My house is a very very .... nice? house..

So i thought i would try and describe the camp but its going to take much longer than a single post to even begin to paint a picture of this craazzy quirky place known as Buduburam Refugee Camp (pronounced buudha-boo-ram with emphasise on the boo). so instead I'll start with my house. and what a funny little place it is.

 

There is one main room with a table and chairs, a small kitchen, four bedrooms and a bathroom area. Of course i use each term very loosely! its concrete wth a corrugated iron roof, tiny windows with screen and metal bars and is the hottest place on camp, possibly in the whole world. the outside is painted a lovely blue and white, and inside is yellow. everything is pretty filthy (side note...akon's lonely has been playing for hte last 30 mins in this internet cafe!)

 

There are a few things i like about the house, a few I don't :) The things I like - its secure and safe and keeps the rain off (thuogh it was no good this afternoon as we were all outside without a key and the wind blew the door shut and we were locked out for two hours in the most unbelievable downpour I've ever been in, even crazier than singapore!) The challenging aspects are certainly more abundant, but hey, part of the experience! We have mice (population unknown, we pretend there are three, Mickey, Minnie and Mighty, and talk to them as they make their presence known). We also have no power and no running water. Everything is a bit grimy, though we did our best at cleaning when we arrived. Iris, my room mate from holland, and I are both here for three months so we are planning to decorate - some crepe paper sheets hung between the roof rafters and we both have christmas stockings. in fact today we went all 'martha stewart', as the US/Canadian kids call it, and made the most awesome Christmas chandelier you've ever seen. A plate suspended from the ceiling with rope, four candles stuck in little containers of sand sitting on top and red tinsel and green foliage to decorate. Seriously, its pretty exciting :-P And we only almost caught the house on fire twice in the process - quite an achievement i do say!

 

No one but IVs (international vollies) are allowed in, which doesn't stop kids banging at the door and windows all day. At the moment its fun to go out and chat, though im sure at times the novelty will definitely wear off! The shower is....interesting...just a small room with a big bucket of water and a little dipper bucket to use to pour it over yourself. the toilet is western style but does not flush...and you can't put toilet paper in it, a fact i constantly forget! the floor is hilarous, concrete with bits of broken tiles placed throughout, all covered in little piles of wax where candles have been placed.

 

all in all though, its a gazillion times better than many of the other houses and we are totally lucky to have it :)

love you guys xx