December - Home sweet home.

Mwaramuste! Amakuro? Amashyo… (My latest favourite greeting – a Swahili one that means ‘I wish you many cows’! This goes down very well in my village!)Then… three hugs, a forehead touch, and a complicated combination of handshakes, shoulder barges, then how did you sleep? How was the morning? How is your family? Where are you going? Where have you come from this morning?  Looking good! Thanks, you too! Have a good day, see you later, have a good journey… (Sneaky glances at my shoes!).

Phew, greeting completed!

I have definitely found that having a sense of humour is key to surviving here and there are so many surreal, challenging, unusual or hilarious moments that I find that I spend a lot of time laughing!

In some ways I have everything I need here, and more if I’m honest, especially in comparison to other people in my village, but in other ways my home and routines are very simple and it can feel like I am camping in a muddy field! Walking to collect water every day, dealing with the mud (especially muddy shoes and muddy toes), waiting till it stops raining to dash to my loo which is at the end of my garden, keeping everything dry and clean, dealing with the wildlife! But none of these things I mind really and they have all become part life. I’m definitely glad I’m not squeamish about creepy crawlies (giant ‘armoured’ jumping spiders that leap sideways, scuttling lizards, crickets, giant buzzing, whirring hornets…or the many snakes that I have heard live here but that I have yet to meet) or afraid of the dark and all the bright amber eyes that peer at me at night from behind the banana trees when I’m sitting out on my step gazing at the moon.

I have discovered a gentle pace of life here, yet I am always busy and everyday tasks fill my time. Through simple, repetitive, manual tasks I have found the time to be mindful and reflective and I really value this. It is a pleasure every day to hear water gushing from the tap into my turquoise bucket, and it feels good to carry a heavy, full bucket back to my house because I know I do not have to worry about having clean water to drink and wash with, for that day at least (unless the water comes out the colour of gravy – which it has done a few times). I filter and sometimes boil water too and it is all good! 

Hand washing all my clothes is something I don’t mind doing and having clean fresh, clothes feels like an achievement every time! The sun is so strong that they usually dry quickly and if they don’t, my lovely neighbours bring them in for me if I am at work and it starts to rain. Washing sheets, however, is a nightmare and I’ll admit I am useless at it! Last time, I had to have a bowl on hand for all the spare bubbles and in the end, my neighbours couldn’t bear to watch me anymore and they insisted on finishing the job properly, which I was secretly relieved about. They also whisked my shoes away to wash too and gave the floor a quick scrub too! I’m very house proud and keep everything immaculate (bleached, disinfected, rinsed) but I think because I have different ways of doing things my neighbours don’t consider that they have been properly unless it has been done their way… but that’s ok and we live together very happily. Maybe there’s something in wiping the floor with a muddy towel…but I’m not so sure!

 

My tiny mud house has a tin roof and is cosy and homely. I have made it comfortable and it feels very much like ‘home’. However, I have noticed that because it is made from mud, the outside seems to be slowly crumbling and there is always dust to sweep up inside - I really think it is slowly disintegrating every day! About a month ago I decided I needed to do a few home improvements, including putting up my own curtains from some fabric I’d bought in a market, and getting some hooks and nails in the walls so I could hang up bags and scarves and tea towels. I’d managed to find some giant nails, but didn’t have a hammer, so I used my frying pan…which really made me laugh. I could barely bang the nails as I was laughing so much – using a frying pan seemed so wrong! It was really loud and I was worried that the noise would wake my neighbours…and it also occurred to me that I might end up actually knocking the wall down if I banged the nail in too hard – not sure how I’d explain that to my neighbours! So then I used my shoe instead, the rubber sole was much quieter…but it still amused me to be banging in a nail with my shoe. But the wall is still standing and it’s good to have places to hang everything.

I think there are advantages to living in a house made of mud and having an outdoor toilet built of mud too as you can’t see the dirt…but sometimes I think the walls of the toilet are a bit like a magic eye picture and the more I look at them, the more spiders and beetles and cobwebs and lizards I notice! Using a pit latrine, which is just a hole in the ground, is no problem, but I do worry that I might fall down it one day… well… I don’t think all of me would fit, but losing one leg down it, after a few beers, is a worry! At night I wear a lovely head torch but I have to be quick because all the flying bugs are attracted to the light.

But it’s funny thinking about how quickly you can adapt to a different way of being and how different everyday life is back in the UK – although perhaps its more about the details of daily life and how much you get used to taking things for granted when you don’t have to give them a second thought - running water, HOT running water (!!), a clean bathroom… in fact an indoor bathroom, electricity, appliances… and although everything here takes longer to do, it also gives you time and space to think and appreciate what you do have here… and what you have back home.