New Digs!

   I recently moved into a little apartment in Nairobi, which I'm renting from an American woman who's in the US for a couple of months.  It's the perfect size, great location, and (Praise God!) at a negotiable rent!  There's no way I could afford to stay here if it were the full rent, and God knew that when he threw this in my lap.  Thank you AGAIN, God for taking care of me.

Part of the living room, the dining room of the new apartment.

   I've been here about a week and it's been a weird transition to living alone.  I realized I have never in my entire life lived alone.  I've always had an abundance of family or roommates around to keep me company...and force me to keep tidy!  We'll see how I do on my own.  So far, part of me enjoys the solitude and part of me is missing company.

   I should be starting up language classes again soon, which will help with needing some interaction.  I've been reviewing my notes and trying to keep what I learned before the holidays fresh in my mind, and I have a couple review classes set up before I begin the next phase of language.  My life will pretty much revolve around language for the next couple of months.  I feel like I better take a deep breath...heeeeere we go!

   One day after I'd done some grocery shopping, I was walking around the apartment unpacking and settling in.  I left the grocery bag in the doorway of the kitchen and went into the bathroom, which is off the kitchen.  I heard a noise like something shifting in the grocery bag...but it didn't stop!  Something was moving the bag!  I reached out and shut the kitchen door, which pushed the bag into the living room.  I listened and could still hear something out there, so I banged on the door and yelled.  I grabbed a butcher knife from the counter and tried to peek under the kitchen door (totally made me think of the movie Signs...yikes!) but couldn't see anything.  It was quiet in the living room so I slowly opened the door a crack...there were spaghetti noodles everywhere!  The grocery bag was dumped out and an empty ramen noodle packet was in the middle of all the spaghetti.  I looked around the living room and bedroom and couldn't see the culprit so I quietly moved towards the dining room.  I looked out on the balcony and sitting on the chair was a monkey, eating my ramen noodles!  I walked up to the open window and yelled at it "You stupid monkey!" and he ran away to eat in peace.  Apparently monkeys like ramen.  Sigh...so do I.
 

The view from the kitchen after I cleaned up some of the carnage from the monkey.