A Tour of Our Living Quarters

Linda

I know that all of you have seen the outside of our 'living quarters' so I will show you something of the inside of our space. Before I start I want to tell you that the tin you see at the end of our building is being used as a fence for a lumber company/operation. During the day I hear them cutting trees into lumber out there. It is somewhat annoying but I am learning to ignore it.  I can always concentrate on the huge number of cars that go speeding past my window. Guatemalans love speed and there are very few straight - aways that they can zoom down. Aren't we lucky to have one right outside our door???  Hmmmm not so lucky.

We will start our tour in the kitchen. This whole building was once used to produce coffee I think somebody said the other day. Now the wheelchair workshop is in the back and we are in the living quarters. The kitchen is nearly nonfunctional. It has a sink, four burner stove top, an apartment size refrigerator, and shares space with the 'dininig' area. There were three pots when we arrived, two I would use and the third is still hanging on a wall. There is no counter space to work on. The stove top is too high for me but I dare not use a stool. I have nothing to use to store food in the fridge. I bought one bowl but it is still too big.

The photo below is our "pantry" which is shared with Chris. It is also where our dishes are stored, such that they are. I brought with me 2 bowls, 2 plates, 4 spoons, forks, knives, 2 chef knives, one set of dish towels, and one set of cutting boards.   The sink does not have hot water so I boil water to sanitize the dishes.

This photo shows the water filter, which has saved us a fortune and reduced the effort of bringing drinking water into the house. Next to it is the 4 burner camp stove, the 1200 watt microwave (which is very nice to have) and the apartment size fridge. The tank under the stove is the propane fuel the stove uses. I just spent Q315.50 on propane for the stove and dryer. I store my pots and pans under the microwave. The shelf above the microwave holds spices, cooking oil and vinegar.

This is the dining area complete with propane clothes dryer. It is actually an efficient dryer. These propane tanks are picked up on a schedule, refilled and you get an exchanged tank when they come. The door you see goes into the area where the washing machine lives. It also has the pila which is a Guatamalan duel purpose sink/tub with water in the center, space to wash dishes on one side and the other generally has a rub board type bottom for hand washing clothes. This pila does not have the rub board section.

The washing machine and the Pila. Both of these simply drain into the floor drain. There is no hot water. Up above both of these are lines stretched from one side to the other so that you could hang clothes. It seems to take forever to dry anything that you hang up here. The ceiling has fiber class 'tin' which lets in light and some heat (somewhat like a skylight.)  The blocks on the right near the washer are open to the outside in front of the wheelchair shop but since the whole area is closed off it does not generate a breeze just works as ventilation.

Leaving the kitchen - this picture is standing in the door way looking down our "hall". At one time this space may have been a veranda or porch. Now it is like a motel hall.  The window and door you see up close is Chris's room.  The second door opens into a nearly empty room which functions has the hall to the bathroom and the way we enter our room from the "hall" The last set of window you see are in our room.

I opened the screen door of Chris's room and snapped this photo. Chris is nearly 6 feet tall so I am sure his bed is too short. There are no windows in the closet. He has the same set of 'shelves' for his stuff that we have in our room.

Common space between the bedrooms and the bathroom. The bathroom door is visible at the back of the room.

The bath room looks really puke green in this photo. If I wasn't so lazy I would get up to go look at the walls to see if they really are this stark. Any way there is no ventilation in this room. The window lets in light through the kitchen and there is a roof 'skylight' right over the door. The best thing about the room is that everything works! If you forgo having a lot of 'force' in your show you will have a hot shower! There is no heater, no electrical outlet, no mirror but the appliances work. That's a good thing. We are using a small school locker type mirror that I stuck into my carry on bag. Can I tell you that we are hunting a larger working mirror? You bet we are!  Oh, by the way--  toilet tissue cannot go into the toilet -- the plumbing and the sewer system cannot handle it. There is a trash container in all bathrooms for soiled paper. They do an excellent job in all public places with keeping those containers empty. And NO the bathroom does not smell - why I don't know -- but I do an excellent job of replacing the trash bag!

Looking from the bathroom door across the empty 'sala' (room). The door to our room is on the right and the exit into the hall left.

Our room-- the outside or a.k.a front door is at left. I keep my new broom in the corner so it does not get used to sweep concrete which will ruin it. The shelving houses shoes, towels, ditty bags, and books on top. Chris has a unit just like it. The bed has legs. In the first photo we saw of the room the mattress was on the floor. Don is currently hogging all the pillows but then he has been sleeping nearly sitting up for days.

Across the room is the 'closet' with louvered doors which make no sense in a country plagued by dust from the streets. I sweep up fine dust every day which blows in or we bring in on our shoes. The closet was added after the first photos were sent. It has space above the hanging clothes which is holding our early season jackets. The walls are lined with suitcases which contain things we have no other space to store. Not convenient but it works.

Notice the door knob in our door. This is the wall of the hall way and holds two desks where we can work on our blogs <grin>. That is a shower curtain hanging in the window which cuts the light at night and gives us privacy. The TV is setting on a small chest where my clothes are kept and the desk has drawers which Don is using for his clothes. The little dinosaur is sitting on our Internet connection! He can't seem to stop the outages!! ha ha

The pretty red floors are tile. What you drop on it will shatter.

Behind our door we hung our bathrooms. Susan your clothesline is used everyday. Since there is no air circulation in the bathroom we cannot allow towels to dry in there so we hang them in that corner. We also hang a long sleeve shirt which is all we have needed here so far. It gets coolish in the evening.

That is the end of the tour.