It's not messy, it's lived in.

I recently received pictures from my brother showing off his apartment in Alaska. He's in the military and judging by his digs, working for the government has been pretty good to him. I like to think that I kinda work for the government too. In the oath we took when I officially became a volunteer, I remember there being something about "protecting the U.S. from enemies foreign and domestic" or something like that. And have you seen the silly disclaimer I'm required to have at the bottom of my blog? Yeah, that's for the MAN (as my brother so appropriately refers to the government).
So following my dear brother's example, I have taken some photos around my African Box (aka my room) to show you how I live it up here in my Itty-bitty Village in rural South Africa.



This is the outside view of my room. It's behind the main house and attached to the car port. I have two windows and a red door frame. Behind it, you can vaguely see my tin pit toilet. Yay.



This is the view from the door. Um, this one picture shows about 80% of my room. Ha. And you wondered why I called it a box... Oh, I thought about cleaning but....eh, cleaning is overrated.



This is the "bedroom" part of my room. My bed is always unmade. It's a religious thing. Anyway, the green thing above my bed is my mosquito net in "winter mode" since the skeeters don't come out in winter. You can't really see it, but the black bucket between my wardrobe and my bed is my bathing bucket where much deep pondering is done. Sorta. Behind it is my chamber pot for....well, emergencies.


Five steps from my "bedroom" is my "kitchen." Some call it efficient. Here is my fridge that regularly tries to kill me. The black cord behind it is my electricity. My hot plate/oven is where I cook my food. It has one temperature: hot. So when a recipe tells me to "turn down the heat" I just laugh and blow on it a little. Whatev. It's Africa. My oven smokes when I try to bake in it, but oh well. It usually comes out tasty anyway. The black bucket by my fridge is where I wash dishes and the red bucket underneath it is where I keep my daily water that I pull from the tap in the backyard in the morning.



Between my "bedroom" and "kitchen" is my "office." I used to have a TV on the little black table but my fridge killed it so now it's just where I put my junk. My office also doubles as a dining room.



This is the view from the window towards my door. My hamper doubles as a rack for the bucket that I use to wash my face/hands. I post recipes on the back of my door for inspiration. I can't/don't attempt to cook them here because they're mostly from UK/US magazines and the ingredients can't be found here or afforded on my budget. One day I will cook them and they will be delicious. One day...

So, what do you think?