks from Mike's employer, deliciousness and gluten-freeness of local cuisines, and warmth of the weather. The winner of my analysis was Havana. Rum! Yucca frita! Graham Greene! It's actually on our list of preferences, but not near the top. 

In researching cities, I'm alarmed by the number of TGI Fridays that are popping up India. I'm also concerned by the number of people who complain about the cost of ranch dressing in Asia. My method of analysis seems quite different from other Americans. I can understand missing some of the comforts of home. I'm going to Nairobi this weekend and I'm thrilled at the chance to restock my supply of Milka bars. But lack of Milka bars isn't the first thing I'm going to tell someone when they ask me about living in Burundi. I want to learn about culture, history, and local cuisines first. (And how easy is it to import a cat?) Availability of American, or even European, goods, is a minor detail I'll worry about when it's time to actually pack. I guess I just expect that no place is going to be the same as the United States, so there's no sense worrying about it.

And isn't that sort of the point of living overseas?

I'm playing our top choices close to the chest. I hate to talk about a place too much and then not get it. I'm in the mode where I've made my preferences known to Mike and I'm ready to sit back, forget about it, and be surprised. And after I'm surprised, I'll share the surprise with you, gentle reader.

Don't mail Netflix without drinking morning coffee first

I've been a Netflix subscriber for several years now. At least five, maybe longer. And this week for the first time ever, I made a mistake. One morning I opened the DVD player, took out the disc, put it in the envelope, and gave it to Mike to drop in the mail slot at work. Just like I've done hundreds of time. 

Last night I was straightening up the DVD area when I saw the disc that's supposed to be on it's way to Netflix. (Here's were I reveal something totally embarrassing: Mike and I are hooked on The Tudors. We're on disc 3 of season 1.) Okay, not the end of the world. I can double up discs next time I send one back. But, wait a minute... what disc did I mail back? I haven't figured that out yet. But Henry VIII is looking up at me from the TV table and he creeps me out.

I blame coffee. Some days I don't drink it at home; I bring it to the office instead. On those mornings I have a proven track record of doing ridiculous things before arriving in the office.

Netflix customer service is pretty good, but tracking down an errant disc among the thousands they receive every day is probably a Herculean task. Adding to the annoyance is that all our mail gets funneled through a U.S. address, which makes shipping a breeze, but also makes it long. It takes at least 3 weeks for a Netflix to arrive at the facility after I've dropped it in the mail here. I doubt I'll see my disc again.

My one hope is that the mail hasn't gone out yet this week from Mike's office. Usually it goes out on Thursday, but sometimes Friday. Keeping my fingers crossed for a slow mail week this week!

Long Time, No Blog

Pheeewwww.

That's me blowing the dust off of ye olde blogger.com.

1. Grendel. His passing has left a cloud over our household and I just haven't been in the mood to blog.

2. Social Engagements. Many of them work-related, have left me exhausted.

3. Study. For now I'll stick with generic Career Development as an explanation. My reading stack includes Middle East for Dummies, Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and Essentials of World History. I also have to read the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Economist regularly. You know what I really dislike? Reading the newspaper online. I love the aesthetic of the paper and the cup of coffee. Flipping the pages. It's just not the same on a computer.

I actually have lots of things to talk about and I hope to get around to them soon.

I have no hips

For want of entertainment around here, when a friend said she’d teach a belly-dancing class, I said I’d attend. I don’t know what I was thinking. On one hand, I like exercising and I’ll try just about any workout. On the other hand, I hate people and organized class-type situations. Plus I have no grace or rhythm and I’m not flexible.

Why not give it a shot?

It was fun. The music was catchy. I got to wear a scarf tied around my hips with little jingly coins on it. And while I found the whole thing enjoyable, I wasn’t overcome with the feminine sensuality that women are supposedly overcome by when they do something like try belly-dancing. (It’s like when I shot a gun. I was like, okay, I shot a gun. I didn’t feel strong or empowered.)

I don’t have hips. I’ve always enjoyed my slim figure and never once wished for a waist or hips or an otherwise hourglass figure. I know that technically I was doing all the moves correctly, but my little coins weren’t jingling as loudly as they should have. I probably looked like a robot. A quiet robot.

But I'm going to go back next week. Now that I've started, I want to finish the whole dance. 

Besides, what else am I going to do with my Tuesday nights?

Welcome to the 21st Century

After two weeks of watching a guy walk around our house, walk around our property, drive away, come back with some other guys to walk around, drive away again and return with a giant metal rod sticking out the back window of the car that was eventually bolted to our roof, we have the internet in our house. And wouldn't you know it, today is a Burundian holiday, so we have the whole day off to sit at home and revel in this novelty.

We're telling ourselves it's okay to be lazy today. It's a holiday. We're going to be leaving very soon to spend 2 weeks in the wilderness. We can spend a day doing nothing. 

(And it's not entirely a day of nothing. I played tennis this morning with a friend and then Mike spent a couple hours hitting against the ball machine. Then we ate tacos. That must count for something, right?)

Seriously, this internet antenna looks like salvage from a Russian satellite. Or maybe a Marconi tower.

**I forgot to mention that yesterday we made our very first Skype call. It was to my dad. It was so awesome! I can't believe we can talk across the oceans for free. 

Two Things

1. Mike and I had our first tennis lesson on Sunday. The instructor said we both did quite well for complete beginners. He moved us on to the backhand right away since we both had good forehands.

My extendors are a little out of shape, though, leaving my arm a bit shaky. Now it's just a tad sore. But we're excited to continue with lessons. We think it will be a good activity for the two of us to do together. It's somewhat self-contained, we can do it any time, and there are tennis courts all over the world.

2. Yesterday we visited the two orphanages that we'll be donating Christmas toys to. Oh, those kids are so adorable and heart-breaking. I wanted to take them all home with me. They walk right up and take your hand and say Bonjour. Comment t'appelle tu? Je m'appelle... ("Hello. What's your name? My name is...") They know how to get themselves loved.