After
reading the article titled ‘10 Unconventional Habits to Live Distraction-Less’ on
a website about becoming minimalist (http://www.becomingminimalist.com/distraction-less/)
I thought I’d write my own based
on my experiences living here in Tanzania as a missionary.
Ten
Unconventional Ways to Live Like an African Missionary
2.
Connect with the slowest dial-up internet connection around. Check your emails
only one per day or every two days as you cannot handle how long it takes!
Facebook once a week, or month. Don’t even consider youtube as it will take far
too long to download even the shortest clip.
3. Live
‘from scratch’. Bake bread from scratch, cook without using anything that comes
from a packet or can, experiment with other things that can be made from
scratch like yoghurt, cous cous (yes really, I’ve done it), hummus etc.
4. Turn
off your electricity at the mains once a week for at least 8hrs at a time,
preferably at night. Invest in a few solar lamps or better yet candles to eat
your dinner by. Then when really game, turn off the power for 3 days straight –
best done over a weekend for the full effect.
5. Put
your TV in a closet for 6mths to a year. Go out and visit neighbours in the
evening hours instead and if you really feel the need for entertainment watch a
DVD on your laptop and invite those neighbours around too.
6. Shop
exclusively in second hand clothing stores. Don’t buy anything worth more than
$5 and limit your shopping to once every 3 months. Make sure your wardrobe
mainly consists of knee-length skirts/trousers for guys and simple t-shirts.
7. Once
every three months turn off your running water and find an alternative source
outside your house. Invest in some buckets to help you collect and store the
water. Keep the water switched off for at least 2 days.
8.
Leave the car at home and ride the bus, but make sure you sit as close as
possible to someone and even think about offering the remaining space beside
you to the next person who hops on.
9.
Leave your bank cards in a drawer and live on cash only. Hoard your change in a
jar and use it when you ride the bus.
10.
Give the washing machine a break and put your newly purchased buckets to good
use by hand-washing all your clothes only once a week. If you can find an
African neighbour to teach you the proper way to do this even better, although
they may be horrified at your attempts and end up doing all your washing for
you. It seems to be a skill that only Africans possess no matter how hard
others try to learn it.
In a
few short weeks my husband Gody and I plan on moving out to our new house.
We’re working towards making it liveable in the coming weeks which includes
putting in windows and some form of a kitchen bench and smoothing down the
concrete floors. We’re both really excited to see this dream of ours taking
shape and are truly blessed to have had the opportunity to buy land out in a
nearby Masai village and build a house.
I’m
very much looking forward to the challenges that will come with living in an
unfinished house – we won’t have any power or running water and have only one
piece of furniture to move – our bed! But it will be fun to live completely
minimalist and rely on some of the inventions my friends and I have made over
the years. My fridge will be two clay pots (one inside the other with sand
in-between) which I will have to water down each day and my washing machine is
a small plastic barrel with a handle to turn it and agitate the clothes. I plan
on turning the fridge off over the coming week to see how well the pots can
handle milk and other things that spoil quickly, just so I know what I’m in
for. Here are a few pics of our land and house.
The first thing on the agenda was to plant trees circling our property as there wasn't even a stick of vegetation on the land when we bought it.
Our newly planted maize which has now been harvested.
The view of Mt Kilimanjaro on a clear day from our property. Can't wait to sit on our verandah and gaze at it.
The house taking shape...
As it stands now, waiting for windows to be put in.
