Mauritius is one of the wealthiest regions in Africa and is not considered to be "developing" like other African countries. Its economy has been quite prosperous, but it still varies from the United States in many ways. Modern conveniences we're accustomed to are often unavailable here. and streets, buildings, recreation areas, and infrastructure are generally not that developed. Many homes are surrounded by sheets of metal used as a fence. Some citizens are making only as much money in an entire month as your family might spend in one grocery trip. Many, if not most, homes do not use air conditioning regularly, despite the intense summer heat.
There was much to learn on my arrival here. Little things I don't even think about at home became a huge part of our adjustment. Altogether, these types of changes can create quite a stressful time while you adjust to living somewhere new. For example, none of our electric plugs work here. We had to get special adaptors to be able to plug anything into the outlets. You also must use a key to open the door to leave your house, but from the inside of the house! Another thing that shocked me is that no one uses smoke detectors here! We had to search high and low to find some.
