Moving into our Flat

(Pictures taken after we were in the flat for a while.)

At around 11 on Monday, Moses’ friend Masters came to transport us from the hotel to the flat. It took two trips with his smallish car and our four large suitcases. The place seemed very nice enough. It is quite close to the University; indeed, it is University housing and seems to be occupied mostly by expatriates from the rest of Africa, Europe and the US. Our flat is at the end of a row of about five two storey ‘flats.’ There is a security system, razor wire and a big padlock on the gate so I think we shall be safe. Inside, a good sized kitchen, large living and dining area with sofas and dining table and cupboards, a bath with washer and dryer and couple of roomy closets on the first floor. Three ample bedrooms on the second floor and a full bath with shower. Even air conditioning in the living area downstairs and master bedroom upstairs. But it also looked like it had not been well cleaned in ages and there were leftover items everywhere: all of the lotions and shampoos that the last six occupants had used, all of the bits and pieces of school supplies that previous families had used and a million different kinds of converters and adapters. Still, I could see the potential of the place though there was a lot of work ahead.

In the meantime, the goal for the day was to finally get hold of my car. To make a long story short, a neighbor and friend (and noted Bessie Head scholar), Mary, whom I had met here a few years ago helped to drive me out to Francine’s house where the French Embassy driver was jump starting the car – all that was needed I was assured. Delighted I drove back home again to Moses and the kids who had been promised a trip to the mall and dinner out. Once home however it became clear that the battery was dead and that we were not going anywhere. Everyone was at their wit’s end and the first thing we did was turn on the air conditioning and walk over to Choppies, the neighborhood store, and buy whatever Kuno wanted (mostly an ice cream). Mave later was enterprising enough to call a pizza place for some delivered pizza and that helped too. I continued cleaning and rearranging and throwing things out as I had been all day and by bedtime had things more or less the way I wanted them, give or take several things that we still needed to buy. We don’t have a landline and I am not sure that we want one, though then we may not be able to have the internet at home. But there are at least two very cheap internet cafes just around the corner and I will surely have access at UB. There is a small TV though it is not hooked up to anything and seems only to play a game that Moses and the kids are really enjoying. We do have a microwave, an iron and a hair dryer and various radios in addition to those that we brought. Our neighbors, Nigerians to the left and Ethiopians to the right, were talkative all evening long until a terrific thunderstorm shut and cooled everything down. The kids watched a movie on the computer and we all got to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour – before midnight that is.