Home Sweet Home

Yesterday marked the official beginning of me actually living in Sweetwaters. Well, that isn’t really true—I’ve been “living” here since Friday, but I haven’t felt at home until today. I got my final big money purchase—a small fridge—back to my house and unpacked my groceries and could actually cool my meat and veggies! You don’t understand, I haven’t had a fridge for almost 2.5 months, so it’s an absolute luxury that I will have one of my very own for the rest of my Peace Corps service. Eeeek! I’m very spoiled I think, but I bought it with my Peace Corps moving in allowance, so I don’t feel too bad.

Yesterday morning, there was a great deal of fog. Considering it has rained at some point during the day for the past three days, this makes sense. However, I can’t underline how beautiful this fog was. The hills are very high, so the fog kissed the top of the mountains—it was amazing. This place is, in my opinion, at its best breathtakingly beautiful, and it’s worst, really pretty. ☺

My new living situation is excellent. First of all—it is next door to my work. This means that I will never have to pay to get to work and that I will literally be able to roll out of bed, put clothes on, and go to work. It kind of sucks only that I won’t be moving around the village a lot, so will have to make the extra effort to do this on the weekends, which I am really excited about. Anyways, back to describing my house. There is a house in front of where I am staying where a 35 year old man (he is a teacher and the bookkeeper for my organization) and his mother live. Behind the house there is one big house that is just 6 rooms that eat have their own door to the outside. Family lives in some of the rooms, while a couple of older women live in the other rooms. This is great because I have a family to get to know and become close with all the while having my own space to be on my own because I am technically renting the place (my organization is paying the rent, but the family has agreed to let them pay whatever we can--since I am a volunteer) and therefore deserve my own privacy. Love it!

The family itself is wonderful. The mother of the teacher kind of treats me like one of her ducklings that she has to make sure is OK at all times. I am fine with this, because even she does it at a distance. But whenever there is a something that I’ve needed over the last couple of days, she has been there to get her son in motion to do it (meaning, fixing the lock on the front door, cleaning out the room the same day I looked at it so I could move in that night, getting me buckets to store and carry water that I get from the pump). These things I expected to either not be done (taking me to get the fridge instead of having to pay a delivery fee!, giving me buckets, etc.) or to be done on "just now" time (which means in days or weeks). I spent a lot of time with the teacher yesterday—he was going to town today so I hitched a ride with him and we talked a lot (he is on school vacation). He’s really nice and into cycling (??). He really wants me to ride with him…But he is a competitive cyclist, so I don’t really think I could do that. Also, Sweetwaters is a hilly place that I definitely do not have the leg strength to do it. Maybe I could build it (??) but I really doubt roger clemens on roids could do these hills.

I haven’t started at the center yet, that comes today (wish me luck!). But it seems like everyone at the center is really excited about me working there, which I’d like to take as very encouraging. Some people aren’t getting that vibe from their respective organizations, so I feel very lucky. Let’s hope it stays like that!

Okay, it’s getting late, I want to go to bed.

I also have acquired an internet modem, so this means more regular communication from me! It also means I can write you back when you send me emails. hooray!

<3