If You're Happy and You Know It....

This week's FS BRU (Foreign Service Blog Round Up) topic is What makes you happy at your CURRENT post. My first instinct is to go with sarcasm. When all else fails revert to sarcasm.

Smiling boxes in the pouch make me happy.



Ok so maybe sarcasm isn't what Jill is looking for. I'm sorta betting it isn't what she had in mind when she suggested this topic for the BRU. I'll try harder to find my happy thought.

These guys make me happy.



Of course they make me happy (or mad or proud or frustrated or puzzled or frightened) pretty much any where we are happen to be. So that really isn't what makes me happy in Malawi, although they do make me happy. Pretty cute aren't they?

Safaris make me happy!



Of course safaris usually mean travel to Zambia or maybe Botswana so that isn't really something that makes me happy in Malawi. Just to be clear there are places in Malawi to go on safari, just none near us. We are hoping to hit up a few of those in the coming year.

So what does make me happy at my current post? Well this is the first post where we have had a yard of our very own. In Jakarta and Frankfurt we had shared green space but no private yard. You may or may not know that I love to garden. Watching green things grow makes me happy, very happy. I am loving having fresh produce from my own garden and sharing that love with my kiddos. In the last week we have had lettuce, yellow wax beans, watermelon, artichokes, leeks, carrots, edamame and broccoli all harvested from our garden. Healthy eating at it's best.



Also from our garden are roses and other flowers that Colin has started leaving in tiny surprise bouquets all over the house. I have to confess, I have nothing to do with the flowers and general landscaping other than to hand over a paycheck to our gardeners. The veggie patch is mine, the rest of the yard is all theirs. They do a great job and not having to mow all that grass makes me very very happy.



On the same line of thinking Nature's Gift Permaculture makes me happy. I was privileged to take basic permaculture gardening classes there last year. Alonzo and Colin had fun visiting the gardens and learning about chicken tractors and composting as part of Green Camp. As a family we have been on a birding hike out there as well. The Permaculture center definitely makes me happy.





Kumbali is right right down the road from the permaculture center. Kumbali Cultural Village makes me happy. The boys attended Green camp there and learned so much. They are hoping that there will be another green camp soon. As a family we have spent more than a few Sundays hiking out there then relaxing afterwards with live music and a "Green" or two in the village. That would be a Carlsburg beer simply called "green" due to the color of the label not, thankfully, due to the color of the beer.





One Sunday last year Kumbali hosted a quilt show with the local quilting guild. The quilts were so pretty strung among the trees and draped over pots. Many of them featured local chitenje fabrics. The colors are so bright and vivid. I have a growing stash of theses fabrics that make me pretty happy. One of these days I will get busy and actually turn them into something which I am sure will make me even happier.





Birds make me happy. Africa has such pretty birds. With the pond in our backyard we seem to have a never ending stream of birds stopping by to get a drink or bathe in the waterfall. We have gotten into the habit of keeping a birding book and binoculars handy in the living room. I would love to say it is to identify new species to add to our life list, but really it is just to try and prove Colin wrong when he suddenly shouts, "Look there's a paradise flycatcher!" or something like that. Usually he is right, but every once in a while we catch him in a moment of mistaken avian identity. Then we are all very happy, well except Colin, but I guess everyone can't be happy all the time.





Ama Khofi makes me pretty happy too. It opened about a year ago, tucked back into a corner of Four Seasons garden center. It is a idyllic setting for a light lunch or a Sunday afternoon milkshake run with the kids. My favorite lunch is chicken roti roll and Ama's iced tea. Yummy. It even has a caramel latte on the menu for when I'm really craving a Starbucks fix.



Another thing that makes me happy is Domwe Island. Malawi may not have ocean front but it does have Lake Malwai where we were able to rent Domwe Island when our nephew Patrick came for a visit last September. Renting a whole island for vacation is just so "Life Styles of the Rich and Famous"! I never expected to be able to say we rented the whole island. We had a blast snorkeling, kayaking, and just hanging out watching the world go by from the deck overlooking the lake. When a rock hyrax crawled out from under the deck to peer at us from the rocks it was just too perfect. An island all to ourselves and a new, non-terrifying, critter to add to our list of African animals we have seen in the wild. Life is just perfect in moments like that.

Backyard Safari

There is no doubt that one of the biggest bonuses of serving at a post in Africa is the animals. Going on safari was a childhood dream. Blame Marlin Perkins.

How many of you are now humming "Mutual of Omaha is people you can count on when the going's hard?"

I can hardly believe that I actually have been on safari, in Africa. Pinch me. What's not to love about seeing things like this,


and this,

and this?


Sadly the area of Malawi where we live does't offer much in the way of wildlife viewing opportunities so our Safaris are few and far between. It doesn't seem to bother my kids much, they go on safari in our back yard every day. While they may not be spotting the big five (thank heavens) they do find plenty of critters to keep them happy and to keep me living in a state of terror.

Oh Gross!

The FS Blog Round Up is back and will henceforth be referred to as the FS BRU. The BRU isn't gross, it's fabulous! This weeks topic is gross though. Vomit. Yuck.

Jill from The Perlman Update is hosting, be sure to check in with her blog on Fridays to read the BRU. If you are familiar with her family you know that she has the WORST luck when traveling. All of her kids are prone to motion sickness. It's not a question of IF someone will get sick. It's more a question of which kid will hurl first. She is a strong woman. Freaky frightening animals I can handle. Barf not so much. I still have nightmares about the tire swing at the camp where I was a counselor. The kids would take turns on it turning and spinning until the inevitable happened. We called that thing the Vomit Comet.

I am assuming Jill is asking for vomit stories just so she knows others feel her pain. Sadly even though my kids are pretty good travelers and don't seem to suffer from motion sickness, we have had our fair share of barfy experiences. There are a few rather horrible experiences that stand out in my memories. Experiences so nasty that time hasn't dimmed the impact of the event.

Lists aren't my usual thing, I'm not that organized, but for post this I think I will borrow the idea of the list as a blog post from my BFF Monica. She will probably remember a few of these.

1. Projectile Vomit at 75 mph. Back before we packed up to wander the world, back when my kids were toddlers, I was one of those moms who ran to the doctor every time the kids looked a little off. Then 3 year old Alonzo was running a fever and wasn't keeping anything down. I packed up the kids, strapped everyone into their carseats and headed out. About half way to the doctors, while doing 75 mh down I10, I heard what has to be one of the worst sounds you can hear. The sound of a small child gagging behind you. About a second later a flood of vomit hit me square in the back of my head. I managed not to wreck the car but I have no idea how. I also managed not to barf myself, I think because I was afraid I would kill us all if I did. The up side is if you arrive at the doctors office dipping vomit you would be amazed at how fast they can get you in and out.

2. Barf + bunk beds = nothing good. When Navy boy Dakota was in junior high he woke up in the middle of the night overcome by nausea. He tried hard to get out of his bunk bed but just as he stepped onto ladder he lost the fight. The spray pattern from that height is impressive. I don't think he missed a square foot of carpeting. Carpet should NEVER be used in kid's bedrooms.

3. Bunks beds take two. Colin and Alonzo had low loft bunk beds meaning Colin's mattress sat in a frame on the floor and Alonzo's bed was about chest height. Colin went first in this instance. Just as I finished up changing the sheets and wiping the vomit off the floor and bed frame I heard Alonzo's tiny voice above me "My tummy hurts." Before I could scramble up off the floor I was hit with a shower of vomit. Drenched from head to toe in barf, and the bed I just finished cleaning up? Covered in splatter. Bunk beds are evil.

4. Blueberry Pie + stomach virus = new carpets. Purple vomit all over the carpet. Did you know blueberries stain, even when partially digested? Did you know that Colin had seconds? That was a whole lot of purple. I may never eat blueberry pie again. Enough said.

5. Mosquito nets + stomach virus = disaster. You know how mosquito nets look all romantic in the home design magazine? Yeah, not so much in real life. Grayson woke up in the middle of the night with stomach cramps. As he started to gag he tried, he really tried to get out from under that mosquito net and to the bathroom. I know he tried because he pulled the net mount right out of the ceiling. I woke to a loud thunk as the frame hit his bed and the sound of someone hurling. We found poor Gray sitting in pile of vomit completely tangled on his mosquito net. Thankfully the wooden frame that holds up the net managed to miss him.

I think that is enough barf for one day. Hope I didn't gross you too badly.

Paperwork Nightmares

Paperwork is the bane of the Foreign Service life, it is however a necessary evil, and as such is the subject of this week’s FS Weekly Blog Roundup. Becky at Small Bits is hosting this week so make sure to click over on Friday to read about all the paperwork that goes hand in hand with living the FS life.

I am very, very lucky in that my husband, the employee, has control freak tendencies when it comes to paperwork so I rarely have to deal with it at all. He does it all for us. Just one more reason I love him.

Right now we are dealing with two ongoing paperwork issues. One issue concerns Dakota, and the other one concerns our pets. To be fair only one of those paperwork issues is State generated but both are beyond belief frustrating.

Let's start with the animals. Due to all sorts of things going wrong our animals ended up being left behind at my mother's house last summer. I am one of those people who is never really truly happy without her fur kids, so number one priority this summer is getting the cat and possibly the puppy* to post. The problem is the animals are in Texas, and due to heat issues they can't fly as accompanied baggage or cargo this time of year, it’s simply too hot. No problem! We'll take the cat in-cabin as a carryon, not ideal considering the length of the flight, but better than no cat. The other half of the problem occurs when the flight lands in Africa, Johannesburg does not allow animals to arrive in cabin, they must arrive as cargo. ARRRGH! I know of at least one other family going round in circles trying to get their animals to Malawi. You would think no one had ever brought a pet to post before. There has got to be a way to get at least the cat here with us. I am hoping for a miracle in the next 6 weeks.

The other paperwork issue is even more frustrating. As long term readers know Dakota left for bootcamp in early December. When a diplokid grows up and heads off to college they get a college shipment. It is a small shipment, only 250 pounds, but enough to at least get their clothes and a few personal items to campus. Recruits are not allowed to take anything to bootcamp, so we didn’t even think about this at the time. Now that bootcamp is over Dakota would really like to have his stuff back. We really didn’t think it would be a problem to get stuff sent to him using the college shipment, we were wrong. Why we thought anything would ever be simple I have no earthly idea.

To start with Dakota left Malawi on Navy orders, with a ticket bought by the Navy. Standard procedure for recruits reporting to bootcamp. We had no idea what a headache this would cause later. When we tried to arrange for the shipment we were told he isn’t eligible for a shipment since he is still at post. Explaining that he isn’t at post but in the states serving in the Navy didn’t get us far. There were no orders cut, no ticket bought with State funds, therefore he is still at post and doesn’t need a shipment. David has had this conversation in many forms, with many different people, and at this point it doesn’t appears as if this situation is going to be resolved any time soon. I will be hand carrying the most important items home with me this summer, and that may be all he gets. I know it is bit unusual, but surely Dakota isn’t the first diplobrat in history of the Foreign Service to join the military rather than heading off to college, there has to be some way to get his junk our of our house and off to his barracks room.

If anyone out there has any idea how to solve either issues please Please PLEASE let us know!

*The cat we have had for 10 years and he is much beloved. The puppy was a new addition to the family last summer but at this point is no longer a puppy and has never been around kids, except for a brief time last summer when he basically terrified of my boys, but he was a little puppy so he could be socialized and trained adapt to the kids. We will have to see how he handles the rowdy boys this summer, but also we have to consider that he is shorter than the gap under the security gate so he will be a high maintenance kind of pet, never able to go outside alone or even off leash. There are packs of scary dogs and the occasional hyena that roam the streets around here at night. It would be bad to have to explain to the kids that a hyena ate their dog. I am thinking we will be finding him a good, loving home this summer. Anyone want a not-a-puppy-anymore Japanese Chin?

Ewww....

The FS Weekly Blog Round up is being hosted by Stephanie of Where in the World Am I? This weeks optional talking point (OPT) is toilets. Yeah. Toilets. You wouldn't think toilets would be such an interesting topic but, Oh man are toilets overseas a big deal.

The kid's all time favorite toilets are the ones in the Tokoyo Narita Airport. We had a 8 hour layover there once and I really thought the kids were going to dehydrate themselves going to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Turns out they were just playing with the toilets and the cool turbo handryers. What's so great about a toilet? Well these had a heated seats, built-in bidets with warm water, I think I remember a blowdryer, and sound effects. There was no little silver flush handle, instead there was a control panel with lots of little buttons, in Japanese. The boys were in toilet heaven. It took care of at least an hour of that layover.

Personally I like the self cleaning toilets in Germany. When you flush the seat suddenly starts rotating through a cleaner. Each person using the toilet gets a freshly cleaned seat. No more worrying if someone "sprinkled while they tinkled." Ingenious. I can think of a few dozen bathrooms along I10 that could use this feature!



I am pretty sure that everyone's least favorite toilets are the "squatters" so named because you must assume a squatting position in order to use it. Lord have mercy if you have bad knees, are pregnant, or for some other reason you can't squat down and get back up with out loosing your balance or having to touch the wall. I have yet to be in a squatter toilet that I would willingly touch any surface.


If you should have to use a squatter my son's advice is just to take off your pants rather than risk having them touch the puddle of....nastiness that's invariably on the floor of squatters. Carefully take off your pants and hang them around your neck, one less thing to worry about.

My advice when traveling in an area that has squatters is to skip that second cup of coffee to reduce the chance of having to use one, and carry toilet paper. Squatters NEVER have toilet paper. Sometimes thay have a hose, most often they have a bucket of water and scoop. The idea is to use the water to wash yourself using your left hand (which also explains the taboo against touching food with your left hand), no idea how you are supposed to get dry. Toilet paper, purell and maybe baby wipes are esential travel equipment in such areas. Never leave home without them.

I have managed so far to avoid having much contact with African public toilets. I plan to keep it that way. That bit about skipping the second cup of coffee? Vital! Also no matter how quick the trip is supposed to be I go right before I leave the house, you never know what might happen. There are a few western style toilets in Lilongwe I will use in a pinch but they do tend to smell, and I try hard not touch anything in the bathrooms, ever. Mom thank you for forcing me to "hover" over public toilets, who knew that would become such valuable skill?

When we went to Zambia the boys had to use the bathroom at the border crossing while we were dealing with paperwork. Dakota took the little ones. He came back and reported that the urinal was a long trench in the ground deeper than he was tall. The younger boys added in details about bugs, flies, and smells that I could have lived without. He reassured me that he held onto his brothers while they went so they wouldn't fall in. GAH! I decided then and there that I could hold it until we reached camp in a few hours, and possibly until we returned to our house in a week, depending on the conditions at the camp. Thankfully the toilets at camp were fine, a bit buggy at night, but otherwise not bad. At least I didn't have to hold it for a week. Small blessings!

I've had occasion to use a composting toilet on a reasonably regular basis as I take gardening classes at the Nature's Gift Permaculture Center. It doesn't smell like I thought it would. That's a good thing! They keep a bucket of wood shavings and a bucket of ash next to the toilet and there are instructions posted in English and Chichewa to put a little bit of the shavings into the toilet after each "deposit" and a little ash it if it starts to smell. It seems to work, and it doesn't use any water, a HUGE consideration in an area where water is such a precious commodity. If I had a cabin waaaayy off in the woods on the side of a mountain somewhere, a composting toilet might be an viable option. Maybe.

Well that's the Cyberbones Toilets of the World tour. Make sure to click over to Where in the World Am I? on Friday to check out the Weekly Roundup. I hope someone had a fancy toilet with a bidet, I always wanted a bidet. Don't know what I would do with it, but it seems cool.

Quilt Squares

This week Connie at Whale Ears and other Wonderings is hosting the FS Weekly Blog Roundup. The theme or "optional talking point" is crafts. If you have something crafty you would like to share, or even if you don’t but do have something to say, click over and add something to the Roundup.

I don’t have much time lately for crafts. It’s not that I don’t enjoy crafting, it’s just that I am beyond busy trying to keep up with housework, laundry, cooking, and home schooling. If you have never lived in a third world country everything takes just that little bit longer.

For example: I used to complain about making lasagna, I thought it took too long. Try making it here. You have to start by making the sauce. Then, unless you are planning to pay $15 dollars a box for lasagna noodles, you make the pasta and you will need to make the ricotta cheese too. You can usually buy mozzarella, thank heavens. Then once all the parts have been made it's time to assemble it all. This is the part I used to think was pain back when I was using canned sauce, pre-shredded cheese, store bought part-skim ricotta, and no boil noodles. If you want a salad as a side you will have to wash, bleach, and then rinse all the vegetables. If you are a ranch dressing kind of person, like my kids, you will be making the ranch dressing from scratch too, assuming you can find yogurt and mayo. All in all a lasagna dinner will take about 8+ hours from start to finish, not including clean up or garlic bread. Guess how often my kids get lasagna? Yeah, they are rooting for Aunt Teri to take them to Olive Garden this summer. Since I have been to a restaurant with my kids I am thinking frozen lasagna, frozen garlic bread, bagged salad, bottled dressing, and maybe a pie from Marie Calendars.

Oops....Sorry for going off on a tangent. Back to the roundup topic: Crafting. No, not much time left for crafts lately. But wait! There is hope on the horizon. We have made the decision that Alonzo will go back to school next year. Homeschooling here is very isolating, and I don't think I am cut out for it in any case. There are no activities outside of the school for kids to participate in. We will do whatever we can to make it a more successful year for him, but how is going to go to school, that's one thing down. Secondly we have finally hired a maid. She won’t start until next month but I am hopeful she will work out, which will leave me with more time to follow my own interests.

What will I do with myself? Well, I have this pile of quilt pieces I was given after my mother-in-law passed away, more than a decade ago.


She started the quilt but never finished it. Somehow the pieces ended up at post with us. She was a great crafter. She could knit, crochet, and quilt. A triple threat. I have one of her finished quilts and I just adore it.


It seems a shame not to finish this one too. My original thought was to just finish piecing the squares, add some sashing, and be done with it. Seemed simple enough. I can do this.

I laid the peices out on one of the kids blue(ish) sheets to give you an idea of how it would look when it is finished. I don't think blue is going to be the right color for the sashing, too many blue squares.

The yellow(ish) sheet is better, but the final color needs to be darker, I think.

Then last week I clicked on a link on the sidebar of someone’s blog and ended up at Crazy Mom Quilts. A new obsession was born. Such gorgeous quilts, such gorgeous fabrics. Suddenly my plan seemed too basic, too boring, too uninspired, too easy.

Maybe I should alternate the pieced squares with solid squares.



Maybe I should pick apart all the sewing and reassemble the quilt squares so that each finished square has two patterned squares and two solid squares. Then I could add sashing, or alternate with solid squares, or something.


Maybe I should give up in the idea of squares altogether and turn them all into triangles.



I don’t know, seems like a lot of work. I like that red, it really makes the colors pop. Those would be some tiny triangles since the squares are only 3 inches a side, but I do like that look. maybe if I ever finish this quilt I can do a triangle quilt for myself.

I can’t decide what do. I am not in love with the mish-mash of colors and patterns in the pieced squares. But then again Annette pieced those squares more than a decade ago and I'm not sure I want to undo any of her stitching, it just seems wrong. What do you think? Should I leave it and continue with my original plan, or take it all apart and start over again?

Weekly FS Blog Roundup--Housing

It seems a little trivial to be working on a blog about housing while the earthquake and ensuing tsunami are occurring. The images on television are shattering. So many people left homeless. So much loss. The boys are worried about their friend Toshia who lives in Tokyo. One of the things that happens if you live a global lifestyle is that when tragedy strikes, no matter where, it seems like you know someone who is affected. Our thoughts and prayers go out in to the people of Japan and those whose lives are touched by this tragedy.

One of the biggest investments most people ever make is a house. Where a person lives, and what their home looks like can be an important part of a persons happiness. When you walk in the door and the house feels welcoming, some of the workday stress just melts away. When buying a house, or even renting one, a lot of thought goes into selecting just the right place. So what happens when you give that choice up for a life wandering the planet, having your housing in your new country selected for you, with little or no input from you?

Well if you are lucky you get a fabulous house, bigger than anything you could have afforded back home. Yes, it does happen. Don't believe me? I'm not sure I blame you after my post yesterday, but Lisa from What Were We Thinking is thinking that they have the best house ever. And you know what? She may be right, it is a gorgeous house! I wonder if I can convince Dave that we need to head to Tijuana next?

Maybe we could try Bangladesh instead. Meandering Memos had a fabulous roof top terrace when they lived there. I have always wanted a patio on the roof.

Or how about Belmopan? You Can Call Me Al has a pretty nice house. Belize could work for me! Dave could head to work and I could send the kids to school, then I could finally learn to scuba dive. At the end of the day I could cook in that gorgeous kitchen. Sounds like a plan to me.

We are on our third post. Which means we are no longer newbies, but we still have a lot to learn. One thing I have learned is there is no typical FS housing. It always makes me smile to hear a newbie ask what housing is like overseas. There is no way to answer that. That's why I wanted to do a housing theme. Next time someone asks, you can refer them to this post where they can click through the links to see examples of houses at various posts. I hope someone does this topic again after transfer season so we can get a peek at all the FS blogger's new digs.

Our house in Jakarta was a townhouse but it was still about twice the size of our house back in the states. With two big living rooms, a efficient galley kitchen, and four bedrooms it was really comfortable, especially after David painted it such fun colors.

In Germany our house was a two story apartment on the third and fourth floors. The stairs with no elevator were a total drag, even more so since I can never seem to get out of the house with everything I need on the first try. Once you were inside our apartment it was pretty nice. Nice light colored laminate floor, and crisp white walls which reflected the light from all the windows. And with six (6!) bedrooms and three baths there was so much room for everyone to spread out.

Now we are here in Malawi. The house is a little smaller than either of our previous FS houses but (and this is a huge but) it has a massive yard for my nature loving boys to run around in all day long terrorizing the lizards and bugs. That yard makes up for a whole lot of things.

Other people think the kitchen is where it is at. Zoe likes a light, airy, kitchen, and a pool is nice too. Toads optional. Zoe is so fond of the FS furniture that she is hosting a contest at her blog Something Edited This Way Comes for the best way to disguise a FS Sofa. I can’t wait to see how to accomplish that.

Nomads by Nature recommends that you develop a sense of humor, and take the time to personalize a house and make it yours. Sounds like good advice to me.

Stephanie from Where in the World am I used paint to brighten up her new place in Hyderabad. I love the colors and all the cool arches, I love architectural detail. If you want to see more pictures of her house you can check out her flicker pictures and she even has a video tour.

Sadie Abroad asks if she's wrong to complain. Considering the luck she has had with housing I would say no, she should be complaining a whole lot more. Bedbugs and spraying for mosquitos while her pets are in the house are pretty much inexcusable problems. I hope she has a change of luck soon.

Adventures In… posted before and after pictures of her house. It is amazing what a little rearranging and some paint can do for a place. I am not sure anything can be done about the wild tiles. I actually like the blue ones and the red bathroom would be cool if the sink and tub didn’t match. That’s a whole lotta red.

Small Bits has a lovely big house with lots storage. And bookcases. You can never have too many bookshelves, or storage.

Connie from Whale Ears and other Wonderings is nicer than me when she goes on a rant. After she finished trashing her house, she took the time to point all the good bits too. Me, I just figure that is a post for another day. It can be so cathartic to have a place vent once in a while.

Kelly from Well, That Was Different makes her premiere post here on the roundup with a post about all the furniture that fills our houses. The Drexel Heritage furniture we all know and love, or love to hate, does have a certain “style” about it.

The current theme At Post is furniture. At Post is a photo blog that, like the roundup, relies on the FS community for contributions. I sent in a picture of my kitchen table. I am pretty sure it started life as a shipping container. It’s ugly, but I no longer dread the pasta night. No white upholstered dining chairs for me this tour. Ha! Send in your furniture pictures. Let’s see if we can get examples of all the different Drexel Horrible brocades in inventory.

Donna at Email from the Embassy is finding her current house in Amman a little boring. Who can blame her? Her house in Armenia had a secret Scooby Doo bookcase door in the basement and her house in Beijing had a naked mermaid chandelier. Guess you can’t be that lucky all the time.

Sass and Sweet has had good luck with housing department so far, mustard colored brocade couches aside, and hopes it continues at her next post. My fingers are crossed for you.

And finally, Sara at Wife-Mommy-Woman posted a very nice rundown of the housing in San Jose. This is just the kind of information I want when I contact post to ask about housing: an honest, thorough response. I would probably whine less about my housing if I had known what to expect. Telling someone the house is “fabulous” when it's really “livable with issues we are working on” makes for a rough landing in country. It’s called managing expectations. Nicely done, Sara.

Well that’s the roundup for this week. If you want to host a roundup stop by A Daring Adventure and sign up. The roundup can't continue without community participation.

Lilongwe Housing

Quick Reminder: Tomorrow is the Weekly FS Blog Roundup, the theme this week is housing. I will be hosting it here on Cyberbones. Several people have already submitted posts featuring their housing overseas. With out FS community participation the roundup would cease to be, so please think about submitting a post... there is still time. Also you don't have to have done an overseas tour to participate in this one. How about posting on housing options in DC? The dreaded Oakwoods for example? It doesn't have to be a new post... many of us do the "Here's our new house" post shortly after arriving, please consider including an older post in the roundup this week. Thanks!

Necessary Disclaimer: No two houses in Lilongwe are alike so issues with my house are not necessarily representative of all housing. Translation: If you are the the family we are sponsoring this summer and you happen to be reading this don't freak out! If you are someone from Embassy Lilongwe and are reading this, I am well aware that we have one of the "nicer" houses here and have been told this ad nauseam and don't really need to be told it again. Further more this is clearly a RANT! Yes I am whining, quite a lot, as a matter of fact. Sorry if that offends someone but there a few million other blogs out there to read, go choose one.

Houses in Lilongwe does not live up to American expectations or standards. Not much of a surprise really, this isn't America... DUH! The housing in Jakarta and Frankfurt had issues too, but neither of those housing experiences prepared me for what we found here. I was told the housing here is "some of the best housing in Africa!" Once we were assigned to our house we were told the house was "Fabulous!" and the last tenants told me they "loved living in this house and would really miss it." So part of the problem is undoubtedly that my expectations were far too high. After all Africa is known for large houses in various states of disrepair. I should have remembered that.

Lets start with that "best housing in Africa" thing. There are many people here who are on their second, third or fourth African tour. Every one of them as assured me that the housing here is NOT the best housing in Africa, not even close. I can't comment on that since this is my first African posting, but I really really hope this isn't the best Africa has to offer.

Where to start? Hmmm...I know, lets start with the curtains. Most rooms in this house have an entire wall of windows so the curtains dominate the room since one entire wall from floor to almost the ceiling is curtain. Knowing that, why would anyone chose curtains that look like this? Seriously? Don't you just love the stripe with fruit? The peach print still leaves me speechless. I am actually missing the oh so neutral beige curtains that we had in Germany and Jakarta.






My favorite curtains in the house are these curtains in the bathroom. No you are not seeing it wrong, the curtains really don't match. Yes they are both white, but one panel has a silver circle motif and the other has a floral tone-on-tone motif. Even better the two panels aren't even the same length. Love It! No not really.


We were told our kitchen was huge. It would be more accurate to say the room our kitchen is in is huge. The kitchen itself takes up about a third of the room and it is pretty good sized, but not huge. The kitchen is the room we eat dinner in every night and and where Alonzo does his school work every day. It also houses the kids art/playroom, laundry room, and 2 pantries. We spend a lot in this room. Interestingly it is the only room in the house, besides bathrooms without an A/C unit. I requested one and was told that it is was against policy to have an A/C in the kitchen. So most of the time, but especially on baking (I make all our bread since none of us like the local bread) and laundry days, we sweat. It tends to stay hot and humid in the kitchen space all the time. We do have a ceiling fan that helps to make it bearable.



David refers to the kitchen as Monet, good from afar, but far from good. I suppose that statement says a lot about how Dave feels about impressionist art, but it is also a pretty accurate statement in reference to our kitchen. At first glance it doesn't look so bad but then you look closer and realize that the cabinets are vinyl covered particle board and the vinyl is cracking and the particle board is swelling. The drawers are all sort of crooked and some of the doors are falling off. The sink is a lovely huge size with built in drain boards. I love the shape and size of it, but it is so scratched up that there is no way to make it look anything close to white, it grosses me out a bit, but it does match the rest of the sinks and tubs in the house. The counters are old white laminate with burn marks and stains from the previous families cook. To top it off we can't use some of the cabinets because the insides are water damaged from some time in the past. It isn't getting fixed anytime soon. Apparently the cabinets would have to be pulled out to fix it and that isn't going to happen while we are living in the house. It is supposed to be repaired during the make-ready for the next family, two and half years from now. In the meantime I pretend like those cabinets don't exist and the cockroaches enjoy have a private party condo.*






After the drapes and kitchen, the thing that bothers me the most is the floors. We have wood floors. Don't get me wrong I love wood floors. In fact once upon a time I payed quite a lot to get rid of the builders standard beige wall to wall carpet to replace it with gorgeous hard wood floors. Sadly it has been many long years since the floors in this house have seen any sort of maintenance. Unmaintained wood floors don't look so good. Requests to have them refinished resulted in a firm no, not while the house is occupied. It creates too much dust. So we live with the floors and are very glad to have some carpets to cover the worst of it. It


Honestly the house is a good size for our family, it is a decent layout, and is very livable. It was probably a gorgeous house once upon a time. The biggest problem with this house is a long history of poor maintenance, neglect, and shall we say "creative" problem solving. What do I mean by creative problem solving? Well someone ordered a 110 washing machine for a 220 country. No problem just plug it in to a transformer, then set the transformer on the floor right next to it. I put the transformer on a little table when we moved in. Good thing too. Last week the washing machine flooded the room I didn't realize it until I stepped in the water. Can you imagine if I hadn't moved the transformer off the floor? Another example would be the plywood blocking the view and much of the light on our screened porch. Couldn't it at least have been painted? Need shelves in the bedroom? We'll make some. Is there a reason they couldn't have been all the same size? No bathroom cabinet? More shelves to match those in the bedroom. A hole in the screen? No need to replace the screen, we'll just glue a patch on it. Broke a bunch of tile replacing the toilet? Just poor concrete in the hole. The fact that I have boys who apparently can't aim and the unsealed concrete is porous and absorbs smells is an added bonus.







There is so much more I can say about this house, but I think at this point you get the picture. It isn't one big thing about the house, it's the sum all the little things that get to me.

*If you are coming to Lilongwe pack pest control. Lots of it. We are prohibited from buying any local pesticides for safety reasons but Dave managed to get his hands on a can of Raid. The next morning we swept up more than 40 dead roaches. GAH! Didn't phase the ants though. Nothing phases the ants. At least they don't bite like the fire ants back home.