This morning, while Jon is still sleeping, I am sitting on our porch, overlooking our yard, and then the city below. I am listening to the birds in the trees in our yard and our neighbors’ yards, the occasional boda-boda driving by outside with their motors cranking hard up the hill, and their motors turned off as they coast back down, and the faint noise of Kampala in the morning. Our house is out of the fray, but a three minute walk down the hill puts us into the Kintintale market and a mess of matatu taxis, special hire taxis, and boda-bodas. On Sunday music started early in the church at the bottom of the hill and was still going when we went to sleep last night. We love where we live.
Oh it feels good to finally have a home after two and a half months of living out of suitcases in hotels.
This weekend, Jon and I made huge strides in changing what was just us and a mattress in a big, empty house into a place that is ours and that we can call home. There are still a few pieces to come, including internet and our bed, but we are getting so close.
Friday evening, while Jon was at the TEDC dinner plugging Appfrica and making some really good contacts, I began cleaning the house. I can’t figure out why, but every surface in the house was filthy. After a trip to Uchumi, a local Safeway/Kroger equivalent to buy a trunk-load of cleaning supplies, I began cleaning the kitchen. Using a sponge and some soapy water, I washed the cabinets, and drawers, got all of our dishes out of their boxes, washed them, and put them into their new homes, and then swept and mopped. A kitchen!
Then I moved on to the closets in the bedrooms, which required similar treatments, and I scrubbed the bathrooms, and mopped them, too. Jon came home as I was unpacking my bags into my closet (we each have our own closets in the Kampala house!) and swept and mopped the rest of the house. Success!
Saturday was more of the same. Jon and I had breakfast (our first meal cooked in the new house) on the porch in our little lawn chairs, and then we swept and mopped the porch. I unpacked the remainder of the bags into the guestroom (where our medicine cabinet, Scrabble, and my yoga mat now live), and the office (where countless cords and hard drives now reside).
Sunday was our big day. Jon and I made a list of the things that we still needed in order to complete our house. We took a very long trip to Game, a South African department store with a little bit of everything at fairly high prices. We were willing to pay for the convenience of a one-stop shop. Although there were a few things that were still missing after our hour and a half spree, and 770,000 UGX later, we accomplished a lot. Among our accomplishments was the buying of several garden tools that Godfrey, our guard cum gardener, is using in the yard next to where I’m sitting.
Our next mission was a kitchen table. There’s a furniture place that Jon and I pass each time we go into and out of town. I had seen some pretty kitchen chairs there that I had never been able to successfully point out to Jon. We found our way to the store (not as easy as one might think), and I pointed out the chairs that I liked. Jon liked them too, and they happened to be sitting around a pretty table that we immediately took a liking to. It’s a large, square table with rounded edges. Both the table and the chairs are made of a light-colored wood, and it’s pretty striking, we think. Our interest was too high starting out to have much in the way of bargaining power, but we liked it enough to buy it anyway. We later learned that the guy who sold us the table and delivered it ran off with the money we paid him and never returned to the shop. We were warned to be careful. My immediate reaction (though not sensitive in the slightest, and I later checked myself) was, “Well, that’s a drag, but not really our problem is it?” But of course our direct problem or not, it’s a pretty strong statement on the state of things.
Once decided on the table and the deal done, we loaded the table into a hired pick-up truck, and we followed it home. We had meant to lead the way, but our taxi driver drove too slowly for the guys in the truck—a good quality in a taxi driver, but now when you’re trying to show people where your house is. We figured it out, and the guys loaded the table and chairs into the house. At the same time, Jon and I unloaded our wares from Game.
Then we were off to Gaba Road. On our first day in Kampala, Jon and I went to the US Embassy to register ourselves as present in the country, and more importantly, register to vote. On our way there, we passed stand after stand after stand of virtually a sea of furniture. A lot of it was ugly, but we decided to head back there yesterday to see what we could find.
I think that we were both a little surprised at the quality of the furniture that we saw when we got out of the taxi. Jon quickly found a sofa set that he liked. But since it was the first stand that we talked with, we decided to take a walk up and down the row a little. Immediately across the street from that stall, we found what is now our porch furniture. It’s light and made out of reads. It’s covered in an orange, sand, and brown print depicting life in Africa. We also found a little matching coffee table. At the same place, we found a shelving unit for the bathroom, so now have a place to put our toothbrushes and various bathroom paraphernalia. We loaded all of that into a truck and asked it to wait while we continued looking.
We continued our walk down Gaba Road and found two desks that we like. We put those in a truck and then road with it to the top of the hill where our other truck and taxi were parked. At the top of the hill Jon and I went back to the first place we saw our sofa set, but while looking for that set, came across another that we liked equally well (and I liked better). It’s a sand-colored set, with a three-seat sofa and two matching chairs. It’s all leatherette or some such thing. The craftsmanship isn’t stellar, but it’s totally functional and by far the least ugly stuff we found. We loaded all of that into the pick-up with the desks (because there’s no such thing as a full truck), gave half-understood instructions to the drivers, got into our taxi, and crossed our fingers.
When finally everyone made it to the house, we unloaded everything into the house and—ah-ha! A home!
We’re thrilled with our new home.
Written by Sarah in Life ~
Today is Tuesday, and we’re still in Fang Fang hotel. We thought we’d be able to get into our new house on Sunday, but it turns out that we’ll be here for another four days or so.
As Jon chronicled, we found a furniture maker to make us a bed over the weekend. It’s a nicer bed than either of us have ever had. It’s being hand made out of local hardwood. We can’t remember what the wood is called, but it’s really quite pretty with a headboard that is slatted wood. It also has matching bedside tables, a good mattress (worthwhile, we decided since we’ll have it for several years), and they’ll also install the frame to our mosquito net and the net itself. We’re excited for it. However, it’ll take three weeks to build, and it is taking four days to get the mattress. And so we wait a little longer at the hotel. In the grand scheme, another few days isn’t bad, and in a lot of ways, it will help us out because we’ll have some more time to get appliances to the house. But as we approach two and a half months living in hotels, we’re really ready to be a little more settled, and have more than one room between us.
On Sunday, though, we went back over to the house and we brought two of our behemoth bags and our new kitchen stuff. We got just a little lost on the way over—we’re still learning how to describe to taxi drivers where we live—but we found it fairly readily. We got there a little before Colin, our landlord did, and so we had a little time to walk around the house together. There were still a number of workers painting and fixing things at the house. The woman who lived there before us had been there for five years, and so it’s nice that everything will be fresh when we move in. Also, Colin decided to take up some of the laminate flooring in the bedrooms and to put down tile. The tiles were done yesterday, and they’re very nice. In the kitchen, they’re replacing some of the drawers so that things are in good working order by the time we move in.
Yesterday we also had the strange experience of hiring a guard who will also do our gardening. Luckily we had just a little warning—Colin had given us a heads up that he had found a couple people that were recommended, and so he wanted us to meet them. However, we still didn’t have a clue on what the standards were (salary, if they live at the house, days on and off, etc). Colin gave us a quick briefing before they arrived to be interviewed, which really was to be hired.
The housekeeper, Teddy, from one of our neighbors’ houses brought her sister, Margaret, and her cousin, Godfrey over. Teddy has been working with the family she’s living with for the last 13 years and has been in their current house for the last five and the house next door to ours for three odd years before that. To us, that seemed good recommendation for her family members. Godfrey was presented to us as a guard and gardener. He will live in the little room behind our house. He has a high school education, though Senior 4, which is just before graduating in the British system. He has not completed his A-levels and so is not officially a high school graduate, but he’s quite close.
Although we’re a little uncomfortable with it, we know that we need a guard, and since I’ve been born with a notoriously brown thumb and Jon’s not much better, I’m afraid, a gardener is in order pretty quickly. We agreed on a price that Colin said was fair, and he’ll start on August 1. We’ll pay half this month’s salary upfront so that he can get himself a mattress and whatever else he needs to be comfortable in the uncomfortably little room he’ll be staying in. At least we’re uncomfortable with it…
We were still a little unclear about what we would need in terms of housekeeping. Since it’s just the two of us, we don’t need someone to help us everyday. We’ll have a washing machine, and so even the laundry is not as difficult as it maybe had seemed. However, I get the impression, as I’ve discussed with some of you before, that in hiring someone, we are giving a job, which is important. And given that, I won’t lie: It would be nice to have some help in mopping and dusting, etc. So once we’re a little settled, we’ll go find Teddy again and see if we can hire Margaret for one or two days a week.
The whole thing is the norm here, but not something that Jon and I have had any experience with, and so find bizarre and uncomfortable.
More positively, Jon and I also got to meet our neighbor. Our house is actually a duplex (a large one, but a duplex nonetheless). Samuel lives next door with his wife and their three small kids. I can’t remember now, but I think the oldest was about eight, the next five, and the last three. Samuel and his family are Ugandan, and he was both English- and American-trained as an engineer, I believe. He now has a consulting business that does something like auditing which he enjoys very much. We’re looking forward to meeting the rest of his family and to inviting them to dinner once we’re more settled (and have a table, perhaps). Colin’s house is across the street and just beyond that is the English family that Teddy works for.
Today we’ll try one more time to get appliances. Sunday we found a place where we can get refurbished refrigerators, stoves, and maybe washers. They were closed then (though people were clearly working, which found funny), but we went back yesterday after some other errands, only to realize that we hadn’t brought the directions to the house where they’ll be delivered, nor did we think through the fact that we would need money. So it was a false start, to be sure. Today, I think we ought to be able to finally get our act together and get things up to the house.
We’re learning. It’s a slow start, but we’re learning.
Written by Sarah in Life ~
So here we are in Kampala.
We’re officially starting our third full day. It’s been a trip being here. On Wednesday morning, our first day here, Jon and I went for a long walk around the city. After we’d trekked through what I think is considered the largest taxi park on the continent, I turned to Jon and asked, “So, isn’t it wild that we’re actually living here?” I think we were both a little bewildered, but we’ll get adjusted. The city center is definitely busy busy busy, but once outside the center just a little, it seems to calm down quite a bit.
Jon and I spent all day yesterday looking at houses. We found some really nice ones and some not so nice ones, all for really reasonable rates. We had been worried because when we started looking for houses online while we were in Atlanta, all we could find were houses that were renting for $1800 to $4000 a month–way, way out of our price range. On Wednesday night we went with a new friend to visit his apartment complex and his landlord showed us a really awful small apartment for $1000 a month. I was horrified and was really frightened that we’d have to pay a more for our house here than we did in Atlanta. I went to bed really put out and feeling like maybe we’d made a big mistake.
However, yesterday, we went out and saw nearly a dozen places. Not one of them was for more than $800 a month, and they were all beautiful. We looked at one that had incredible fan banana trees when you enter, an enormous yard, and was just huge overall. It was way more house than we need, but it was $800 a month, too! It was oh-so-tempting, but when all is said and done, I think it would have felt really weird living there. Also, it was in a neighborhood, which, while lovely, to me felt a bit like a compound. Like many places there were massive walls and everything was really secluded. All of the neighbors were expatriates, which in some ways is nice, but I was also worried that we’d end up only having expatriate friends, which I really don’t want.
We settled on a beautiful house in an area called Kitintale, and we’ll move in on Sunday! It was both Jon’s and my first choice and favorite. It’s a little ways out of the city, but close enough that we think that we’ll both be able to get to work relatively easily, wherever work ends up being. The house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms–still probably more house than we need. It’s nice, though, because we’ll turn one of the bedrooms into an office for Jon, and we’ll use the second bedroom as a guestroom (so come visit soon!). I’ll also probably use the second bedroom as a yoga room when we don’t have guests, and perhaps as a place to read.
It has a really good-sized great room/dining area. It’s all one big room, so we’ll be able to define it how we want to. It has a nice-sized kitchen, pretty basic, but definitely functional. Or at least it will be once we buy a fridge and a stove–a project for today. Off the great room, and visible from the kitchen (I think, we saw so many houses yesterday that I’ve forgotten a little) is an amazing porch. It’s tiled and covered and it overlooks the city. It was lovely during the day, and I’m sure it will be very pretty at night, too.
One of our favorite things about it, is that it has a beautiful yard. It’s really green and lush, and is pretty mature, already. I’m hoping that we can plant a vegetable garden, or at least some herbs, and it has some beautiful flowers already, including some lovely habiscus which makes me really happy.
So today we’ll start looking for furniture. Kitchen appliances and a bed will come first, and then we’ll do the rest as we’re able. It’ll be a challenge to figure out the logistics of moving appliances and furniture from the store and/or market to the house, but we’ll figure it out in good time, I’m sure.
Jon has also been really good at meeting new people here. He invited a Couch Surfer to dinner the other night, and we had a really nice time. His name is Naizi, and he’s from Uganda. He works for a tour company that specializes in river rafting on the Nile and taking people out bungee jumping. There’s no way he’ll get me to go bungee jumping, but I’d love to raft at some point. He was able to give us a lot of clues about which internet providers to use, as well as some other good advice, too, which was good.
Yesterday we met up with a guy, Oscar, who was a friend of a friend of a friend of ours in Atlanta. Oscar was able to connect Jon to a professor, Michael, at Makerere University who heads the IT department. It was exciting to hear them talk about the possibilities for collaboration.
Once we get the house a little more settled, I’ll begin looking into office space and figuring out how to actually go about starting this office. I’m looking forward to meeting a gentleman named Alex, who I’ve working with from afar to register the office here. We were going to meet this afternoon, but now that we’ve found the house, I’m anxious to get things set up there so that Jon and I can both work more easily, so I think that we’ll try to meet up on Monday, instead, when hopefully we’ll have some of the housing basics covered.
Our other project is figuring out how to get internet at the house, so we may be offline a little when we first move. However, I know that Jon won’t let us be without internet for very long!
And here’s to Day 3!
Written by Sarah in Life ~
