Oh The Simple Things

I try not to make too many comparisons to life in Tanzania with living in the U.S.  There are so many things that are just too different to even go there.  But now and then I can’t help but remember the “simple” things that I used to do when I lived in CA – you know, those things you would do without giving much thought to it – and it only takes you a minute to do it – and then you go on with your day and don’t even give it a second thought at all. 

So today was one of those days – CHANGING A LIGHT BULB

The light bulb in my bedroom went out this week.  I went to town and bought another one and then that new light bulb just sat in the living room for the next three days.  You see the ceiling in my bedroom is about 10 feet tall.  As tall as I am, using a chair would not have helped me to reach high enough to change the light bulb. 

Jodie, the compassionate soul that she is, went out to our “shed” and brought in the ladder to change the light bulb for me.  We have had a bit of rain and our “shed” is what we like to call “An accident waiting to happen.”  Not only is it an eye sore but most people when they look at it say, “What the heck it that?”  It is three pieces of sheet metal held together by two pieces of wood and one nail.  Yes, I said three pieces of sheet metal because one side is completely without a wall at all. 

ANYWAY, when Jodie went out to the “shed” to get the ladder she stepped in the sticky, goopy mud and then had to lug that old, beat up mud soaked ladder back to the house.  She left her flip flops outside because they were so full of mud they were weighing her down.  As Jodie came in the house carrying the ladder I immediately followed her into my room.  We set up the ladder and looked down at my woven wicker mat and it was caked in mud.  We smiled and moved on with our “simple” task of changing the light bulb. Jodie climb to the very top of the ladder and took out the bulb.  I handed her the new one and she put it in.  I turned on the light switch and no light came forth.  Jodie fiddled with the bulb and I tried again.  We did this about three more times.  Then I went and got the other new light bulb I bought – it is a good idea to purchase more than one since one may be faulty.  So Jodie put in the other new bulb…NOPE.  She fiddled…NOPE. 

Side Note:

Then we played out the scenario that will be most likely take place next week:  We will call the electrician.  He will tell us he’ll come on Tuesday and then on we will wait for him and he’ll call three hours after he was supposed to come and say he can’t come and Wednesday works better for him.  He’ll tell us he’ll come at 8am and we will wait until he shows at 10am.  Then he will work all day until dark at our house and say he needs to return the next day to finish the job.  We may or may not have power that night after he leaves.  He will show up the next day – possibly closer to being on time because the day before we will have had a conversation with him about showing up when you say you are going to show up.  He will work all day until evening and then the job will be completed. 

Jodie came down from the ladder and carried it out.  I followed close behind her with the woven wicker mat in my arms as the mud was spilling all over the ground.  I hung the woven wicker mat outside on our clothesline and accidently knocked off our guard’s undergarment that he had washed earlier and hung on the line.  I looked at Jodie, who had just returned from the “shed” and was cleaning off her flip flops.  I asked her, “Do I have to pick those up?”  Jodie replied, “It would be a nice gesture if you did since you knocked them down.”  I put them back on the line – no more details about that – but I could say more! 

As I was brushing off the mud caked in the woven mat my feet were stepping on all kinds of stickers in the grass.  The grass was kind of tall where I was standing and those sticker things were awful.  I had them all over my flip flops and skirt.  The mud wasn’t coming off so I had to use my finger nails – I don’t even keep a lovely manicure but nonetheless my nails got MESSY! 

The sun was out really bright but the air was super humid.  It felt like rain was coming and I was sweating all over. 

In the U.S. this would have taken all of five minutes and would have worked. 

So in the end – this simple process of changing a light bulb was just another daily adventure we seem to experience quite often.