Not the same!
My beloved Steve has a habit of saying to friends back home “Life here is really the same. It’s not that different than the States”. Those two sentences irk me to the core of my being. I understand what Steve is meaning by them, but that’s only because I have lived here in Maputo and in America. I know that most of you have not lived in Africa so that is a very strange and misunderstood statement. Let me try to make things a little clearer.
There are things about life here that are very much the same as Minnesota. We live in a house that would be comparable to houses in America – by that I mean we have floors, ceilings, a roof, a kitchen, bathrooms, indoor plumbing, etc. Our children go to school here. We eat three meals a day. We have a stove (although it’s gas), a refrigerator, a washer and dryer and a car. We have stores where we can go to shop for food, clothes, and household goods. We sleep in beds with sheets and pillows. We have a couch and chairs made out of foam and covered in beautiful fabric. We have many of the comforts of home – a TV, a DVD player, XBOX, a computer (praise the Lord!), an Ipod, a really nice camera, etc. We have restaurants and pizza places (that deliver). We do belong to a gym with exercise equipment and a pool for the kids to use. However despite all these similarities, life here IS NOT THE SAME!
When I buy food I don’t just drive to Cub, Target, Byerly’s etc. I buy my fruit and vegetables on the street from a vendor or I go to the local “market” (think farmer’s market downtown NOT grocery store market). Then when I come home I must wash my produce in a bleach mixture and carefully inspect it all for worms or other “friends”. When I buy meat I go to a butcher where I order what I’d like in Portuguese and hope that the part of the cow I think I’m buying really is the right part. When I buy “goods” I go to one of 5 or 6 different markets and depending on their supply I buy what I need. Sometimes when I’m going to buy milk or cheese I arrive only to find that they don’t have any that day. I buy bread from a bakery and have to take whatever they have available when I go – usually there is no sliced bread, but there are delicious little rolls.
When I wash clothes I go out my back door to a little room in the backyard where my washer and dryer live. I have to wait about 5 minutes for the washer (which lacks any water pressure) to fill with an inch of water so I can add my powdered soap. Then I have to wait another 10 minutes for it to fill with a few more inches so I can add my clothes. Then about an hour and a half later the cycle is done. After that I put most of our clothes in a VERY small and compact dryer, which seems excessive, but is actually necessary. I can’t dry my clothes on a clothesline because there are mango flies here which lay eggs on wet clothing and then the eggs can get on/in your skin and you have problems. So the solution is either dry them in a dryer, hang them inside to dry or hang them outside and then iron them all to kill the eggs. (I am very fortunate and grateful to have house help who irons all our clothes)
We get up around 5:45 every morning in order to pack lunches, make breakfast and get the kids ready to leave for school by 7 am. Lucy goes in a carpool and I take Kaleb to school. They have relatively “normal” school days and then in the afternoon Steve picks them up from school. With the exception that both of their schools are surrounded by walls, gates and iron fences which are opened by guards upon proof of your “id”. We feel our children are quite safe at school, but we definitely worry about them and their safety much more here than we ever would in MN.
Every day we have a guard here at all times. When I get up in the morning I wave to whoever was on nightshift. Then at 8 am our empragada arrives (a new one now named Gloria) to work in our house until around 3 pm. I am very grateful to have her! She sweeps all the floors (we don’t have a vacuum), mops, cleans the bathrooms (yes we have 2) and generally cleans the whole house. For lunch I feed the guard, Gloria and whichever family members are around. I don’t have a microwave, we often don’t have “lunch meat” so whatever we eat must be prepared from scratch. In the afternoon the guards change shifts, the kids come home from school, we have a Portuguese lesson for two hours and then I make dinner, we clean up (no dishwasher) and go to bed. We don’t usually go out at night unless it’s for Bible Study on Wednesday nights or out to dinner somewhere.
We have not purchased clothes in Maputo yet. We either buy them in South Africa or we buy material and have clothes made. It’s very affordable but the quality is not as good. Let’s just say that there are no comparisons to Gap, Old Navy, Target and Marshall Field’s here. When we go to Game (our version of Wal-Mart) we pay lots of money for things like shampoo, cleaning supplies, pens and pencils and whatever else we need. When we do go shopping we have to think through our purchases – is it really necessary? Is it worth $8? If I don’t buy it today will they have it the next time I come to the store?
When we go to bed at night we put a padlock on our front and back doors, say goodnight to the guard, check to make sure all the windows are locked then we crawl into bed and sleep under a mosquito net.
No day here is exactly the same. Yesterday my friend (and her two kids in a stroller) stopped by around 10 to see if I wanted to go for a walk and buy some produce. I said yes, but I had no money we would have to stop for some. She said, “No problem” so I put Mia in her umbrella stroller and off we went. We walked to a bank close by where I wasn’t able to get any money. We went into a little deli where I was able to buy some things for dinner (we had friends coming) and I could use my VISA card. Then we walked down a beautiful road overlooking the Indian Ocean. Next we walked up to a main area of downtown, stopped at a local café for some coffee and toast (which cost about $2! Cheap!), met her husband for a quick chat, stopped at 2 more ATM’s (which denied my card), bought some produce from a favorite stand and returned home. Then I cooked lunch for my “clan” and while Gloria cleaned up the kitchen (BONUS!) Mia and I rocked in the hammock and told stories. Steve called around 3:15 saying he had picked up the kids but had a conflict for work and couldn’t make our lesson so could I please drop him at the office. I took him to the office, stopped for bread for dinner, picked up the babysitters and my teacher, had my lesson, took my teacher and the babysitters home (K and L stayed at home with the guard), picked up Steve at the office, came home and made dinner, visited with lovely friends from Uganda, rinsed the dishes (but left them for the morning) and went to bed.
So as you can see our lives are similar in some ways, but very different in others. We have much more freedom here to step out of the rat race and enjoy time together as a family. We have less safety and not all the comforts of life, but we have a FANTASTIC life. We are learning to simplify even more than we have and are hopefully becoming different people as a result. I hope this will help to “clarify” things a little bit. Although I must say that until you’ve experienced both lives, it’s impossible to really get it. So just smile and nod the next time you hear Steve say, “Our life in Maputo REALLY isn’t that different!
There are things about life here that are very much the same as Minnesota. We live in a house that would be comparable to houses in America – by that I mean we have floors, ceilings, a roof, a kitchen, bathrooms, indoor plumbing, etc. Our children go to school here. We eat three meals a day. We have a stove (although it’s gas), a refrigerator, a washer and dryer and a car. We have stores where we can go to shop for food, clothes, and household goods. We sleep in beds with sheets and pillows. We have a couch and chairs made out of foam and covered in beautiful fabric. We have many of the comforts of home – a TV, a DVD player, XBOX, a computer (praise the Lord!), an Ipod, a really nice camera, etc. We have restaurants and pizza places (that deliver). We do belong to a gym with exercise equipment and a pool for the kids to use. However despite all these similarities, life here IS NOT THE SAME!
When I buy food I don’t just drive to Cub, Target, Byerly’s etc. I buy my fruit and vegetables on the street from a vendor or I go to the local “market” (think farmer’s market downtown NOT grocery store market). Then when I come home I must wash my produce in a bleach mixture and carefully inspect it all for worms or other “friends”. When I buy meat I go to a butcher where I order what I’d like in Portuguese and hope that the part of the cow I think I’m buying really is the right part. When I buy “goods” I go to one of 5 or 6 different markets and depending on their supply I buy what I need. Sometimes when I’m going to buy milk or cheese I arrive only to find that they don’t have any that day. I buy bread from a bakery and have to take whatever they have available when I go – usually there is no sliced bread, but there are delicious little rolls.
When I wash clothes I go out my back door to a little room in the backyard where my washer and dryer live. I have to wait about 5 minutes for the washer (which lacks any water pressure) to fill with an inch of water so I can add my powdered soap. Then I have to wait another 10 minutes for it to fill with a few more inches so I can add my clothes. Then about an hour and a half later the cycle is done. After that I put most of our clothes in a VERY small and compact dryer, which seems excessive, but is actually necessary. I can’t dry my clothes on a clothesline because there are mango flies here which lay eggs on wet clothing and then the eggs can get on/in your skin and you have problems. So the solution is either dry them in a dryer, hang them inside to dry or hang them outside and then iron them all to kill the eggs. (I am very fortunate and grateful to have house help who irons all our clothes)
We get up around 5:45 every morning in order to pack lunches, make breakfast and get the kids ready to leave for school by 7 am. Lucy goes in a carpool and I take Kaleb to school. They have relatively “normal” school days and then in the afternoon Steve picks them up from school. With the exception that both of their schools are surrounded by walls, gates and iron fences which are opened by guards upon proof of your “id”. We feel our children are quite safe at school, but we definitely worry about them and their safety much more here than we ever would in MN.
Every day we have a guard here at all times. When I get up in the morning I wave to whoever was on nightshift. Then at 8 am our empragada arrives (a new one now named Gloria) to work in our house until around 3 pm. I am very grateful to have her! She sweeps all the floors (we don’t have a vacuum), mops, cleans the bathrooms (yes we have 2) and generally cleans the whole house. For lunch I feed the guard, Gloria and whichever family members are around. I don’t have a microwave, we often don’t have “lunch meat” so whatever we eat must be prepared from scratch. In the afternoon the guards change shifts, the kids come home from school, we have a Portuguese lesson for two hours and then I make dinner, we clean up (no dishwasher) and go to bed. We don’t usually go out at night unless it’s for Bible Study on Wednesday nights or out to dinner somewhere.
We have not purchased clothes in Maputo yet. We either buy them in South Africa or we buy material and have clothes made. It’s very affordable but the quality is not as good. Let’s just say that there are no comparisons to Gap, Old Navy, Target and Marshall Field’s here. When we go to Game (our version of Wal-Mart) we pay lots of money for things like shampoo, cleaning supplies, pens and pencils and whatever else we need. When we do go shopping we have to think through our purchases – is it really necessary? Is it worth $8? If I don’t buy it today will they have it the next time I come to the store?
When we go to bed at night we put a padlock on our front and back doors, say goodnight to the guard, check to make sure all the windows are locked then we crawl into bed and sleep under a mosquito net.
No day here is exactly the same. Yesterday my friend (and her two kids in a stroller) stopped by around 10 to see if I wanted to go for a walk and buy some produce. I said yes, but I had no money we would have to stop for some. She said, “No problem” so I put Mia in her umbrella stroller and off we went. We walked to a bank close by where I wasn’t able to get any money. We went into a little deli where I was able to buy some things for dinner (we had friends coming) and I could use my VISA card. Then we walked down a beautiful road overlooking the Indian Ocean. Next we walked up to a main area of downtown, stopped at a local café for some coffee and toast (which cost about $2! Cheap!), met her husband for a quick chat, stopped at 2 more ATM’s (which denied my card), bought some produce from a favorite stand and returned home. Then I cooked lunch for my “clan” and while Gloria cleaned up the kitchen (BONUS!) Mia and I rocked in the hammock and told stories. Steve called around 3:15 saying he had picked up the kids but had a conflict for work and couldn’t make our lesson so could I please drop him at the office. I took him to the office, stopped for bread for dinner, picked up the babysitters and my teacher, had my lesson, took my teacher and the babysitters home (K and L stayed at home with the guard), picked up Steve at the office, came home and made dinner, visited with lovely friends from Uganda, rinsed the dishes (but left them for the morning) and went to bed.
So as you can see our lives are similar in some ways, but very different in others. We have much more freedom here to step out of the rat race and enjoy time together as a family. We have less safety and not all the comforts of life, but we have a FANTASTIC life. We are learning to simplify even more than we have and are hopefully becoming different people as a result. I hope this will help to “clarify” things a little bit. Although I must say that until you’ve experienced both lives, it’s impossible to really get it. So just smile and nod the next time you hear Steve say, “Our life in Maputo REALLY isn’t that different!
posted by Sniders in Africa at 3/10/2006 10:17:00 PM
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