Movin' OUT.

Many of you know we had some serious troubles at our house here in Tanzania, to the point where we needed to move. I figured moving here would be a lot easier than when we moved from Minnesota to Tanzania--we don't have hardly any stuff by comparison and we didn't actually have to load and unload the truck ourselves, since there are always lots of people hanging around willing to earn a few shillings. But I did have to pack everything up and get rid of junk. And I learned about another great aspect of American life--cardboard boxes. As in, you've got 'em there and we don't here. None. We had a bunch from our move to TZ, but there was a time when it looked like I was going to have to unload a box at the new place and then carry it back to refill, which would have taken a looong time. A friend who moved away last summer gave me her boxes, which her gardener had helpfully broken down by slitting all the side seams and leaving the tops and bottoms taped together. So those were less than useful. It took more effort and energy than I thought, but I did get it all done, mostly single-handedly, in a week, moved it all in a day (while managing to spend a couple hours at the Christmas fair, too) and unpacked in a week.

The new house is in town and if you've been to Arusha, it's near the Impala Hotel. The area has been rented by a lot of UN workers and is considered very safe. Our house is bordered by other houses on 3 sides and a well-lit street in the front, so we are quite happy. In the picture it looks huge, I know, but it's actually one long duplex divided (the white wall is the edge of our yard and our house). The kids are very excited because it's got 2 stories! They love the swing, too. For the most part it's laid out very nicely and sensibly, much better than our old house. The only odd thing is that the kitchen doesn't have any upper cabinets, just ones under the counters and those are smallish so that it's hard to store things and then bend down far enough to see anything. Every house has strange quirks here, though. We'll stay here for awhile while we (still) wait for housing to get done onsite. Yep, still waiting...

Yasini, our terrific housekeeper, has moved on to better things. He applied for and was hired at PHS as the head cleaner. He was very qualified, having been a cleaner at a college here for 12 years before working for us. This job is better for him financially and provides more stability now that he doesn't have to worry about what will happen to him whenever we leave. His wife, Lucy, took over for him at our house. We love her just as much and my Swahili is growing now because she speaks very little English. We

both speak enough of the other's language to make sense of each other!

Thanks to a tip and some exploring on Picasa I'm back (fingers crossed) to posting my own pics on my own blog! Thanks, Karen, who was posting for me for awhile. I've got the camera and just enough tech know-how to be back in the saddle again. Stay tuned for more!