2021: A year of adventures during a global pandemic

Well, all it took was finally getting the dreaded virus and a mandatory 10-day quarantine locked in a room all to myself to update this blog.  (Don't worry, it's day 4 and I'm starting to come back to life.  New studies show, I may even be practically invincible after this infection.  But I digress. . . )  Even 10 days won't be enough to do a proper update after such blatant disregard for years, but a start is better than nothing (and fair warning, even a start is going to be long).

Since 2021 is drawing to a close, it's probably a good time to look back and relive the highs and lows of an exciting and tumultuous year.  We moved to Tanzania at the end of 2020 and lost no time exploring the wonderful adventures this country has to offer.  From the cloudy mountains of Lushoto to the safari savannas at Mikumi to the breathtaking beaches of Zanzibar, every long weekend we did our best to get out and see everything.  

And the best part was that most of the adventures we took involved just us (and whenever possible a buddy car with friends) and were outside, so we felt safe getting out and exploring despite the uncertainty of the pandemic in a developing country.  We spotted lions and elephants and giraffes and crocodiles.  We climbed through rainforests, spied chameleons and stick bugs, slapped mosquitos, and passed through traditional farms and villages on the way to dramatic waterfalls.  We ate fat juicy sweet mangos, sour passionfruit, and tangy pineapples.  We enjoyed avocados almost as big as our heads and ate fish caught fresh from the ocean that day.  We learned Kiswahili greetings and niceties (Mambo! Poa. Habari! Nzuri, salama), heard the echoes of "mzungu, mzungu" (white man, white man) everywhere we went, and sweat constantly under the relentless hot sun, never quite acclimating.

Even daily life around home was an adventure in itself.  Every evening, walking our dog along the cliff trail as the sun set and the waves crashed below, I felt grateful to be near the ocean again after so long away.  Every commute to work, as we wound around pedestrians with fruit or sticks or fabrics piled high on their heads and vibrant kitenge clothes, chaotic market stalls, Masai in traditional garb, dirt roads, beggars, children in school uniforms, packed city buses and noisy bujajis, I wondered when it would all start to feel normal.  The answer?  Probably never.  Instead, we embraced it.  We brought home chickens and goats.  Ate bananas, mangos, and coconuts from the trees in our yard.  Got used to living with ants and geckos and spiders in the house.  It seemed that for every inconvenience, there was a balancing reward.  On one side of the scale sat the bugs, the malaria, the heat, the inconsistent power and water, the frustratingly slow bureaucracy, the neverending dirt and garbage everywhere.  On the other, the warm Indian ocean, rich cultural experiences, fresh fruits and vegetables, rich new experiences.  It was no contest really.  We love Tanzania.  

We joined the yacht club so just minutes away we could access a beautiful beach and opportunities to kayak, dive, snorkel, and sail.  Funny Guy got scuba certified and is a great diver, joining us a few times a month.  He and I took sailing lessons on little Laser optimists while My Man continued his theoretical yacht skipper certification.  We bought a Hobie16 catamaran, which My Man confidently sailed from the dock armed only with his earlier laser sailing experience from boy scouts 25 years earlier.  It was enough.  After a few months of racing around the bay (and only one near-death experience with Funny Guy), he was ready for the next challenge so we traded the cat for a 27' racing monohull called Smackwater Jack.  It was the beginning of sun-soaked weekends racing the winds, laughing with friends, fishing and chasing tuna boils, picnicking on deserted islands, snorkeling at Sinda, and dreaming of retirement on a boat (a much bigger boat).

There was less diving and safariing after that, but we still snuck away for a couples-only safari at Tarangire, a trip to Zanzibar, and a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with friends at Mafia island, where we swam with whale sharks and stingless jellies and enjoyed some of the best diving of our lives.  

After one of the scariest calls of our lives, I made an unplanned trip back to the States in May to help our Darling Daughter.  Despite the logistical challenges and emotional turmoil, it was a great excuse to spend time with family, hiking with my mom and dad, hanging out with my wonderful nieces, catching lunch with Young Man before he flew to Tanzania, and sharing hugs with my sisters.  I even marked the passing of another decade.  A few months later I traveled again to help her transition to a new boarding school (which we love).  Darling Daughter got her driver's license and celebrated another birthday.  It was a treasure to have that time with her.  It's so hard to be away from our child--the time difference is terrible and my heart is always torn between my family here and there.  But she is where she wants to be and we are so grateful to all who help support her when we cannot be there.

During the summer, we had friends visit (yahoo!!) and My Man took them to Zanzibar and Lushoto and explored around Dar while I was in the States; Young Man flew out to join them.  After I got back, we fulfilled a promise to Funny Guy to take him snowboarding by heading to the Austrian Alps, where he carved up a glacier in July.  We stopped for a few days in Munich on the way, practically living on bikes as we explored the beautiful city.  In Austria, besides skiing and snowboarding, we hiked, paraglided, mountain biked, played Phase10, and rode cable cars to incredible vistas.  It was one of the most wonderfully restful and beautiful vacations we have ever taken.

Of course, we don't play all the time.  We work hard too.  My Man is ridiculously busy sorting out all the intricacies of human resources at the embassy, managing hiring, firing, performance reviews, bilateral agreements, award ceremonies, policies, and more.  Funny Guy's classes have vacillated between virtual and in-person but either way he is doing well, especially in math (and not especially in art).  In his spare time, he joined a Virtual Reality Gorilla Tag team, created a haptic force-feedback glove, and built his own computer.  He got a 3d printer and uses it to make parts for his engineering creations.  He performs in the school band on the trumpet and was invited to the senior band.  He loves scuba diving, tolerates sailing, took surfing lessons, and cooked dinner for us all summer (my hero!).  Young Man returned to school in person after a virtual freshman year and continues to amaze us all by expertly balancing academics with a dynamic social life, working for the school paper and yearbook, ROTC, and his photography hobby.  I keep busy in Public Affairs trying to navigate what that looks like during COVID-19 in a country with limited Internet penetration.  When COVID-related travel restrictions were lifted this fall, I squeezed in trips to Mwanza, Kigoma, Dodoma, Unguja, Pemba, Mafia, and Kilimanjaro all into the last three months of the year!  It was exhausting but rewarding work, with the added bonus of getting to see even more of this unique and fascinating country.  

Over the past year, we've oscillated between telework and the office, trying to balance safety and commonsense, effectiveness and uncertainty.  We've had the bonus and bain of living in a country with little available information.  We knew COVID was making the rounds, and anecdotally it was raging at times, but without official statistics, it was hard to know exactly how careful to be.  We wore masks indoors or in crowded outdoor areas (which we tried to avoid altogether) but generally left the masks home when we were sailing or dining outdoors with friends.  We got our COVID vaccinations and then the booster and felt even safer.

And then, I got a headache, a sore throat, a fever, and a positive COVID-19 test.  Just after my incredible parents made the crazy trek to come visit (and just days before Young Man was scheduled to land for winter break).  Fiddlesticks.  And so I sit, alone in this room, unable to see my parents or hug my husband or sons.  But I am grateful.  Grateful that I was able to receive vaccinations and a booster shot (because if it's this bad even with those, I can't imagine facing this bug without them!).  Grateful that my parents are angels and planned a long trip so after this is all over we will still have lots of time to hang out.  Grateful that it looks like I may not have infected the rest of my family (negative tests for them today).  Grateful that my quarantine ends in time to celebrate Christmas with my family!  Grateful that even though the past few days have been miserable, I am healthy and recovering.  Grateful for a crazy year, where we have experienced and done so much, despite the rollercoaster of COVID-19.  Grateful for amazing friends and family to share it all with.  It has been hard.  It has been wonderful.  It has been 2021.

And that's a wrap.  Over to you 2022. 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2018, what a year!  We welcomed the new year on a warm island beach on La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, and continued the adventures all year long, adding lots of new country magnets to our fridge.

All that was crammed in between work and school and scouts and sports and homesteading and more.  We've definitely been doing our best to live life to the fullest.  Young Man headed to Vienna with his Knowledge Bowl team to compete in CEESA.  My Man spent 10 days flying in the Himalayas in March (where he spent more than four hours a day flying, covering hundreds of kilometers exploring the dramatic mountain range then spent the rest of the days relaxing and enjoying the warm sunshine) while the rest of us enjoyed the biggest snow storm of the year here in Kyiv.  Young Man and Funny Guy were awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence for their grades, Darling Daughter performed in the schools' "My Mother's Story" production and starred in the school play "Jack vs Jill," and both Darling Daughter and Young Man were voted onto the student council at school.  My Man took me to Cyprus to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary (wow!).  Young Man survived a miserable Week Without Walls, hiking in the rainy and cold Carpathians, while Darling Daughter got to go 4-wheeling and exploring Ivano-Frankivsk for hers.  I orchestrated several large events at the embassy, including the Eggstravaganza, end-of-the-year BBQ, and 4th of July picnic and also spent a week in Budapest finally learning the nuts and bolts of my job before accepting a nice promotion and a new job (working in the Embassy's Public Affairs Section), and My Man managed an incredible influx of Russian applicants after the U.S. diplomats were kicked out there, helping manage the huge uptick in work with minimal impact to his section with some ingenious adaptations.  He was also selected to attend training in Frankfurt, where I joined him for a long weekend to see castles, visit Heidelberg, and see Gutenberg's press (I think I got the better end of that deal).  Somehow, in spite of the increased workload, he managed to harvest a bumper honey crop from our resident beehives and set up a hive over at the historic Ambassador's Deputy's house as well.  We also got baby chicks and watched them grow into gigantic egg layers (at least the ones that didn't turn out to be delicious roosters!).  Young Man worked at the embassy in the IT section (his first real 9-5 job), while Darling Daughter worked and Funny Guy played at the school summer camp.

At last we headed out for a well-earned vacation back to the States, which started with an epic family reunion--a houseboat on Lake Billy Chinook at the Palisades (in spite of the engine trouble); then we showed the kids our stompin' grounds in Bend and Redmond, roadtripped to Crater Lake and the redwoods and Gold Beach (for the first time with My Man), built sandcastles and went clamming in Newport, and then headed back to Redmond where we missed our first ever flight thanks to a bag left at the hotel in Bend (no pointing fingers here, there was plenty of blame to go around--though it is amusing to hear everyone's excuses)!  We spent most of the next week camping, skiing, swimming, and hanging out with friends and family at Deer Creek Reservoir, fit in two college visits, and stuffed our bellies with Mexican food.  Yum.  Too soon we headed back home to Kyiv with a one-day stopover in Amsterdam where we saw the canals, cute houses, Anne Frank House, and more, though we were so tired and jetlagged we may not remember much.  Before we knew it, school was starting back up again and the kids were keeping us busy with scouts, sports, activities, and more--Darling Daughter played soccer, joined the robotics club, started horsebackriding lessons, played basketball, and participated in speech and debate.  Young Man played soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, knowledge bowl, served on Student Council, started a table tennis club, and grew his portrait photography business.  We ran a few family 5Ks, celebrated a few more birthdays, and then headed to Egypt for the most epic scuba diving of our lives and a chance to ogle the great pyramids and catch some sun with friends before the long dark winter (Young Man opted to head to Israel with his soccer team for a tournament there instead, where he swam in the dead sea, toured Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and walked through the ancient city of Jaffa).

Funny Guy skipped a year in math (way to go!), Young Man headed to Budapest with his soccer CEESA team, and Darling Daughter played on her soccer CEESA team here in Kyiv.  My Man and I won best couple's costume at the embassy Halloween party this year with our bee keeper and queen bee costumes and Funny Guy won his entire school costume contest with his epic "kid in a box" illusion costume (it was awesome!).  My Man and I snuck away to explore Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast for a weekend (one last chance for sun!) and then the snow was already here.  After a whirlwind of end of semester activities (concerts, courts of honor, etc.), we kicked off the holiday season with a family trip to Bratislava and Vienna (where got to go ice skating at the Rathausplatz Ice World rink, visited five different Christmas markets, wandered old cobblestone streets, saw a castle and palace, and even caught a few English movies in the theater!).  Young Man was selected as a finalist for the competitive KEYS science internship program (breathlessly awaiting the final word!).

The finale of the year was a traditional Christmas Eve.  Though we wish we could have shared it with family, we invited friends to join in the fun and enjoyed all the traditional foods and games and stories and songs that make the evening special.  Today was a cozy wintery Christmas day, hanging out as a family in PJs, talking, playing games, eating leftovers and candy, Skyping with family, and reflecting on the generosity and adventure of the previous year.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  Sometimes I feel like we pay a high price with missed memories and opportunities so far from "home."  But mostly I feel so grateful to have the opportunity to make each new place our home, adding new traditions and friends to mingle with the old, learning new things, exploring new places, and doing our part to make this world just a little better as we journey through.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our home to yours!

Home Leave: All About Making Memories

One of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad consequences of living and working abroad is that when someone you love is sick or needs you, it's hard to be there for them.  Last year, my little sister was diagnosed with cancer.  Stage IV.  The phone call hit me like a sucker-punch to the gut because (1) My sister has cancer; (2) I was in Thailand, a minimum of 36-hours of travel time away and 12-hour time difference and unreliable Internet so that getting there to give her a hug was almost impossible and even offering support by phone was difficult; (3) Cancer sucks.  Stage IV cancer really sucks.

So I did what pretty much everyone else does when they hear someone has cancer but they don't know what to do.  I ordered stuff on Amazon, a kick-a** cancer can't beat me necklace, chemo hat, a pink shirt for breast cancer awareness.  I even sent some fun Thai knick-knacks--purses and scarves and what-not.  But I knew it was a pathetic gesture.  I wanted to be there, help do laundry and dishes and read to her three beautiful girls, and give her a real live hug.  Be there for her.  But I was in Thailand, half a world away, and my heart ached.

Eventually, I was able to work it out to visit for a couple weeks in early November to help out; it was amazing to be there, to finally get that hug and do the laundry and dishes and do my nieces' hair and read to them and help however I could.  My parents and other sister even worked it out to overlap for a couple days so we could spend a weekend all together.  It was great.

But still, it didn't feel like enough.  So now, I'm back, taking advantage of the time between posts when we are required to stay in the United States, to visit again.  It is terrible to be away from My Man and my boys for so long (Darling Daughter came with me for this trip), but I don't know the next time I'll be able to visit my sister and support her, so I am grateful for this opportunity (and so grateful for My Man helping make it work out).

It's not all work either.  I relish the opportunity to make memories with my nieces (the youngest of whom I barely even knew before this!), to hang out and chat with my sister and brother-in-law, and to enjoy San Antonio's miraculous winter weather.  While My Man and boys are buried in several feet of snow up in Utah, we spent the day today picnicking and strolling through the botanical gardens.  The 65 degree sunshine felt like a little bit of heaven.

Last Saturday, I even snuck away to take Darling Daughter to see the Alamo and explore the San Antonio Riverwalk.  It was amazing to share that time with her.

And most days I take the girls on long walks or to the park while my sister is resting.  Just soaking up as much Vitamin D as possible before heading to the snowy dark winter of Kyiv.

But mostly, I am just so grateful to have this time to be here for my sister.

Meanwhile, My Man and the boys are taking advantage of the snow and time with family, skiing, enjoying lots of Cafe Rio, building snow forts, and even paragliding at Point of the Mountain.

It's tough being apart for these weeks (I hate it and can't wait until we are all back together again!), but we are grateful for this time home in the good ol' U.S. of A, spending time with family and making memories to bridge the next gap until we see them all again.