Maisha marefu!: Moving Day!

Moving day at the apartment

February 16, 2013

Yesterday Susan and I packed our suitcases and joined our friend Shannon in paradise. Our new house is located in an area called Isamilo, just a 3 minute walk around the corner from the APYN office where I have worked during the week up till now. Starting this week I will be in the office on Monday mornings, and then rotate been visiting the 10 yogurt kitchens in the APYN network, Monday afternoon - Friday. Still, it will be convenient to live so close to the office when it comes to running errands, attending meetings and the like.

We rent the house from a incredibly strong and kind local woman named Momma Mary. She is a clinical officer (one step below a doctor) at the Seko-ture Hospital and speaks very good English. She actually owns three compounds in the area, one of which she lives in herself. All three compounds contain houses that Momma Mary has had built over the last 25 years, and are plush with plants, flowers and fruit trees. Actually, this past Wednesday Momma Mary had Megan, Shannon, Susan and myself over for dinner to get to know us and to say goodbye to Megan. She made so much delicious food and even offered to teach us how to cook authentic samosas, chapatti and rice pilaff whenever we wanted! In return, we are going to have her over for dinner to try eggplant parmesan, banana bread and sangria- not so much because it is "Canadian" cuisine, but because it is delicious and uncommon here!

Momma Mary has hired a boy named Freddy to live here full-time to be the guard and gardener. He is very sweet and is always waiting for us if we get home late. On Sunday's Freddy takes the day off to go home and go to church and a different guard comes and takes his place for the day. Aside from that Freddy is literally here 24/7 and we will often cook extra food and bring it out to him or ask him to go and pick-up small things (like soda or eggs) so he can actually spend some time outside of the compound!

Our home is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house built sometime around 1996. Currently we are using the fourth bedroom as a storage/laundry room. The rent is 1,000,000 tsh/month (or $650 CAD/month), so with the three of us living here my rent only increased from $200/month at the apartment to $215/month. However, when Susan and Shannon head back to Canada in April I will be responsible for paying the full $650/month until I leave in May. I really don't mind though because the peace, the security, the comfort and the beautiful outdoor space here is priceless... plus my SFD grant will more than cover the cost of my living expenses for four months.

So here it is, our humble abode....

My new bedroom.

It is the smallest of the 3 bedrooms but I struck a bargain with Susan in order to get the book shelf. When the girls move out in April I will take over the master bedroom and en-suite.

Storage/Laundry Room.

It's nice to have a drying line inside so when it rains

our clothes don't need to be re-washed.

The house has not one but two above ground toilets and showers. The other is located in the master bedroom.

Living Room and Office Space

Our new living room is much nicer than the one in the apartment, mostly because, well,

it's actually comfortable enough to sit in.

Shannon (my new roomie) is hard at work!

Our kitchen, fully equipped with a big fridge/freezer and a gas stove that I don't need to get underneath and light with a match every time I want to cook something. We store our food in a pantry that is to the left but out of view in this photo.