Friday, December 7, 2007

Getting to know the neighbors and socializing

Last Friday night we were invited to drop by #7 in our compound, where Sarah and Ed, a British couple with children, live (we live at #3). Ed is Tony Blair. He works for the International Federation of Red Cross Societies (I have to say that all properly because we lived in Geneva, where that's all based and know there’s a difference between that and the Red Cross/Red Crescent.) Sarah (not my Sarah - this other woman at #7) had invited over a few friends for drinks and finger foods. One of the friends is an American woman, Laney (sp?) who also lives in Nairobi and who was so excited to meet us and have more Americans in town to know. And Laney had a close friend who was visiting her who was also there. The friend is from Washington, D.C., and lives on the 4400 block of Connecticut Ave. NW (the same street and nearly the same block where my Great Aunt Ingrid lived for many years).

Laney’s youngest baby, Max, is 13 days younger than Lexi. Cute little guy. She also has a daughter, Ruth, who's about 4. The youngest of the British woman is Freddy, who's 6 months. Lexi's still too young to be playing with other babies, but in a few months, we can all get together for them to play.

It was basically a moms group gathering, but then Ed (Tony Blair) came home from work later in the evening. They're really nice people. They've lived in this compound only since May. They lived in a much smaller house and with another baby on the way, they needed more room. Ed's employer (Red Cross) was very particular about where they could live because of security, and there were many places in the city that they would not let him live, but they deemed this compound/neighborhood safe. So that should make us and you feel better - this place has the Red Cross seal of approval for its staff as being a safe place to live. And Sarah says the RC is very strict about its safety rules for its staff.

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