We have arrived! We’re here in Moshi, a smaller town at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro for another week with our friends Clive and Bodil. We are beginning the overwhelming adjustment to the heat (with no A/C for respite), the dust, the food, everything. We’ve finally had a couple nights of decent sleep, which also helps.
The kids are having the bigger adjustment right now. Clive and Bodil have a really nice compound with 2 dogs and two small children that live in their guest quarters so Noah and Ava have been playing a lot, even if they can’t talk to each other (the other children speak Swahili). Cameron is reading a lot and finding more ways to play with Noah, too. Although we told them they wouldn’t get many of their favorite foods here, they’ve had ice cream, pizza, chicken fingers, and hot dogs. Everything, of course, is different, though, so even those foods have been a bit of a letdown. They’re not yet hungry enough to just dig in—yet. Any of you who have eaten with them know they’re a bit finicky, but there’s nothing to do but wait it out. We did visit a South African grocery store in Arusha which sells tons of Western foods, but it is very expensive so we’ll have to be careful about what we buy there. But in a pinch, it’s nice to know you can have chocolate syrup on your ice cream or Frosted Flakes for breakfast.
Mark and I are overwhelmed with the idea of starting life from scratch and not knowing exactly how to go about it. We have rented a house that will be ready in about a week. It has a nice yard (“garden” as it’s called here) with servant’s quarters and a washroom for laundry. It’s a four bedroom home, so it’s larger than what we’ll eventually have at PHA. There’s also an adjacent lot with a workshop that will serve as offices for Mark and the headmaster and a place to store the shipping container when it arrives. Sounds great! BUT—there’s no furniture, stove, fridge, or washing machine. And in case you think there’s a Slumberland or ApplianceMart nearby, sorry. Everything needs to be ordered from different places and the furniture is made to order. Sheets, kitchen appliances, dishes, silverware, sheets—all purchased at different shops around town. Everyone has cell phones, but it doesn’t seem like this type of business is conducted that way. Everyone just says, “Oh, there’s lots of people that can help you with that” but we’re just not sure where “those people” are or how to locate them. We will also need to hire a day and night security guard as well as at least 1 housekeeper/cook (and we’ll probably need 2 with our family’s size). While the idea of having help around the house is nice, the actual process of hiring and figuring out how to work that relationship is challenging. It seems every time we turn around, we remember something we need to do and realize we don’t know how to do it. We are heading back to Arusha this week for a couple days to get those things in order. Arusha is only about 45 miles away, but the drive is very stressful with the bad road, crazy driving, cows, goats, donkeys, and people on the road. It’s not a road you would want to drive on at night so we’ll probably spend the night there.
I remember that we had this wonderful idea of heading down to the coast for a few days before language camp. HA. It will take much longer to get settled and organized than I could have imagined. People here have told us to allow at least 3 months.
Despite all of that, we are so excited to be here. It’s hard to believe that we’ve got this opportunity and are trying to make the most of every adventure along the way. We have been met at every turn with so many helpful and generous people and we are confident that God will continue to open any doors where we have a need.
***Here’s a PS to put up the hair on the back of your neck—there are no seatbelts in the cars we’ve been driving. Ever thought you’d load your kids in a car with no belts? Neither did we. Mark is going to look at a car tomorrow—we’ve decided seat belts are just not optional.
***PPS I'm having trouble uploading my pics to the blog. Be patient...I am taking them!
1 comment:
How exciting to see you in Africa!
I wish I could help you somehow with all of the settling in. It reminds me a lot of when we moved to Caracas. I felt helpless in many ways. We were only there 6 months, but we had to find appliances, sheets, furniture, etc. too. We also hired a cook/housekeeper. The apartment manager helped us find stuff we needed. Friends were somewhat helpful but didn't want to get down to the nitty gritty. It's a lot of work!
I'll send you an email about some hiring help ideas.
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