Finally - A House

View from my kitchen door, through my carport to my neighbors.
Past the fence is a pigpen and the remaining slab of a house burned in the 16/11 riots.
My new digs. Could be the home of the Cleavers. (I know most of you are too young to remember "Leave it to Beaver", sorry.)

Click on the above pics for a high resolution glimpse into my world!

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I've been at the campsite for four months. This has taken its toll, and my attitude has been gnawed away for each of those hundred plus days.

I finally have a house. A very nice house. It even has a super nice washing machine!

The neighborhood is interesting... It is at sea level, although a long ways from the coast. The water beneath my neighbors house is permanent. There are even small fish. The neighbor also has a small pharmacy in his front yard. Trust me - It is not competition for Walgreen's.

The roads are a string of connected potholes this time of year. During the raining season they are more like canals.

The Pig Sty to one side of the house has a small shack or corrugated steel. The neighbors who live there had a large two story house, but it was burned in the 16/11 riots. I don't know yet what singled them out. They plan to rebuild using one of the foreign aid loans for riot victims.

The neighborhood is a hodgepodge of nice homes and shacks. Most have Sky Satellite TV. I fall asleep to the blaring of "Dragnet -The Movie" from a neighbors house. Dum da dum dum.

It would be a mistake to judge the wealth or poverty of the occupants by their houses. The Kingdom, for many cultural and legal reasons, does not have private property rights in the same sense that westerners are accustomed. This is the single biggest reason their economy is one of the worst in the world. There is no incentive to invest in building a nice house if you don't really own it. This particularly challenging for businesses as their lease terms drop to twenty or ten years they will no longer invest.

The inside is well furnished and could be a house in the States. It even has hot water and good water pressure provided by a pump. Of coarse the hot water is currently not working, but I hope to get it fixed soon. And I need to go into the back yard to turn the pump on and off when I need to use it. This should also be fixed soon.

I have a washing machine. This replaces my blue bucket. I have done two loads and can't get over the difference it makes. Cloths feel and smell different. And the spin cycle drys the cloths. When I hang them they already feel dry. When I take them down they aren't moldy. It is a miracle of modern technology.

I am about two miles from the market, so the several trips I need to make each Saturday back and forth with my backpack full of local fish and fruit (currently guavas) is a bit of a ride.

An Australian Youth Volunteer drove me between the houses. They are similar to Peace Corps on the surface, but have a heck of a lot more trust and freedom (and food allowance) from their government. Several have cars and they are all allowed to drive. I use them when we need a lift. They are the fun group here, and I hang with them as much as I can get away with.

It remains to be seen if this beautiful new house will pull me back up from the abyss. I have already had my first two nights of decent sleep since arriving in Tonga, but I fell as though I've been hiding in a foxhole with shells exploding around me for months and it maybe too late.