Home Service

Here in Mbale many of our service people travel from house to house to get business, instead of having a permanent store location in town. I personally love this. With an infant and a toddler in tow, I really appreciate people who will come to me, so that I don't have to leave the house. 

However, this feature has a downside too, and that is lack of privacy. We already give up a lot of our privacy by having full-time guards and housekeepers. This is, by the way, perfectly normal here, but I'll write about that another time. Americans love privacy, did you know? It's so normal there, you probably don't even realize it. 

But anyways, with our specialized service people coming right into our yard and into our house, we give up a bit more of our privacy. But I'm generally okay with that, because I'm used to it. 

Here our some of the people we love who go door to door:

1. The Veggie Man. Our Veggie Man lives on Mount Wanale about 45 minutes from Mbale. The climate there is cooler and he can grow some things that won't grow at lower elevation. Plus he caters to mzungu (white person) taste. We love to buy lettuce, strawberries, and broccoli from him, and we can't get these things in the market. 

2. The Veterinarian. Our vet travels by motorcycle. When we had our dog fixed, he did it right in our yard. No joke. 

3. The Dairy Man. Our milk is delivered to our house 3 times a week by a Dutch dairy farmer. It comes fresh and raw, and we pasteurize it ourselves. 

4. The Carpenter. Our carpenter is a also a pastor, and generally a really nice guy. He builds nice furniture, but is also happy to do small repairs. We give him work whenever we can. 

5. The Electrician. We need work done from a good electrician fairly regularly. The power here is very unreliable, and so we have a battery back-up system. And electrical fires are common here, because it's common for the power to surge. There are just a lot of electrical issues here. 

6. The Exterminator. Okay so I guess everyone's exterminator comes to their house. But I'm willing to bet that you don't need an exterminator as often as we do! We are almost constantly trying to keep roaches, rats, ants, and termites at bay. 

Now I just need my groceries and mail delivered to my house and I'd never have to leave!