My new house

One week ago I moved to town. I had intended to move over the weekend, but without my own car the actual move date depended on when a friend with a car was free to help. Last Wednesday Linda and I moved a few things over by taxi. She helped me get the kitchen set up and we went home. That night my friend Shauen said he'd be free Thursday afternoon after his Swahili classes to bring the rest of my stuff to the house. I spent Thursday morning packing, cleaning and saying my goodbyes. Thankfully I was only moving a few kilometers away so the goodbyes were not too sad!
This last week has been interesting. So far my only furniture is a mattress, 2 plastic chairs and a small plastic table. I got the table and chairs after I realized that I only had the floor to offer visitors! Once I have furniture the plastic furniture will be moved into the porch. My friend Lightness was in the process of moving to Uganda over the weekend. I have her furniture temporarily stored at my place while Tisho searches for a room in town to rent to move the furniture too. Bishop Mameo and Pastor Dunia were very pleased when they saw Lightness' furniture. They seemed very disappointed when I told them it wasn't mine! Some of my living room furniture was supposed to be completed August 20th. I'm happy to report that by tomorrow most of the first order should be ready to move into the house...I'm still not certain when the rest will be finished. I also had the carpenter out to the house yesterday to measure for closets, shelves in the pantry and a kitchen counter. As he is the only carpenter in Morogoro that uses dried lumber he can really take as long as he wants because there isn't anyone else for me to move my business too. Before I'd send up prayers like "Lord, give me some patience now. Please!" Living in Tanzania I've been getting great practice to help me develop real patience.
Visiting villages I've found that children are either excited to see me or very afraid. I thought that my neighbor children would be most accustomed to being around foreigners because they live in town. My first few days the kids would pick in the windows and watch me (I don't have curtains yet either). When I'd look up they'd laugh and sneak away. After a few days Happyness became courageous and spoke with me through the window. I invited her in and suddenly there were 6 kids in my living room. At first they seemed unsure of themselves. After a few questions, some water and M&Ms Kerry sent me they had warmed up and were lounging all over the floor! We spent close to an hour visiting before they had to go home. I'll try and get some pictures taken to put up showing the house. It will probably take period updates over the next few weeks or months though before all the furniture is completed.