One Night in BKK

Dragon fruit split open, golden pears and an ordinary apple in the background
this was the table where I had lunch. You get a steaming bowl of soup (kinda like pho) and then you have all this stuff in front of you to put into it - there was sprouts, basil, onion, cucumber and some sort of wierd green veggie.
pre-sliced fruit. saw this at a whole-foods type store in a mall. these were amazing...carrots, pineapples, mangos...delish!
My mouth still waters when I look at this juice picture. I drank at least 50 glasses of street juice in my time in BKK. I never once got sick even though I thought about the quality of the ice each time. These are all fresh squeezed and mixed with water - no sweetener - this is added by the customer from a giant vat of simple syrup...the lemon/lime was far and away the best tasting.

OK...so maybe its really 9 nights but still, I can't stop humming that song and the really sad thing is that I only know one line of the song. I am in Bangkok for work. It's my annual work conference and so far it's pretty good. Surprising to write that but it's true. This is a great chance to meet my colleagues from all over the world and "compare" notes. Not only do I get to hear how life is in places I have never heard of, like Conikrey, Guinea, but I also get to be continually surprised by how similar our stories are.

Bangkok has been a feast for the senses. I have never really been keen on exploring Thailand but this has changed in the past few days and I think we will have to come back for a proper vacation. Keeping in mind that we have been living in Kigali my top favorites have been:


1. street food and drinks - this is illegal in Rwanda and ohh how I miss it. There is something so magical about seeing people prepare tasty, spicy, authentic food right there on the street. The best I have tasted was yesterday, chicken kebabs with amazing peanut sauce.
Heavenly! I am also in love with this lime-type juice. It is made with lime juice and water and NO sweetener. Then when you get the juice it comes with a little pack of simple syrup to sweeten as you desire. I have also had fresh pineapple juice with mint and ginger, coconut water and a rose iced tea.

2. The city never sleeps. For anyone with younger kids at home this is a biggie. There is nothing more frustrating then putting your kid to bed and trying to go out and having everything close within the hour. Here, every mall is open to at least 10pm and I dont think the bars close till the sun comes up. I was at dinner last night until midnight.

3. The hot humid weather. I know I know...I would probably hate to live with it but a piece of me LOVES this type of weather. It reminds me of my time in Guyana and there is just something sexy about a sweat-stache!

4. The local drugstore. I am still a drugstore whore and I love checking out cosmetics, medicines, snacks...all the stuff that they sell. I bought some face cream here and every single type of cream touted its whitening capabilities. Just different standards of beauty.

I have some great pictures that will get uploaded soon!

Who is stealing the Guava's?

I Heart V Day!

Carrying on the family tradition of heart shaped pancakes (this was an oatmeal recipe) and pink milk - they might look super scary but they were delish! xoxo

Snorkeling in the Backyard!

Since we went snorkeling while on holiday in Kenya - Orion is obsessed with the mask and and the snorkel. He found this set in the storage shed and has talked about it everyday. We are hoping the pool in Cape Town will work for some more snorkel time cause the sprinkler just isn't cutting it.

Welcome Cash Patrick!

In Washington State on one of the snowiest, coldest, ice-filled days of the year Cash Patrick Thomas chose to make his arrival. He weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. Big love and congratulations to my brother, Andy and Breezy! Can't wait to meet him. xox SEO

Gorillas!

I am not even sure where to start with this post - it was so amazing and so intense, I think I am still processing it. With my family here for a visit, Eric and I were able to leave O for a night and finally make the trek to see the mountain gorillas. We drove out to Musanze and stayed in the Ishema Hotel (I called it the Ishitty hotel - it really wasn't very nice) and got up early the next morning to make the short drive to the Volcanoes National Park headquarters. Eric had purchased our permits in Kigali so all we had to do was show up at 7am and get put into a group. Right now there are 10 groups of gorillas that you can trek to - the lead guide divides people into groups based on agility and fitness and then you set out. Each group consists of 8 people and one guide. We were put into the Ugenda group that has 13 gorillas in it - including 2 silverbacks - it is considered an "intermediate" hike. Once in our group we drove about forty minutes up closer to the mountain and then began our trek out. It was so incredibly beautiful - so much green and so few people - it was nice to just hear silence (along with the sounds of my own breathing as the elevation increased) and see the views. Porters met us at the starting point and trekkers are encouraged to hire porters to help the local economy - it seemed kinda silly as we only had one little day pack but our porter Deo really helped us out. We hiked for about one hour through terraced farm lands planted with potatos, pyrthrium and wheat until we got to the park boundary. Once at the boundary our guide, Beck, gave us a little lecture about how to act around the gorillas and the accepted distance to keep from them. It was a trip to go from the terraced farm land to the park - like stepping into the rain forrest - all of a sudden there was foliage all over and the trail turned to a narrow little muddy slice. The sun was filtered and you could feel the moisture in the air. Once into the forest we hiked for maybe another 45 minutes and finally spotted our trackers. These are professionals who go out early in the morning and track the gorillas - it makes it easier for tourists to see them. Once you find your trackers you know you are close to seeing the gorillas. We gathered in a circle and left our packs and walking sticks and then walked about ten feet away from our circle to where the gorilla's were resting. They were so quiet that if you didn't know where they were you would have hiked right past them. Once you spot the gorilla's your one hour time limit starts - it was literally the quickest hour of my life. You are supposed to stay about 20 feet away from the gorillas but that is close to impossible - they move around all the time and are curious so basically we just hung out and took a million pictures and let them do their thing. That's the down low for now - more to come with processing and a better internet connection.
So incredibly close to the gorillas...

The youngest member of the Ugenda group was this one year old

The lead silverback - he scratched his bum and then smelled his hand!

The big daddy giving checking me out - he weighed close to 500 pounds...HUGE!

School's out for the Summer!

I pick O up from school on Friday afternoons. A couple of weeks ago his teacher asked me if I minded if he played a missionary in the end of term school play. I looked at her with eyes wide open and said "of course not" so you can imagine how my mind processed my child playing a missionary at a preschool in Africa. The whole thing was just too freakin weird. As the week passed Eric told me one day that school asked if Orion had a suit and a cowboy hat - what the heck? Is that what missionaries wear? The missionaries I have met wear your average clothes. Since O owned no suit or cowboy hat we were out of luck. The following day Eric said that they asked if it was ok if he wore a roseary and carried a bible. In the end the play was cute - long and overdrawn for a preschool play but harmless. What a smiling missionary!

Parading around the stage in his "thomas the train" undies and a fur wrap...to show how human clothing has changed over the ages. Pretty complex theme for preschool, huh?

Holiday Giving in Rwanda

Looking for a fantastic holiday giving opportunity? Then look no farther...

Kacyiru Primary School (KPS) is located in the Kacyiru neighborhood of Kigali, Rwanda. Approximately 2600 children attend this school and because there are so many children, half attend school from 7am—Noon and the other half from 1pm—5pm. These students are taught by 42 teachers. Of these 2600 children approximately 25% are orphans that are unable to afford school uniforms or yearly school fees.

We – The Ali, May, Tye, Uwera and Weller Families – invite you to sponsor a school child!

Who:
Approximately 230 Primary School Children from KPS

What:
A donation of 22,000 RF or $35 USD and a small toy or book as a gift. This monetary donation will cover the cost of a new school uniform and school fees for the year

Why:
What a simple and easy way to make a difference in a child’s life

Details:
Take a look at the “kid cards” on the tree in the HU that each child has filled out. Pick the card of the child that you would like to sponsor, give the money to Laura or Stacy for the uniform and school fees and find a toy or book as a small gift. On December 16th there will be a party at KPS and the gifts will be distributed to the sponsored child.

How it started:
I first became acquainted with KPS through my son. His preschool is close to KPS and when I would collect him from school I would see kids in blue checked shirts and blue shorts or skirts. Being new to Rwanda, I thought this was the standard uniform of all school children and thus I had school uniforms made for my son. Turns out that each school has their own uniform and his school was no different. We now had these school uniforms that we didn’t need. I asked his teacher if she could assist us with donating these KPS school uniforms. She called me after her visit and with tears in her voice said that she had met with the headmistress and they had identified children that didn’t have school uniforms. The children were thrilled with these new uniforms and we started brainstorming about ways that we could get involved with KPS. My colleagues and I worked with KPS teachers to identify children in each class that did not have school uniforms and were unable to pay their school fees. These were the children that were invited to fill out “kid cards”

Airplane Delivery

I heard through the grapevine that RwandAir was bringing in their second Boeing 737-800 and after asking around it turned out the Ambassador was invited. I explained that I come from a family of Boeing employees and asked if I could tag along for the reception. It was great! I got to ride with the Ambassador and this enabled me to come on time for the reception instead of having to be there two hours ahead. We were sent out to the new VIP waiting room at the airport and plyed with food and drink and then when the plane was spotted we were escorted down onto the tarmac where there was dancing and drumming. I was told that when an airplane is on its maiden voyage it is sprayed with water when it departs and when it lands - so when the plane landed it went through huge sprays of water. I got to check out the interior (which honestly, looks just like a plane!) When asked what I thought, I said "does it make the plane fly faster or make it less painful to fly with a three year old" you can guess the answer to those questions! The biggest surprise of the afternoon was when I spied two servers walking in with cases of something from Pike Place Brewing Company. Turns out that Boeing had PPBC brew a special beer to give to RwandAir for the purchase of the plane. They called it Rwand Ale and it had a nice little story of how they purchased the planes. Kinda cool that if you spend millions of dollars you can get your own little beer. Let me tell you - from a G&T kinda girl - the beer was delish.

End of Term Pictures!