Living

Not that I checked, but I’m pretty sure there is no Craigslist Arusha, so by the end of the first week I was becoming a bit concerned about finding a place to live. Additionally only one phone number actually worked on our list of potential landlords. I had been in touch with another intern, Saswati, from Toronto and we had agreed to live together, so I told the lone landlord, Mr. A, she and I would tentatively move in to a place of his that weekend, subject to her approval.

The house was located in Njiro, about 15 minutes outside Arusha on a dirt road. There were dead flies all over the concrete floors, roaches in the kitchen, and unidentifiable grime all over everything. And all for the low low price of 300 USD a month (plus electricity, plus maid, plus the cost of sheets, pillows, mosquito net, etc.). So we turned it down, thankfully, since one of the interns who did decide to move in now has like leprosy or some other weird type of illness.

The problem was we now had absolutely no idea where to live. As we were lamenting our fate in the back seat of the taxi and contemplating simply driving back to the airport (I did have all my luggage in the trunk after all), our taxi driver/guardian angel, Moses (how appropriate), began driving around to various apartment complexes and asking the gate keepers if they had any vacancies. We finally struck gold at a full-service building that had one vacant studio and one vacant one-bedroom in the same apartment block.

Saswati, upon discovering that the manager is Indian, put all of her negotiation and brown skills to use calling up “Auntie-ji” and informing her we were poor students with nowhere to go. We finally agreed upon a price and Saswati, another intern Elizabeth, and I had a place to live that includes all dishes, sheets, towels, mosquito nets, as well as microwaves, satellite TV (with about 1 million brown channels), daily maid service, and in-house laundry. I even have my own little balcony perfect for reading and we are within walking distance to the ICTR and next door to a grocery store and a luxury hotel with restaurant and pool. As I walked up to my little studio for the first time I saw a cute Indian family playing cricket in the courtyard and thought, thanks to Moses, Elizabeth, and Saswati, how glad I was to finally have a place to call home.