In late September I moved into my own house. Previous to that I had been living with host families – I survived 7 months of this – so it was time to be on my own again.
The house is huge – a 2 BR with a huge living room. When I was looking I asked for only 2 things: that it have an electric shower and that it have an indoor bathroom (both of these are rare in my town). So this house had both – plus enough room for a whole family. It is all made out of cinderblock and has bars over the windows. Combined with the fact that I have a 2 year ‘sentence’ sometimes I call it Abu Ghraib.
In the nearly 3 months I have been living here, there have been some challenges. My house flooded one morning, the electric shower is not nearly as luxurious as it sounds, and cooking has been difficult. The house doesn’t have a stove so I am cooking on an electric 2 burner stove. Plus given the small Peace Corps salary, I am constantly rotating between the same 2 pots/plates/forks/knives. Lately I have found out that Honduras is not the way I imagined – the house is very drafty and without heat – so sometimes my thermometer says it is in the low 50′s inside the house. As I write this, I am wearing jeans, a tshirt, a hooded sweatshirt, a windbreaker, a fleece jacket, a wool hat and I am in bed underneath the covers. I didn’t know Honduras was like this!
In my backyard there are a few lemon, lime and orange trees, as well as coffee. I also have a pila, which is basically a 30 or 40 gallon concrete box for washing clothes. Maybe I can explain this better in another post.
So great to finally have a visual of your place! It is big – wow! And now so many more questions! Starting with, what is that large white box resembling a refrigerator? Can I send you a housewarming present?!