Home is Where My Mosquito Nets Are

January 24th, 2017

     Wow, I live by myself! Successfully spent my first night in my new home alone last night. This is a significant life step, and one that I'd actually never wanted to make—I'd always pictured myself living with roommates until I got married, or living with someone I was in love with, or whatever. I didn't envy my best friend, Brooke, when she decided to  live alone last year. I thought she'd be lonely and I didn't understand the appeal. 

     But now, here I am, living alone... in Africa. When did I make this decision? It feels so random, like something I knew was going to happen but never actually decided. Probably because I didn't get to choose my placement in the country or my house itself, it was all chosen for me and all I had to do was come here. And decorate, of course!

     The closest thing I have to neighbors are the priest and his house-girl (cook? laundress? maid? she seems to do everything!) Florence, who both live at the mission next door to me. They have been very welcoming, and the priest often has friends over and sometimes I join them outside to discuss things like American politics or various aspects of life in Uganda. 

      My house is absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Like seriously, I lucked out. I know I'm a little uncomfortable now, because everything is so new and strange and different, but I already feel like I'm going to miss this place someday. The School Management Committee (SMC) asked what color I liked and I said bright blue, like the sky, and then they painted for me while I was gone— so every day I get to be surrounded by beautiful, sky blue walls. They're so cheerful! 

      Five of my family members came from Kumi to help me move in. My Uncle Cuthbert and one of my brothers managed to get the single-sized bed into the living room to use as a couch, no problem. I had managed to buy both of the mattress sizes I needed in Kumi, despite the sizing terms being different here AND the fact that my only measurement of the beds involved me standing at the foot and spreading out my arms so that I'd have some estimation of how wide they were. 

     My American parents had just happened to send me a mosquito net that fit perfectly over the single bed, which I'm using as a couch. This is great because now I can read or hang out on my couch-bed without worrying, even though dusk is when the mosquitos seem to be out in full force. 

     My sister Maggie stayed all day to help me set up, and thank goodness she did, because I would have been lost without her. First, we swept with a local broom, which is basically a bundle of reeds tied together. Then, we mopped—here, that means we filled a basin with soap and water, dropped in a towel, wrung it out, and proceeded to drag the towel back and forth along the floor in a sweeping kind of motion. And African women tend to bend instead of squat when they're working (as American women seem to do, I think), and since Maggie was teaching me all of this, I did it her way! So all of this ended up being quite the stretching exercise! 

     The floors are concrete, which is nice because they stay cool on my feet even on hot days. I also love them because they're old and kind of splotchy, and have quite a few random drips of blue paint—which I think is beautiful. 

     Next, we cleaned off a random cabinet that had been sitting outside my house for at least the past month, because I'd seen it there at my Future Site Visit. I asked the priest and he said it didn't belong to anyone, it was broken, and I was like "....Can I have it?" and he said "....Sure?"

My cabinet!

      Admittedly, it does lean to the side a bit, and it was very dirty. But we cleaned it thoroughly, and brought it inside and put it in a corner so it had some additional support, and it works just fine! It really makes this place feel like a home, I'm very grateful that it just happened to be there.

     So then, Maggie and I had to figure out how to actually put up the mosquito net for my bed (sleeping-bed, not couch-bed).... because the one Peace Corps had given me, we discovered delightfully, had nothing with it to attach it to anything. Thankfully, my parents had sent me that additional mosquito net that did come with some supplies—four hooks, five nails, and four pieces of sturdy string. It was a square mosquito net, which would usually be draped over two T-shaped pieces of wood, one at the head and one at the foot of the bed. However, the double bed that I wanted to use as my sleeping bed did not have those T-shaped pieces of wood. So, Maggie and I look at the hooks, and the nails, and at each other, and at the mosquito net. And we're just kind of like.... hope this works! 

     We also lacked a hammer, so my adorable, genius sister went outside and found a rock. And then she balanced on the bed, stretched to her full height (of 5'0"), and used the rock to put the nails in the wall and then hook the net around them. She's wonderful. 

     With that challenge surmounted, we turned to the single bed and the square, smaller net that my parents had sent me. This bed DID have the T-shaped wood pieces, so it should have been easy, right? Wrong. This American net was meant to be hung on the hooks and nails it had come with, not draped over T-shaped pieces of wood... so it was too small. But my brilliant sister took the sturdy pieces of string and threaded them through the small metal circles that were attached to the net, and then wrapped it around the T-frame so that the net ended up being just the right size. 

Sleeping-bed 

Couch-bed

     After all of that, we celebrated by walking into town to buy jackfruit and Novida (pineapple soda). As we were eating, back at my house, I thanked my sister for all of her hard work today, and told her I didn't know what I would have done without her. She responded by saying, "Spending today with you was one of my best moments." Which almost made me cry, of course.

Jackfruit with my sister :)

       My Aunt came to get Maggie around 6, and we hugged each other SO tightly before she left. I hope to spend this weekend at home in Kumi, because Maggie leaves for school on Monday and boards there and only gets one visiting day per term (which I already have scheduled into my agenda!). I'm going to miss her so much! But I'm also grateful that my two Totos and some of my siblings will still be in Kumi, and so I'll be able to go home and visit them whenever I want. It's only 45 minutes away! 

Trying out my new mattress with my mom! (at my homestay house)

I really really don't know what I'd do without my Ugandan family

Sweeping with a traditional broom!

Still quite a bit to unpack in my bedroom...

The view from my living room window

Look! I have running water!!!

And a western style toilet! 

That's everything! Two rooms and a bathroom. It's the perfect size for me, not too small and not too big to be able to feasibly decorate on a Peace Corps budget. I have a house, hooray!