Housing Crisis Averted

Well, a lot has happened since I last updated this here blog. First, and most importantly, I finally found a place to live. My PC boss had to come do 2 separate site visits to help me out, but in the end we finally found one. It’s a little out of my budget (PC has different living allowance classifications and I’m in the lowest, so my rent max is $70/mo) – the new place is $100 a month so my boss is trying to see if PC will grant me a rent increase for the extra $30 or I might just have to pay out of pocket. The place is really great though, not sure if it’s worth $100 or if the landlady just saw desperate gringa and decided to raise the price a little bit, but either way I’m glad everything got sorted out. It’s in the middle of Cebadas (the town next door), so there are definitely more people around. The trade off is pretty straightforward- campo changed into “city”, birds waking me up every morning between 6 and 7 has changed to construction trucks booming by between 5 and 6, still have a fireplace so nothing’s changed on that level, after either the landlady or I finally back down and one of us buys a shower head, I’ll have hot water which makes the new place worth it in and of itself, there are hook ups to hang not 1 but 2 hammocks, the list goes on and on. The apartment is on the second floor of a 3 story building- the bottom floor is a tienda and the other two are mine- on the top floor I’m thinking of trying to start a few tire gardens or something like that. Since I’m not living in the campo anymore, I’m not sure if there’s enough room for a real garden but I’m going to work with what I’ve got. The only problem is that the apartment isn’t exactly finished. It was missing windows and doors and the electricity wasn’t fully hooked up yet, so I went for a little mini vacation to visit some friends (down south and on the costa) to wait out the construction. I called the landlady pretty much everyday and got the same answer- the good ‘ol Ecuadorian “ya mismo.” Eventually I started running out of clean clothes and figured I should get back to my site and only the windows had been put in. Yesterday some workers came by to finish the electricity and put in the back door and the door to the third floor, but not the main front door or a door to my room just yet. No big deal, at least I have somewhere to sleep at night.

We had our first official drop out over the weekend. Sure, technically 3 other people from my Omnibus have already returned home, but each of those were somewhat extenuating circumstances. This is the first site-specific drop out, she just wasn’t integrating and didn’t feel like she could stick it out any longer. She was the first person I met in Peace Corps- my roommate from staging in DC. It’s a bummer that she couldn’t stick it out. I kind of have a feeling that now that the first person has given in, other volunteers are going to start dropping like flies, but I hope I’m wrong.

Sorry Mom, but you have to take a close 2nd place again in the package department- G really outdid herself. Turns out whatever weight I’ve lost over here hasn’t been a result of strengthened will power, but instead just a lack of options, so I’m thinking let’s maybe cool it on the candy sending for the next few months…

Hope all is well in the States. The countdown has begun for my first visitor- 10 days!