As I stated in previous posts, we had a ton to do to prepare for the team's arrival and for the medical camp. Because this was API's first time the area where George's village is, there was a lot to do. George was busy, busy, busy. In order to keep Eli on his normal schedule (as best as we could), I mostly stayed home with him while George was out and about, working hard. I felt bad I couldn't be more hands on and helpful to George, but Eli wasn't feeling well and needed some sense of normalcy.
We stayed with George's sister, Suzy, whom I just adore. We have so much fun together. She is pregnant too, so we had a lot to talk about! I love hanging out with her and really miss having a friend like her in Moshi. One thing we always do together when I am at her house is cook. She has an oven, which we don't in Moshi, so we like to try new recipes. I love to bake and really take advantage of her oven while I am there. Each day I made a different treat from scratch: pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread (she bought a huge pumpkin in anticipation of my arrival),carrot cake, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, banana bread, and more. I also got to make pizza from scratch (I have a yummy dough recipe and Suzy makes great sauce) and try a new baked chicken recipe. It was a lot of fun.
She has a three and a half year old daughter, Adi, who is the cutest little girl. Adi and Eli got along very well and had a blast playing together for two weeks.
They have two puppies, Samantha and Pak, who were naughty, but cute. Yesterday, Eli was pretending to talk on the phone and when I asked who he was calling, he said "Samantha."
Frozen was a huge hit in the house. Unfortunately, there are many parts Eli has to skip through (too scary) so he would run out of the room often yelling “SKIP!”
We tried to take advantage of the free things to do in Kisumu to get out of the house. One of our favorite places is called Hippo Point. Hippos often come out at night there, but I have never seen one. Eli loves to play in the lake.
Grandma’s house is always a hit. She has endless energy and truly loves playing with her grandchildren.
She gives them free reign when they are there. They really love jumping on her bed, one of the perks of being at Grandma’s house. She also had kittens… always a hit!
She keeps chickens and lets the kids help her chase them in and out of the cage. Eli had fun doing that, until they came charging at him! Then he ran for his life!
One day we went swimming at a nearby hotel. It wasn’t free, but swimming only cost $2 which was affordable.
There are a lot of monkeys in the area and a bunch were running around the pool area!
Here is Eli’s healing back eye (the only not fun thing that happened at Grandma’s!)
Another day, we went to a barbeque at Suzy’s friend house. She is a doctor working with the CDC in Kisumu and has a awesome house with lots of fun things for the kids to do in the backyard including a trampoline.
I celebrated my birthday in Kisumu and had a lovely day. George took Eli with him on errands in the morning so I took a three hour nap. I had a cold so I wasn’t feeling well. Then Eli came home and took a three hour nap so I got to rest even more. Once he woke up, Suzy took me to a hotel on the lake. It was beautiful. The kids played by the lake while we got to rest on the grass. The hotel has good food, but is very expensive. Fortunately, they have chips and guacamole on the menu for only $3. It’s actually very good so that’s what I had for dinner! It was a great day.
I was sad when our time in Kisumu came to and end. It went by so fast. Because we had so much to do, we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with our family and friends (except those that came to Suzy’s house). I cherished the time I spent with Suzy and am thankful for her hospitality.
Yay for long naps!! Great pictures of the family :)
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