Kenner Update: The Grand Tour

One of the things I (Tania) was most curious about before we got to the village was just what it would look like. Where would we be sleeping? ...showering? and, eh-hem ... you know ... ?Also, what would the village look like? So, to give you an idea of our setting, let me take you on a bit off a tour.

This is the house we stayed in. It is actually the parsonage, but there is no pastor at the moment so it was available for us during our stay.

In this picture (above) you are looking at a sort of courtyard. When people come to storian (visit), this is where we hang out. It is sort of like the 'living room'. The bench to the left is our 'couch'.
You can also see the rain catchment tank there on the right. Toward the bottom of the tank is a spigot for getting water. This is what we used for washing dishes, clothes, showering, and filtering for drinking water.

Here is another picture of the front of 'our house' but just pulled back a bit.

To the left you can see another spigot which is the other main source of water (besides the rain tank). It is gravity fed from a water hole way up in the hills somewhere. There are several water access points around the area that draw from this water hole. Use of this water is regulated so that the pond doesn't run dry. We are told the hole dries up around Christmas time (the hot season).

You can also see our dish rack there on the right in the foreground. Us girls were having to squat on the ground with our dish washing basins to wash the dishes which was really hard on our backs. Then Chief Olekon built this rack for us like all the other women in the village have. We were very grateful. It made doing the dishes so much easier.

This (above) is the backside of the house. There on the left, sort of behind the trees, you can see the corrugated tin side of our swim house a.k.a. 'the shower'. Those spiky looking plants in the foreground are pineapple plants. No fruit right now though, not the season for it.

Below is a better picture of the swim house. The sides of the swim house come up far enough to cover everything from the neck down, pretty much. Still you have to stay aware in order to maintain modesty.

Here (below) is the inside of the swim house. The bucket in the lower left was used to haul water to fill the basin you see on the shelf. To shower we used a small plastic container (maybe it was an old peanut butter jar?) to dip water from the basin to get wet and to rinse and such. You get the idea. Most of the time to cold swim was refreshing... most of the time. Believe me, we were ready for warm showers when we got back. The weather was pretty warm, but it is still the 'cool' season.

Ok, now lets go for a little walk...

Above is a picture of the church building. Beyond it you see a bit of a grassy field and then in the distance behind the trees you see a yellow house. That house is right next door to the one we were in. Behind us (from where I am standing to take this picture) is where the toilet is...

And here is our toilet. It was relatively nice for a bush toilet. It had a concrete floor rather than the alternative of wood or bamboo which would have been really dirty and super scary to try to get business done. Here is the inside...

Ok, back to see the inside of the house.

We take off our shoes as we come inside...

First thing as you come in the door is our eating area. Here is Laura with the Richards kids and Grace enjoying some lunch...

Then on to our sleeping quarters...

This is my bed. We were so excited to arrive and find that our hosts had provided a foam pad with sheets, blanket, and pillow for each of us! It was clean and comfortable. Here is Jim's bed...

And Grace & Josh's room complete with mosquito net...
(We were all taking Malaria preventatives, plus burning mosquito coils, plus continuous application of mosquito spray.) Lord willing we will not come down with malaria (it has an incubation period of several weeks). There was at least one nearby case while we were there.

Back outside to see more of 'the neighborhood'...

above: us girls outside in our 'living room'

There are lots of dogs around. They are used to hunt wild pigs (more on that later).

This one isn't wild. He is a friendly little piglet that was around a lot while we were there. He reminded us of 'Wilbur' from Charlotte's Web.

Underneath the mango tree (above) is a popular place to meet, visit, sit with kids, do various little work tasks, etc. The same goes for just about any mango tree. There is just something about them. They are a nice, very cool (literally), place to hang out.

Below is one of the local roosters claiming his territory from the rooftop of the cookhouse that goes with the house we were staying in. Traditionally, while us westerners have all our living quarters under one roof, here they spread it out. The cook house (or bush kitchen), eating house, bath house, and toilet, are all separate from the sleeping house.