Wont you be my neighbor...

One huge part of my life that I have yet to mention and cannot be fully captured in my photos, is the people i see daily. Just a stones throw away from my house is another compound composing of three buildings. This is where I do most of my socializing and where I "chop" my meals. One of the buildings is mostly storage for wood and coal.  There is a small shack in the middle that serves as a sort of kitchen, meaning it is where they stack their pots on three large stones set around a wood fire. The woman I have cook for me provides food for about 13+ people.  I pay her 25,000 Le a week or about 6$ for two meals a day. Everyone calls her Auntie as a sign of respect much like sir or mam in the States.  She lives in the first side of one duplex with her two children, her grandson and grandsons mother, and a few other random distant relatives that stay with her. So there are about 10 people that stay in two concrete floor rooms on straw mattresses.

On the other side of the duplex is my principal and his wife, their two children, niece, and a few here and there. In his "custody" are about 5 or 6 young boys, all my students, that stay in the compound with us. A mix of friends of family and a few brighter students he is trying to keep around. On the next side of the compound stays another Auntie, with her 70+ year old mother, granddaughter, son, and a random relative. One of the new teachers stays in a room attached to the same building.

Ive never seen so many people working so hard to get by day to day and looking out for each-other. Everyone in the families here seems to have equal roles and responsibilities. Sons, daughters, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, ect all make up one family. Not sure about everyone's reasons for being here but a lot are here because the school opportunity here is better, and alot of the smaller children's parents are unable to take care of them so they stay with their uncles and aunts that can. Some im sure are also orphaned by the high death rates here and the war. They treat me wonderfully and entertain me plenty. Having 20+ children aged 2-22 here is plenty of company and they love helping me clean, and brook, and pump water, and love it even more when I give them glowsticks and candy.

So a last few closing remarks and observations include

 1) the children here know how to work and they never complain

2) The female to male ratio is uneven. The male role models other than my principal are non existent. It is a compound and society supported strongly by hard working women and children.