Can you point me in the direction of IKEA?

Officially, I've been at site for one week now, and finally it is starting to feel like home.  Not going to lie, the first few days were pretty rough and overwhelming.  It almost felt like being dropped off at WashU again for college, but this time I was given only a bed, I didn't have a roommate, there were spiders and unimaginable insects, lights out was at 7 pm due to the lack of power and I couldn't understand the language.  Needless to say, I made a few late night, teary phone calls. 

For starters, I just felt very alone, and the thought of trying to make my house feel homey was pretty overwhelming.  Where in the world can I find somewhere to get some furniture!  And sadly, there's no IKEA in sight.

Let me first describe my house.  My house is designed to be a shop.  It is a cement building with big front doors that open to the street.  The backroom is my bedroom, and it has a door that enters the family compound of Madam Brandy.  More on that later.  While the backroom has a window, the large front room sadly does not.  This means if I want light or ventilation for cooking during the day, I need to open my doors to the street, from which everyone stares at me because I'm the most interesting thing in town right now.  And that's not me being full of myself.  I'm the hit of town gossip.  So, my first order of business?  Can I PLEASE put a window in?  And my land lady said yes!  So hopefully that'll be in there in the next week or so, which is very exciting.

Next up, furniture.  My land lady kindly helped me find a carpenter to construct me a table to do my cooking, food prep and dishwashing at.  It's already been finished, and is currently sitting in my front room.  Sadly, the varnish is still drying, so it's been difficult resisting the temptation to set things on the table.  What a tease!  I'm waiting on the construction of my wardrobe, which will hopefully begin the process of organizing my room.  As for sofas, my land lady offered to loan me a sofa set for my two years, which is sweet because that'll save me $100!  Yesterday, as I organized my rooms yet again, I decided the wood frames of the sofa set needed some dusting.  Only then did I find the massive families of spiders living underneath the chairs.  Oh, did I run to find the girls fast to help me.  They kept asking "Chelsea, you fear?  You fear?"  "YES I fear!  I don't want them in my house"  "But they are only minor.  You fear?  Really?  You know those things called cockroaches?  Do you fear those too?"  Unfortunately yes, and I would prefer to not have them in my house.  Anyway, after an hour of cleaning, for which I gave the girl a big bar of chocolate, I still can't bring myself to sit on them!  All in due time, I'll be more comfortable with the fact that there's critters living with me.  I hope anyway.

As for the village itself, everyone has been very friendly and is so happy when I speak Lunyole with them.  I'm very good at greeting now, and hopefully will be able to find a language tutor soon to continue improving.  Whenever I tell Ugandans that my name is Chelsea, they always think that I've changed the conversation to the subject of soccer (there's a British soccer team named Chelsea).  To avoid confusion, I have taken the local name "Negesa", which means someone born in the time of harvest (I figured October was close enough, and I liked the sound of it).  Now, whenever I enter the market place, I hear the women calling "Negesa Negesa!"

I feel so grateful to be living in the family compound.  Because it is school holiday, all of Madam Brandy's children are home for the time being, which includes one teenage boy and five girls.  I can't express how welcoming and helpful this family has been to me in the past week.  They've done everything possible to make me feel at home, including inviting me to eat Easter lunch with them, sending me home with sweet potatoes, serving me tea in the afternoon, escorting me everywhere, helping me figure out what else I need for my house, making sure I set out basins or buckets when it rains, etc.  It does feel like sometimes I'm a child because there are so many things I don't know how to do!  But, it is starting to feel like I'm coming home when I enter the compound gates.  I made the girls tortillas the other night, and they were so intensely watching everything I did because making tortillas without oil is unheard of here!  The recipe here, which they call chipatti, calls for 3/4 cup flour to 1 cup oil.  I don't know if they actually liked the tortillas, but they love learning about Americans and about me.  I promised to make them a cake before they all went back to school in May.

All next week, I'll be at a teacher's workshop with my counterpart and a few other PCVs, so I may continue to be MIA.  Don't think I've forgotten about you guys.  I just need to figure out how to get power in my place.  I'm thinking solar.