School Daze

Orion has been back in school for about three weeks and it has been rough! He started in the local French school and only French is spoken in his class. I was told his teacher speaks a bit of English but she speaks English like I speak Spanish..."two beers please" and "where is the bathroom?" We have had mornings filled with tears and proclamations about not wanting to go to school. His favorite thing to to ask is "do I have school tomorrow?"

It has been three weeks worth of frustration for O and for us. Trying to read everything that is sent home in French, plugging it into Google Translate and getting the gist of it. Figuring out the pick-up's and drop-off's with no car and what exactly do you pack for snack and how do you pay tuition and what the heck is an inscription fee? Ahh yes, the list of questions has been never ending.

I try to cut my kid some slack and I often think how I would feel if I was dropped into a work environment where everyone around me was speaking a different language but honestly, its been hard to empathize at times. You can imagine the chaos in the morning with everyone trying to get outta the house (School pick up is 7 AM) and then there is O yelling and screaming and carrying on.

Anyways, the point is that this pretty little picture came home in the school notebook yesterday and about melted my heart. I love kiddo drawings but what I love more is that Orion did this in his class in which everyone was speaking French to him and he got it...he understood (at least a little bit) of what was expected of him! Ahh my heart soars.

Happy Birthday O Boy!

Our House!

is a very, very, very fine house. With wild dogs in the yard (well, across the street) life used to be so hard...

View from the sidewalk



Our very fancy looking front gate. It looks like glass doesn't it? It's really plexiglass!



See the large imposing star at the top...fit for Orion

the inside foyer - amazing accoustics! Thought it would be great for Christmas decorating but just checked and there are no power outlets on the stairs to use for light...time for plan B.

Eric's kitchen - no table for eatin in but when our stuff comes I think we will use the picnic table in here. We have a propane stove, fridge and freezer.

The dining room and living room - when we moved in the table was stretched out to its full length and set for 12 people!

Views on the way to School



Pretty typical street scene...though this is taken at mid-day so not as many people out and about

 

Center of one of the round abouts - would love to know the history of why there are pots here as I have been told pottery is not traditional to the Djiboutian people

Down a side street - miss those Kigali sidewalks!

 

We drive past this beach to get to downtown and Orion's school

Low tide



Crazy School Calendar!

Impressions Part Deux

Does that count for speaking French? Speaking of speaking French. Eric and I were asked to meet with Orion's teacher today - she wrote it in his little school book yesterday - nothing like last minute notice. Good thing that things are pretty flexible around here. You have to be or else you'd want to jump off the roof. We met with her this afternoon and she brought in the English teacher to assist. It was a pretty harmless visit and at least now I feel like we have a clue where each other is coming from. I wanted to know what to call her (Maitresse Natalie) and what the school day looked like (4 rotating activities) and if it was ok to bring cookies to school for O's birthday (of course, the only request was no frosting - too messy) and if she thought O was too old for Petite Section (She likes him in petite cause the kid has no French and if he moves up to Moyenne section their teacher speaks NO English). So things are set on that front for a bit.

We moved into our permanent house - the house we will call home for two years! It feels good to be more settled and actually unpack the suitcases. Our new house is called Macy 2 and it has a giant gold star at the top of it. Makes me think of Orion and serves as sign from the gods that we are supposed to be living here. We were told to have our stuff ready and the Embassy would send over a van on Thursday evening to move us to Macy 2. We were ready, the van came on time but it turns out the landlord just had the driveway cemented so we were unable to drive into the yard and drop our stuff off. Instead we had to lug our six suitcases, numerous shopping bags, refrigerator contents and boxes across the edge of the street and up the patio and inside the house. UGH! Talk about a hot and sweaty mess.

Which leads me to the fact that I don't have an outdoor thermometer and thus have no clue about the outside temperature. I thought about ordering one just for shits and giggles but then thought that maybe ignorance is bliss. I know its hot, I know it gets hotter, I know I sweat, I know that despite this - I still walk home from work, I still go outside and water our new houses garden and I still enjoy life with A/C.

A/C is the segue way to the next thing that I keep stewing about which is the fact that I wish our A/C unit in our bedroom was louder. Why you ask? Well, next to our new star-studded house we have a neighbor (that I have not met yet) who has something I like to call my new ALARM clock! Its someones pet goat or their dinner for next week or their personal garbage disposal. Whatever you want to call it...this thing starts bleating (is that what you call the noise that a goat makes?) at 5:40 or 5:43 or 5:42 every morning. Seriously, the sun is just starting its rise in the sky and my own personal alarm clock starts going off. I never knew that goats were like roosters.

One last thing...it rained, for about 2 seconds.

More first day of school pictures!

First Impressions

09/17/12

Happy Birthday Brother!

Where to begin with my first impressions of DJ. After having been here only about 36 hours its hard to know what is a real impression and what is just fatigue, jet lag and all around exhaustion. We arrived at just past midnight and from the air you couldn’t see much…no huge uses of electricity, no highways with lights, no traffic lights. It seemed surreal having just come from a stopover in Riyadh in which the entire city seems to be one big light bulb. We landed and exited onto the tarmac, hot and breezy and en mass made our way to the airport which looked a bit like Kigali’s. Like sheep we herded into our respective lines all the while our eyes on the lookout for our “expediter” someone from the embassy whose job it is to help get us through customs and immigration. Our friend found us and told us what line to stand in and then we didn’t see him again – funny cause the line we were in initially was much quicker than the one we got moved into.

All of our luggage made it! A small miracle considering we had six suitcases at 23 kg each that went from Seattle to DC to Paris to Riyadh to Djibouti. Ohh wonders of wonder. Our social sponsor picked us up and helped get us settled into our house – we are in temporary housing until our permanent house gets “clean and shiny” according to O boy. Our sponsor had picked up some groceries and made sure things were set up in the house – like the beds being made and shower curtains hung up.

After a quick six hour nap, I was picked up from motor pool and started my new job. It’s pretty interesting so far (easy to say two days into it) I am the first medical officer that the embassy had had and everyone I have met has been so warm and welcoming. There is a ton of work to do in the Health Unit – lots of systems implementation and organization. In my first few days I ordered about 10K of equipment for the health unit and all sorts of office supplies for me! My desk was EMPTY! In my life I have never inherited an empty desk – not one pen, pencil or staple…not a pair of scissors or a piece of tape. I can see the progress that needs to happen in the HU and it inspires and overwhelms me all at the same time.

Djibouti is hot and sticky and dusty and the sky often looks white to me. I look out and it’s as if a storm is brewing and it’s about to rain…but it doesn’t. Djibouti is wide open and flat and I can see for what seems like forever. The ocean is visible from the road our house is on. Djibouti looks broken down and in disrepair and in need of a good scrubbing and a coat of paint (but maybe that’s just my mom’s genes on me). It’s expensive here. Eric just told me that the loaf of wheat bread I bought cost about 6 bucks and the kilo of chicken breast costs $28. OUCH – time to start baking bread! Someone else told me that it is the 2^nd most expensive place to live in the world…that seems a bit of a stretch but the point was not lost, it is very expensive here.

The Djiboutians that I work with are all friendly and open. The women dress modestly and most are fully covered, even the lady today who told me “I’m Canadian, too!” after learning that Eric is Canadian. Women wear what appear to be a long skirt that is usually a solid color with a lace hem, topped by a vibrant printed overdress and then a veil that is worn over the head. Lots of women that I have seen are pretty decked out – fancy earrings, lots of costume jewelry and sparkly bejeweled flip-flops. Many men wear a piece of fabric wrapped around their waists with a short sleeve shirt over the top.

09/21/2012

Our work week is Sunday – Thursday and this messes with my mind. Today is our “Saturday” and its really a Friday! Orion’s school week is Saturday – Wednesday and the school starts one hour later two days a week. It's funny how you comfortable it is to say MWF so now when I think about school schedules I have to think Saturday-Monday-Wednesday school starts at 0730! Lord, it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

09/26/2012

It's my Thursday and I am tired. I had my first breakdown yesterday at lunch - got to the cafeteria at 1245 and there was nothing left...not one scrap of curry, no piece of bread, nothing. I forgot how important food is. I love it and moving to a new place with nothing means that Eric is constantly thinking about what he is going to prepare and I just have faith that it will all be ok. Sometimes it is but yesterday it wasn't.

Today has been better. I planned ahead and brought in my lunch and ate it while catching up with folks on FB. Cheese - some brown bread - salami...not fruit or veg rich but for right now that's ok.

Its been stressing me out a bit trying to plan O's birthday. It won't be anything big - just the embassy kiddo's and some cupcakes and juice - the problem there in lays. I have no cooler and no muffin tin. I finally got up the nerve and emailed the entire American staff and low and behold I have borrowed a muffin tin and two coolers. YAY! Now O can have the strawberry flavored cake that he picked out with Grandma and the adults can have an icy G&T and we can call it a birthday!

Gelato in DC!

Fox Hollow Farms