Our home, although a God send for sure, has less storage space than our home in America. Less than most homes in America. It does not have a garage or attic and most homes here are not built with the idea of having a washer and drier inside. So, we have our washer and drier (I still have not called an electrician) on the back porch. The washer is hooked up in a hodge-podge way with a garden hose to the water main. We commonly have to wash loads twice because our worker or a child turns the water off in the middle of the wash cycle. Sometimes the city water pressure drops in the middle of the cycle and the washer cannot hand the low pressure and shuts off.
The storage rooms we have are not big enough for my tools, the washer and dryer and most of the other items we had in our garage and shed in Tyler. These items in addition to the items that would go in an attic (Holiday decor and kid's clothing that are waiting for the next child to grow into them) won't fit in our home nor our storage. We need to get our washer off the porch and into the storage room where a plumber can hook it to the water main properly. Well the landlord was really big on the idea of paying for an additional add on storage room (sarcasm here). His exact words were, sure "you" can build more storage if you like. He'd love that, I add the storage on and he ups the rent because the property value goes up. Well my idea is to build lofts in our two storage rooms. Far less expense and I can take it apart and take the wood with me when I move.
Tomorrow is construction day and I have been sitting here calculating the board foot needed to build the frame and the size I will need to cut my plywood. I have to be careful about the plywood because the only plywood around is the material some of the shipping boxes were made from and you generally can't buy it here. As I was thinking about the frame I came to the point where you plan how to attach the frame to the walls of the building. You have to use really large nails because all walls are sun dried or furnace baked brick with sprayed concrete over them. You have to drive the nails through the wood and into the brick walls.
I realized during this process that I was beginning to acclimate to Rwandan culture. Why? Because I was counting nails.
In America you go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy a box of nails, maybe two just in case. Well here in Rwanda you plan your job and you go to one of the only hardware stores where the owner likes mzungus and I feel like she gives me a good price (I call this place Little Lowes, and it's located in a place I like to call Lowes Town because there are at least 10 hardware stores on the same block). She only sells the big nails in single units. So I have to count nails. You cannot imaging the depression that would ensue if I was about to finish and realized I was a single nail short. Driving to downtown Kigali to buy a single nail might just do me in. So, I better count my nails carefully.
Blessing to all. Hope all is well this Holiday season.
