My new home

My new, and I hope, final home in Arusha

Recently I moved into a 2 bedroomed house in the Kijenge area of Arusha, this is my 3^rd home in 14 months and I hope that it will be my last one. Moving is such a pain, no Pickfords removal firms here, you haggle with a guy for a pick up truck/motorbike truck to load up everything and unload at the other end but you have to pack everything and hope that nothing gets broken along the bumpy dirt roads.

I no longer have the luxury of a full cooker but I do have a 2 ring gas hob. A fundi recently made me a table to put it on along with a book case and a clothes rail-the 2^nd bedroom has no wardrobes, so it’s slowly coming together. The house is on a plot where the landlady has built 19 other houses, when I say houses some are mud rooms, others have been built with cement bricks then rendered, mine is the only one which would be considered a house by western standards, oh and hers, she lives next door in an identical house. Electricity is by prepaid meter and we get a water bill very 3 months or so. It’s a great house in a great location, only a 2 minute walk to the dala dala stop, a market at the back for daily vegetables and many dukas a 5 minute walk away. Helena, my landlady, has made improvements to the smaller houses by building a small wall in front of them to stop them from flooding when the big rains come. I hear so many stories of bad landlords, the signs are that she will be one of the good guys. Her son, Lowritch, likes to come in the evenings to practice his English as do some of the other kids. This is how I envisioned living in Africa, I know that I could not live as they do in 1 room with no water, electricity and a toilet shared by a few houses but I also don't like living the typical ex-pat lifestyle with a big house and live in help. Some do and each to their own. I feel that living in this small community is a good compromise. Selene comes once a week to do the laundry, she needs the work and I'm no good at hand washing, Juliana comes on a Saturday to clean, she needs the £3.70 more than I do

The photos show the house and the surrounding area, some of  my neighbours are goats
Life continues to be pretty darn good, thanks for taking the time to read this,
the outside of the house

the African bathroom, there is also a western one

the kitchen, note the fridge magnets from England/USA/Belarus

my lime green lounge, the crochet blankets travelled all of the way from Great Harwood, England, the rugs from Zanzibar

 The local houses with the new walls, these rent for around $30/month including water and electricity, the average salary is around $100-120, whole families live in just one room and I wonder what they think of mazungus renting such a big house-by their standards but relatively small by ours

 my house is at the back of these

 the view from across the main road, my complex is at the back of the shop with the yellow sign