My New House

Here are some photos of my new digs here on Crow Hill:

First, the neighborhood: looking south off my front porch:

This land is now National Housing Authority land, although it used to belong to the Kabaka (King of the baGanda). Given the fact that the average Uganda household is about 5 to 10 people, and the fact that most Ugandans live in one or two room dwellings, I am guessing that within 5 years this whole beautiful field— where at any given time you can see three or four football games, cattle grazing, dogs running, birds singing, people walking hand in hand, and even the rare stray large gray mongoose— will be occupied by about 100,000 people, with all attendant noise and dust, and not one tree. If I had a lot of money, I'd buy the whole thing and donate it to the city as a park. There is no other open space in all of kampala like it, except the Kabaka's lake on the other side of the city, and an enormous golf course (boo! hiss!) for the 10 ultra rich people by the Garden City mall.

Anyway, here's my house itself, looking from the south, with my back to the picture above. Mine is the door on this end of the three-plex. Right now there is no security fence surrounding the property, but they're going to put a fence like the one that's being built for the house under construction in the background. This is good, i suppose, since there was an attempted murder in the big field south of me the other night, and there are thieves working this neighborhood. But plots are small here, and the fence will be right next to the blank wall, and continuing from the fence in front of the big house in the background. So the view will be gone, and much of the light as well.




In my spacious living room. I have a cement floor. I've thought about putting linoleum or something— or even carpeting— but this is a construction area and we track in about a pound of sand every day, so for now, the cement is best: easy to sweep, and I do have to sweep!



More views of the living room:





avocados come from a big tree behind the house.




looking across my yard, i see cassava plants.



I have two bedrooms. The one I use is the size of the living room; the other is half that size, but still comfortable, for guests. Here is my bedroom. I don't have enough furniture to store things, so i'm still "moving in". Note the shower curtain for my curtain. I like it!




And here is the guest room.

I have a big kitchen (with a charcoal brazier for a stove, which i take out on the porch in back) and a small room each for toilet and shower. The stove is not shown here. The sink is very tiny, and i need counter space!

The jerry cans are because the water frequently goes off, so you need to have some on hand. you never know.

Because it was a big adventure, and because i've figured out how to make passable tortillas on my charcoal stove, i'll do a series on it later. i'm still eating with fr joseph and family for social reasons, but will be working on my mexican food skills over the next few months.