My Palace

Well things are looking up. I finally moved out of my host family's house into my own little apartment in the center of town.  It's going to be great having my own place and also not having to walk so far all the time. Now I'm only a little way down the road from the soccer field, community center and school. The bus also passes right in front of my house which is a huge plus. Its going to feel great having some privacy, cooking for myself and being able to come and go as I please without constantly being judged and scrutinize by my host family. Basically, I'm gonna finally feel like a big boy again. 

The place is nothing fancy.  The left hand side of the building used to be the little town store, which is now closed up. The right hand side is my little two room apartment.  My neighbor, the single 30 year old former store owner is my land lord. I am paying a little less than $60 a month which isn't a lot but is a significant amount when you consider that I only get about $350 a month from the Peace Corps. 

Here are some pictures I took.  Hopefully they will give you a good idea what it's like. It looks kind of empty I think but that's because I don't really own that much stuff.  Anyways, enjoy.

This is what my house looks like from the road.

My house from the back. My neighbor/landlord's house on the left, mine on the right. I only live in the closest half of the building the farther half used to be the town store but now it's closed. The wooden thing sticking out of the side of the house is where the sink is.

Where I do my cooking

My front door, which interestingly enough also doubles as the bathroom door when it's open.
My bathroom. The shower is behind the toilet.

My little refrigerator. The bedroom is through the doorway to the right. and the bathroom is directly to the left.

The view of the kitchen standing by the refrigerator.

The beds...from standing in front of the desk.

My desk and clothes shelf...from standing between the beds.

This is the view from my front window. Basically just the main road that runs through my town. Now I only have to walk about 5 steps to get the bus instead of 30 minutes up a steep hill. 

This is the view from my doorway. You can see the school, community center, and soccer field about 300 meters down the road