The good, bad and the ugly...Lubumbashi, am part of you now!!!

No, I don’t feel negative today, in fact I feel very positive, hence this piece. Lubumbashi may pose a lot of challenges, but life here has been extremely rewarding, happy and content. A nice collage of everything, what we have learnt so far is to go with the flow. Lubumbashi, bring in the good, bad and the ugly, am part of you now.

The decision to set shop at Lubumbashi was BIG, we had no idea what was in store. I am normally consulted a great deal on every decision we take. I didn’t take much part in this one. It was career related and as always I took it for granted P would take the right one, his future seemed more important at the moment. I knew mine would be taken care off automatically. I also knew, I could always say ‘No’, I knew we could always go back if we were not happy, I knew my happiness was always taken into account. We arrived here without expectations. That does not mean we didn’t have any. We did look forward to a comfortable life and one without too many risks. The 1st few months were not easy, especially for someone who had lived her life on her terms, with everything laid on a platter. Comfort and ease of movement was of utmost importance and I got that without lifting a finger, back home. Credit to the husband! Here, I realised I had to be more dependent than I was before and getting to learn the ropes was not easy.

To start with, I had to depend on P’s car which was not always at my disposal. Once I got a feel of the stores here, I thought life would become easy. Dealing with arithmetic has always posed a problem, I still use my stubby fingers like a kinder garden student and converting dollars from Congolese Franc and vice-versa was painful. I shamefully admit, I pretend am counting, while I see white, I also hope the cashier is good at his or her arithmetic. Absurd but true! These are no lifestyle stores or malls. Oh, how I missed my shopping, which included lunch, coffee and aimless walking on my own. In time that has been forgotten. Lucky P!

I never had a housekeeper back home because I was picky about spots, I was sure I would always find some after she left. I was also happy to clean them on my own and at my pace. I had pride and joy imprinted on ‘housework’. The company P works for here provides a housekeeper, it feels good to have someone take charge of one's housework, but am still not very comfortable with it. Am not sure I can take care of it on my own either, the house presents its own challenges, being old and wrinkly. I had to find ways of spending time during those hours as well. Not easy, the TV is always on but that does not mean am watching anything. Sometimes I do not know what is going on. The noise it produces is engaging and this ‘large-ish’ place does not feel eerie anymore. Then comes another past-time, browsing.

How do I go about doing it? I had no net connection, it took about 2 months to get fixed. I did think I was addicted to Facebook, but no, I wanted my net connection for my browsing. What do I browse??? recipes, current affairs, Wikipedia and a variety of websites that are of interest to me. Must tell you, we do not have a daily newspaper here and the cable provider had not given us access to Indian news until August. We do get NDTV now. I realised it was not easy to forego the early morning newspaper. So no Indian news on TV, no internet and no newspaper…I went by what P told me on a daily basis from work and what friends and relatives relayed from home.

The social life has shifted gears from activity packed weekends, back home, to just looking forward to having my husband at home during the period. Am enjoying it, we get out when we feel like it, no pressure, must confess it is still every weekend. We do not have the 'Saturday' we used to get back home. I understand this is a factory atmosphere and the other a corporate world. It’s a small world, a lawyers world, what one says and does could be used against them, one of the earliest things we were warned about. Definitely a difficult proposition for someone who is yet to learn what keeping her trap shut means. There are a lot of things one has to reluctantly go through, obligation takes precedence over happy choices.

We suffer the lack of a good beauty parlour. Lack of privacy in there is another problem. I have lost my sense of shame now. I had decided to colour my hair a while ago, had asked for brown streaks, what I got in return was humour at its best. A mop of blonde hair and uncontrollable laughter at home, courtesy the husband. I could not step out of the house and had to just go for the safe black after two days. I depend on P’s barber for a haircut in-between my visits to India.  A couple of weeks ago, with my regular beautician vacationing in India I decided to try a new nicer looking place. What I ended up with was a set of eyebrows which resembled a chain of the letter Z. Well, have also got them done in a home run grocery store once.

Yesterday, for the 1st time since our arrival, there was some violence reported near the airport, in which one person was killed and one wounded. It is still not clear if they were militants or men from the military. Some even reckon, it was an organised attack to postpone elections, which is scheduled to take place later this year. Panic did grip the city yesterday, for some reason it didn't scare us enough to take confinement. We managed to have a lovely dinner at a restaurant nearby. Some might call it foolish, we were together on the plan though. Life is back to normal today. We would like to believe it was a stray incident.

Despite all the challenges, our life in Lubumbashi after 9 months has been happy and secure, a great ride so far. Love the heart and soul the city embraces, love the warmth of the people, their happiness is infectious despite being pitiably poor. Love what is available at the grocery stores, am able to indulge in my passion…cooking and baking. The expatriate population mainly from Europe, China and South Africa have made sure these stores are stocked with goods that are not readily available in Indian stores back home. The restaurants, expensive they may be, are inviting  and we love the variety that is on offer for 'foodoholics' like us. The cost of living is high. At the risk of sounding pompous, we are paid to incur that. We came here to work and enjoy life. We have found a nice balance and we shall live upto it till the time is up. We are on full throttle. Thank heavens, P and I are on the same page here. Regret not in sight, Excitement galore!

The journey is definitely more important than the destination!