3rd message home

24 January 2004

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

I have such a hard time getting to a computer and being able to check e-mail and write that I’ve decided that I’m going to try to get everyone caught up on our adventure in bullet form.  I’m reading 2 books right now, one is the letters of Karen Blixen, who wrote ‘Out of Africa’ and the other is the letters of Jane Goodall.  They are such wonderful letter writers and their letters are filled with stories with such rich descriptions of their life here in Eastern Africa that I’m ashamed of my own poor attempts, especially what I’m about to write, as I just want to get the news out and don’t have time to wax too poetic.  Sorry for all you readers, but you’ll have to live with this until I get more reliable computer time.

 

I’m going to start with the house:

• Since we’ve arrived all of the following has been done re: the house, which I’m proud to say we have been living in since Tuesday, 20 January.  Not bad, only14 days in the hotel.

 

• Discovered water damage in the cabinets under the sink, all of which has been removed and replaced and it even matches the rest of the kitchen.

 

• Discovered that although screens were constructed for all of the windows, the windows had to actually be CLOSED in order to close the screens properly.  All of which has been repaired.

 

• Purchased “standard” sized beds from a roadside market and mattresses from a factory of the same “standard” size, only to discover that they don’t fit together, had the beds modified, pulled out my sheets, which I didn’t think would fit only to find that they are the perfect size.

 

• Realized that I had carried over sheets for 3 twin sized beds and 1 queen sized bed and stupidly purchased 2 twin sized beds and bought 1 and borrowed 1 queen sized bed, found and purchased sheets for the borrowed bed, which I had to wash in the bathtub with dishwashing soap to remove all the sizing, figured out how to make a bed using only flat sheets (hospital corners all the way round).  Also gained great respect for all the women here who have to do their laundry in streams or otherwise by hand – requires a certain amount of strength – especially in the back and arms.  (I had to re-wash one pillow case as a bird left a calling card on it while it was hanging on the line– the nerve!)

 

• Realized that our pillows are in the air shipment – which was supposed to arrive last Sunday, but didn’t, and Rob figured out where to buy pillows (we’re going to need them for all the guests anyway) and then realized that only sheets had come for the queen bed, but had pillowcases that matched the twin sheets, lucked out and found that 4 pillow cases came with my new sheets (mentioned above) and we’re all set for all the beds.

 

• Hired two “Gardeners” or are they “Guard-ners” for the daytime shift to keep the gardens and the pool in top shape and to otherwise make me feel like a pain in the neck as they come running at top speed to open the gate for me each time I come and go.

 

• Hired a cleaning lady who isn’t afraid of Bogue, or Booyan for that matter, and who is willing to come and clean the animal hair off the floors and the kid hand and foot prints off the walls and help me with laundry three times a week for about $5 per day. 

 

• Found the pool in primordial soup form, got it cleaned up and can actually see to the bottom, although not completely clearly, while the kids swim.

 

• Had plumbing repairs that put both hot and cold running water with GOOD water pressure in all 3 bathrooms and kitchen (a rare pleasure here, I’m told).

 

• Figured out how to buy water that has to be trucked in and pumped into an underground tank (cistern?), get trash taken away, get drapes and mosquito nets made (although we haven’t had a single mosquito in the house!), get a filter attached to the kitchen sink that lets us actually drink the trucked in water, get pool chemicals, and purchase electricity (which is exorbitantly priced).  Some of these have been done and some of these are on order, hopefully to be delivered soon.

 

• Purchased a beautiful wicker coffee table and 4 chairs for the front porch which we are using as our living/dining/etc. furniture for now.

 

• Purchased a second hand washer and separate dryer which we will pick up this weekend, but found that the American Club will do laundry for $10 per bag.  (This is great, sort of like in Lithuania – do you remember I had to take my laundry out for a few months and how great I thought it was to get clean and IRONED undies back? – it’s the same here!!)

 

• Realized that we didn’t have anything to eat upon – plates, etc. as they are in the air shipment, but found out that the Chinese restaurant gave us terrific little plastic bowls with our leftovers and found nice plastic glasses in the supermarket for not much money, then received the most wonderful home made cinnamon rolls for a housewarming gift and was able to feed the kids breakfast before school after all.

 

 

OK, that’s all I can think of regarding the house, here are the other accomplishments so far:

 

• Driving on the left hand side of the road with a right hand drive car, the hard part is the turn signals, they’re on the right side of the steering wheel and the wiper controls are on the left – guess what happens every time I try to turn on the turn signal.

 

• Started learning some Swahili – I know some completely useless words, like the word for spider, lizard, goat, dog, ferocious dog (not Bogue), cat, child, foreigner, and roundabout (keeplefty- in the US this would be a “keeprighty”)  Learned that dogs, parents, and teachers, and apparently some food can be Mkali (ferocious) , but not cats, goats, or children.

 

• Joined a club that would have us – the American Club.  Requirements for admission, a US passport, very exclusive don’t you think?  Has benefits like pool, tennis, restaurant, laundry service, internet hookup (although this has been more frustrating than anything else), DVD rental, paperback library, Satellite TV, Air Conditioning (this has been my favorite benefit, after the laundry service of course.)  However, imagine it in small scale not like Waterworld, Blockbuster, Outback Steakhouse, etc.

 

• Moved me and 3 kids into the house from the hotel while Rob traveled to a distant city (Tanga) for 3 nights.  He was actually gone the first night we stayed in the house.  Brave me.  Except that we have a security alarm and a night guard.  Discovered that the motion sensors inside the house pick up the guard outside the house and keep setting the alarm off so I can’t set the alarm until I get drapes.   However, the house feels like Fort Knox with padlocks and iron grilling over every opening – I think it’s more of a fear of us getting out in event of a fire than that someone should get in without making a heck of a racket.

 

• We bought a Toyota Land Cruiser, but because of the registration process and the processing of the paperwork for exempting us from customs, duties and Value Added Tax, we won’t have it for a few weeks.  Our bank has been slow to process the wire transfer and the other things will still take some time.  In the meantime, we are renting a small Toyota sedan making picking up items a bit of a challenge.

 

Well, that’s all I can think of right now.  So far we’ve been doing rather well.  The kids are in school, have all made friends, are generally happy.  Rob has been working, and he’ll have to fill you in on that aspect of life here.  I’ve been managing – sometimes it’s just sitting in the empty house to watch the work, sometimes it’s “networking” to get the scoop on where to buy all the good stuff I need.  When our air shipment comes, I’ll try to write a better letter about life here.  I just had so many things in my head that I wanted to report, I thought it would be better to just get it down and send it.

 

Hope everyone is well on the other side of the ocean.  We’d love to hear from all of you, although our e-mail situation is a little frustrating now, we hope to get it into better control soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi to All,

 

At the risk of providing a boring and less amusing conclusion to Barb’s insights, I thought I would add a few points with regard to my perspective on the past three weeks.

 

First, the kids have been wonderfully adaptable and accepting of the changes.  They enjoy the school, have made friends and have handled the constraints of hotel life and now life in a mostly empty house with ease.  Not to say there have not been the normal spats and bickering, but they have been real troopers.  When I asked Wes how the move was affecting him, he said, I really like it here.  I said what is it you like, and his response was “Everything, I like it all.”  So, they were having issues, it would be more difficult, but they have been great.

 

Second, as Barb has elaborated on the amount of things that have been done. I am astounded that we have been able to get it all accomplished in the time we have had.  Issues like getting contractors to start and finish their job, finding the right parts, etc. would be a challenge in the US, but we have been successful getting it done in a place where nothing is supposed to work efficiently.  It is known as a place that moves at a pace described in Swahili as “pole-pole” (pronounced like the Spanish bullfighting cheer ole [or o-lay]) 

 

Third, one of the most uncomfortable things for us is the amount of dependence we need to place on other people.  We need to find out how things work (where do you buy the cards to recharge your electric meter, how do you get trash and water service, how do you find a vet, which doctors are best, how do you find and schedule your household staff (the guards are called askaris), where can you find cars, how do you get the gas for the stove, how do you start the generator when the electricity goes out, etc., etc..  Neither Barb nor I like to ask for help too much, and as newbies here, we need to be reliant on people we don’t know very well, which makes both of us uncomfortable.

 

Now that we have a modicum of regularity established on the home front, I need to concentrate more on the project activities and get things going at work.  I need to hire some people, move our offices, and get about six major programmatic activities planned, budgeted and underway.  Only on Friday were we able to obtain the computers and related office equipment that we need and had asked for approval from the USAID contracts officer for in October.  So, you can see the pace of life that our funding agency operates under.  In addition, I was in Tanga Tuesday through Friday (about 5 hours north of Dar), next week I will be in Arusha for three days, two weeks from now I will be in Arusha for three days, and the following week I am supposed to be in Nairobi for three days followed by a week of meetings in Minnesota.  If I came to DC for a couple of days, that trip would be two weeks.  I am positioning to get a waiver from that trip, but I may not be able to get out of it.  So, the idea that the overseas move would diminish my travel schedule is not panning out.  Hopefully, we will sort that out.

 

So, sorry for the melba toast letter, but that is about where things stand for now. 

 

We are doing well and are thinking of you.  We would really welcome to hear how everyone is doing, so keep those cards and letters coming. 

 

Our thoughts are with you and keep in touch.

 

Best wishes from Tanzania,

Rob