When it rains, it pours

Home sweet home!

Three weeks in and I've seen why they call it the rainy season. At one point last night I thought there was an air raid, such was the impact of the howling rain on our little tin roof! Still, it's warm with plenty of sunshine, so I guess it's not entirely like an Irish Summer.

We've now moved into our second, more permament African home. We've got a living room, a kitchenette, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a ground floor balcony. Fully loaded with couches, fridge, cooker, beds (...trust me, I'm making it sound far fancier than it actually is!)

My daily walk to work

 

As for the commute, I'm a 3km walk from work, which is nice for the exercise. Bye bye beer belly, welcome six-pack! Maybe.

VSO are providing us with an allowance of £5/day, which is apparently enough for one person to live on. As a challenge, Liisa and I are seeing if it's enough for two people to live off, and so far we're on track! The financial analyst in me has converted our entire lives into a fully functional Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet ...I'm trying to convince myself this is to help with the budgeting, but I think we all know it's because I'm a massive nerd.

Buying fruit & veg. I thought I'd haggled a good price. But, that said,
the next time we saw the assistant he was wearing A LOT of bling

 

Somewhat appropriately, we've got solar lights installed at home (thanks to Solar Aid), thus saving on the electricity bills. We've also found some good local markets nearby, and have learnt how to ask for what we need, with "Viazi kumi, tafadhali" serving me well so far.

By a stroke of good fortune, we're also saving on Alarm Clock costs, courtesy of: (1) The daily Mosque Call at 4:20am (2) the rooster next to our bedroom window, & (3) our neighbour's unhealthy obsession with Whitney Houston.

Bongoyo Island

We spent this weekend at Bongoyo Island (it's like a very very mini Zanzibar), and are planning a trip to Moshi shortly (up north), so hopefully I'll have some nice snaps of Kilimanjaro to follow!