House Hunting HGTV Style

Number one did actually pique our interest because it is a private dwelling, has its own well, structures ready for the necessary facilities, and good ocean breezes. It is a concrete house with a tiled roof over a porch. The rooms would be sealed off from bugs easily entering in the night. The bathroom was a good walk from the house so it would never present any odorous problems nearby, just a watchful eye along the path for scorpions and spiders, especially those huge, hairy tarantulas. It has an open, concrete holding tank for water so you could dip all you needed for showers or flushing the toilet. The kitchen sink is in another place a little closer to the house. It has the same open concrete holding tank with about a 20 gallon water capacity, and a separate countertop space to the side that would hold dishes or laundry items while washing them. The well has its own bucket or a small pump could be purchased to bring it up a little quicker. A little paint to brighten it all up and some grass seed on the clean dirt would make it a sweet home. Everything looks possible but would take a larger amount of money to prepare than we want to invest. We can invest in housing, or we can invest in language school.

Number two is a painted set of two separate rooms, each having their own front doors but equally sharing a nice front porch. It sits high enough above the road to get good breezes. It even has the tiled roofing that insulates from the heat. Surviving the heat is a must. The ceiling would need to be supplemented with netting to keep the bugs out but netting is readily available. There are a few rustic, used pieces of furniture that could be rented cheaply and would be most helpful until we could replace them, yesterday. The yard is full of flowers, turkeys, a wormy pup and cat, and enough extra space for John to park his truck. There is no bathroom or kitchen except the ones available in another house just down the hill at the Andersons. But hey!, they would probably share.

Number three is the ONE! It is modern, with indoor facilities, two patios, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a fenced yard. You can rent the large stove in the kitchen for a wee bit extra and there are real cabinets in it. Wow! It is well painted, bright orange/red, inside and out and looks very clean. But, another family is living there till Nov 15th and then the owner may want to move back in. Who knows how long it would be available because the owners might come back from the States (quite unexpectedly) and need to live there. Hm! Can we take that risk? It is really nice in comparison to everything else in this little fishing village.

That leaves number four. Let's see. There is an American family of four plus one (that makes five, but not all are American) living there until they possibly leave the end of February. The house is almost finished and almost modernized. The main part of the house has an eat-in kitchen room, a living room, and a large bedroom with attached bathroom. In all the rooms, there are very nice sliding glass windows with screens, topped with arching round windows. The metal doors and windows both have tinted glass that detract the sun. The kitchen is the least finished with a rough, newly-made cement countertop held up by mortared bricks. It has no cabinets or shelves. The floors are all beautifully tiled in large terra cotta tiles. Attached, but with separate entrances are another bedroom, a toilet room, and a shower room. That belongs to the two young men of the family and their live-in buddy. Gabi. The family are in Spanish language school and Gabi works in the guest house at the Base. That looks a little too full, doesn't it? We will only be here till March, one month longer than them.

So, which one did we choose?



The boys moved into the front room, the front room furniture was moved into the parent's bedroom, and we moved into the boy's room that had the outside, separate entrance. We'll use the attached shower and toilet room, both with their separate outside doors, and share them with the boys as necessary. That makes our choice Number four! We'll share in using their kitchen and washing machine. The stove is sitting outside so looks that will be no problem to use as needed too. We will definitely worm the tiny pup and kitten and shoo away stray turkeys or chickens as needed. They will enjoy our big truck to haul groceries and whatever up that rough, steep hill. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the road up to the house? It will jar your teeth right out of your head so hang on tight and come see us.....after the other family move out and we have all four rooms!

Life on the mission field,

John & Joyce