And so I have arrived in the town wherein I will be living for the next two years. There are so many things I have to learn still about my community. But even just being here I have learned so much. The town is tiny, tiny, tiny. At least that is how it feels today. I am sure that once I begin tackling the task of meeting everyone I am going to feel overwhelmed by the supposed 250 people who live here. There is a plaza that is pretty overgrown, two small corner stores, and a one classroom school (with apparently 15 students). There are houses spread sparsely throughout the farms, my counterpart says there are about 15 houses in my town.
From the paved road (which has a decent sized town) we got off the bus, took my counterparts car for an hour down a dirt road, (Jolynn: please tell the kiddos that the car I rode in looked just like the one we sat in at the zoo last summer) and after driving through four of five smallish towns we arrived here. I met my new host family this afternoon! There is a grandmother who is at least 90 years old and her husband (but she isn’t married, I will explain this when I understand it). The grandmother is the mom of my counterpart, who lives in a farm 100 meters up the road on his farm.
Here are some details about my new home. It is a two story wooden house with a cement floor. You enter into the living room and there are sofas and rocking chairs, a television and an altar. Then there is the door to my room, which has a window, shelves, bed and a mosquito net. There is also a skylight in my room and when I asked what happens when it rains my grandmother had my uncle tape the ceiling back together. The walls in my room are built of two by fours and plywood. Past my room is the kitchen/dining/laundry/bathroom area. The kitchen has a sink, some burners and a refrigerator. The dining room has a table and a few chairs. The laundry room is a laundry machine and drying line. The bathroom has cement walls that are 5ish feet tall and a toilet and shower. The ceiling in the kitchen is two stories tall and the exterior walls are only 6ish feet tall. From 6-20 feet there are wood slats every 2 or 3 feet. The roof is made of corrugated metal and makes a beautiful noise when it rains.
I live here with 4 dogs (one who is pregnant) and approximately 10 chickens of various ages and sizes that run around the house. There are large holes in the walls by the floor and that is how the chickens and other farm animals get in and out. Thats all for now, I´m sure pretty soon that everything that seems so different will seem normal. Sending loves, Chelsea
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