Tag: Life in Tanzania Page 17 of 26

We have lived in 8 different houses during 8 years of marriage. That’s not counting the months we lived with family while on Home Assignment.

Sigh. It was okay before we had kids; then I was fine being a nomad. As soon as motherhood hit, I wanted to stay in one place. Permanently. And never move again. I wanted to put my pictures up on the wall and keep them there.

And I really thought that would be the case with our last house. Well, the last house before the temporary house. The landlord was great, she had no intention of moving back in (which happened to another of our past houses), and I liked everything about that house. I just didn’t anticipate the walls falling down and needing to be rebuilt.

So by now I have given up the notion that I am going to stay in any house for any kind of permanency. (By the way, it’s practically impossible for a foreigner to buy a house in Tanzania).

But you know what? After moping over the fact we had to leave the last house, and complaining to God because we had to leave the temporary house (the perfect one next to the school), and depressed because we had to find another house, yet again….well, after all that, He still gave me a house I don’t deserve. My favorite house, in fact, of all the houses I’ve lived in. It is not a 30 second walk from school like the last one, but it’s only a 10 minute walk (2 minute drive) from school. It’s got a park for a yard. (Really, it’s THAT gigantic.) And it even has a huge laundry room where I can leave my ironing board set up all the time. (Because we know what is really important in life, don’t we, ladies?)

Great location. Great price. Big enough to hold 40 kids on Friday nights. Yard big enough for a soccer field and a basketball court, if we wanted to put them in. Guest room. Two year lease. Not permanent, but not bad either. And we didn’t even have to look for it. It fell in our laps. More than I deserve, indeed. Especially considering all of my fretting.

So you want to see it? Here it is.

Dining Room

Laundry room/Pantry

Toy Room. This is a strange little room connecting the kitchen and the garage. We had the shelves put in and made it a Toy Room. It makes me very happy because for once I am able to keep all the kids’ stuff organized. As you can see, my children are not suffering!

Living Room

Closet in Kids’ Bedroom. All the bedrooms have these kind of closets.

Grace’s bed. The other side of the room has another bed waiting for Josiah when he gets big enough.

Guest room. Come stay with us!

Bathroom

Office nook in our bedroom

Our bedroom

Master bath

Forgot to take outside pictures, so that will be next time!

We took the Hillside team to Zanzibar for 3 days at the end of their trip. It’s one of our absolute favorite places in the world, so we didn’t mind! Zanzibar is a large island off the coast of Tanzania, inhabited by about a million people, 99.9% of whom are Muslim. It is full of incredible culture, history, and beaches!

Swimming with dolphins. You see that arm in the back? That’s not Gil, but that is how close he got.

I love having a photographer for a husband. 🙂

This is what my little guy does whenever he finds me sitting or kneeling on the ground.

Stonetown, the main city, is full of amazing architecture…buildings made out of coral…carved doors like you see here…fascinating history.

The locals are eager to “decorate” the tourists with homemade items.

Home of Red Colubus monkeys….you can get close enough to touch them.

Dozens of spices grown here….

…and loads of exotic fruit.

Gil bought Josiah this little “Rastafari” hat…and he was just WAY too cute for words.

Our awesome, energetic, willing, flexible team….we love you guys! Thanks, Sarah, Ian, Michelle, Kristen, and Ruben!

(This picture was taken in a mangrove forest…one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.)

Dear Owners/Managers of Shoprite Supermarket,

First of all, let me tell you that there are many things I like about your store. I really like that it reminds me of supermarkets back at home. You have a wide selection, mostly local products or imports from South Africa, which means your prices are good. I like that you have a big bakery (and I’m thankful you finally got your bread slicer fixed) and a meat section (with a window so that we can see the butchers hacking up the meat!)

But I have one teency-weency piece of advice for you: when you get rats in your store at night, clean up the evidence before the customers enter in the morning. So that means that if the rats got into the cereal last night, then take all those chewed up boxes down and throw them away, before 8:00 when you open the store! And if the rats leave lots of little doo-doos in the aisle, sweep them up and mop before you let customers see them!

I understand that you have a rat problem; lots of stores do in Tanzania. I’m assuming that you are doing something to try to get rid of them. But some customers, like me, like to live in blissful ignorance that their grocery store has a major rat problem. Truthfully, it makes me want to hurl, which isn’t exactly the reaction you want shoppers to have in your store.

Respectfully yours,

A faithful shopper

There’s bunches of these little guys at our house.

Okay, maybe not bunches.

But they come out every night. And we always know when one appears because the dogs go crazy. They bark without ceasing and dance around it and even put their mouths on it, but they won’t bite them or massacre them the way they do with rats and snakes. I mean, would you?

And then the hedgehog screams bloody murder. Kind of sounds like a small child crying. A mad small child.

“Pick it up,” my husband says to me.

Pick it up? Like with my hands? You want me to pick up a prickly, pokey rodent which I’m sure has teeth in there somewhere? The dogs won’t touch it; why should I?

So we compromised and used a lid and a stick. He’s actually kind of cute, don’t you think?