So, you want to take my picture...

Did you know that there is a fee for this?  Oh!  And an extra fee if you want to be IN the picture with me...  Not fair you say?  Not Christian you say?  Perhaps... but sometimes I feel like being a bratty little kid and doing a little tit for tat.  Many people here won't let you take THEIR picture.  They get angry and threatening.  Some may say that they feel that you are going to steal their souls if you capture them on camera.  Some may truly believe this, but the majority are pacified if you whip out your wallet and grease their palm.
And it is truly tiring and irritating to be at a church, ministering, or praying for someone only to have a sudden bright light explode in your face.  Especially precious are those moments when you are in prayer, and feel someone standing very (read uncomfortably) close to you... and then... FLASH... you realize it was all just a photo op.
I realize I am white (yes, really, I just said it...).  I realize it may be like having a celebrity visiting your church.  I realize that some of you, down the road, will show our picture to other missionaries and tell them what a close relationship we had.  Cynical, but sometimes true.  I realize for some of you, it is a way to remember our ministry, the teaching you received, or a special time we did share.
So, you want to take my picture... couldn't you at least ask?  Couldn't we find a way to do it less intrusively?  Because, as much as I want to tell you there is a fee (mainly just to see the shocked look on your face :-p ) if you ask, Benjamin would do handstands for your picture.  And that is something way cooler than the pictures you are currently taking.

Sugar!

I had a request for you to see Sugar - so, here she is in all her smileyness!  This first picture was taken around the time we first moved into the compound.  She was pretty flea-bitten and skinny, but boy!  You can tell how happy she was to have new people by the smile on her face.

Sugar is our most skittish dog... if you scare her, she will definitely leave a puddle behind... so please only scare her in the grass.  :)  She enjoys smiling, sniffing, licking, and long walks around the neighborhood.  Oh... and bones... and food in general.

Is it Halloween yet?  This is Sugar in her costume.  She actually wears it year round.  It scares bad people away from our compound.  Her eyes glow on demand.  Wait... what's that?  You don't believe me?  You think it has something to do with the camera flash?  Well, you will just have to come on over and see for yourself!  (I mean, would I REALLY lie in a post???????  If it is on the internet, you KNOW it is true.)

More of our house (yes, it is a big house... except the kitchen...)

Okay, here is some more!  These are pictures of Benjamin;s office.  It looks like a disaster.  Sometimes it is, but in all fairness it is worse in these pics because we had to clean out the 'spare spare' bedroom for company - so anything that had to come out of there ended up in here.  Oh yeah - it also houses items like the blender (which is the only appliance that must be run through a transformer...).  Actually, most of my baking pans and tins are in the white dresser.  You know, it makes perfect sense - the silverware, pans etc, leftover containers and fridge are all NOT in the kitchen... :) moving on...

We bought this bookshelf from the same missionaries who sold us other items I have mentioned.  It is quite nice.  Currently, it is home to some English Zion books which we brought from Malawi to sell here.  We brought back around 100 in June.  We don't have many students who are English proficient, but some are and we like to have different titles available to them.

This is a picture of the new access hole and ladder which Benjamin built.  The old access hole was kinda inaccessible... really.  It is located just outside of the hallway bathroom in the mini hallway where the sink was - only, it wasn't above the sink, it is at the other end, right outside of the bathroom door.  Sorry, the house is downright complicated to explain... maybe one day Benjamin will draw a beautiful diagram so you can understand it all.  Anyway, he built this so that the roof can easily be accessed for leaks etc.  And he did a good job.  And yes, that hanging of Africa (which used to be Grandma and Grandpa's) is dreadfully crooked.  The picture isn't all that straight either... Thanks for noticing. :)

Okay, just loving keeping you in suspense...  There should just be one more post of the inside left.  Our master bedroom, master bathroom, and master garage.  That is what the proper name is when your garage opens right into your bedroom.  Just in case the shopping wears you out, and you need a nap before unloading... not that we could ever fit our vehicle in the garage and open the doors to get out anyway...

Home pics

Alrighty, gotta make this quick...  here is a picture of one of our hallways.  The entrance on the right leads to the living room.  The entrance on the left leads to the back (door) hallway (the one with the fungus...).  The bathroom and shower would be on the left of the person taking the picture.  The beautious shelf you see was built by my hubby - isn't he the greatest???

If you go around a corner in the hallway, (I am telling you - this house is just plain laid out weird!!!!) you come to the guest bedroom.  We think it is quite cute and welcoming... but don't take our word for it - come and see for yourself!!!!

'A' has a few of her things in here.  She graciously took the pictures for me.  This was our bed when we first moved in, but we took off the top of the frame because we don't use a mosquito net.  They honestly aren't that bad here in our house.  We moved the bed into the guest bedroom when we bought another one from some missionaries who were leaving.  It is more comfortable than ours, but smaller.

This is our 'spare spare' room - as we like to call it.  We have only had one person stay here once.  Usually, it houses ironing and any miscellaneous stuff that we don't know what to do with or that we need to store.  I cleaned it in prep for our guests, so unfortunately, Ben's study received the brunt of the stuff I needed to move out.  More on that in another post...

                                      

We bought all of this furniture that you see in here from the missionaries who were leaving.  It was a real blessing both to us and to them.  We also bought my desk and our other living room/dining room furniture from them.

I had to showcase this air vent in the ceiling - this was where Benjamin slipped and fell while trying to mark the roof leaks.  He almost came crashing all the way through.  He may have broken his ribs, but we never got it checked out.  They wouldn't and couldn't do anything anyway.  At the very least, he bruised them very badly.  It was about 4-5 months before he could lift heavy stuff without feeling it.  It was also about 2 months before he stopped wincing if I surprised him with a hug... oops!  We are thankful it wasn't any worse.  And, yes, this is on our 'to do' list - fix the ceiling!

K - we are watching some kids for some friends tonight.  They should be here any minute, so I gotta post this and get ready.
Hope you are enjoying the tour of our house!!!!

Still our house...

Welcome back to our virtual tour... Here is a picture of our back door and the little hallway that leads to it.  Oh - and you can see Blitz's fav resting spot - up against the door.  To his credit, he usually moves when you need to exit the building, unless he figures that you have enough room to get out without his having to get up... the only problem with this is that he usually doesn't take into account whether or not you are heading outside with a big laundry basket...  He will move if you push on the door hard enough, but with a look on his face that says, 'Seriously?  You really needed to interrupt my beauty rest b/c you are too fat to fit through the space I allotted???'

On a sweeter note, God moved on my pups hearts the last few times Benjamin has been gone.  While A was staying with me, Sugar and Blitz both slept our back, but so far every night that I have been alone, Sugar has slept by the front door and Blitz has slept by the back.  Awwww... God is obviously the best protector ever, but it does help one's peace of mind to have a pup sleeping by guarding each door. :)

The next few pictures will show the special house fungus that we have on our walls.  Actually, it is not that special when you take into account the fact that it grows in almost every house we have seen here in Tanzania.  Basically, this is what happens when you don't let the cement dry enough before you paint.  Actually, I think this is what happens when you build a foundation and the walls and then wait 2-5 years to put a roof overhead.  Anyway, we have to scrape the paint, then put on this special fungus treatment, then do other stuff and finally paint again.  It is on our list of things to do.  I have probably mentioned it before - now you get to see it yourself!  FUN!

Hmmmm... hope this isn't bad for my allergies...

Okay, here are some pics of our hallway bathroom (sorta) - I didn't think you actually needed to see the picture of the toilet...  There is a mini hallway running parallel to the real hallway.  It has the sink at one end and then the doors for the toilet and shower.

And, yes, we are totally spoiled - our house has beautiful tile throughout it.  Both bathrooms are tiled all the way up the wall as well.
Well, more to come another day!

More of our house...

Welcome to our dining room!  This is actually a really cool table that has an extra leaf you can add.  It also comes with six matching chairs.  We were beyond thrilled to have such a nice table and chair set come with the house.  Thank you previous occupants for selling them to the landlord!  :)

The dining room can be a touch on the cozy side if we expand the table, but at least we CAN expand the table.  You will notice the handy dandy sink in the corner.  Quite African, but really quite convenient.  I think this is the most used sink in the house.  These curtains were originally in the living room.  I replaced them because they weren't quite wide enough to cover the large living room windows.  The two panels here work nicely.  We have two more panels which I was thinking of using for Ben's office, but right now we have no way of hanging them.

So, (here I go again with the 'so's') here is our kitchen in its natural state (that being highly messy).  Maybe from these pics you will understand how elated I am that we have permission to remodel.  It is really hard to cook anything in here without your cooking mess spilling into the dining room - there just isn't much counter space.  And if I were my husband writing this, I would be saying that there is a reason there is building code in the US designating how many inches above the counter the cabinets are located...

Sorry, I don't have another angle of the kitchen.  Please note: there are also 3 (yes THREEEEEEE) doorways in this small kitchen.  One to the pantry (A was standing in the pantry for this top shot), one to a hallway that leads to the back door and sorta into the other hallway, and one opposite to the one you see which leads to the dining room.

Here is the view into the pantry.  And yes, that is my fridge - and no, I never thought I would get used to it... and yes, I did and it is not all that bad.  That being said - I still want to re-model this whole place!!!!!  Notice the big blue tub on the floor in the front of the picture.  That is our flour container.  We buy in bulk.  I can't remember, but it is either 20 or 25 kg at one time.  Same goes for sugar (located in the clear containers with the green lids in the back right).

I thought I would show you why my kitchen was extra messy - I was almost finished preparing this yummo meal.  Taco salad (of sorts!).  Skip the lettuce and go for grated carrots instead.  They are tastier, more nutritious, easier to buy, and add a nice bit of color.  Then we have taco meat, grated cheese, tomatoes, onions, green pepper (no, I don't eat them, but others do), and chapatis and some chips I made by cutting up and baking the chapatis. - oh... and homemade guacamole.  This was a good meal!  Just for the record - the most expensive part of the meal?  The meat and cheese - which was around $3.50 for the amount you see shown.  It is hard to guess on the flour... but all the other veggies were maybe around one dollar.  Mbeya is the place to live!
K - that's it from me for now.  I am on a roll here, so you may see the rest of the house pretty soon... then again, you may wait in suspense for weeks... surprises are the spice of life!
  xoxo ~Aud.

Our House

So, this post has been a long time in coming... but I was stuck somewhere between - I am really sad that my husband is gone so much and - I am really annoyed at our power (or lack thereof) situation.  I didn't want to turn this into some emotional rant, so I have just been avoiding posting.  :)  You can thank me any time now...

So, good friend A came through one night on her way to Dar.  She graciously helped me take pics of the house, so this should be the start of a number of posts giving you a little tour of the house.  Now, I should explain here that our house has a number of weird turns and hallways and stuff, so the only way to really and truly make you understand the layout would probably be to draw you a diagram.  And I am just not going to do that.

SO, (third paragraph started with 'so', so I wanted to make it look different...) you may not understand how all the rooms connect - just appreciate the rooms as individuals.  I have to say here, when mom and dad came to visit, instead of leaving our bedroom and going into the hall, mom kept leaving our bedroom and going into this room that leads to the master bathroom - which was very entertaining!  Yeah - that room, like other aspects of the house, does not make sense.

sO, moving on here... this is our living room.  Please don't be jealous, but it is very big.  It also has 3 doorways - the outside door, the entrance to the dining room (which is slightly large...) and an entrance into the hallway.

The big blue couch came with the house, as did that small square table you see.  The other chairs and the desk we got from some people who were leaving.  What a blessing!  Furniture shopping here is a nightmare unless you are a multi-billionaire... and even then, it can be frustrating!  So these are fairly comfy, and the one seater chair things even came with the tan and blue covers which work quite well in our house.

So, big joke with the curtains - my husband thought they were waaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too light when I bought them at the market.  Quite frankly, I think they are a little lite too... but in my defense, they look better in the evening when there is not the bright back light of the sun!  It's amazing how much that changed the color...

These big bookshelves also came with the house.  Maybe one day we will have a few more books to put on them so they don't look so lame...  In this picture you will notice the blue kerosene lantern - that is a tribute to our power issues.  The rocking chair in the corner came with the house - but unless you are an extremely strangely built human, or you use a bunch of cushions - it is not comfy. :)  Nevertheless it helps fill some space!

So, here you can see our mondo-gundo clock which we bought at the market.  It has a thermometer and a humidity thingy on it, which is nice.  Hmmm... they don't seem to change much... then again, it is on an inside wall.  Current temp: 63 with a nice 45% humidity.  We are heading back to our warm season now.  Though we probably still have another two months without rain.  Dust, dust, DUST!  Believe me... you have never seen anything like it.

oSo,  This concludes our tour of the living room.  One day I hope to get pictures that I actually like and put them on the walls.  For now, we just have stuff hanging that was here when we came.  :)  Can't think of anything else to say, SO I will be done.
  Love to all!