Whew! I finally did it. After living with total strangers for the past six months, I have now moved into my very own house. A house that is much bigger than what I need (the better to host visitors. wink wink), and it also is probably the nicest house in my neighborhood. It’s brand new, has 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a kitchen, living/dining room, and a small front porch. Reasons why it’s nicer than the other houses: it’s made of cement, not wood; it has running water (although the cistern is broken now, so I’m collecting rainwater in buckets); wiring to put in electricity (once again, these aren’t currently working so I’m stealing the electricity from the house next door); and the bedrooms and bathrooms have doors (usually there is only a curtain to separate the rooms). Woohoo!
I am totally siked, although I’m starting to realize that living alone has its drawbacks too. I am constantly sweeping and mopping. I mop the floors once a day, and sweep about three times a day just to keep the house in decent condition. Additionally, the house I used to live at had a generator for when the lights went out. I do not have this luxury, and so when the lights go out at night, I light my little gas lamp and huddle around it to read or write. I actually don’t mind this, and it makes me feel very “peace corps.”
I have been waiting for this moment since I arrived in the Dominican Republic in August because I thought I would finally have privacy, and peace and quiet. The new house has not provided me with this. I have now tapped into a whole new group of friends: the 6-11 year old crowd. When I open my front door in the morning, I hear a chorus of “Lauren’s awake! Lauren’s awake!” and about 2 minutes later, the kids start arriving. Sometimes the kids are even sitting on my front porch before I open the door at 8 a.m. We sit on the floor and play card games and color until I kick them out about 4 hours later. They then leave for school, and when school’s out, they show up at my house again until I kick them out because I want to go to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment