Home Sweet Home

Presenting the long-awaited photos of our day-to-day lives. We apologize in advance for the lack of excitement in this post.


The tour begins on our street - our building is the last one visible on the right. Entering it you'll see a staircase. Look up - look way up. We live at the very top.














Half a flight of stairs above our door is the door to the roof. Here are the views looking out over the back and the front of the building. Note the proximity of the loudspeakers on that mosque tower; the first prayer call is at 5:30a.m.








The apartment itself is fairly standard, with a few twists. The sinks are in the hallways instead of inside rooms. This is to facilitate washing after you've eaten your meal with your hands. And yes, the toilet is in the shower stall.




Here's Sean making toast in the absence of a toaster, and a shot of the shower-toilet in full operation.
















Lots of wooden furniture around, and elaborately carved. Otherwise, the apartment is still quite bare, but we're working on it.







Now to the school: the university building is a little on the spartan/utilitarian side, but I like the open-air hallways and the place is home to some nice plants; an abundance of blossoms makes the quadrangle smell wonderful. Moving on...





This is the stand where we buy most of our fruits and vegetables, and it's a fairly typical example. Some are freestanding and others, like this one, are stuck to the sides of other buildings.







And let's not forget the guy across the street who keeps offering to be our servant. Maybe he's not happy as a shopkeeper. We purchase some dry goods here, as well as our drinking water. There is a large tank in the corner that is refilled by a truck, and from that tank we fill two five-gallon jugs whenever we need to.





Lastly, some neighbours. This town keeps its goats locked up, which is unique; they're free-range in most places (which begs the question, how do the people keep track of their goats?).




Naturally there are many things that have not been included here. Something else you want to see? We take requests - drop us a line. For now, salaam.