"The Bubble."
That's what my husband Kurt and I call it. This surreal African juxtaposition of walls and shanty towns, manicured lawns and dirt roads... And actually, that description fails to describe the jolt that is our new life in an African city of haves and have-nots. We definitely have been dropped into a bubble. It's an immediate challenge-- recognizing with gratitude the surreal lifestyle of expansive square footage and amenities anyone would love, while battling the sickening guilt that not everyone is sharing in the blessing.
Though it's not at all our intention to stay isolated among the walls of our new home, which many easily do, please be patient with us. This blog will start in The Bubble. Here are some pictures of our new home, on loan from the school Kurt works for :
Our living room, with fire place and a bar behind it. We are calling the bar area our "coffee house" room. There is no heating or cooling in any of the homes here; just vents on the tops of the walls. These vents help the house to breath and house large black spiders that come out every night to rest at the top of the walls. Harmless but eerie.
Our back patio, where we occasionally eat. We will use this space with our two year old a lot during the rainy season.
Looking through our living room to our dining room. Sliding glass door on the left, kitchen doorway up on the right.
Kitchen, full of windows and very large. The back door opens in two pieces, so most of the day with the windows and at least half the door open, the kitchen feels like it's outside. Washing machine, fridge, and pantry on left.
Kitchen from other side. Breakfast bar in the middle, oven and warming drawer in back, stove on back right.
Master bedroom leads into a dressing room as big as our last kitchen. Two more bedrooms, unpictured, are slightly smaller. Also unpictured is tons of closet space in every room.
Two newly redone bathrooms, both the size of bedrooms.
Pool with fountain (out of picture) looking at one of our patios.
Trampoline on the side of the house. Our Jonas is in love. I call it a death trap, but he's already used it for about three hours, so my hesitations have not meant much. There are probably more dangerous things in Africa...
Looking to our back yard from one of our three patios. A children's playhouse (again, death trap) sits in front with a large area of gardens, fruit trees, and stone benches behind. Also unseen are the staff quarters... a separate cottage, shed, and burning area. The yard is approximately two acres.
Kurt and I laugh that we had to move to Africa to live on our first cul-de-sac. The black gate is ours. We have yet to meet the neighbors, whose ferocious dogs have kept me at length. Dogs here are for protection, not cuddling. We all live behind gates and walls, with barbed wire and electric fences unseen above them all.
Coming into the gate. Every piece of green space is manicured... It hasn't rained since February, but you can't tell. Can't wait to see the water bill!
