If You Came to My House...

As I was washing dishes today, looking up at the plant leaves pushing their way through the slats in the cement walls with splashes of water missing the drain hole in the cement floor hitting my feet, I thought about some things about our house that seem normal to us now but would be odd to a visitor from the United States. In the U.S., builders are very good about hiding details of the inner workings of a house. Here, electrical wires wandering around the walls and ceiling, demonstrating exactly how everything is connected. In a similar fashion, blue pvc pipe decorates the walls in the bathroom and kitchen. In my outdoor kitchen, the pipe underneath the sink does not quite reach the floor underneath. If the hose gets bumped by a reckless toddler, the water from pouring out the hose misses the hole altogether and splashes all over the floor.

Another striking feature is the open gray water ditch in the outdoor kitchen and around the back of the house. Water from the washing machine is visible dumping out the pipe in its back and into this ditch. Water from the sink can be seen causing a ripple in the back ditch as I dump out the dishwater. Fortunately, the number of items Simeon has thrown into this murky water has been few. I've managed to discourage him from playing there by providing him with clean water to splash in.

The last item I thought about was the jungle growing next door. No city ordinances regulating the height of the grass. I have to keep at the vines snaking through the walls into our house if I don't want to be encroached. It's nice to not have neighbors peering over our walls and to be able to hear the birds in the mornings and frogs in the evenings. I'd prefer not to have the huge spiders visiting but overall I appreciate the "empty" lot next door.

"The Jungle Next Door" from our second story balcony