When one moves from one country to another that is not your home, inevitably the former becomes your point of reference and comparison; it’s what you have left behind!
I have figured that after the move (from Bangkok in my case), you feel the loss and go through slightly similar stages to mourning. Without being so traumatized fortunately somehow you go through stages of resisting, surrender, accepting the new situation and looking forward to enjoying what the future brings and most probably accept that there is a lot of learning ahead of you.
I may have almost reached the last stage… it’s been 6 and a half months here and in the streets I don’t notice the electric fences anymore, I notice the different color flowers. I have made friends and some good ones too. I have traded the joys of Bangkok street markets with the jokes in Italian language of the assistant in the vegetable shop. He thinks I’m Italian and speaks his 20 words in Italian with a perfect accent. Today he tested me on onion and apples. For now my beautiful Bangkok PE School has been swapped with a school for Street Kids where every bit of my time and knowledge is appreciated. I go there twice a week and help the little kids get ready for the formal schools. Without this ‘jumpstart’ they won’t fit in the mainstream schools where a certain level of English and reading and writing is expected and they would very easily get back on the street… so going back to today, one of my usual days…
It started with dropping Ben at work first on the way to kids’ school. I have started helping at Hana’s kindergarten twice a week and today we sat at the reading corner and read quite a few books. Hana’s teacher is very Happy that Hana doesn’t need my ‘special attention’, she is used to share mommy with her friends. I learned that there are a lot of camels in Elnathan’s country, Eritrea J
Back in the car I headed for the British Council where I signed up for ‘another’ test IELTS, and was assisted by a lovely girl who was very efficient and wished me ‘the loveliest day’. It did put a smile on my face.
Ben and I started Kiswahili lessons last week and today was the second lesson… too early to comment on it, for now it’s overwhelming and let’s hope we stick with it. Hana rushed at her ballet lesson after school and the teacher calls her Hana Darling J. Kids are VERY happy at school. Yesterday at the swimming Gala, Ned participated on 4 races and won two (hooray for Bangkok and khun Ake). By the end of it I thought Ned would drown, it was quite exhausting, but he managed.
As the bumper on the side of the car had the screw off and started to dangle, I thought I would go to the Shell petrol station very near our home and see if I could get it fixed. The only guy available was the one who I have noticed likes to get money out of mzungus (non Kenyans) at every chance he gets. He offered to change my oil, one week after the car had been serviced, and so on… Today I asked if he could have a look at the bumper so he asked if I had a screwdriver for him to tighten the bumper. I told him I need it fixed properly and as he can see only a screw driver won’t do. Ok, he says, so you need a mechanic. He whistles and brings over a mechanic who tells me that he checked the side of the car (he had to literally put the head on the floor to see what the problem was). He brings four ‘used clips’ and shows me what he is going to use, works on it for a few minutes and tells me it’s fixed. For some reason I decided to examine, I put my head on the floor too, only to see that he had used nothing and had tried to put the bumper back in place by pushing it in… he wasn’t pleased that I discovered his trick…I drove back home thinking: I started the morning with a ‘have the loveliest day’ wish and will have to end it with a HAKUNA MATATA…
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