We have finally arrived at our new home in… Temux Grande!

This is what it looks like out our window

And now, we live in a bright green clubhouse. It’s kindof cool: wood plank walls and floor, rough-sawn roof timbers, and corrugated steel roof. We have a little window that looks out over the valley (if you click to enlarge the first house picture, you can see Emily peeking out), and when the clouds clear out, we can see all the way to Mexico (as pointed out by one of the locals). We’ve been provided a hutch for clothing, a wooden bed frame (we used camping pads on it the first night), and a table. Sheet plastic covers two walls to keep put the wind that would otherwise howl through the gaps in the boards. The villagers are really concerned we’ll be too cold, and offered to put up more plastic, but I like the look of the wood walls. A cute little wooden Dutch door finishes the place. If you click on the picture on the right, you can make out our house towards the far right, almost hidden by the trees.

Our clubhouse is attached to another house, made of adobe. They sit in the middle of a cornfield, accessed via a muddy path through the cornstalks and across a little footbridge over a small gushing brook that supplies pleasant sleeping noises all night long. I’m going to try to attach a video of the approach to our house, hopefully this works:

A third house on the same property is the home of Nas Palas, the mysterious “respected village leader” I spoke of a few posts back. He’s our sponsor here, and we have gotten to know him better. Although he has a name like a Star Wars bounty hunter, he’s a pretty welcoming guy who really has the good of his community at heart. Our first night in Temux, he invited us to dinner. Their house, upon first glance, was like stepping back through time. We stooped through the low entry into a darkened room, and all we could see inside was a small cooking fire and several pairs of eyes looking back at us. We were given low chairs and we joined them around a low, square hearth open on all sides; upon it was the fire, a tripod, various kettles, a squinting cat, and the occasional relaxed person’s feet. The mother ladled us some vegetable stew, which we gladly accepted. As I ate the tasty broth and listened to the conversation, I casually scanned the room. My eyes became accustomed to the darkness and I noticed that nearly everything was blackish from years of smoke; the ceiling and beams directly overhead were actually glistening black and crackled from the accumulation of tar and soot- and this was sometimes hard to see when my eyes were stinging with smoke. The abode was humble, with practical things hanging from hooks on the walls and center post: pots, a cheese grater, a cleaver, a mayan calendar with the logo of a muffler shop in the nearby town. Objects placed higher up on the walls were harder to identify: either a trick of the dim lighting, or the result of the smoke that hung thick at ceiling level.

Some views of our surroundings

Manuel, the president of the health committee and another of our key supporter-liasons, came by. He said some kind words and offered us some assistance in getting anything additional we might need. We declined his offer to run 220 volt power to our house, and he listened as we mentioned our desire for help getting a stove and mattress. “I will talk with my wife”, he added, “and see if she can go with you and Emily to the market, to show you which prices are fair.” The people here are going to a lot of trouble to make us welcome… they even built us a brand-new latrine last week in anticipation of our arrival. And, yes, that stream right behind it is the drinking water supply.

Here’s a few shots of the inside of our home, after we got things more set up. In order, they are: Office, Bedroom, and Kitchen. That’s a lot of stuff to squeeze into a building 14′ X 22′.

There’s still a lot to do to get settled in, but we’re both really comfortable so far, and confident this is a good living situation. Comfort is the key. As Nas Palas said while we warmed ourselves around his cozy open hearth, “We know that it’s not healthy by modern standards, but we just like it.” I can understand that.