Karibu nyumbani yangu (Welcome to my home)!
In my last update, I shared about my village and the area surrounding my home. Now in this update, I will give you a better idea of my living conditions and homelife.
My house is one of several buildings on my host family's compound. Because my house was already home to another volunteer, I did not face the challenge of some other volunteers who had to furnish their home from scratch. Some were moving into an empty home that required them to buy a mattress and a bed frame before their first night. So I lucked out a bit there.
My house has four different rooms: a main/living room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen. The first thing you may notice about my home is the beautiful pink exterior. Believe it or not, the color was not my request, but I really can't complain because I have a place to live and to call home.
I am also grateful that my house is equipped with running water that is pumped from rainwater catchments on our compound. Just about a week ago, we were running low on water during a drought, but we have received a good amount of rainfall just in time that has kept me supplied with water. My kitchen sink has running water, as well as the bathroom sink and the bathroom shower head. I also have a toilet that flushes in the bathroom. In addition to running water, I have (fairly reliable) electricity that powers a light in each of the rooms, along with an outlet in my bedroom and another in the kitchen.
In an effort to simulate a virtual tour, I will take you through the house room by room. But, first, upon entry, you will see a main door that is like many others in rural Kenyan homes. I have double doors that include a sliding latch that can be accessed from the outside by reaching your hand through a hole beneath a metal "flap." When I am away, I attach a padlock that secures the latch. Unlocking the door is an art, having to reach your hand through the hole beneath the flap while holding your key upward and getting it into the padlock just right without being able to see. My first week it would definitely take me a few minutes to open my locked door—sometimes I felt a little dumb just standing outside and making a bunch of rattling noise... but now it comes naturally to me.
Once inside, you will step into the living room. I have not 100% finalized the configuration of the room, but the images below show how it currently looks. This is where I spend my time when I am in my home and I am not cooking, sleeping, or bathing. One thing I am looking into for this room is getting a lamp or some supplementary lighting. All of the chairs and the two tables were already in my home when I moved in. The big additions since I moved in two months ago have been the wardrobe, the small couch, and the carpet.
In my first week living here, my host family connected me with a carpenter, or a "fundi," and I used my "settling-in allowance" from Peace Corps to ask him to make me a wardrobe to store my clothes. I have heard of a few volunteers who have actually built some of their own furniture... but I opted for the easy way out. Once complete, I noticed that maybe I made a design error in asking for the drawers and shelves to be as tall as they are, but it still fulfills its purpose. Maybe I will add in an intermediate shelf later on. I was pleased with fundi Samuel's work and the final product, so it was a good investment. It was a big step in making the space feel more like home and it allowed me to fully unpack my suitcases.
After some time, I got a bit tired of just sitting in chairs, so I looked into getting a couch that offered a bit more comfort. In the village center, I visited the shop of another fundi who had a furniture business and some nice-looking couches on display. After bargaining (that's how business is done here) and coming to an agreed price, I placed an order for a small couch that he delivered to me a few weeks later, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
The last big addition has been the carpet. Just a couple weeks ago when I came home from school one afternoon, my host mother told me she had something for my home and showed me the carpet. Apparently, some carpet salesmen had come by the compound and lightly pressured her into buying one that she then so generously gifted to me. I was fully prepared to live with my concrete floor for two years, but the carpet has been a nice touch. I soon realized it was the first carpet I had felt with my bare feet since arriving in Kenya—more than four months! Sometimes, it's just the little things you forget about and are reminded to be grateful for.
Now, from the entrance, if you make a right turn you will find the bedroom. The bedroom is cozy, with most of the space taken up by the bed itself. The bedroom door actually swings right up against the bed, too, so I do have to nearly close it to get by. Then, in here, I also have my laundry basket and a couple of small tables, one of which serves as my "charging station." And, of course, you can see that I have my mosquito net hanging from the ceiling around my bed to protect me from mosquitoes (and other critters) when I sleep.
Then, through the bedroom you can access the bathroom, complete with a toilet, showerhead, and sink. I also inherited some plastic shelves that I use to hold my toiletries and cleaning supplies. As you can see from the photo, there is no shower stall, but the tile floor is just slightly sloped so that water runs into the corner drain in the floor. So when I shower, I just have to deal with the minor inconvenience of the entire bathroom floor being wet for a few hours.
You may also notice some fresher looking concrete on the bathroom wall. There was a time when my showerhead had a slow leak, which I informed my host father about. Soon after, two gentlemen came to pay a visit, and before I knew it, a good chunk of the wall had been chipped out. I was surprise to find that my home was all of the sudden the subject of an HGTV (Kenyan version) show. But then the next day, the men returned to replace the pipe and then patch the wall back. Good as new.
Lastly, across from the bedroom, turning left upon one's entry into the home, is the kitchen. I have a nice tiled counter space with a kitchen sink and a place to keep dishes and my drinking water filter. I store quite a bit beneath the counter, including those empty suitcases. I also have a table that holds my toaster and my two-burner propane cooktop (also inherited). Then, mounted on the wall, I have some shelving to hold some food, spices, and miscellaneous items.
The house as a whole, as you can see, has a few windows that I have screened and curtained. It also has some small holes high on the walls for ventilation because there is in fact no automatic air conditioning system. While tin roofs can make homes very hot, my home fortunately has a bamboo-like ceiling on the inside that acts as an insulating buffer. The noise from the rain, however, is still very prominent.
I think that's about everything to do with my house. Please feel free to reach out if you are curious about anything I didn't cover. I plan to write about the family compound and my host family in a later update.
Out-of-context highlight of the week: See photo of dead lizard below.
-Daniel
Peace Corps has three objectives: (1) To help the countries interested in meeting their need for trained people, (2) To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and (3) To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. This newsletter/blog is one way in which I am working to achieve objective #3. I appreciate you reading and I look forward to sharing much more! Please feel free to message me any questions you have and I may answer them in my next post.
*The content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Kenyan Government.*