* I just happened to be going through some pictures the other
day. So I decided to put together this article that will show the
places that I have lived during my years in the Peace Corps.
  One feature that all the houses have in common, is that they
are all made of brick. In El Salvador it was mud with straw, in
Senegal is was mud and here in Romania it is kind of a mud brick.
  I will present them chronologically. The first picture is the
mud house from the village of Siguanango (which means in the
Nahuatl language ‘valorous women’) in El Salvador 2000-2002.
  
 For there, it was kind of nice. It had a dirt floor as I hope that
you see in the next picture. Also the shelving system was
made from bamboo and I tied it together with wire.
               
It was a good house but it had this damn mouse that probably is
still there. I battled with that thing for the 2 years. It was kind
of like the ‘caddy shack’ thing with the gopher.

This following picture shows the hut in the village of ‘Goundaga’
in southern Senegal 2003-2005. Goundaga in the Pulaar
language means ‘secret‘.
  

Next is the inside ...

      
I was lucky that I had a cement floor. It was a good hut and it
served me well for 29 months. The problems were, rain coming
through the roof during rainy season, bats, lizards and frogs. The
bats and lizards were really helpful against bugs. The frogs were
also, it was just that at one time I had about 80 of them under my
bed. Every night I could hear the bats fly in and catch the bugs.
  The next picture, also in Senegal and that was the
bathroom …
  
The tubs are the shower water and the hole is the toilet.
 The next picture is the back yard with the passion fruit plant over
the shade structure. The word for shade structure there is ‘charlie’.
  
I planted it and built the structure. It was really nice sitting under
the charlie on a hot afternoon.

The next picture is the house that I am in now in
Romania 2006-present.
  
It is a nice old house that is in decent shape.
The next picture represents the inside.
  

Next is the bathroom …

  
An upgrade from Senegal. I don’t have any pictures of
the composting toilets in El Salvador. But there, there wasn’t
any bathroom at all. To wash up, you were outside near the
well with your bathing suit on. Bathroom wise I feel that it
has gotten better each time.

The last picture is that of the back yard here in Nădlac. In
the summer it is beautiful.
  

So there is the ‘home sweet homes’ that I have had since
joining the Peace Corps.
  Though I am still making memories here in Romania daily.
Each one of these locations have served and are serving their
function well.
  Another thing that I have come to conclude, is that the true
experience of it all, is with the people. That is not to diminish
the experiences that living in these structures bring. I have just
come to the conclusion that the place/country/village is really
the people.
  With that I have to say that I have been very lucky for I have
lived with some extraordinary people. Even at this moment I
am meeting new people daily. Each one as uniquely different
from the last.
  I guess that I should finish by saying that these houses
where/are my home. What I enjoyed the most is that as diverse
as the houses have been, so have the countries they are in.