After a welcome week in a
hotel which allowed us to adjust to our new surroundings slowly, we moved into
our house on Wednesday. It's not far from the centre of Shinyanga and is close
to AICT's office as well as on the road to the school so it's an ideal location
for us. It's also quite big and in an ‘upmarket' part of town - certainly at
the upper end of the housing spectrum.
While a very safe place and
community, it's normal to have decent security which in our case consists of a
perimeter wall with razor wire, locked gates, barred windows and a guard who
sits at our front door from 7pm to 7am every night. Does feel a bit overkill (although
we could have done with all that in Belfast) but as ‘Mzungu’s we do attract
added attention so better safe than sorry.
Houses here don’t generally come furnished so we were very fortunate and thankful that the owner left us a bed, fridge, kettle and cooking hob – all things we would have had to buy if they hadn’t been here. Appliances cost the same or more than in Ireland and can be hard to get so having a fridge in this climate is a real bonus. The house also has air conditioning in the bedroom and living room so we really are living in luxury!
Everything else we needed we had to go and buy so in the absence of IKEA, we visited the gloriously named establishments ‘Amazing Grace’ homewares, ‘The Japanese Corner Shop’ (not a piece of sushi or even a Japanese person in the vicinity), and the ‘Half London Gift Shop’ where we bought and will continue to buy our eggs. Unfortunately, Amazing Grace only had one knife available during our visit so having cleaned them out, we will continue to share until a further shipment arrives!
Thankfully, we had help
during our shopping spree, otherwise it would have been near impossible. We
start Swahili lessons on Monday and they really can’t come soon enough.
The house is fantastic and we’re very glad to have moved in and are well on the way to making it feel like home. We’re always delighted to have visitors so feel free to call in anytime...
Swahilli word of the day: Mzungu - literally means someone who wanders without purpose but came to be applied to all white people in East Africa and heard regularly when you’re the tallest, whitest person in a town
Houses here don’t generally come furnished so we were very fortunate and thankful that the owner left us a bed, fridge, kettle and cooking hob – all things we would have had to buy if they hadn’t been here. Appliances cost the same or more than in Ireland and can be hard to get so having a fridge in this climate is a real bonus. The house also has air conditioning in the bedroom and living room so we really are living in luxury!
Everything else we needed we had to go and buy so in the absence of IKEA, we visited the gloriously named establishments ‘Amazing Grace’ homewares, ‘The Japanese Corner Shop’ (not a piece of sushi or even a Japanese person in the vicinity), and the ‘Half London Gift Shop’ where we bought and will continue to buy our eggs. Unfortunately, Amazing Grace only had one knife available during our visit so having cleaned them out, we will continue to share until a further shipment arrives!
Thankfully, we had help
during our shopping spree, otherwise it would have been near impossible. We
start Swahili lessons on Monday and they really can’t come soon enough.The house is fantastic and we’re very glad to have moved in and are well on the way to making it feel like home. We’re always delighted to have visitors so feel free to call in anytime...
Swahilli word of the day: Mzungu - literally means someone who wanders without purpose but came to be applied to all white people in East Africa and heard regularly when you’re the tallest, whitest person in a town
Excellent work Singos - I'll call around Thursday evening. Stick on the kettle.
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