My new home.

The house is a compound, meaning all the doors to the rooms face into a middle circle where all the socializing, cooking, washing and playing happens. Most houses from the ones I have seen are set up this way, more like a community than a row of houses. Food is prepared for everyone in the compound and everyone pulls their own to make the household complete.

I still have not figured out everyone who lives at my compound, or even how they might be related. I would say there are maybe 10 doors into the rooms. And from my head I can count about 17 people plus myself currently residing here, only 2 of them being older woman taking care of the house. The children range in age from a new baby to my age.

My room is coloured pink and has a red light bulb that makes a dark glow at night. In one corner the room has a foam mat I sleep on the floor covered with a mosquito net held down by two rocks. In the other corner is a wooden table with all my belongings and a plastic chair. And in the last corner is my shower, which is the corner of the room literally, with a slight depression in the cement floor containing a pipe that leads outside and into the open sewer.

The compound does not have a toilet. It is like many of the households here. It seems everyone uses the public toilets, and small children use the open sewers. So I pay my 200 cedis (3 cents) to use the public toilet located about a 5-minute walk from the compound. This is actually far, especially when you are supposed to be walking at a slow pace to fit in, and everyone is greeting you, and asking where you are going of course, which I never hold back the answer. To the toilet. I think I may have shocked a few women as I walked into the toilets, which have stalls but no doors. I may be breaking out of my comfort zone by using this washroom, but if the majority of the population is using public toilets, why should I use anything different?

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