House Hunters: Fort Portal, Uganda

Will and I have been busy house hunting this week! We arrived in Fort Portal on Saturday and saw our first house on Sunday. Since then, we have seen about 7 more houses. Woah, it has been quite a process! Here are some snit bits from the process...

Two of the houses we saw were currently being used as "Motels". Apparently the owners were not making enough money from it being used as a hotel, so they are trying to rent them out fully. We will not be renting the motels...

I was alarmed while walking into the second house we saw because there was a live chicken in one of the rooms. The house was totally empty and not currently being occupied, but there was a chicken...living in a room...

Going with the animal theme, the house we saw yesterday had "servant quarters" in the back. While being shown one of the rooms in this space, Will and I were caught off guard by a strong smell... we were then informed that this particular room is being used to store his goat.

One house came "fully furnished". We learned that this phrase totally lived up to it's reputation. The rooms were so fully furnished that you could not always open doors all the way due to the amount of furniture in the room not fitting completely. One family room had two couches, two love seats and two over-sized chairs plus a dining room table (which was against the wall, directly in front of the front door). So much furniture!


Things we learned from our house hunting process:

1. Always leave an extra seat in your car when house hunting in Africa. Most likely, the person you hired to show you houses (called a "broker" here), will recruit a friend to help too and you will have to pick them up along the way. This happened 3 times during two days of searching.

2. Kitchens here are tiny. I mean... might not fit an Easy Bake Oven small! Most homes here were not designed with ovens or refrigerators in mind. If you want to fit these "luxury items" in a kitchen here, there probably won't be room for much else. In some cases, the fridge would need to be kept in a separate room because there is not an outlet for it in the kitchen.

3. If you want hot water, you have to ask if there is a hot water heater installed. This is not a given and most of the houses we saw did not have one.

This photo was taken from
outside the gate while waiting
for the man with the keys.

4. The "man with the keys" is a phrase you quickly learn to hate while house hunting here. While trying to see 5/6 houses on Monday, the "man with the keys" was not around and we had to wait outside the house for several minutes (or longer) until they arrived. The houses were typically not occupied, so even though we think our broker called ahead to tell them we would be coming to see the house, the owner or key holder would only come after we arrived and they were told we were waiting.

5. **This is the most important one** Always, always ask the relator or home owner if there are any people who come with the compound. Often times, there are live in workers who come with the house if you decide to rent it. The workers could be guards, house helpers (or maids), gardeners, etc. They usually live in small one room apartments behind the house. If you want to rent an empty compound, you have to be very clear about this and this may mean that you are causing someone to lose a job.

It has been quite entertaining to say the least! We have not found a house that will work for us yet, but we are hopeful that we will by the end of the week. Please continue to pray for us in this process! Pray we would continue to keep a positive attitude, find something we can afford and find a house that would work well for our family and for team life. Thank you!