At long last... a Khisa update! (July 5/04)

Hi everyone!

I'm long overdue for an update, so I'll have to give you a quick run-down. I haven't really sent any mails since the wedding last August - hard to believe it's been that long, the year is whizzing by for me..! Without drastic seasons I barely even realized that it's summer already! Well in Nairobi it's absolutely frigid - I have a fleece & Oma-socks on, tucked under a big comforter with another blanket around my shoulders..! OK, it only goes down to about 14 at night, but what temperature do you set your thermometer to in the winter??? Believe me, 14 is damned cold.

So when I returned to Kenya last September, my contract with Express Automation didn't materialize, and I started a consulting business with my Norwegian friend Howard. We tried and tried to get business, but the saying "there's no hurry in Africa" is a very literal thing...

Mum, Dad, Vanessa, Jake, and my friends Mike & Tracey came over around Christmas, in time for Anthony's and my spectacular traditional African marriage blessing celebration. This I have written about and posted... you'll have to see it online! Having my family here was the true blessing, and I'm soooo glad they were able to take that trip of a lifetime. Mike Tremblay stayed on to soak up Nairobi till March or so, and I also have Anthony's sister Nafula living with me while finishing up secondary school.

Of course after working my butt off to get business, I landed everything all at once. A converged IP network for 30 branches of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), a technology training program for a UN rain-water harvesting organization, a few short projects for MERLIN, and a position as Regional ICT Manager for Norwegian People's Aid (NPA www.npaid.or.ke). I took them all, and have been very busy indeed! I'm the project manager and technical architect for the KCB network, and have been visiting the region with both UN and NPA - including Ethiopia, Uganda, and finally Sudan!

After almost 2 years of working for Sudan programmes, I have been so wishing to go there.. but easier said than done in a war zone. Thankfully they truly seem on their way to peace now. NPA is definitely partisan, openly supporting the justifiably rebellious south - the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). We visited Yei, which is close to the border of Uganda, in a lush green belt filled with teak forests and huge mango trees. Yei hasn't seen fighting since 1998, and it's poised to become a major trading and communications town. I was there to prepare for an NPA  VSAT network, and the New Sudan Telecommunications Corporation has been freshly built with their own VSAT in the works... we're skipping the whole cabling issue and going directly for wireless! I also carried with me a portable satellite modem and marvelled at the wicked speeds from Sudan - while in Nairobi we make do with a 64k connection for the whole office!

Oops, sidetracked by networks again. But I must say, it's really interesting to build this stuff from scratch (again!) but in a totally different context and with such different goals..

Anthony also made a move, to MERLIN - www.merlin.org.uk - Medical Emergency Relief International. That's where Gabrielle Appleford is now the Country Director - she's the Canadian lady who originally hired me into Kenya in the first place at VSF-Belgium. She and her husband Steve both worked at VSFB - and took both Anthony and myself along with them when they left. She had a position open as Logistics Officer to start up MERLIN's new southern Sudan programme, so Anthony was a perfect fit. Since April he's been based in Loki with frequent trips to both Sudan and Nairobi, winning accolades from the major donors - USAID and UNICEF - for his project supervision in the field. The funny thing is that he's staying and working at the NPA compound! NPA runs a commercial camp in Loki, providing accommodation, meals, and office space to other NGOs... ...I really must make sure their computers have frequent personalized service!!

The other major move - literally - is our new apartment. For the first time since I've been in Africa, I have my very own place... living in furnished apartments just doesn't cut it! This apartment is in a quiet garden compound, a story up, with only one other small apt below... a grand balcony, a wall of windows, hardwood floors & ceilings, and tons of plants... it's very bright & peaceful. Nafula finally gets her own room, though with the size of the new living room, it hardly matters! I'm a bit impatient trying to furnish everything at once, but we now have the basics and the rest will come in time. Anthony was in Nairobi for most of May so did a lot of legwork and found the best handmade mahogany chairs and coffee table the city had to offer. He also pulled our "new" Corolla completely apart and reassembled it in the car port.. ok, he was supervising! But suffice it to say, we're enjoying having our own place, and being together a bit more... I was in Loki fixing those darn computers last week, and he'll be back in Nairobi again next week, so we're managing.

I have not been able to get home to Kitale since February when I was stranded there for 4 extra days by a public transportation fiasco (the government implemented new safety rules like seat belts & speed governors, grounding most buses and matatus who didn't think they actually meant it!). I had been planning to go in April, but that's when all of these projects started and I don't think I'll have a full weekend in a looong time. Anthony did manage to get home last month, and is still doing the research on how best to distribute the goods and funds that were so generously donated by my parents' church and other friends. Soon I'll take some days off.. I'm missing those little kids of ours!

Speaking of whom, once of my motives in getting this new apt is so that we can bring Leah and Gigi to Nairobi for school. It's a big step - for both them and me! - so I want to make sure we do it properly. Nafula will likely go to boarding school next year, so they can have her room... I think we'll bring them down for a visit in August when the schools break... assuming Anthony will be around too!

In other news, I want to congratulate my shockingly fit grandfather for having turned 90 just the other day... Happy Birthday Grandaddy!!! First time I missed his semi-annual birthday party, but I called and spoke to him & others.. which was really great, and Anthony called the next day during the BBQ. I'm trying to get a good internet phone account so I won't have to spend $140 on a 30-minute phone call anymore!!! Also pleased as punch to have my 80-something Oma finally online, sending emails like you wouldn't believe.. hope she found Stinky again. She and GD should get on MSN ;) Another big congrats to Sue & Craig & new lil Jakey, who are taking the plunge and moving back to Nova Scotia after living all over the world.

My thoughts are especially with my favourite Unca Denny (well, really he's my only unca Den, but he's a good one, that Colonel!) & of course with cousin Donnie & his love Jill.

I think of all of you often, and especially when a lot of us gathered on that beach in Toney River.... thanks again for contributing to such an unforgettable day! I will surely miss the cottage party this year.. though I think Tara & Jeff's wedding will more than suffice for those of you that are close enough to go (here's me in Nairobi wishing :)

Sorry I haven't been as verbose this year as I was last.. but I'll be picking up the slack over the next while... plus a new digital camera is on the way! Enjoy summer!

Love,
Johanna & Anthony Khisa
                
PS - Anthony is now mostly reachable at akhisa-at-ca.inter.net & would love to hear from you! (he's a newbie :)

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

 

Copyright Johanna Voerman Khisa, 2002-04. Reprinting or reposting without permission is prohibited.