April 2017 – robinchartier

A year of transition

12 months from now we’ll be preparing to move. The change could be as small as moving all of the furniture out of this house and switching it with another department’s furniture (different job with the embassy, different furniture pool) or moving to a different house in Abu Dhabi, or as extensive as preparing pets for export, new school admissions, and gearing up to move to another country or even repatriating to the United States.

I have no idea which way it will go, but every single option will bring big changes to our household. We’ll no longer be an active duty military family, but will have entered the ranks of the retired. For the first time in 21 years, Josh will have personal autonomy. He’ll no longer be property of the US government. We’ll even be able to take that trip to Lebanon (currently not allowed).

But no longer will we be able to rely on God’s direction for our future coming through loud and clear, as strong as a blast from a bullhorn, in the form of military orders every two years. Now we will have to sift through soft whisperings and hope that we are hearing him properly as we determine which job to take, where to move, and how long to stay.

I’m excited. I am confident that even in this shrinking job market, Josh will have multiple job offers to choose from. Who knows where that will take us, but I’m willing to go. I can only laugh at the direction my blog would take if we end up back in the US. I know I’d have plenty to write about:

So much skin! Why is everyone walking around with a Starbucks cup in hand and virtually no clothing on their bodies?

Who needs 286 varieties of cereal? How am I supposed to pick one if it takes 20 minutes to look at all the choices?

Oh Costa Coffee, how I miss you. I know as a stockholder I should be loyal to the Green Mermaid, but those Brits have you beat.

Wait. I have to drive to pick up McDonald’s? They don’t deliver? Hold on. NO ONE delivers?!?!?

OK, I get that restaurants don’t deliver: dry cleaners must deliver at least — what do you mean I can’t afford dry cleaning? Dry cleaning costs HOW MUCH? It’s not $2 to clean a dress? Well, never mind then. Back to only buying easy care clothing.

And so much more . . .

Interesting things are ahead for us and the transition starts next month when Calvin graduates from High School. I am so thankful that we aren’t trying to transition our family at the same time we are sending our oldest off to college. Avoiding that perfect storm of chaos is the reason that Josh postponed retirement for one year and took this assignment in Abu Dhabi.

Calvin will finish school, go on a farewell tour of the Middle East (traveling to Oman and Bahrain to say goodbye to his friends who live there), and then we will all fly to California to send him off. When we return to Abu Dhabi the real work of transition begins. Resume writing, interviewing, negotiating, and continuing in the current job to finish well.

Counting down — the beginning of the end. New beginnings are right around the corner.

Why we went

Someone asked, “Why Uganda?” Of all the countries on the African continent, Uganda isn’t the first one you might think of when it comes to vacation/travel/safari. Kenya? Sure. South Africa? Definitely. Several friends have gone to Tanzania, but we chose Uganda for this:

To visit the Michelle and Julia Hoffman children’s home. Almost 5 years ago, our friends from Oman were killed in by a drunk driver while home on summer vacation. Their friends and family joined together to bring something beautiful out of the ugliest of circumstances and raised money to start and maintain a children’s home in their honor/memory.

The home was fully operational with 51 kids in November of 2013. Every spring break since, a group from Oman has gone to Uganda to bring donations, play with the kids and be part of their lives in a small way. (Other groups from the US go at different times of the year through the ministry organization True Impact Ministries.) We sponsor 2 kids — Joshua and Jamawiya, but I never pictured myself actually going to meet them. Calvin went on the first trip in 2014 and Carter went last year in 2016, but when we looked at the calendar for this year and saw that our spring break matched up with the trip dates AND it was an easy direct flight from Abu Dhabi to Entebbe, Uganda, AND we had some financial help offered by dear friends (because the cost for 6 people was out of our reach), we decided to go for it.

2014

Jamawiya and Joshua in 2016

Honestly, I was nervous to go because it meant taking malaria medication (I don’t like taking medicines that I haven’t taken before), traveling with strangers (we were meeting up with 3 other families who were unknown to us), 3rd world cleanliness standards for food — I can live with “rustic” toilets, but food storage and prep makes me nervous, and just an all around not being in control of any part of the trip fears. My initial suggestion was that it be a “boys trip” and I’d stay home with “the baby,” but at 6 years old, that excuse isn’t all that reliable anymore. Time to create another one! (just kidding). Anyway, Camille wasn’t going for the idea of the boys trip so I told myself to “buck up,” and committed to going.

In the end, none of my fears mattered because they weren’t fears while I was on the trip. (Half of my problem is being afraid that I’ll become anxious. I know that doesn’t make sense. . . that’s why they call it mental illness!) My brain was fully cooperative and the strangers became family, I never felt trapped on the long rides in the car, and no one got sick. And I didn’t spend any time worrying that any of those things might happen. All kinds of win.

These kids were a joy. This is Teddy. She is the extrovert of the home. She loved on everybody from the moment we arrived until the bus pulled out of the driveway. She was full of smiles.

The Ugandan red clay — got all over everything and doesn’t come out!

Look at those feet!

Duck, Duck, Goose

Carter and Caleb are both way better jump ropers than I thought they’d be. I was impressed!

We spent all day at the home getting to know the kids and playing with the toys we had brought. Footballs (American and the soccer kind), jump ropes, bubble wands, frisbees and other outdoor activities. It was a bit overwhelming upon arrival because all the kids were swarming us and hugging everyone. Camille started crying and clung to me for the next 2 hours. That’s not a big surprise, since she doesn’t do new things well, but in this case I didn’t blame her since it was a bit much to take even for me as an adult to have all these hands and bodies touching me when we got off the bus.

Doing the Hokey Pokey to warm everyone up while other team members handed out the t-shirts that we brought for the kids. The Hoffman home kids thought it was hilarious.

This is our “daughter” Jamawiya. It feels a bit false for me to call her daughter because if she were truly my daughter I’d take her home with me and actually put in the real work of being her mom, not just sponsor her financially, but she was calling me Mom, Camille her sister, and the boys her brothers, so I’m going with it.

I was proud of my girlie because before the trip I was putting together some gifts for Jamawiya, but I didn’t know if she had pierced ears or wore earrings. I ended up not bringing any, but when I saw that Jamawiya had pierced ears, but no earrings, I privately asked Camille if she’d be willing to give her the earrings she was wearing. They were brand new, silver kitty cats and she loved them, but she willingly gave them up (even through teary eyes).

Jamawiya and her best friend Agnes.

We have another sponsored child, Joshua — so why is he missing from all of these photos? Because he is really shy. The fun part was coming back again the next day and seeing him really come out of his shell. He’s smart and witty and his English is great. And we found out that he loves candy so he and Camille are practically twins.

Taking after Nana Pam with his love of the ukulele!

Joshua photobombing Teddy and me.

When they got tired of running around the kids loved to look through our photos. Josh had some great snow pictures from out time in Germany. They were amazed.

And they loved taking and looking at photos of themselves.

Camille was so much more relaxed on day 2. It made me wish we were able to stay longer since the kids were all warming up to each other and becoming friends.

Jamawiya on the right, turning the jumprope for Camille. Meels started the day too shy to even try (and then kept tripping when she did), but by the end she was jumping along to “Mama in the kitchen, making chapati. I like chapati, yum, yum, yum” as the girls turned the rope along with the rhyme.

My mini me — when it all got to be a bit much for her, she would retreat to the bus for a few minutes to recharge in peace and then venture out again. I’m so proud of each of my kids and how they each shone in their own way while we were at the Hoffman home.

Good times, great memories. Everyone wants to go visit again and we will start planning for next spring break if we can. We saw a lot of amazing animals on safari, but visiting the Hoffman home was the highlight of the trip for the kids. I will be honest and say the highlight for me was visiting that amazing resort that looked like a treehouse, but our time at the Hoffman home was just as good in a different way. And I’d never want to go back to Uganda and not go to the Hoffman home, so same, same, right? #tryingtobespiritualandrealishard

Rookie Mistake — Good Friday

It’s a good thing we’re forgiven, because here I sit at home on Good Friday morning while church is finishing up. Oh, we went, but underestimated how many other people would also be going to church at the same time, with limited parking available.

My biggest complaint about our church is lack of parking. It’s a weekly problem, but in general we show up, park a few blocks away and hike in. No big deal. The church has a parking lot with about 25 spaces that people cram 50 cars into, but that doesn’t work for a church of 1200. It’s next to a residential neighborhood marked with tow zones up and down both sides of the street for non-residents. People seem to ignore that and I’ve never seen a tow truck, so maybe they’re safe. There’s a small school parking lot across the street and some parking near official buildings, but getting a spot is terrible any day of the week.

On occasion we have done the circle for 20 minutes and found a spot and once or twice we’ve circled for twenty, then abandoned ship and gone to breakfast. One time when Josh was out of town it was so crowded that I dropped the boys off in front of church and went to find parking on my own. After 15 more minutes of circling I couldn’t find anything so I texted them that I was going home. Carter is still mad about that one. In my defense, I was sick and they had youth group after service so there was no harm in leaving them behind.

Well today, Good Friday, we drove around for 30 minutes along with at least 200 other cars — the streets were jammed with people parked in illegal spots, tow zones, or on the sidewalk. Any regular spots? Forget it. My plan to arrive as people were leaving first service didn’t pan out. Usually we can spot someone, follow them to their car and slide in as they drive out. Maybe those church attenders never left and are all still chatting? We saw people on foot arriving from all directions. Not just to our church, but there’s a huge mosque, and an Orthodox church or two that also meet in this 4 block radius. The masses looked like ants, coming for sugar.

Josh was also sharking for a spot (doing the slow roll down the streets, looking for an opening) since Caleb had an early rugby game this morning and we were in separate cars. We were updating each other on our non-progress by phone as we inched along. I figured if Josh couldn’t find a parking place then all hope was lost.

We finally decided to bail 30 minutes into the service since coming in that late would be a distraction to everyone who actually made it on time. Next year, we’ll take a cab. Thankfully, He is Risen and we are not condemned for missing church. Now to figure out how to tackle Sunday morning Easter sunrise service (a normal work/school day here). Will it be crowded? Not so bad? All those first year unknowns. Inshallah, we will be seated before the service begins.

God Bless 75

We made it home from Uganda last night, dropped our suitcases next to the washing machine, and headed to bed. I woke up this morning around 7am — except when I looked at my phone it said 10:20. It felt like 7am. No time change issues, just post-trip fatigue.

It turns out when I’m not working and I have wifi, I can still write. Too bad I didn’t have wifi for most of the trip and I go back to work tomorrow.

Now it’s 2 days later, I’m back at work, and the only reason I’m able to post this is because I had to get up early to take caleb to a field trip and now I’m in the parking lot at the gym, waiting for torture to begin. Of course I didn’t have time to put in my contacts, so I’m flying blind on my phone and this is probably riddled with typos as a result. Good thing I can’t see them or it would drive me crazy.

Dang it, I can’t even see how to add a photo to my posts from my phone. Oh well. Picture sleepy eyed, forehead creased, and gym clothes. That about sums it up.

Uganda was a great trip, but it wore me out. Lots of people, lots of kids to interact with, and tons of driving. It’s a miracle that I could go at all and a bigger miracle that I enjoyed it. God bless Zoloft. I think I mentioned that I increased my dose to 75 before my Christmas trip and I am reaping its full benefits now. I don’t notice any difference on a day to day basis, but this trip was the easiest for me mentally in a while. I just did everything without needing to think about it. Van ride with strangers for 6 hours? Sure, no problem. I’ll hang out, chat, knit, and enjoy myself. If you’re not Josh, you probably don’t realized the extent of this miracle, but trust me, this trip tested all of my weaknesses and I breezed through. Praise God.

I have tons more to write, but no time to say it. I’m hoping I have time to get my thoughts down on paper sometime this week, before my memories get buried under daily life here. So much to share, but this job is getting in the way of my creativity. Worth it though, since it’s given me a great connection with the boys … it’s a worthy tradeoff.

Swiss Family Robinson

I’ve found my happy place in the middle of the Ugandan wilder– what is it called? Bush, grasslands . . . ? Whatever the topography, it’s a lodge in the middle of nowhere, like 40 minutes over bumpy dirt roads after turning off a bumpy highway with nothing on it but a few shacks scattered here and there, about 2 and a half hours from the equator.

We were there less than a day and I’m already trying to figure out how to go back.

All the rooms are open air, thatched roof cabins. Only 12 in all and each one is completely private. No other cabins or people in sight.

Inside our room — with a huge private porch overlooking the valley.

A round bathroom with an open shower

The view while showering or brushing your teeth. Can I live here please?

Overlooking the salt lick and watering hole where zebras, warthogs, buffalo, and other animals regularly gather. An hour after this photo we were up at breakfast and saw a herd of 30 zebra trot out of the underbrush to come drink and roll in the mud. Then they were joined by birds, a stray buffalo that has been kicked out of his herd, and some mule deer (they look like big fuzzy deer with mule-shaped faces). It was a scene from The Lion King.

The sides are tented with mosquito netting. It feels like sleeping outside without actually having to be outside. The night sounded alive with the language of bugs, monkeys, birds and other wildlife woven together. Silent and loud at the same time.

The screens are outfitted with a monkey lock because the monkeys will come in and make a mess of things if you don’t lock them out. We were just finishing breakfast in the dining room when one of them leaped onto the middle of the table, grabbed a piece of toast, and took off before he could be chased away.

Good morning, sunshine!

I may not be a morning person, but when pots of coffee and milk are brought to my front door in a basket so I can watch the wildlife and sip while waking up? I can manage that.

Hiking up the hill to breakfast. It was probably 8 minutes from our cabin up to the lounge and dining room.

I can’t even begin to tell you about the food. This was not hotel food, but gourmet, chef quality meals. Homemade bread, jams, and fresh honey. Eggs made to order including eggs benedict with perfectly crispy bacon and buttery smooth hollandaise sauce, sweet crepes, fresh juice and Ugandan coffee, of course.

I could have eaten the aubergine (eggplant) stack appetizer from dinner and the Moroccan spiced kebab all week long. The carrot, raisin, and lemon salad and the savory/spicy watermelon salad were both combinations I had never imagined, but they worked. Wasabi flavored green beans that had all the flavor with none of the burn (though Camille and Caleb both thought they were too spicy). Josh and I were both in awe of the inventiveness and execution at each of the 3 meals that we ate there. And to eat beautiful food, with this beautiful view . . . I think it’s my favorite hotel of all that we’ve ever stayed in. It’s right up there with the cave hotel from Goreme, Turkey as far as uniqueness, for sure.

After too few hours we were back on the bumpy roads again. Farewell, paradise. Inshallah, I will come again (and stay for days).