Seeking God's Peace in Africa

By Jen

If you were going to house-sit for us, here are some of the things you’d need to know.  First, as in any good house in Africa, there is some important plumbing info.  The kitchen has hot and cold taps, they both turn on and off and they are on the sides you are probably accustomed to, however, don’t be alarmed if the cold water comes out rust-red or if the hot water doesn’t come out at all.   If there is no hot water, you need to fill the hot water tank on the roof.  Just turn the knob located in the large bathroom, above the tub.  Don’t forget you’ve turned it on or in about 20 minutes, you will have gallons of water pouring off your roof.  The sink in the main bathroom has 2 taps, but the hot water does not turn on and the cold water does not turn off.  There is one more bathroom off the master bedroom.  It also has 2 taps, but only the hot water tap works.  Wash your hands quickly if you don’t want to be scalded – our hot water heater works great!  The shower in there is the best thing about this house (if you can get past the smell of sweaty gym socks, which we hope we can eventually tile over).  The water pressure is great, it usually drains well and most of the time you can regulate the temperature so it’s warm and not scalding or freezing – though this takes a little practice.  The toilets work well, but the one in the main bathroom needs to be flushed with a bucket of water.  

On to the electrical wiring, none of which reeeally matters, since the Bukavu electricity will turn off the moment you turn the knob of you front door, or when you’re cake is 10 minutes away from being baked or when you are ready for your morning cup of tea…  Sometimes in the evening, after you’ve put the kids to bed the power will come back on at a voltage high enough to light the incandescent bulbs in their room (which you forgot to turn off), but not to light the fluorescent bulbs in the rest of the house.  At this point, you might want to go to the garage to see if one of the 3 lines that connects your house to the grid is working better than the other two, so you can switch to the strongest one.  You can use a tester for this, or just jiggle them and see which one makes your heart feel more funny than the others and sends showers of sparks onto your bare feet.  Eventually we’ll get a generator, and then we’ll be able to stumble around in the dark with fuel and wires, etc.  so we can stay up till 9pm, at which point we’ll crash, exhausted, into bed.

The Kitchen is nice enough – it’s not pretty right now, but it’s a good size and things generally work (when the power is on – so basically exactly when you’re not using things).  If you want to use the stove or oven, your guess is as good as ours about which direction to turn the knobs in.  There is a circle painted on the stove above each knob – if you point the knob to this circle, we think that means the burners and the oven are off.  It could also mean the power is out coincidentally while the knobs are pointing to the circles.  From there, there are several settings, but none of them are marked.  We take a stab at it (“hmmm, I think I’ll try turning it 2 clicks to the left today…”), knowing the power is going to go off at some point while we’re cooking anyway.  Basically there is a perpetually cooking pot of beans on the stove and something in the oven and we randomly turn knobs throughout.  When it’s hot, it’s hot and we eat it.  The fridge in the kitchen works (when the power is on); the fridge in the living room does not.  We are using it as a mouse and roach-proof pantry at the moment, till more of our rubber maid containers and tins come in the truck in a few weeks.  One more thing about the kitchen – it is inhabited by millions of tiny ants, who will swarm over any dirty dishes left in the sink.  They are harmless and you will feel quite powerful when you put down your tea cup in the morning and they scatter like so many New Yorkers when King Kong comes walking down Broadway. 

The reddish patina on your socks and pressure points is paint which comes off of our cement floor.  It washes out ok.   

The bedrooms are self explanatory.  Just remember that your curtains are see-through and that there is a guard patrolling your yard at all times.

The yard, by the way, is wonderful.  You will not believe you’re in the middle of such a big city.  It has 7 mango trees, 3 orange trees, a grapefruit tree, 2 avocado trees, 2 lemon trees, a guava tree and several other trees I can’t identify.  The grapefruits are particularly refreshing after you’ve used them to play a round of lawn bowls.  Please be careful not to step on our “guard” dogs; they get their feelings hurt easily.

I think that’s all.  Welcome to Bukavu!