Our House

We live in the nurses line about 300 yards from the hospital down a dirt road, which has plenty of pedestrians and cyclists but little traffic.

We are in a semidetached bungalow and our neighbours TaKasoba (Celestin, Mr.) and MaKasoba (Jonesia, Mrs) are both nurses. Their children have either left home or are at boarding school but their home is always full and there is always a friendly face or six next door.
Our house is like a simple holiday home in Wales circa nineteen seventies without the lino or formica. We have a living room with table and six chairs and five comfy chairs with sideboard and bookshelf. We have 2 bedrooms.

Behind is an enclosed courtyard which gives us some privacy and which we decorate with plants in various pots and tins.

Opposite, in the courtyard, are the kitchen, shower (actually we bucket wash as no hot water in the shower) and loo. We brush our teeth in the basin in the corner of the courtyard and I shave there unless it is pouring with rain. In the evening after dark we are met by a splendid view of the moon and a full African starry sky every time we go to the kitchen. It is wonderful to brush our teeth under the stars every night.

Electricity works most of the time (power cuts about once every 3 weeks) and water is from a borehole until the pump was hit by lightening. It has just cost about £5000 to replace the pump and clean up the borehole. During this time we collected water off the roof for washing clothes and flushing the loo. Despite heavy rain in Kagera few houses have gutters.
We look east out of the front door and see the sun rise at 6.45 over long grass and eucalyptus trees. We have a small garden besides the house and behind we have a pawpaw tree and rough ground overgrown with exuberant plants. We could have a huge plantation if we wanted! Banana trees are everywhere, growing plantain - cooking bananas.