towels at last

We finally got our UAB! Even though we kept a list of the things we had packed in our various shipments, it was still a bit of a mystery to unpack and see which badly needed items did not make it in and which ridiculously unnecessary things wound up taking their place. Overall, we did pretty well, packing among other things the following essentials:

• TOWELS!!! And also toiletries, bedding, and king size pillows – the ones that came in the welcome kit were so thin that we had to supplement them with a couple of the couch pillows in order to get any neck support.
• Plastic dishes/bowls/cups – now that we have more than just two of everything, we can actually have people over for dinner.
• Tupperware – we had been scrounging around in search of acceptable plastic containers for our leftovers. For some reason, our social sponsors were extremely attached to their Tupperware and would immediately ask for its return as soon as they had lent us any.
• Knives – the ones in the welcome kit could barely cut through butter.
• Loose leaf tea – Kenya may be one of the world’s largest producers of tea (See the purlieus of Kisumu), but Kenyan tea is pretty atrocious and we’re happy to have our Teaspot tea.

But there were also some pretty poor choices made during the pack-out. For instance, S included a turkey roasting pan, which proved to be completely unnecessary given that Thanksgiving is a long ways away and that a roasting pan was provided with the oven. She also packed baking pans but not a mixer, meaning that we will still have to wait for our HHE to arrive before we can have fresh-baked goodies. And, despite D’s insistence on their absolute necessity, his cleats were deemed to be extraneous when our pre-packed UAB turned out to be overweight. D had a last-minute dental appointment that coincided with our pack-out and S made the unfortunate executive decision to exclude them from the final UAB shipment (D wound up buying new cleats soon after we settled in so that he could play soccer and ultimate).

D was happy, however, that his clippers made it into UAB. His beard was getting out of control and he also needed a haircut. Our upstairs bathrooms come equipped with a special wall plug specifically designed for electric razors, but we were in for quite a shock when we plugged the clippers in. Because of Kenya’s higher voltage, the clippers became turbo-charged, vibrating wildly and making such an intense racket that it felt like a helicopter was planning an impromptu landing in our house. D kept his ears plugged with his fingertips throughout the haircut, and luckily S was able to find a pair of earplugs for him – he would not trim his beard otherwise, fearing permanent hearing loss.