This is our new rental house in Remera which is closer to Yusuf's soccer training beside the Amahoro Stadium. It's a bungalow. Master bedroom on the far right. Living room between the two pillars. Front door in centre behind purple bush. Dining room behind window to left. Outdoor table and chairs in front of dining room windo. To far left is another window for a small room off the kitchen used for storage and ironing.
In this picture of the living dining area, the front door is on the left. (You can see just the right edge of it.) The holes above the door are set in concrete and screened from the outside. The air blows freely when the wind blows but the temperatures even at night are very mild. I've never felt a chill here although the native people wear acrylic fleece and lined, waterproof jackets. I guess this is the beginning of winter here i.e. May - Oct.! We all sit down to eat in the formal dining room. There is no eat-in kitchen. It's quite lovely! The furniture came with the house and is very heavy, solid wood. I can barely move this love seat myself! There are two single chairs and a 3-seat sofa. We sit there after dinner with a hurricane candle burning and pretend this is our 3 million dollar cottage in Muskoka. Definitely, it has a rustic feel to it with the comfy seating and soft color scheme. I love it because I believe it belongs to a Rwandan lady who lives in Ottawa or Montreal. I really appreciate the feminine design aspects contrary to the first house we lived in.
This is the transition to the kitchen with a hall to the right taking us to the back door. Right again is a long hall to the bedrooms and bath. Second door to hall from living room. This huge China cabinet was in the dining room. I had it move by about six local guys so we could use it for books and other storage. It was so heavy but looks beautiful from the front door entry.
We purchased this LG top load washing machine for about $400. It is hooked to both hot and cold water. The hot water tank is elevated on the top left of the picture. This machine has a pump for flushing dirty water out through the dark hose on the upper right of the machine. Actually, I think that is the drain going from the wall into the floor on the ground to the right. There are settings for the water level and also for various types of clothing. There's also an "air dry" feature but I haven't tried that yet since we hang everything to dry on a wire clothesline.
This is the single water tank which is filled from the city supply by gravity and also comes into the house by gravity via the which pipes. We shut off the water to have a tap fixed and no one seemed to understand why the water pressure became so low. I finally guessed that there was air in the lines. After doing a charade with "Izzy" to explain, he turned on the tap on the lower left of this picture to blow out whatever air he could. Finally, the two hot water tanks have pressure again! There's one tank outside serving the laundry, kitchen and the common bathroom. The second tank is in the master bath.
Here is Yusuf sleeping under his mosquito net. He has a lovely wooden clothes cupboard and a window with a desk underneath. Very cozy! His suitcases are piled on top of the wardrobe. I found out from "Izzy" that he continually sprays outside the house for "critters" like cockroaches and big bugs. This morning I found a cockroach upside down outside at the back apparently stunned by something like DDT. As I was entering the back door after resolving the air in the water pipe problem, I spied a huge black winged insect on the edge of the door. Izzy jumped to destroy it. He explained through charade that that think could take a big piece out of a human leg and he went to get his insecticide container with a hose connected to it. He showed me that it was empty and that if I were to give him $15 (10 thousand RWF), he would get more of the liquid to be able to ward off those dangerouse insects. I hope that includes salamanders because I found one on a wall last week but before I could return with an oven mitt and paper bag, he had vanished!
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