Moving Day!

I am anxious to get into my apartment! I have enjoyed getting to know my host family, but the lack of privacy and general chaos in a family with young children is wearing on me. For the past week, my host family has been telling me that I don't need to move, that I am welcome to stay for as long as I like. The idea of my living alone seems somewhat unsettling to them. It is understandable, since most young adults live with their families until they get married or move to a big city to work or continue their studies. Even then, they often live with extended family or with roommates. Living alone is unusual, especially for women. By living on my own, I'll have to cook my own food and “gasp!” eat alone, clean my house, do my laundry, etc. If I stay with my host family, I won't have to worry about those things and my host mom keeps trying this argument on me to convince me to stay.

I told my host mother that I wanted to move today and she told me to wait until the afternoon so she could help me clean before I brought my things over. I found my landlord and got the key to the front door of the building and went over to check it out again. I was happy to find my front door still in tact and the new lock properly installed. The trash was gone, but unfortunately, my window locks were still missing handles and my landlord had stuck various wires or nails where the handles should be!

I am on the 3rd and top floor and the stairs are uneven and the tread is narrow, making them rather treacherous. Building codes are non-existent, so you really need to be careful on stairs and with doorway and ceilings! I also have access to the roof, which is great – I can see all of my village and have a great open view for sky gazing and enjoying the sunsets. My apartment is probably the same size as my host family's house. There is a “front hallway” that is more like a small room that leads to each of the other rooms. Towards the front is a large living room and on the side is a kitchen and bedroom. I have a bathroom, plus a smaller extra room that I plan to use for storage. I am lucky to have both running water and electricity! There is a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling in the center of each room. I don't have a shower or hot water heater, so I'll be boiling water on the stove and taking bucket baths when I need to bathe. The apartment is just down the street from my host family – I can see their front stoop from my kitchen window!

After our afternoon nap, my host mom, Zuhir, Jalil and I went over to clean. Since all of the floors are cement, we splashed buckets of water over the floor and squeegeed it all to the drain near the front door. Its a great way to clean and we didn't use any soap! I wasn't using the squeegee properly, so Zuhir took over. We even did all the stairs down to the front door.

I began carrying my things over, starting with the smaller items in hopes of getting help from a couple men with the larger duffel bag and my bed and ponjs. My host mom recruited Hakim, my host cousin, and a couple of his friends to help and they quickly carried everything else over. I thanked them as best I could, but I think inviting them to tea would have been the appropriate show of thanks. However, having just moved in, I wasn't quite set up for tea.

I spent the afternoon getting settled in, although, there wasn't much to do. I don't really have any furniture, so I couldn't unpack my clothes yet. I haven't bought a refrigerator either, so I don't have any food. I ate dinner with my host family, but happily spent my first night in my new apartment! It was wonderful to sleep in a bed and to wake up and not worry if I am properly dressed to leave my room to use the bathroom.

Pictures of my new house are posted here.