A Visit to Lulu's Home

Lulu Chengula was one of Ron's readers. She invited us to go to her home one Saturday. We talked with a few of the people we knew to make sure that they thought it would be a safe place to go. We were assured that it was safe. Lulu lives with her grandparents, and her grandfather is a doctor.
Lulu said that it would be a long walk to her house, but it was actually only about a ten-minute walk! She met us at the edge of the Mission property. Balaka Mehenge, the young man who read with both Debbies, was with her.
In the first photo Lulu, Balaka, and Ron are walking toward Lulu's house.



The next photos show some of what we saw along the way. The first is the furniture making business. I think that the photo of this was in a previous blog.

Next is the house being built by Balaka Mehenge's family. As you can tell, this is going to be a very nice house. Balaka's father, Dr. Mehenge, is one of the two doctors at the Mission Hospital. His two sisters read with Jan.

This is the pharmacy that the Mehenge family owns. It is across the street from their new house. They also own a small shop on the main road through Chimala.

Next is the front of Lulu's house. The front part is a small pharmacy which is owned by her grandfather.

This is the door to the pharmacy. I am not sure what the Swahili words mean.

In the front yard is a persimmon tree. Lulu said that just the week before she had killed a copperhead in the front yard. Evidently that is a very common occurrence!

To get to the front door of the house, you must go down this alleyway and around to the back. All of the dirt yard is swept very clean. Lulu said that is her daily job.

Next is the living room of the house. Lulu was happy to introduce us to her grandmother, on the left, and her mother, on the right. Lulu's mother is a primary teacher. See from the following photos if the house looks like the house of a U.S. physician......This is actually a very nice house for Tanzania.

The door on the right is the front door of the house. It opens into a courtyard. Across the courtyard is the cooking area. We did not get to see that. The door was left standing open. While we were there, a mouse came in the door and ran across the floor.

Lulu had the table all ready for our meal.

These next photos show the pictures on the living room walls. The largest one in this first one is a former and very respected president of Tanzania. The small one is the current president.

The next one is a picture of Lulu's grandfather when he was young.

The biggest picture of all was a very large poster of Obama! Africans love Obama because they think that he will give Africans everything that they want and need!

Ron and Balaka and Lulu are eating the food that Lulu prepared especially for us. We were very honored.

We had beans, rice, spinach, and bottled water. It was all very good. No one else in the house was eating.

Lulu and Balaka

Lulu's grandfather came home from work. He was very happy to meet us. He spoke fairly good English.

Next is Lulu's aunt, who is a nurse/midwife (but not at Chimala hospital).
She spoke excellent English and was anxious to ask our opinion on everything! The whole family thought that she had visited the U.S., and even she thought so, but it turned out that she had actually been to Germany!

When we left, the grandmother and aunt walked outside into the courtyard with us to say goodbye. They were very gracious to us.

Lulu seemed so happy to have us in her home, and it was a real treat for us! That was the only Tanzanian home that we got to visit, and we were treated like honored guests. We hope that we get to go back to Tanzania some day and see Lulu and her family again!