Back to work

This week the office opened back up after the holidays so it was back to the office. On Monday, I had to take the girls with me for most of the day. Then starting Tuesday Tammy watched them. She is very good with them and they like her a lot. She calls them “my love” and is always doing things with them when I arrive.

Work is going well. I have been in meetings a lot this week with my direct reports. I have 6 people who report to me- 3 Provincial Managers (of our 3 provincial offices), the Finance Manager, the Fundraising Manager and the Office Administrator (Nunu). I know them all well from having worked with them before at Heifer in LR and while I was on the board. In total, we have about 15 staff. We have a lot of work to do. We will be doing our 3 year strategic plan in February. And we have so many applications from poor communities asking for our help. We have to find more funding so we can help more people.

We are settling in to our house. The girls enjoy the house and the huge yard. We discovered a couple of days ago we have koi fish in the little fish pond. I had no idea. So, for a week the poor things had not gotten any food. The girls and I were walking in the yard looking at all the flowers and we happened to go to the fish pond and we saw them swimming. The landlords forgot to tell us. Anyway, the girls are very excited. There is one that looks like Nemo. There are about eight as far as I can tell and they are very pretty- all sizes and colors- a BIG yellow one, some orange and white ones, a white spotted one and some black ones. Sofia thinks they are catfish like Nonna has. There is a net over the pond so that the heron and ibis birds don’t eat them.

The gardener hasn’t started yet. His wife has been in the hospital. He will start this coming Monday. I have to get a lawnmower for him to use because the owners took the mower with them. The pushmowers here are electric. They all have this long extension cord attached. They do have the gas ones as well but they are not as common. I am going to try and find a gas powered. The lady who will help me around the house should also be starting in the next week or so. It will be nice to have someone a few days a week to work in the house during the day.

The girls start school on the 20th. Until then, Tammy will watch them.

I still need a lot of things for the house. I bought a small set of pots yesterday. I need bowls, cups and things like that. So many little things I will need to get.

We have a huge avocado tree at the front of the house. The girls are very excited about that. There are a few small ones on there growing now. We are really enjoying all the fresh fruit here. The girls are eating so much fresh fruit. And the prices are really good on fruits and veggies. I bought 3 pounds of grapes tonight for less than 2 dollars. And we got some mangos, papaya and bananas. Sofia eats about 3 bananas a day. Sienna eats about 2 apples a day. And chocolate and strawberry milk is very easy to find here. So, Sienna and Sofia feel right at home. I have also made them some sweet tea and they love it.

Today they decorated their playhouse with Tammy and they are pretending it is a castle. They have been dressing up in their costumes. Sienna is Ariel and Sofia is Snow White.

They have a mosquito net over their bed. The mosquitoes (mozzies, as they are called here) are eating them alive- especially Sienna. I have tried everything. And I don’t even see them in the house so they must be biting them when they are playing outside. Sienna gets big welps on here. Then Sofia picks at hers until they bleed.

We were planning on going to the Pavilion mall this afternoon but I got lost (missed my turn onto another interstate) and so we found our way back and just went to the grocery store and KFC. They LOVE KFC. There is one near the house and they want to eat there every night. I don’t let them but they love it. Maybe we will go to the mall tomorrow. There is also a big farmer’s market on Saturday mornings here that we may go to if we get up early enough.

Okay that all for now.