A day in the life of...

Friday, July 11. Well I don't know if it was typical or not but I
just thought I'd write a bit about Friday, July 11, not because
anything special happened but just to start writing about day to day
events instead of "deep" thoughts or significant happenings. (I also
don't know why I'm blogging right now since I have a ton of friends to
email.)

Yesterday Ben woke up around 6:15 so I took him to the bathroom and
then said it was too early to wake up so I slept in his bed while he
lay there. At some point he got out of bed and got himself breakfast
by eating the tops off of full loaves of pumpkin bread which is how I
found him. We played Lego for a while, he has 8 duplo blocks so there
are only so many tower, bridge, stair combinations that you can build
but he had fun and is certainly getting the hang of it.

As usual our gardener arrived at 8:00, our househelp, Mama Daudi
(Mama David), arrived at 8:30 and the milk sometime after that. (Our
normal househelp had a baby last month as well so she's on leave and
now the lady who normally watches Ben is helping around the house.
It's really a great situation but it's a long story.)

I was trying to do a little computer work in my office (in our
house) but I have an issue with the grounding in my house and kept
tripping a breaker. By the time I "fixed" the ground the electricity
really was off so I couldn't do that work anyway.

Carla went to CBHPP to just check in with everyone and say hi. She
met a volunteer who just arrived this week from Illinois, I'm not sure
what she'll be doing but she's here to help. I stayed home and
watched the boys. Ben's quickly learning his alphabet and has words
associated with almost all the letters of the alphabet. We spent the
morning stacking the letters and identifying them (flying for F,
muffin for M, tree for T, etc).

Carla got back around noon and fed Aaron while Ben and I had lunch.
Biscuit, chapati and cucumber for Ben, left over heuvos rancheros
(sp?) for me. Then Ben went for a nap and I wrote some emails and did
my MCC worker report. At some point Mama Daudi made ugali and sukuma
for herself and Carla and I had joined them for a bit more lunch.
(Carla and I are really getting addicted to the local food - even,
dare I say, ugali.)

I forgot to mention that these days we usually have on the order of
10-20 kids playing in our yard at our swing. Sometimes it seems like
mayhem, sometimes they are all in a line waiting their turn at the
swing. We did have a rubber ball that they played with a lot but then
one of them wore cleats one day and it got a serious hole in it. I do
have a really nice new soccer ball waiting for Ben's 3rd birthday and
I'm wondering how or if to bring that outside.

So speaking of the kids, after I had written some emails and
reports, Ben and I went outside to fly his kite. There was virtually
no wind but I got it up once for a few minutes. The next time I tried
running around the field to get it up but of course some trees snagged
it so it took about 15 minutes to get it down and then Ben had gone
off to his swing.

Later we drove to town to buy some curtain rod hardware and do
various errands. Going to town is always interesting because usually
it involves visiting a minimum of 10 little dukas because each one
sells this but not that. (For example, the main hardware store had
one curtain rod in stock, it was on the ceiling with plastic sewage
traps hung off of it. But they didn't have the ends for supporting
the rod. So I tried about 3 other hardware stores but no avail. We
also wanted chapatis so that we could have egg burritos for supper but
it took 3 "restaurants" to find one with chapatis.)

Now of course I've forgotten the details of the evening. But after
some great egg burritos (we brought back salsa from Nairobi) I'm sure
there was some playing with Ben's little tool station, some no-get-me,
aka tag, a bath, etc. I think the electricity went off for a while
and I also think I spent an hour holding Aaron watching an episode of
an 80's BBC series called "Connections" that I found on our computer.

And then it was bed for two exhausted parents but luckily we would
at least have a few hours to ourselves on Sat morning with only the
milk lady dropping by.

can't get enough of this little guy!

The frequency of these updates in the last couple weeks puts our year to shame!

But here are some more pictures of Aaron.

Update: At our dr's appt yesterday we found he had gained 500 gm (a pound) in the last week - so now he weighs in at about 8 pounds 3 oz or so.

We just got his passport so we plan on heading back to Mugumu early next week. Then he'll be our bush baby.

well...

the men in my life:

More pictures!

These were taken the day we left the hospital - June 6th. Since then Aaron has gained at least 1/2 a pound or so. Right now I've got to run but I will try to put up more pictures soon!

the little one

with his big brother:

with my dad: (or his hand, rather)

with Auntie JoJo

Little Aaron was given to us on June 4th. He came early - due date was June 19th, and we had planned a c-section for June 9th. But when I started having regular pain every 10 minutes or so on the evening of June 3rd and after three hours of denial that this could actually be labor, we headed to the hospital where I went through a full labor and then an emergency c-section. Kurt was able to be there through the whole thing, and was able to hold Aaron during those first wee hours in the morning while I recovered from surgery. All the details came together so well considering we had only been in Nairobi a week and hadn't really had time to prepare for the delivery. My sister Jo came with us to the hospital for support, and my parents drove over to the Mennonite Guest House at 11:00 pm to stay with Ben. So I was able to leave him in their care without too much worry. Everything has been a blur since. We came home from the hospital on Friday and have since been learning how to the parents of two. Ben calls Aaron "Kanga" for some reason unbeknownst to us. He was pretty cute when he first saw Aaron - tried not to smile but right away wanted to hold him - which lasted about half a second. He seems not to mind Aaron's presence but isn't too interested for now. We're now staying in a duplex next to my parents here at our old stomping grounds, Rosslyn Academy, a place I have loved since I started first grade here in 1985. It's great to have mom and dad a couple steps away. We will be here for a few weeks sorting out birth certificates and passports so we can take Aaron to Tanzania. We are so loving our new little boy, a little cuddly sleepy boy who loves to nestle up in our necks. I think because he came so quickly we're still wrapping our minds around the fact that he's really here, that we are parents again, that Ben has a little brother. It is amazing and we are so thankful. Aaron Jacob Unger. We love the name Aaron. Jacob is the name of Kurt's Opa and my brother. Right now Aaron is being held by his father, resting on the couch. It's time I feed him and go to bed...

Aaron Jacob Unger

Introducing..

Aaron Jacob Unger.
Born June 4th, 1:57 am.
6 lbs., 11 oz.

Nairobi, Kenya.

A culture of preparedness...

So this subject line has been on my mind for a long time (since before I left
Canada) and many different aspects of it have crossed my mind so we'll see where
this goes. I wasn't even sure if "preparedness" was a word and then I read an
article in the Canadian Mennonite that used the word "preparedness" and I
thought I'd better write my two cents.

This material certainly isn't new, it's been covered under the lenses of
future/present/past centered cultures and even materialism. But I want to
discuss it under the lens of "preparedness".

Most of the people reading this blog have grown up in a boyscout culture
where the motto "Always be prepared" is respected and valued. We see it all
around us, I remember biking in Winnipeg and the bus benches on Pembina had a
picture of a police man and the words "Have a plan" - though I was never quite
sure what I should have a plan for, which may have been the point. The Canadian
Mennonite recently featured an article about preparing for a pandemic and often
features articles about preparing for retirement or the death of a loved one,
etc. We are certainly a culture of preparedness.

Let me give some examples of what I feel preparedness looks like for us. I am
often encouraged to make sure that I have tools, oil, rope, water, etc in our
truck in case we get stuck. Our truck has two spare tires and 2 gas tanks. We
are very conscious about how much water we use because if our rain tanks run
out, then we don't know what we'd do. We would like to get some patio furniture
for when we want to sit on our porch. I would like to get a cell phone that can
do internet since currently we can only access the internet through Carla's
phone and sometimes I can't go online all day (!). I built Ben a swing and a
sandbox for when he wants to play outside.

Now some examples from Canadian culture. We put money away and pay UI for
when circumstances deteriorate. Our organizations and governments are filled
with offices and documents explaining what to do in particular situations. A
cliche example (and the one that set me on this path) is that we buy our SUV's
for when road conditions are poor. (Who remembers the SUV commercial that
justified the need for an SUV by saying that the various exceptions to good road
conditions really are quite common.) On that same note, we get the truck for
when we need to haul stuff, the cabin for when we want to get out, the boat for
when we want to get out from the cabin, the rotary car buffing thing-a-ma-bob
for when we want to buff the car. I recently heard that the lifetime total run
time of the average power drill was 8 minutes - we buy or are given that drill
for those eight minutes over the next x number of years before we forget we have
it and go buy another one.

So how does preparedness play itself out in the lives of the people here. We
often give spur of the moment rides to people, at their bequest, and drop them
off 100's of kilometers away without money, clothes, a plan or even in forming
anyone from where they came or where they ended up. But they are perfectly
comfortable doing this. People here share everything from rides on bicycles,
clothes & furniture to food and money. We would say they do this without much
planning. One recent visitor had brought 2 bottles of Peptobismal with him and
after realizing that his gut was adjusting fine he gave one away. The recipient
family used it up within a few days, again we would say, without thinking of
when they really might want some. The day to day activities of our clinic seem
to be largely dictated day to day. The only time we really seem to plan for
next week, month or year is when some outside donor organization asks us to,
otherwise it's simply dealing with the day to day.

So I don't want to criticize either culture. When my father-in-law recently
traveled across Kenya with hundreds of Kenyans, he and many of them were very
glad that he had brought a flashlight for when it got dark. When our neighbours
don't have water, they appreciate that we aren't concerned about how much water
we may or may not have 6 months from now, they need water now. When I build a
swing and a sandbox for Ben, all the neighbourhood kids are very happy to play
with them.

But a couple of things I want to point out. It struck me that our
preparedness is a huge contributor to our ecological footprint. All these
things that we buy "for when ..." are maybe not so needed. Also, I remember
reading a short article out of The Manitoban [U of M newspaper] where the auther
recalled being at the end of his rope in the Caribbean and other places and how
something just happened to work out. He even went so far as to challenge the
readers to test it for themselves; to place themselves in a situations where
they had no backup plans at all (How foolish!! we say) and to see what happens.
One challenge (sheesh, I hope this doesn't sound like a sermon!) for anybody
who reads this far is, try to analyze how much of your daily activities could be
categorized under the "for when ..." idea. Whether it's buying that drill or
preparing for the weekend. Another thought I just had this morning was that I
wonder how much this preparedness stifles us. As we were driving out 60km to a
remote dispensary, some hose started leaking fuel. Since I had brought all my
tools along I was determined to use them and was having quite a time thinking
about it. Our accountant took one look at it and simply suggested kinking the
hose and tying it. I felt a bit silly. But who knows how much more we could do
if we didn't insist on preparing for everything ahead of time and just learned
to role with the punches.

Likewise, I think the culture here is benefiting from the exposure to the
idea of "for when ..." especially as it is becoming westernized anyway. I've
read how society and culture developed here over the last millennium as a coping
mechanism for the various ecological and social crises that struck this
continent. Not that the crises are abating, but now that the world is much more
global, these problems might be better addressed with a more prepared culture.

At the end of the day, like most people, I very much appreciate my way of
thought, probably because it's been so ingrained in me. But it is healthy for
me to begin to see the advantages of looking at things from another perspective.

Thanks for reading...
Kurt