Tag: Life in Tanzania

While in the States, lots of people asked what life is like in Dar es Salaam. I often find it so hard to describe, since it’s so unlike anything in the States, yet not nearly as primitive as some people expect. So I plan to make a few posts of pictures that will show little pieces of life here, starting with….

Our house. This picture is looking through the gate into our driveway. Our house is on the right. Most houses in Dar es Salaam are completely surrounded by a wall. You can also see our car in this picture–a Suzuki Escudo. A four wheel drive vehicle is practically a necessity here!

Here you can see our driveway, with a little guest house to the left. Guest houses on property are also very common here. Often a guard or houseworker will live there. Our good friend Janelle is living there this year. Janelle is also with ReachGlobal (EFCA) and teaches 3rd grade at HOPAC. I love having her so close by!

Our back yard

Our side yard and patio. We love all this space, and it’s fantastic on Friday nights when we have 30 kids here for youth group!

Our front room. I especially love the doors that open up onto the patio. We would eat on the patio all the time, except the mosquitoes drive us away.

Our bedroom. The mosquito net is not just for show!

Our guest room. Karibu! (Welcome!)

I don’t have a picture of Grace’s room, so I’ll add that later. Our house is pretty typical of other houses in this area, though a majority of our students (esp. the Tanzanians, since they are upper class) live in houses that are a lot nicer than ours. I absolutely love this house–I love all the plants, the windows, the “openness” and because it is “normal” looking. Many houses in this area have some rather odd architecture–triangular rooms, cone shaped ceilings, things like that. Or metallic gold painted cabinets, pink floor tiles….we’ve seen some interesting things!

Workers are doing some renovation on the little guest house next to our house (a good friend of ours will live there in the fall). So what did they do with all the scraps of concrete and roof shingles? What better way to put it to use than to fill in the potholes in the road! This is actually a pretty common practice….the drawback is that it occasionally puts holes in your tires! Below are pictures of the road right outside our house.

1. Gil’s baseball caps
2. Bread left out for more than one day
3. A wet spot on my couch
4. My Bible cover
5. Our toothbrushes
6. My can opener
7. Leather watch bands
8. Any clothing that doesn’t dry completely (a definite challenge in the rainy season!)

One of the things I love about living in Tanzania are the tailors. It’s difficult to find workable clothing here, but beautiful fabric is plentiful, and so are tailors. The tailor I’ve most recently been using has been way too flaky, so I’ve been looking for another one. I was thrilled to find a young woman last week that’s just a few minutes walk from our house. Her name is Beatrice, and her shop is made out of one half of one of those big shipping containers. She uses an old-fashioned foot-pedal sewing machine. I’ve already had her make me a dress, a skirt, and curtain ties for my kitchen curtains–all for the equivalent of about $12. Made to order; done the next day. Can’t beat that!

Now that I have become a mother, my entire identity has changed in Tanzania. A Tanzanian woman’s identity is wrapped up in her children, so much so that her name changes with the birth of her first child. I am now known as “Mama Grace.” Tanzanians pay a whole lot more attention to me now…which could be because my baby is brown…but also because I have a baby at all. Checkers at the grocery store where I shop have seen me for a year and never paid much attention to me; now they always address me as “Mama Grace” and ask about her, even if she’s not with me.