One year on…

For anyone that has been following the story of my life thus far, you should be happy, or perhaps dismayed,  to hear that one year is now up, since I landed on to the “land where chocolate pours out of taps”. Here, it is considered a sin, if the sun goes down before a piece of chocolate has melted in your mouth. If not a cube of chocolate, then at the very least, a mug of hot chocolate!

Yap. One year is up.

July of last year, is the month when a mob came over our house and within an hour or two, perhaps three, packed my cups, plates, chairs, everything into boxes. Denzel and I then hauled our three little people aboard a Swiss Air plane, for an eleven-hour journey. I still recall the night up in the dark skies. There can never be anything worse than trying to sleep on a plane seat. And I am only 5 feet 3 inches, unlike my near six feet Denzel, who seemingly turns on a certain mental button, and is off to sleep in a flicker. No matter how far back I recline the seat, I rarely get a comfortable position.

Therefore, I used the duration of that journey to ponder just what our lives would be in another land. I said lots of prayers, as I watched little people, deep asleep, all plopped up against each other for support. I wondered many things about their future. I asked myself many questions.

And so we landed, early in the morning. Thankfully, many things had been arranged prior to our coming. Thanks to Denzel’s employer. We were picked up from the airport, straight to our apartment. Since our furniture would only arrive 3 months later, there was rented furniture, so we walked in to our apartment, and it was like moving from one home to another. The beds were already made, with clean linen, so the first thing we did was to hop into bed and sleep. At least for me.

One thing that really moves me is the recollecion of the fact that we did not know a soul here. We were basically coming into a very strange land with no one to call a friend. Before leaving South Africa, I gave out many of my things because we would not need them, or so I thought. In terms of cutlery and crockery, I brought just 8 of everything— 8 plates, 8 cups, 8 spoons etc. My reasoning being, 5 for us and 3 extra to take care of breakages. I never imagined that anyone would ever knock our door, let alone stay for tea.

How wrong I was!

We have met some wonderful people that I can now comfortably call friends. Slowly, I am returning to the shops to buy a few more plates, a few more spoons etc. That means alot to me, to us all. We like to have people in our home and have had the pleasure to share meals with others.

Days have really gone fast, and we have all been very busy in our schedules, trying to adapt to life in yet another foreign land. And it has been good. Suddenly, like people who have ingested large doses of fertilizer, little people have grown some! I used to cook such little food, and suddenly, these people eat mountains of food. Soon, I will be upgrading my pots so as to accomodate their growing appetites.

Talking of which, Denzel has become a really fine cook. I didn’t realize what a huge potential was potentially going to waste. (nice pun there ) The question now is, ” Do I really know how to cook?”  Ladies, incase you’re interested, here’s  a little secret. Complement complement complement. (even when the food is not thaaat good). While at it, good luck to you, it doesn’t happen overnight, so practice some patience!

In many ways, God has blessed us. I get overwhelmed just thinking of how much we have achieved in just one year. When one day, Alex casually announced that he is the class leader, I brushed it aside as another of those things that kids say to make their mums happy. A while later, when Alex and his dad were out riding bikes, Denzel was surprised, to a point of amusement, to see how much respect his son commands amongst his peers. “He is our class leader” they volunteered. Indeed, the little dark skinned boy is the class leader. For that I sob and then sob some more.

Our door bell has not stopped ringing, with neighbourhood kids asking to play with my kids. Every Saturday morning, I have taken it upon myself to clean the myriad of finger prints left on the glass door at the entrance of our apartment, as they can only be from our kids and their visitors. (the other families that share that entrance do not have kids). The phone too keeps ringing, “can Michelle come with us on Saturday, we are going to the zoo..” That too has been a surprise for us. One of our neighbours asked me whether I am happy that Michelle is so popular. I was surprised because, I never knew she was popular, or that it was that noticeable.

I am so thankful to God for His generous mercies to us. I really like Switzerland, and if I had my way, I would like to live here much longer. Although when I think about Kenya, I always feel torn apart. I love Kenya very much.

I suppose for me, it is a case of…”as long as my family is with me, I could live anywhere” I don’t know about the Sahara desert though.