Living conditions

What are your living conditions?

There is no electricity in the district. But it is a true fortune, because nothing can spoil an amazing view above my head. I have never seen such a BLACK sky before! It is of the real blackness. The blackest possible. And millions... millions of stars and a clear Milky Way stretching across the sky! Oops.... Getting back to electricity. Our school has its own generator, which is switched on sometime around five (it gets dark very early here, so it is necessary to switch the generator on) and is switched off slightly after eleven.

There are no showers as you would imagine them in a statistical European house/apartment. Our shower is a blue or pink bucket (I guess the colors have to do something with the gender separation, or maybe not, because my bucket is blue and my headmaster, who is a guy, has a pink one). You fetch water in the bucket from the tank and bring it to the bathroom...

These black "boxes" are bathrooms + toilets - 2 in 1!

In the bathroom you take a scoop and poor water on yourself. You would say it is primitive? Oh, I would dare to debate! What could be better than enjoying magnificent view of sunset while taking a cold shower in a refreshing breeze of an African evening after a hot and sweaty day? You still don't agree? Open air shower is so much better in these conditions than the traditional one (by saying traditional, again, I mean the shower which we, Europeans, are used to) also because there is no chance for mosquitoes to lay their eggs in the water (what happens very often in a closed bathroom with pipes). And how much water you can save! I could have never imagined that it is more than enough to have one bucket of water for a shower. Finally, cold open-air shower is much more healthy!


We don't have toilets either. We use latrines (for people in Lithuania it is a quite known thing - the hole in the ground). Again, these latrines are so much better in these conditions - no chance for mosquitoes, no bad smell, no need to poor water (which is what usually happens here when you have "developed" type of toilet - there is a toilet bowl, but there is no running water!)

"Gates to paradise" :-D (might be true, after all, if you have diarrhea!)

There is no electrical or gas cooking stove. How do we cook for almost 50 people here? On an open fire in a big pot. We are a big African family here!

A little bit sophisticated cooking stove, built by volunteers from Europe

Washing machine and dryer

Very modern, with original African design, multifunctional washing machine

The fridge and storage room

Ok, ok... There is one normal ordinary fridge inside ;-)

My apartment

I just love my room! My first surprise was when I saw number 13 on the door... Well, I like such kind of coincidences and for all 24 years of my life number 13 was following me and bringing me luck (I was also born on 13 day).

The door to my luxury apartment and two lonely "showers" outside

My second surprise was the environment friendly apartment itself. It is made in a traditional African way - with wood poles and mud, only natural materials and some wires. I still cannot get used to the idea that we don't have running hot water, we use latrine, we cook on open fire, we get electricity from generator, we live in African mud huts, we work in a garden to get vegetables for food, but we have Internet!

My standard bed in my African hut (this white thing is
to keep mosquitoes away - not a decoration!)

The room is rather small (compare it to my former apartment in Baltupiai, Vilnius!), but it fits one bed, one table and one chair :-)

I must confess... I don't live alone. I have two guys living in my room, they come and go as they wish. Sometimes they come to sleep in my room, sometimes they don't, sometimes I don't even know where they are...

One of my "boyfriends"