Shifting

I bet you thought this post was about driving a manual on the left hand side of the road. Yeah that has been a challenge, and I should spend some time praising myself for almost always staying on the left hand side, unless it is a dirt road and/or there is no opposing traffic, but that is not what I am writing about today.

In Zambia when someone moves they say, “those people are shifting”, and we are.

When we did the financial specs on moving to Zambia we budgeted spending between 2-3 thousand per month to rent a home…we expected first world accommodations. So, when Seth scored our current house for 2300 /monthwe were super stoked. It is a large private house, probably twenty years old four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool, large, lush garden, servant’s quarters– which are pretty run down but all in all a lot of potential. Upon signing the contract there were certain things that needed to be repaired and there have been many issues that have come up since then that have gone unresolved. The landlord seems to be a very upstanding man, but he lives in South Africa and his “agent” is anything but. So, we have been dealing with many issues, willing to resolve them but frustrated by the cost of a place that isn’t running, as it should.

So when a friend, actually Seth’s bosses wife, told us of a nice house for 5,000,000 Kwacha/month (roughly 1000 US)we decided saving 1300/month was worth all the stress of breaking a lease and living in a slightly less spacious abode. The new house has three bedrooms and a study, it is newer but very simple, power and water are included in the rent which is awesome! It is located among several other homes on a theological campus, it has 24 hour security, a private wall and gate and a medium sized garden that could use some flowers. The campus also has a small soccer field, think: patchy, brown grass and a playground (not the safest structure, but this is Africa). We are so stoked!

So, here we have been bemoaning the fact that our things have still not arrived, and that the house isn’t running as it should when the reality is: this is a huge blessing. If our stuff were here the move would be much less likely. And if the house was working properly we wouldn’t be able to get out of the contract. So, the last 2 months of putting up with being uncomfortable is likely equal to more than 30,000 dollars of savings over the three years.

I have felt a little awkward this week as the land lord actually came up from South Africa to fix things for us and has been “popping up” at the house every day to do repairs for us, mostly working on the water system. But he knows our decision and has been nothing but friendly. However, dealing with no water and then filthy, red colored water while Seth is on a business fishing trip and the kids and I are roasting, hot, sweaty and sick…yeah, still worth 30,000 dollars.

On that note…what is with Zambia attacking my immune system. I have never had a succession of sicknesses like this in my life.

So, I will try and get some pictures of the new place up soon. But this move also means saying goodbye to Internet for who knows how long!