The Blog Is Back and Living in Tanzania

Hello all. Thank you to my loyal friends who have visited this blog over the past two months and then wrote to let me know that I haven't updated it. It was true. I went from being an enthusiastic blogger to being a blog failure. But at least I have a good excuse. I was in the middle of uprooting my entire life and the life of my family, flying in a tin can for an excruciating number of hours, and trying to find my feet (or my house) in a new country. But alas, I have an exciting announcement. WE HAVE ARRIVED IN TANZANIA! WE ARE SAFE AND SOUND. AND THE BLOG IS BACK!!!!

So... What can I tell you about my move that I haven't already told each and every one of you via e-mail. Mom, the kids and I spent two weeks living in two hotels (the first one albeit briefly before Mom put her foot down and demanded a higher degree of luxury). We trained two nannies and fired one for being really shitty with the kids. It is not that she was a bad person or put the kids at risk. Its just that they really hated her. And well... turns out that they get a say these days about who is watching them. I found a house... cute and small... with a swimming pool that has been enclosed with an iron fence. I've made such a big deal about not letting the kids near the pool that everytime the gardener cum pool boy goes into the pool area the 24-hour-a-day security guard leaves his post at the front gate and guards the pool entrance instead.

It seems that I'm now supporting a village. At any given moment during the day there is the nanny, the housekeeper, the gardener cum pool boy, the driver and the security guard all on the property. It seems that I'm also required to feed them all at least once a day. I'm trying to find a service to do this - since cooking is not my thing. If it were up to me, they'd all be eating egg salad on cinnamon raisin bagels for every meal :)

The kids are going to a really great school, but to get there you have to take a really bad road. The dirt road is full of HUGE - sedan sized - potholes. But it is also still the end of the rainy season. This AM getting to school was a really adventure in off-road driving. We passed more than one regular sized car totally stuck in a giant water-filled pothole.

My work is also going pretty well. I have a great staff. I like them. They gave me a nice office with real plywood office furniture. All is well in the world of T-MARC (the Tanzanian name for my company).

Now that I'm settled into the house, and I have what passes for high-speed internet (I call it low-speed, high-speed internet), I will try to be a regular blogger again. Stay tuned for more fun in the sun (well in the rainy season) from Tanzania!