WELCOME BACK SIN MARI

MARI,

so tell us about your trip/time away. we missed you. tell us the beautiful things that have happened. we asked about you sometime ago.

so please tell us what is happened thus far.

how have you been doing ?

it is sooo good to see you back

 

Wow, thanks for the welcome back and the thread.

My trip was amazing and very different.

I stayed with my husband at his house in kenya the whole time and just 'lived'. It was a bit strange at first, mostly because there was no electricity and no running water and of course...a pit toilet (seriously, I could have kissed the first 'normal' toilet I used when I got back :smt043).
At night I heard lions, in the morning it was roosters and pretty much all day it was dogs barking.
Being the only white person everywhere I went was a real eye opener. I had people (without asking) touching my skin, grabbing my hair and touching my belongings. People would ask me straight out to give them my stuff or buy them things. :shock: Very odd.
And being called mzungu (white) all the time ended up being quite offensive. But they didn't actually mean any offense, I guess. They all treated me like I was a celebrity, which has certainly made up my mind to NEVER become a real celebrity.

Back to the lions...
The first night I heard them, I actually thought James (my DH) was joking. He said "Shhhh...can you hear that?" I couldn't. He said "There it is again. Can you hear it? It's lions!".
I seriously thought he was joking and laughed saying "Hey, you're not gonna catch me on that!"
But wouldn't you know it. It WAS lions, roaring in the distance...a most bizaare sound. I asked him where they were and he said that they were in a ranch not far away (meaning a conservation park).
I said "That's good. So long as they're behind a fence then". To which he said "Oh, they get out all the time and kill livestock around here".
:smt095

From that day forth I was careful to check every inch of the area around the house at night when I had to walk the 50ft to the toilet. And I nearly fainted when one night I flashed the torch/flashlight around and saw glowing eyes staring at me in the dark.
Thankfully it was a neighbours dog. LOL

DH and I opened two shops (takeaway/takeout) and they're still going well. We were given a kitten while I was there and he bonded to me almost instantly, I miss my kitty Sydney. He's the best mouse killer around. I can still hear the sound of crushing bones as he cracked their heads open, so proudly, in front of me.

Six months flew by, though. I am very homesick for kenya, but we're applying for a partner visa in July so hopefully DH will be out here next year and he'll be able to stay with me.

I think to actually tell you all about everything that happened, I'd have to write a book. LOL

But if anyone wants to know anything in particular, just ask. Oh and before anyone asks.....yes, the sex was amazing! :wink:

 

At home drinking chai (tea).


My sweet man, asleep on the couch.


Sydney, the cat (he's HUGE now but I haven't seen him in a few months).


I know, I know...you want more pictures. Well, too bad. :smt019 Hahahahaha! I don't have them on my computer. I just spent 20mins looking for them and then remembered that they never went onto this computer. So...three is all you get (for now).

 

Welcome back

Interesting experience

 

Welcome back sin mari.

 

Mari, thanks for sharing all this!
You are cool, I'm not sure I would want to walk 50 ft to go to the bathroom AND do the lions-check the whole time
Glad u had fun!

p.s. It's Thickshawty.

 

so wonderful to have you back sin...you've been missed :smt039

 

Maybe you can write like a chapter a day I wanna hear more!!

 

I said welcome back in the hotblackmen thread. At the risk of giving you a big head I will say it again. You were missed around here. And yes.....share more stories. So glad you enjoyed your time with your man.

 

Sin Marie, it sounds like you had a WONDERFUL time!

Maybe you've explained this before...but how did you two meet? How did you end up living separately? How long have you been married? Do you both intend to live together at some point?

I don't mean to be nosy- so, obviously, you can tell me to shut up - I'm just so interested in your story and so happy to hear you had a great time! My best friend married a man from Kenya last year (they've been together for six years) and they spend a few months each summer in Kenya with his family. She also mentioned the pit toilets! And, she bought her parents-in-law some sort of portable camping stove so that she could cook on something other than an open fire while there.

 

Thanks everyone. It's good to be back.

Hmmm...a chapter a day? LOL I'll think about it.

Oh, I forgot to say...DH also kept complaining about the monkeys getting into his garden and stealing his vegetables. Sadly, when I went with him to the garden, they'd buggered off so I never saw them.

DAMN THEM TO HADES!!! I wanted to see the monkeys. :smt037

He also told me about how when it floods they get hippos coming up into the gardens, so every day I did a little rain dance hoping the floods would come and I'd see the hippos. Sadly, although it flooded once, it trapped us at the house :smt076 and I was unable to swim my way down to the garden to check for fat people killers in the garden. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

We met on a community project in 2008 (he was the cook), we were the two youngest in the group and we became best friends and then fell in love.... and married the year after. We were unable to get a visa for him to come to Australia last year, so I went there instead and then went back this year again to live for 6mths. We're submitting an application in July for him to get a permanent resident visa (partner visa) so he can come live with me in Australia.
Yeah, the pit toilets are hell and although we had a small charcoal fire to cook on most of the time, we did have a gas cooker as well. We also had a car battery so we could watch movies on my portable DVD player.

And, I don't mind you asking me anything.

 

Oh, that's fabulous! What a great way to meet and get to know someone! I hope the visa works out!

Has he been able to visit you in Australia yet?

I would have been upset not to have seen the monkeys, too. GRRR

 

Welcome back Sin Marie!!
Its Flyingeek - just shortened my name

You were missed!!!

 

Welcome back Sin Marie!!

 

Yo, Sin!!!!! What's hannin'?!

 

Welcome back SM and thanks for sharing your adventure with us. I have a question: in this village, are the walls of the homes thin and are the houses close together? Bottom line: could the neighbors hear you and your man getting your freak on after being separated for so long? Or perhaps they thought it was the lions and monkeys they were hearing? :smt106

I'm sure culturally it is not any big deal.

 

:smt081

The houses are far away from each other. If they heard anything, they never said.

He hasn't been to Australia yet. He's so excited though. He wants to see kangaroos and go swimming at the beach (he lives in central kenya so he's never seen a beach before).

 

LOL. Im sure yall about killed eachother