Arriving at Mirror

I arrived at my volunteer organization on Monday Nov 3rd. I was pretty shocked at the living conditions. I mean, I knew it would be basic. But I didn't really think about how basic.

Here, four women live in a room about the size of a 6 man tent. We sleep on mattresses on the floor. The slats are open. As I'm typing this, the girl that stays upstairs has just ran downstairs because she saw a rat. The bathroom has a toilet - but it doesn't flush with a lever. You have to pour water into the toilet to make it flush. We are not allowed to use toilet paper. You shower out of a bucket and the water is cold. We wash our clothes in a bucket outside. No TV, no refrigerator, no conveniences. On the other hand, the food is AMAZING. I couldn't imagine better cooking. And so simple.

But even with the cooking, I wasn't entirely sure at the beginning if this is what I wanted. I mean, I know that I'm volunteering. But does it have to be so basic?

I'm learning that I have luxury accommodations compared to the ones I'm helping, as you'll see throughout the blog.