Where and How We Live
Nampula, the city we live in, in northern Mozambique, has a population of 600,000 - though that can't at all compare to a city in the States with 600,000 people.
Our house is fairly large – probably the biggest we’ve ever been in. Walls are made of brick and cement, we have a cement floor, and a tin roof. Inside we have a false ceiling in some rooms, but in other rooms we can look up to see the tin roof sheets. The main house is 3 bedrooms with a dining room area, kitchen, bathroom, small corridor which we've made into a sitting room, and an office area/living room. I couldn't tell you the square feet/meters however. Then we have an attached, separate house that has a small sitting room and 2 lg rooms and a bathroom. The one lg room we have set up to be a guest room for any visitors from the States (hint-hint) or other missionaries traveling through town or nationals that come in from the bush. The 2nd large room I've set up as the school room though if we had visitors that needed to stay in there as well they could.
We have many modern conveniences, though not all. We do have electricity in the house - though we're on phases and sometimes one 1/2 of the power will be working (certain lights and certain outlets throughout the house) and the other not. Also all the electricity goes out on a fairly regular basis - sometimes for long periods, though mostly for just a bit at a time.
We have running water, though we installed a storage tank soon after moving in b/c the city water is often out and we'd have nothing. The tank reserve is usually sufficient; if the city water goes off - we then draw from the tank, however if the city water is off for a long period of time then sometimes the tank goes dry as well. We do have a well to draw water from as well, in theory at least; the well went dry last July and it hasn’t rained enough yet to fill. When desperate we can usually take a bucket (or send a worker with a bucket) to draw water from other wells around which aren’t dry.
Now also with the water - it's not always very clean. Sometimes when I see the water in the washer with the clothes I can't believe how dirty our clothes were and then as I fill the tub without clothes I realize the water wasn't starting out clear to begin with, but was very yellow by itself! To drink water we first have to boil it and then filter it (though we're ordering some filters from the States which will kill/remove the bacteria and microns and such so we can stop boiling it once those arrive).
We do have a microwave and other kitchen appliances, a hot water heater and fans - though no air conditioning. We have a tv which we use strictly with a VCR or DVD player. There’s only one national channel which we can’t pick up very well and we don’t want to pay for satellite.
There were no land line phones available when we moved in as all the circuits for this area were already filled. The phone company informed us they weren’t adding any more circuits either, but they then began a program using fixed cellular phones so we have one of those. They work like a cell phone in most respects but are paid for like a land line (though all land lines here pay by the pulse that you’re using the phone). We could take our house phone around the city with us if we wanted, though unlike a normal cell phone we can’t take it out of the city.
Finally, we have a huge yard filled with various fruit trees (papaya, mango, banana, custard apple and guava), bamboo plants, a passion fruit vine and pineapple plants. We’ve also planted a garden so we’ll see how things grow. The kids love playing outside in the dirt and sand and on their swing set!
Our house is fairly large – probably the biggest we’ve ever been in. Walls are made of brick and cement, we have a cement floor, and a tin roof. Inside we have a false ceiling in some rooms, but in other rooms we can look up to see the tin roof sheets. The main house is 3 bedrooms with a dining room area, kitchen, bathroom, small corridor which we've made into a sitting room, and an office area/living room. I couldn't tell you the square feet/meters however. Then we have an attached, separate house that has a small sitting room and 2 lg rooms and a bathroom. The one lg room we have set up to be a guest room for any visitors from the States (hint-hint) or other missionaries traveling through town or nationals that come in from the bush. The 2nd large room I've set up as the school room though if we had visitors that needed to stay in there as well they could.
We have many modern conveniences, though not all. We do have electricity in the house - though we're on phases and sometimes one 1/2 of the power will be working (certain lights and certain outlets throughout the house) and the other not. Also all the electricity goes out on a fairly regular basis - sometimes for long periods, though mostly for just a bit at a time.
We have running water, though we installed a storage tank soon after moving in b/c the city water is often out and we'd have nothing. The tank reserve is usually sufficient; if the city water goes off - we then draw from the tank, however if the city water is off for a long period of time then sometimes the tank goes dry as well. We do have a well to draw water from as well, in theory at least; the well went dry last July and it hasn’t rained enough yet to fill. When desperate we can usually take a bucket (or send a worker with a bucket) to draw water from other wells around which aren’t dry.
Now also with the water - it's not always very clean. Sometimes when I see the water in the washer with the clothes I can't believe how dirty our clothes were and then as I fill the tub without clothes I realize the water wasn't starting out clear to begin with, but was very yellow by itself! To drink water we first have to boil it and then filter it (though we're ordering some filters from the States which will kill/remove the bacteria and microns and such so we can stop boiling it once those arrive).
We do have a microwave and other kitchen appliances, a hot water heater and fans - though no air conditioning. We have a tv which we use strictly with a VCR or DVD player. There’s only one national channel which we can’t pick up very well and we don’t want to pay for satellite.
There were no land line phones available when we moved in as all the circuits for this area were already filled. The phone company informed us they weren’t adding any more circuits either, but they then began a program using fixed cellular phones so we have one of those. They work like a cell phone in most respects but are paid for like a land line (though all land lines here pay by the pulse that you’re using the phone). We could take our house phone around the city with us if we wanted, though unlike a normal cell phone we can’t take it out of the city.
Finally, we have a huge yard filled with various fruit trees (papaya, mango, banana, custard apple and guava), bamboo plants, a passion fruit vine and pineapple plants. We’ve also planted a garden so we’ll see how things grow. The kids love playing outside in the dirt and sand and on their swing set!
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