My house

Ester is her name and her “boyfriend, so-called husband, so-called fiancé, owns the house that she is living in while he lives in Zurich. She doesn’t speak much English so I communicated with as much Swahili as I could and Nassa translated for me.

We walked through all the shortcuts, and along the way I was thinking, oh hell no am I going to be hitting these path alone day or night for fear of getting lost. After about 20 minutes, we arrived at the house, which it set back behind an unfinished, cement fence with no gate.  There are beautiful trees, coconut, mango and palms and the area was littered with trash all about. And the chickens and roosters were scattering about, along with the dog that was standing high on, what I noticed to be a mound of trash.

The house is just adorable, clean, white, pure, NEW, and had great vibes. The exterior is all white with lovely wooden beams/stucco covering over the porch that is laid with marble-white tile.  The windows are nice and have great screens, and there are a tight lock on the door. I pushed and pulled and it felt strong. :) As soon as she opened the door I knew I wanted it. There was an open living room with “small’, yet perfect for me, dining area, and a little kitchen that had a sink, yes a nice sink. Imagine that. There wasn’t a stove or fridge so I had to hunt all that down. The bedroom is great and has a ceiling fan, as does the living room. Sweet!! The bathroom is great, compared to most, which don’t even have a toilet, but a porcelain urinal to do you do into. This bathroom actually has a toilet, sink and tub with a shower. I was in heaven. Most bathrooms you either have to use a bucket and wash up or a rinky-dink shower. AND, bathtubs are hard to come by. I was happy for this considering it is a ritual for me to take baths every night. There is not hot water though, just cold that comes from a huge tank in the back of the house. There is also a closet area.

I asked how much for the house and told her I would be staying around 3 ½ months. She wanted 200,000 TSH a month; about 175.00. I would have to pay about $10.00 per month for electricity. DONE, in my mind, although Africans do like to bargain and welcome it, so I said I would give here 175 a month since I would be staying for 3 months, guaranteed She looks and said “ohh noo noo, with a big grin.”  I know exactly what she was thinking; Muzungu Money! I want! I told her I needed to think about it and call her in the morning because I was also looking at a few other houses that day.  She was going top call her her boyfriend, husband, fiancé to see if he would go for that.

The next day Nassa called her to ask about the price and she said he wasn’t budging. I thought. No worries, I would pay $300.00 for it because it is one of the nicest houses around and in Block P one of the best neighborhoods to live in Baga. We signed an agreement that day, and I moved in about 5 days later. She was currently living in the house and had to take a few days to move out, plus I had to hunt and gather my house wares.

See she get some of the rent, and she needs the money, so she moved out, and moved into this little, tiny room/shed, although its rather nice, under the water tank. And above her room is a ladder that leads to another tiny room where two other guys live. I do like the idea of quite a few people living around me so that was poa (cool).

pictures to come soon...