We're here!

After more than 30 hours of travel, including two flights, a 7 hour stay in a rent-by-the-hour 'yotel' in the Heathrow airport (highly recommended for layovers), a night in Nairobi and a 2 hour taxi ride (during which I saw baboons and zebras), we've arrived at our new home in Narok. I'll post more pictures soon of our very humble abode, but we're still settling in and it's pretty messy.

Yesterday was a long day- our jet lag caused us to wake up at 3:30 am, so we started unpacking and organizing before the sun was up. We also purchased our first new appliance together- a shiny brand new fridge. I am pretty excited about it. I didn't have a functioning fridge in Samoa so I think this beauty will be a welcome part of my current living situation.

Our house is located on a gorgeous hill. We have a view over the town of Narok and can see rolling hills in the distance towards the west. While it is definitely not a lush, green landscape, there is a definite beauty in the dryness, too. There are a ton of bushes and trees that I've never seen before.

Perhaps the highlight for me are the animals, though. There are about 15 chickens (and one very, very loud rooster named "The Wiz". The chickens make lots of soothing clucking sounds but unfortunately aren't great layers. However, yesterday when we were outside playing baseball with the neighbor kids, I heard a clattering rolling sound and looked at the coop. Apparently one quirky chicken decided the corrugated steel roof of the coop was the best place to lay an egg, and I barely caught it as it rolled off the roof. The egg is pictured above- we're still deciding how to cook it.

In addition to the chickens, there are 4 dogs who have adopted us- Chief, Chewy, Bonnie and Simba. They're all related and have incredibly sweet dispositions. We're already feeding them random snacks, and they spend most of their day curled up on our doorstep. Since both Nathan and I are dog lovers, we're thrilled to have been adopted by them.

We're headed to town in a bit to buy some fresh fruits and veggies- yesterday we bought sweet potatoes, zuchinni (!), green pepper (!) and carrots. The selection is FAR better than Samoa, so I'm feeling optimistic about cooking potential. In Nairobi, we shopped at the Nakumat and found an unbelievable selection of bulk dried beans- I bought 7 different kinds! I don't think we will lack for ingredients.

So far, so good.