Seattle to Mozambique

So I finally have a house and a roommate all rolled into one!!!! Although I balked at most of the houses I saw and was apprehensive about having a roommate, I think I found a great situation. First…my roommate…Magdalena. She’s a Bolivian doctor about the size of a pea and either sleeping or in constant motion. She pretends as if she is very serious but makes me laugh about 1,000 times a day. We are sharing the Guest House right now and I feel lucky that I didn’t have a house before she arrived. We work in different programs and so I think it would have been a while until we got to know each other had we not been staying in the same place. She loves to tease me about being forgetful and absentminded (the other day I got paper towels instead of toilet paper at the store even though it said “Paper Towels” in English on the package). I think she’s a riot! Plus her serious side will keep me on the straight and narrow!!

The house is a big colonial house that was divided into four apartments. We will have an upstairs apartment with a little garden and a garage. The garage is important because I’ll be able to take HAI cars for the weekend if I have a garage to store them in (this is assuming that I pass my driving exam given by my boss!!). You enter through the little garden and climb up one flight of steps to the front door. You enter the big living room with dark wood and magenta antique sofa and chairs which enters into the dining room with a big table and then ends in the master bedroom. To the right of the living room are two other bedrooms and a big kitchen with a little porch to hang clothes. The bathroom is between the two rooms to the right and is lovely and clean and has a hot water heater. This is luxury!!! Oh…and I forgot to mention the screened in porch off the living room! This house is so expensive for Mozambicans—no Mozambican but governors and wealthy businessmen could afford it-- and I don’t think I would have chosen it except that 1) Magdalena needed a place soon too 2) no one was showing me any other options of normal places despite my constant pleas 3) my Boss was making indications that I should get a place and free up space in the guest house. So I caved and got a nice place with crazy antique furniture and giant beds. Not only that but we have already made plans to get wireless internet. On the one hand I’m excited to live in such a beautiful place. On the other hand I’m disgusted at myself for caving in and living like a rich mazunga (foreigner). At one point someone who was working for HAI wanted hardship pay—this is the least form of hardship I’ve ever experienced!!! That person must have been nuts.