Huts

I did skip over some basics about where I live, so here's one attempt to catch you up. I was asked what people live in here. The answer is most live in huts in a compound. A compound may have 4 or more huts, with walls connecting the huts, and an enclosed courtyard in the middle. As you can see most huts have straw roofs, some have tin. They have these other huts they use to store their food, that are raised off the ground. I've been to some very comfortable looking huts. Although it is changing, for the most part, the extended family can live in one compound.

I do not live in a hut. I live in a very Americanized house on the BMC compound. I have running water, a toilet, a washer and dryer, stove, etc. We have three cooks that feed and take care of us, they are Caleb, Yisah, and Bowa. We are fed well, mainly on American type food. I do miss things like butter (they have their own version, but it's nothing like what we use in the US, in fact you don't have to refrigerate it, it's rather scary looking), milk (they have powdered here), and fruit and veggies. There are tons of fruit and veggies here, but for the most part unless they are cooked, I can't eat them (due to the water being unsafe). What we get that is excellent, Bowa makes the most excellent bread and even more delicious tortillas for tacos. In fact, his tortillas are my all time favorite. And we end up with about 2 cakes a week. Christy, my roommate, says that if the cake does not have icing, we can call it a muffin, and therefore it can be eaten for breakfast! :-)

My house is about a quarter mile from the hospital. We have use of a truck, but I don't get along with the truck, so I avoid it (that could be a whole other posting about me dealing with the truck). Then from our house, it is a short walk to the schoolhouse. It's at the schoolhouse I can get internet, as well as satellite television. There is a path between our house and the schoolhouse, but we are advised to only use it during the daylight hours, at night there could be snakes, so we take the road instead. I nightly encounter some kind of animals, mainly bush rats and lizards.

Nalerigu has electricity, but it often goes out. During some parts of the year, there are continual rolling blackouts. On the compound, it's not an issue, we have backup generators that immediately kick in. Basically, we notice the lights flicker occasionally (ok more like daily), but we always have electricity. We are even more spoiled, because they outfitted our house with American plugs, so although I brought 2 converters, I haven't used them.

The best thing I brought with me was my headlamp. I haven't figured out why, but it is DARK here at night, I mean much darker than at home! I use my headlamp DAILY! See dad, I told you I needed the headlamp.