TZ 2016 – Shopping Day (5/3)
Adventures in “test driving” a house:
“Our house is a very, very, very fine house…” – our suite of rooms at the new Guest Hostel.
We started today with the normal weekday routine of joining the staff of the Diocese at morning chapel. We were going to have a later breakfast at the Bishop’s house, and decided to use the electric kettle to make some tea while we were waiting. We also had the hot water heater on. We blew the circuit. Not just in our rooms, but also at the Bishop’s house, which is where the power is coming from until the electric authority gets around to running a line directly to the hostel. (Things are different in Tanzania.) At first we thought that maybe the power was out all over the compound, but after a walk up to the offices, where there was still power, we determined that the issue was more local. The problem was quickly solved after identifying where it originated. We also got some bananas and home-made bread from Andrea out of the walk.
Living room, with love seat, chair, coffee table and the curtains that I made from fabric bought last year.
After breakfast we went shopping with Ephraim for a guide. We stopped at a street-side shop on the “main drag” and saw a love seat and matching chair that we thought would be nice. Even though I almost always end up going with the first thing I see that I like, it would not be good stewardship not to shop around. We stopped at several other shops. One did not have anything ready made. He had pictures of various models and they would custom make in about a week. The furniture was lovely, ornate and way to large for the sitting room space. (Folks here like to have seat 8 to 10 people, no matter how small their sitting room is. You can imagine how crowded some of the rooms can get. We want a more “American” sense of space.). Another only had two models that I did not really like. We eventually ended up back were we started. While we waited for the proprietor to put our choice of ends on the arms of the chair and love seat, Ephraim and I went down the street to find and buy a coffee table. There is already one in the bedroom, but I like it there, so we needed one for the sitting room. Ephraim had called for a truck from the diocese to come down to bring back the furniture, so we headed back to the hostel.
While the furniture was being set up, Cannon Wilson Mafumbi arrived with a two-burner gas-cooker and a large can of butane, as
Our two-burner gas cooker and kitchen area – not quite as organized as I would like.
propane is referred to here. Now we don’t need to use the electric kettle, but we had not pots or pans, so we headed back out with a different guide to shop for smaller domestic items. I could find a frying pan, but I could not find a kettle or even what we consider to be a normal pot with a handle, unless I wanted to buy the entire set (I didn’t). I ended up buying one of the smaller aluminum pans with a large flat rim, that is the standard pot for cooking over charcoal fires. We also got a thermos to keep the hot water in, a set of mugs (which is a full dozen mugs – way more than we need but that’s the way they come), a small plastic basin for washing dishes and two trash buckets. Then we got some basic food supplies: Neato, Africaf, bread, honey, peanut butter and cookies. We will want to supplement with some eggs, tomatoes, avocados and other fresh fruits, but with the food supplies we bought with us and these basics, we hope to be able to take care of most of our breakfast and lunch needs.
At this point, I was exhausted and took a nap!
We had a lovely dinner with Emmanuel Bwatta and his family, then back to the compound to blog, and in my case, to do a little bookkeeping. I promised myself that this year I would keep on top of it rather than trying to remember everything two months later! Bwana asafiwe! (Auto-correct just changed “Bwana” to banana. I like bananas, but I’d rather Praise the Lord.)
