Farewell

It is never easy to say goodbye to home, for me where we make a living is called 'home'.

 Even though I am quite fan of moving, every move comes with it's own pros and cons. I was busy with planning farewell parties for my children at school, we also gathered at friend's house for dinner, there was also another gathering with expat wives club:) for lunch. With every hug and goodbye, I felt sad...I want to say Farewell to:

My friends at total barre class: When we hugged each other with my lovely instructor, Jess, I remembered the first day I heard about this class, how excited I was. It was not only a class for me, it was also a social place where I got to talk to people and made new friends. I looked forward to every Tuesday and Friday mornings.

Dr. King, my pharmacist: who was always there for me, found any medication I needed. We even talked about Turkish and Kenyan politics, and learned so much from each other.

My friend at KPS: John, who always helped me with carrying my grocery, and always asked about my children, brother and husband. With that little morning chat I felt a friendship and care. By the way, he was the one who always picked the freshest mangoes and avocados for me:)

There was also my florist, John, he was my first stop every Monday morning, my fresh lily bouquet would be ready for pick up:)

Our night security guide, Big John, whenever he saw our kids he would just put them on his wide shoulders and run around. He made us felt safe and secure.

Thank you my friends, you made Kenya a lovely and warm place for me and for my family.

Dilara's farewell

Last week I spent my whole day for baking chocolate cakes and cupcakes! I would not complain much if I had proper baking tools! But with what I had, I had a miracle! Imagine, you have to bake 100 cup cakes! At one point, I was numbed! Besides, cup cakes are not my favourite to bake! For some reason, little cups tend to go either right or left! So they never look picture perfect! Well, I think I know the reason, I just try to finish it quickly, so I put more than enough into these tiny cups!!! Rushing is never good, that's one thing I teach to my kids, but what kind of an example I put out there with myself, I am not sure!!!! Anway, after baking 100+ cup cakes and two trays of two colored cake, I was ready to go to school. We had two farewell parties at school one for my daughter, Dilara and other for my little man, Onur.

Dilara and her friends were waiting for us excitedly. What I baked for two days, was gone in 20 minutes, and believe it or not, not a single cupcake left behind! After serving, me and my husband , just listened, recorded their conversation and took pictures. They talked about what they would be missing about Dilara. Their comments were so naive, sometimes silly, sometimes funny, but at the end as a mother I felt very happy and honored. On the other hand, at times, my little angel, who changed many schools in this young age, again was very cheerful, funny, and excited. I have much confidence all these experience will make her a better and accepted person. Is not that we all want for our children?

"

Xmax Box @ Marula Lane

Almost every few month's, Nairobi suburbs, particularly, Runda and Karen, is home for open bazaars. Their advertisement can be spotted anywhere, from roads to malls. So far, I have not missed a single one. Local artists, vendors, cute little shops display and sell their products, from textiles to arts and crafts to accessories. Especially, Kenyan crafts are beautifully hand made and hand paint, colours are so vibrant. Most popular items are Kenyan sandals, wall arts, and wooden hand made bowls with beads. Majority of sellers only accept cash, negotiations are again welcome, but not as much as Masai Markets.

This week, Marula Lane is home for Xmax Box. Even though I will be leaving soon, I could not stop myself going:) I evem made a last minutes shop, got two pairs of sandals! It is never too late to shop! Even the owner took a picture of my feet when I tried them on. Finally some part of me got famous:)

There are also lots of activities for children, face paint and jumping castle, plenty of space for them to run around. There are also stalls for food so while you take a bite you can also shop:)

If you are around, do not miss it!

Big day!

How can I forget the day when our container arrived to our house three years ago. Dilara and Onur were so exited, they were screaming, clapping their hands. Dilara just run over to boxes and hugged them:) My son, Onur, was not even walking by that time, but it did not stop him to crawl through them. Me? Ah, it was a big welcome party from my end as well. We were living without our furniture for four months, and I missed so much my comfortable couch, orthopaedic bed:) and personal items. Trust me, It is not easy to live in a pair of leggings and few t-shirts!!! By the way since last week, I am where I was before!

I was able to finish my part of packing in two weeks, it was not an easy job! I had to organise clothes for warm weather and cold weather! I checked the temperature for Washington, DC yesterday, it was showing -3! How I not miss that! Ok, no complain here:)

I have also put up a list of items to sell! I seriously planned to downsize our items for a long time. The sale list went on and on, with total of 62 items! at one point I said to myself, there is no way I can sell all of these. With an optimistic mind, posted it any place I can think of and started to wait. My sale adventure will be covered in next piece.

Boxing and packing went very smoothly.  With five people, AGS team worked productively. After downsizing our stuff, we had 20ft container. As a start, I did have some hesitations, it seemed like packing would never end and there is no way we would fit into 20ft. At the end our furniture fit just perfect, when we looked inside there was not a single spot left empty behind!

Nonstop packing!

For some, it is never easy to pack a luggage put aside moving the whole house every few years! I am not even mentioning moving to another country here!! You would think moving companies do everything for you, right? But let me tell you something, it is a myth! I have done this so many times (I fell ashamed to put actual number here:)) that I know what to expect! I kinda became a professional mover. With every moving experience I become more practical and problem solver:)

Since my husband is very much always busy, I started my job by contacting international moving companies. I did not research too much though, because what I heard and experienced, there is one company majority of people use, that is AGS. It sounds like I am marketing them, but it is what it is. Since AGS was the company that helped us moving in, and they were very professional and efficient, without a second thought AGS was our first choice.  Of course, if you do not have many items, you may opt to go with another company, but if you are a family of four like us, and got many many items you do not want to experience any problem at all!

I have contacted AGS via the website, got the response in less than a week. This is how it works: First AGS sends over a rep to go over the house and makes a list, then another rep send the quote via email. After deciding on a specific moving date, you get to sign bunch of paperwork's. Than AGS provide you vessel info and approx. arrival dates. Once the decision is made, you are ready for the big day!

When we moved here, we had a 40ft container. Since the day we moved in, I have been planning to downsize our furniture. You cannot imagine how many unused items we had! But I think it is always the same case for everyone, sometimes we see something and without a second thought we buy it, at the end it is no surprise that we only use it for few times...(isn't it that called consumer economy!). Since I never like the idea of people touching my clothes and personal items, I went ahead and started with my packing. Ikea sells these great foldable boxes and they are life savers during the move. By the way they are very durable, you can use them over and over again. At the end, I got what I deserved, it took two weeks for me to pack our personal items!  At one point, I thought I was going crazy with clothes, toys, shoes scattered on the floor! No matter what, it was a great opportunity do donations and give away.

Probably not every three years (!) but sometimes in our life time, we all need to move to do a house cleaning! Do not you all agree?:)

Allergy!

Unfortunately my daughter is very prone to allergies. Thankfully she never developed a food alllergy. But few years back she developed a myte allergy, which is very hard to control. After many doctor visits and allergy tests, we learned to live with it. With doctors advise, we had to change her pillow covers, bedcovers, remove the books, we removed any toy that keeps dust on it, removed all the carpets in house, even replaced the vacuum cleaner! It was such a detail job! Poor girl she was only 3,5 that she had to use inhaler to open up her lungs... As a result, it was drastically reduced, we even gave away all the plush toys and stuffed animals (they are major magnets for dust)! It was gone for some time up until last week, for some reason it is back! I first though it was the cold, took her to the doctor, but nope, it is alllergy again! Not sure if it is because of rainy season or all the constructions going on around, she is again sneezing and coughing...The cough is pretty bad, especially at night, probably we need to make another round of doctor visit tomorrow. Lets hope it will go away soon:)

A lesson learned!

I am big fan of Masai Markets, an open bazaar where hundreds of items are sold by locals. Masai Markets can be located different part of town in specific days. Negotiations are expected, with never ending talks between the buyer and seller. You can refer to my blog for more info.

Whenever I get a chance, I go to Junction and just enjoy walking around, watching dancers and checking the new items. Last week, I went there to buy animal graved glass set. There are only few vendors that sell it, so after some talk I have decided to buy 8 sets of glasses. We negotiated and talked. She said she does not have the number (4 pieces of beer glass was missing) I wanted but she would call the shop and they would bring it right away. After I checked my watch to see how much time I have, I took her words and said ok (I pick up my children from school at 3:30. It was 12pm when she called. And I patiently started to wait, each half hour passed she said the guy is in the traffic, parking lot, stairs and on on. By that time, trusting her words, I was already paid the cash. She gave me whatever she had and was waiting on my last items. It was three a clock I asked again where the person is, and again mentioned her I am going to be late for my children. She gave me the same reasons, there I started to be suspicious (sometimes being too patient is not a good thing!!!). This time I asked her where this person is, and she said he is downstairs and waiting for elevator and I told her, lets go down, thinking I can go from there to my children's school quickly. We went down, there was nobody! And I asked her to call, she said she left her phone upstairs. Finally I got it! I have been fooled! That made me not only angry also dissappointed personally....So instead of dealing with her, I went to the security straight. After many many discussions and explanations (Not sure how many times I explained what have happened!!!) and long waits (because they also discussed between each other!!!) finally the items I paid for arrived and it was 5:30pm!!!

Luckily, one of my friend picked up my kids from school and when I told her what have happened, she said it was also happened to her, and later on she learned from her friends, even though you are physically there you should never pay up front! This is something some sellers do, take the money from buyer, but never deliver and until buyer just gives up on waiting for only few items!!!!

So lessons learned: be open minded, do not be too naive, DO NOT PAY UPFRONT, make sure you have everything in front of you before you PAY! If there is any issue at all, DO NOT DEAL with the seller, CALL the SECURITY!

I was there yesterday:) but this time I was more experienced! It is never too late to learn, right? :)

News to share...

It was over three years ago when my husband told me about a job opportunity in Kenya. Until that day we never thought about leaving Istanbul. It was only three years ago we moved there anyway. (There is something with number '3'!) Right after we talked, I started my research on the web, read as many as I can and learned as much as I can. And in less than 3 months (another number 3!)  we have decided to take the job offer and sailed to a new place. A place is like anywhere else in the world, Africa...We made a quick trip to Nairobi in January 2012, looked for a house and a school and went back to pack! By March, right after we celebrated our son's 1st birthday we hopped onto a plane and came to Kenya.

Now, it is time to sail again...but this time a place we know, US.

I feel fortunate enough to live in three continents and three different countries (another number '3'). Those three countries not only far from each other, they also have different cultures, different type of living and dynamics. All of them came with challenges and easiness, and every challenge taught me so much that made me a different person. My view for life has changed so much, I learned the real meaning of appreciation and to be grateful. And I know this is not the end, only the beginning...

New Bicyle Path!

Few weeks back after we dropped off our daughter to Hardy Stud for horse riding we decided to drive around and do little bit of fun discoveries. And there we found a nice, quite not so busy roads with pavements! Real pavements, they are very hard to come by around here, put aside good roads. But interesting enough, this area (Kipevu Rd, very close to Banda School) is very well kept, there are no holes on the roads, each street has side walks big enough to walk or bike. Following week, without thinking much, we took our bikes and parked on Hardy Stud and started our bike journey. If you take all the streets cutting Kipevu Rd.,it takes around an hour or an hour and half which is perfect if you are riding with children. Roads are very safe and wide, there are lots of road signs (you do not get to see road signs here much...), and people take leisurely walks, best part is there are no matatus at all!

When we were biking one Sunday, I took a look at my left side and almost fall of from my bike, a giraffe was basically staring at us while eating the leaves from the tree. I first thought I gotta to be dreaming, where on earth a giraffe would be coming from! Then noticed there was not only one but four more giraffes walking in the huge green area, which covered with a tiny fence. We could easily reach there or they could easily reach to other side. But these amazing creatures do not worry or care about humans, they basically ignore us! (How can I blame them!!!).

Unfortunately there are not many places you can bike with your children safely, so if you like biking as a family you must try this area, I promise you are going to love it!

Last night!

It is time for the rainy season. Not only farmers but regular people like myself also have been waiting for it. It has been very dry, even some days little bit of humid and yes very dusty. Greens and big trees covered with dust, in some cases you cannot even spot the green anymore! During short rain season, it mostly rains at night, and in the morning there is a little breeze and fresh smell of soil with the birds singing at the background. And my favourite parts is have a cup of tea while I go through my blog and plan through my day. Karen area gets more rain than other areas and I am loving it:)

Last night we had a sudden rain in the early morning hours, first my daughter appeared on our bed side, looking at me with a sleepy face, she said she cannot sleep because of rain. Seriously rains are very noisy here, something can even wake you up from your deep sleep. Anyway, so I put back my daughter to sleep went back to bed, just before I fall asleep again ( unlike my husband I am never be the one who falls asleep in one second!!!!), I heard the crack from the hardwood floor and opened my eyes, this time it was my son! He said he cannot sleep because of rain beside his mosquito net fall on him!  And I thought this is gotta be a joke, is everyone in this household waiting for the same night to wake up! I went back with him and put him to bed, sure enough wasn't in the mood of putting net up at 3am! I had another try with sleeping, but believe it or not, this time it was my husband who woke up and of course had no idea what I have been up to! His concern was the mosquitoes!!! Ok, here is the thing, since we moved to Kenya, he had developed this weird habit of obsessing with mosquitoes and in some instances he talks to them!! Seriously! And this happens at night!!! So there I was trying to fall asleep again ( I knew I got no chance with the third round!), and my husband was trying to catch the small mosquito in the room. Just imagine the situation!!!
While I am writing this piece, he is in his deep peaceful sleep! Me??? I almost could not sleep all night and having my fourth cup of tea since 6am!

Have a wonderful Sunday to everyone😀
Zeynep

Looking for the right school?

Even though priorities change from person to a person, there are major qualifications and necessities have to be there when you look for the right school. Of course our priorities dramatically shift depending on the geopolitical situations and dynamics in the country we live in! It is really hard to make a decision from outside, as a parent best decision is to go and see, talk to other parents, walk around the school and take a close look at surrounding areas and make sure safety and security measures in place.

Since my daughter started preschool (we were living in US by that time) my priority was never the food that the school served as long as my children did not get food poison, or fancy toys they play with. It was rather the playground, amenities that the school offer, qualifications and experience of the teachers and school management team, and more than anything safety and security. Last item was always our number one priority and it became more important when we moved to Kenya.

Unfortunately my daughter had to change her school during our first year! As much as we try to control and make sure of the conditions sometimes it does not work that way...And there we have to come up with solutions without much impact on children...

So notes below are my opinions and they are based on my experience in Nairobi...If you are an expat and looking for school for your child make sure:

1- School is a SAFE environment, by saying safe: school is running by a private security firm,
schools perimeters are in place in every corner, gates are closed all the time, cars are searched accordingly in a professional manner.

2-If you have small children, make sure to check teacher's qualifications, if he/she had early
childhood training, understand basic rules of child caring, knows and applies basic hygiene in the class!

3-If there is a pool, make sure it runs professionally, all the hygiene rules are in place as well as people who are in the pool with children trained for first aid, got training and approved as life guards. I have seen and heard so much on this issue that this is not something should be taken lightly! I am not even mentioning if there are showers and changing rooms!!!! Have not I mentioned priorities shift:)

4- There is an link between school management and parents. effective and open communication is very important. Whether it is about the good or bad, parent should know what is going on in the school. There are certain things school management hears first, and you do not want to be the last person to know if it is about safety and well being of your children.

5- For quality education purposes and standards make sure the school is accredited by international associations at least by Council of International Schools (CIS).

6- No matter what age group children are, obviously teacher has to have qualifications, recommendations, necessary training, and university diploma! Do not assume, they already have, believe me you would be surprised to hear the background of the teachers!!

I made a list, again this is solely based on my personal view and experience.

1- ISK: well established internationally recognized IB school, located in Runda, in every angle this is one of the best school in Nairobi, note: Funded by US., early years have waiting list!

2-Breauburn: they have different locations in town, most of the them have waiting list, once you know you will be moving to Nairobi, do not waste time contact to school. It is a good school both academic and athletic wise.

3- Banda: More like a boutique school, more than half of children population are expat kids. It is a very competitive school in every angle!

4- Kenton: Another good school, has one of the best school ground I have every seen! School amenities are the best in town. Kenton does not have high school education. Very popular among expats.

5-Brookhouse: it is popular among wealthy Kenyan politicians, majority of the students are African (Brookhouse have also boarding section, very popular among other African countries) roughly 20% of children are expat kids. It is highly popular, dream like school ground and buildings, has number one auditorium and libary in Kenya! Even Kenyan govrnment uses it auditoriom for political events.
Their curriculm is British and Kenyan, preparing kids mostly for UK schools and universities.

A great event at Kasarani Safaricom Stadium

We had a great event last week at Kasarani Safaricom Stadium, there were 10+ schools attended this annual competition, it was fun and friendly.

Kasarani is the biggest sport venue in Kenya, all major national and international sports events take place in here, grounds are well kept and run professionally.

This was where parents got really carried on, screaming, yelling, taking pictures, running from one end to another, just to get a glimpse of their kids!I was one of the parents' who were yelling and trying to take hundred of pictures! One picture is never enough, we gotta take pictures from every angle, right:)

Children competed in different venues, 100m, 400m, 800m, jumping and throwing ball. My daughter, Dilara, was one of the ball throwers, I had a huge grin on of my face when she was on the ground competing and also she was just trying to make an eye contact with me after each throw:) I felt as much proud when I watched the young boys and girls run for 100m to 800m, they all finished what they started, how all the parents looked so exicted, like they were the ones who were competing....By the way all the first runners were Kenyans, not much of a surprise there:) 

I love these competitions not only they are fun, they also teach children to be fair players.

Litttle tips for new comers

Moving from one place to another is always a hustle put aside moving into a new country! Even though moving company do all the packing and loading getting the house ready at the other end is another story. Expenses pile up! Curtains, lighting, appliances, new car, and so much more. As much as we want to believe we are prepared there are always hidden costs, just show up from the day one!

There are not many websites out there to give new comers an idea what to expect, where to find it and how to find it. So I want my blog to be a good resource for new comers. Honestly, I had a hard time myself discovering lots of things later on when it was too late! So, if you are a new comer, below is a list that can be beneficial in terms of finding used and new items.

1-If you are looking to buy and sell used items from other expats: first option is UN Nairobi Bulletin Board. You can find, used furnitures, appliances and cars along with houses available for rent. The site is open to public, and very reliable. Items mostly posted by UN employees leaving the country or friends of theirs who can post the ad on behalf of them. I had no idea of this websites existence, it was too late when I heard about it! It is followed by not expats only by locals as well! If you are not keen to spend a lot money on new items, looking for clean and dependable stuff this is the website you gotta look. New posts are added onto site on a daily basis, so page is updated almost everyday.
www.un.org/motd

2-If you are looking for a used car: Try Sarit Center upper floor, there is a huge board for used car ads. UN Bulletin Board also has lots of car sales ad almost every other day. Dealers are also an option but expect to pay higher than direct buy.

3-After deciding moving to Nairobi, do not waste anytime, start using social media! I even became a Facebook member, still cannot believe it!!!! Anyways, there are lots of Facebook pages for expat community, do not be judgemental:) Nairobi Expats Marketplace is a Facebook page is for expats who sell/buy items. In order to be able to view the page, you should be a member. This is a great page, thanks to people who came with this great idea!

4-There are also following websites, they are not as highly popular as the ones above, but still a great source: www.olx.co.ke, www.expat-blog.com , www.expatriates.com , and www.internations.org .

5-There is also a big supermarket chain, Nakumatt. You can find everything under one roof, expect to pay much higher though. Nakumatt sells from kitchen appliance to furniture to electronics. Try Mega Nakumatt, has more options. www.nakumatt.net

6-For outdoor and indoor furniture: try Ngong Rd. There are hundreds of vendors who make and sell home goods, beds, tables, night stands, TV stands, sunbeds, patio set, swings, shoe racks and much more. Be ready to negotiate, it is expected. Vendors can even build a basic furniture from a picture, they are very flexible.