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.