Our House

Let me take you on a tour of our house. It is a brand new house. We were able to move in on May 2nd, although many small things weren’t yet complete. Our house is small, but very comfortable and adequate to meet our needs. It is definitely a home built with Westerners in mind. There is no way the majority of Kenyans would be able to live in a house like ours. Most Kenyans live in tiny one or two room houses built of mud, timber, stone or galvanized tin.

Click here to see pictures. One of the first things you might want to know is that there is no heating or air conditioning in homes here. The temperatures have been averaging in mid 70s during the daytime and at nights in the mid 50s, so there really is no need. You’ll notice on the picture of the outside of the house that the two outside sections of windows open outward to let it air. This works really well. Open them in the morning after breakfast to air the house during the day. Then about 6:00 you’ll need to close them as it starts to cool off. You’ll also notice the metal inside the glass. This is a safety precaution that all homes have. It adds a nice decorative touch to our house.

We had our couch, armchairs, coffee table, dining room table, four chairs and two end tables made by a carpentry shop by another ministry, FPFK. You can see that they did a great job. They used cyprus wood to create simple, strong and functional furniture. The chairs are very comfortable.

The floors are all tile as are the kitchen and bathroom walls. There is a fireplace in a corner of the living room. We understand we will be lighting fires in it in the next few weeks as June and July are the two coldest months. Area rugs help to add warmth and color.

The dining room is separate from the kitchen. You’ll notice a small window on the left side of the dining room. It is to the kitchen. I’ve put my plates and silverware in the sideboard at the end of the dining room. It is really handy to set the prepared food on the kitchen counter just below the window and then once in the dining room reach in and put them on the table.

You’ll notice that the kitchen has plenty of counter space and cabinets. We have to filter our water before we can drink it. There isn’t room in the kitchen for the refrigerator; it is in the hallway off the living room. This is a great little area as it has access to the bedroom, bathrooms, and our study.

Our bedrooms have tons of storage space. They each have a full length mirror in the little recess you can see in front of the rug. We don't have hot water. Attached to the top of the shower is a little hot water heater. Before you get in the shower you flip the switch and magic, you have hot water coming out of the tap! We are using the second bedroom as a study. We each have our own desk and plenty of space to spread out without getting in one another's way.

There is a large cement patio area in front of our house. In a few weeks it will have a nice table with an umbrella, table and chairs. You can see the pots that we’ve planted that will be scattered around. In all that dirt will be a flower bed. It’s silly to plant it now because they are still doing construction on a house next door. Soon there will be a hibiscus hedge between our house and the newest house.

Between our house and Russ’s is a new banda. The old one was leaning and fell over last week. We were excited to come home one day and see that they are building a new one with a raised floor. It is even going to have electricity! It will be great to use in the evenings or for Saturday morning coffee. I think we’re going to initiate it next weekend with a Memorial Day barbecue with Russ and Kathy.

Our compound has five houses in it. Missionaries live in three of the houses and the fourth is the owner of the compound, a business man and his wife. The fifth house is not yet complete. It will probably be rented to missionaries in some point in the future. It is necessary to live in a compound for security reasons. We have someone on the grounds twenty-four hours a day. During the day they are groundskeepers as well as security. At night they are the watchman. We are a two honk compound. When we arrive home our signal to Ocheng or his son, John, is two honks of the horn. That lets them know that it is someone who belongs on the compound so they can unlock and open the gate for us.

Again, our house is in no way a typical Kenyan home. It would be considered to be extravagant and out of the reach of most Kenyans.