I sometimes participate on expat blogs and make comments about living life in Tanzania. Not too long ago I was contacted by a lady from a television show called House Hunters International. Since we have lived in Africa, without television for the past 3 years, I had never heard of the show before. She wanted to know what our house was like here in Tanzania.
I wrote her back telling her that I didn't know what her T.V. show was about but I thought that our house/life would be perfect... if it was for a comedy show.
I explained that our house is Great, it has everything we need and lots of rooms... But, it also has some African quarks to it. I went on to explain...
Since we have moved in we have had problems with... Bats, Rats, Roaches, Snakes, Scorpions, Spiders, Centipedes, Termites, Toads, Mosquitoes, Flies, Fleas, and even Bees in the chimney.
I explained to her that certain comical highlights of the show could be things such as... Me filling the bath tub up with water and coming back to find a frog swimming around in it.
We have bars on all of our doors and window, and a wooden fence around the yard with barbed wire, yet this didn't deter a thief in the night from reaching through the bars on our windows grabing what ever was in his reach. We hired a security guard to watch the house at night but I would have to wake him up to give him coffee... Before it was even Dark outside. I explained how comical this would be for a show because I actually had to take his security guard stick out of his hand to poke him with it to wake him up. (Since then he has been replaced by someone new.) :-)
This is one of those things that you look back as being comincal but not when you are going through it.
I told her about our wonderfully brown water that comes out of the sink. When bathing the kids or the clothes I often wonder if I am getting them more clean or more dirty.
A comedy scene would be with me starting with a load of bright white clothes in the washing machine and ending with a load of brown, dingy, dirty looking clothes after I pull them out of the dryer.
(True Story)
But we are happy when we have running water, at one point when it wasn't coming very often, we were collecting rain water in buckets. Without water = stinky toilets and greasy hair.
We are also always thankful when we have electricity, and if the internet is working at the same time, then this is even better.
Another aspect of the show could be the sounds and smells around our house.
Attached to the fence of our house is a little mud home with a Tanzanian man living in it. He has been living there for over 30 years and has no intention on moving. He Really, Really likes to Drink the local alcohol that is make from bamboo juice. He often sings at night.. all night... really loud. His favorite song is one to our dogs, singing their names out loud, which really gets them barking.
Our neighbors are raising pigs, so we get the sounds of them squealing in the evenings when it if feeding time. If the wind is just right then we also get the wonderful pig aroma as well.
And to add drama to the whole T.V. show... we decided to have a baby... in this home... here in Tanzania. Not a recommended option for others, but it worked for us.
After I had sent her the email back, I thought to myself...I should have researched the show to see what it was about first.
Well, I Googled it and found out that House Hunters International is not a comedy type show. It is mainly for others to dream about a luxury home, in an exotic location, for a really good price. Oops.. this wasn't us.
So to answer the question... Will you see us on House Hunters International ? .... Nope Sorry, we won't be "qualified" for that type of show. (I never received an email back after telling her about our house.)
I sometimes wonder what it is going to take to "run us off" from our Mission Work here in Tanzania.
I have to admit there are days when I wish that things were easier, cleaner, or less pest free. I wish that there wasn't mosquito's, that maybe carrying malaria, biting my 4 month old. I wish that my 2 year old wasn't pointing out scorpions in the house, or that we didn't have to inspect the latest snake in the yard to see if it is poisonous. It is sad and stressful to wonder if the neighborhood kids, that my kids are playing with, have tuberculosis or HIV. Our next door neighbor just had her one year old die of tuberculosis. Yes there are days when I just want to pack up and go back to "the American way of life."
But, even with all of the African quarks, we haven't been run off so far. We are seeing the hand of God in the work here and we are seeing all of His blessings in many ways. We are seeing individuals becoming New Christians, we are seeing Growth in others that have been Christians for a long time, and we are seeing ourselves Growing to be more Like Him.
We are striving to focus on what is more importantly Spiritually, not Physically.
So I guess you could say that I am perfectly happy with never having a House Hunters Home.
God told us...
"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Matthew 6:20-21
And He also reminds us.. "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world."
1 John 2:15
Let us all remember this as we continue on in our lives... Living for Him.
Bonnie in TZ
