Jun 20, 11:17 AM
My Tanzanian home for the summer
I’ve been lucky to find a great place to live about six km from town on the Nairobi/Moshi Road. It’s actually a walled compound, surrounding a four bedroom home. Johanne the guard (called an “askari”) is there all the time to open the gate for us, and he also tends to the many beautiful plants that are all over the grounds and to the two guard dogs. These are a mutt who looks a bit like a yellow lab with white feet and a medium-size, longhaired black one that looks something like a miniature collie. The yellow’s name is Yoshi and the black’s name is Tom (as near as we can understand Johanne, at any rate), but the roommates and I have taken to calling them Simba and Rafiki, respectively.
Those roommates are four other ICTR interns, all American; two of them share the giant master bedroom. There’s electricity that fails only rarely (once every few days for maybe 10 to 15 minutes), a big kitchen with a (chrome) refrigerator and an electric range. There is running water, and nice hot water in the shower, so long as you remember to flip the electrical switch a few hours beforehand. There’s a very nice front porch and a circular staircase leading to a rooftop deck. The walls are white concrete painted a clean white and the floors are tile. It’s furnished with four cooshy couches in the living room and a nice teak table in the dining room.
The landlord, Mr. Mooshi (sp?), is a really nice guy who’s been very attentive to the few small problems that have come up. He charges us $500 per month and prefers to be paid in American dollars. He also brings us beer and soda, taking away the empty bottles, once a week or so. He owns a hardware store, and that apparently allows him to get the beverages and sell them on to us at wholesale prices—17,000 shillings (roughly $14) for 24 bottles of Castle Lager and 6,000 shillings (roughly $5) for 24 bottles (those beautiful, tall glass ones you can never find in America anymore) of Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. There’s a maid, Lilly, who comes three times a week and does our laundry (by hand).
I pass on these mundane details because I suspect that some readers might not really have an idea what life in this part of Africa is like. I hasten to add that my living situation is typical of expatriates and of wealthy natives—everyone with any money lives in a walled compound and employs servants—but, if I had to guess, it’s probably only 5% of people who live that way. Surrounding our house is a village of more typical homes: fired mud brick more often than concrete, dirt floors, no glass in the windows, corrugated metal roof, surrounded by small fields of mixed bananas, corn (maize), coffee, beans, etc.
After I’ve told you how nice my place is, I also have to add that there was a rat in my bedroom last night. Its tail was about 7 inches long and it had a pig-like nose. Lacking any type of weapon with which to dislodge it from the closet, where I saw it run, and smash it, I spent the rest of the night on a couch and hoped it would just go out as it had come in. Today I’ll call Mr. Mooshi. Maybe he’s got some poison and traps at his hardware store.
Sounds very nice. I love the details you shared. But that rat! has to go. If he doesn’t, you may have to call in Simba and Rafiki to sleep with you.
Do you have internet in the house where you live>?
Love ya
DAD
— Dad Jun 20, 08:12 PM #
Sounds palatial Mark. Even the rats are of generous proportions. Now go easy on that cheap beer, you know you are a ‘real ale’ chap really. Blog is great reading. Glad it’s going well.
Enjoy
Correna
— correna Jun 26, 03:55 PM #