Home Sweet Home

Okay so many of you may have heard last week I moved into my new home…for the next two years! It was very exciting/activating/hot/stressful/funny/difficult/emotional day.  The first night was definitely rough.  My bed was not put together, the water didn’t work and I had no fan.  And it just didn’t feel like a home. 

But now after a little over a week of being here and many, many, many trips to little Chinese and Pakistani lojas (stores) to buy everything you need for a house in Mozambique, it is feels more like a home.  My bed is put together, my indoor water works (sometimes…which is normal) and I organized all my stuff.  As the days go on it becomes more like home! I promise to post pics soon!

My house is what many would say is a standard Peace Corps house in Moz.  It has a veranda, a living room, an indoor bathroom with a sitdown toilet that flushes (not really all that stardard peace corps), and a bedroom.  It also has three doors that lock.  The one major drawback of the house is that it only has one window (in the bedroom).  The roof is made out of tin/metal so the house becomes very hot…I mean extremely hot…like never been hotter in your life kinda hot.  So fanS are completely and utterly necessary. 

The house is located in a neighborhood and I do have neighbors.  I am about a 10-15 minute walk from the central city of Quelimane but my neighborhood and Quelimane in general is very populated.  There is always tons of people walking around.  Quelimane definitely has an urban feel to it…although it is not huge (New York…how I miss you) it is more like a Milwaukee (I miss you only sometimes).  I have been able to find everything I need here which is great!

Some notable purchases have been:

Jelly

Buckets (to wash clothes)

Electric stove

Hangers

Pots

Coffee cup

Clothes pins

Rugs

Toilet cleaner

Bleach

Mini fridge

silverware

Cheese

Peace Corps gives everyone 7,000 meticas (Moz money) to purchase essential and random things for our houses…in addition to our monthly living allowance, which also just under 7,000 meticas.