Maisha: Feeling at home

Danielle and I have a new home! We are renting a guest house from a French woman, Annie, who lives in the main house in the same compound. Our little house has two bedrooms, a main room which serves as our living/ dining/ music room, a kitchen, bathroom and shower, a tiny back yard with a clothesline for hanging laundry, and a little front porch.

In the living room we have a spare bed that we use for a couch -- we call it our "bouch!" Out of town guests are welcome! We have enjoyed having friends over for dinner a few times and I also have a couple of students who come in the evening for violin lessons.

The location is excellent: a twenty minute walk to the town centre, a ten minute walk to the church where we teach on Saturdays, a block from a dalla-dalla stop where we can catch a mini-bus to ISM where we work Monday through Friday. To take a taxi into town from our house (a necessity at night, when walking isn’t safe) is 3000 or 4000 shillings – less than 3 dollars.

The neighbourhood has apartment buildings, houses and small shops, including a tailor shop right across the street! I am having several dresses made there. There is also a safari company across the street, a public school next door, and a little bar down the block. It is a bustling neighbourhood with people out walking at all times of day and night. The street has a friendly feel to it. I am such an urban person; I sleep better with the sounds of traffic and people than in our previous location on the hill with its nighttime soundtrack of cows, chickens and dogs. And being able to walk places gives me a sense of freedom which is so important to me. Living here, I feel that I am embracing Arusha and it is home for this year.