The Cylinder Block House

Here's the post about the cylinder block house just down the street... There are houses like this all over the city, usually where a building is going up. This one is right across the street from the grocery store where I shop. The kids are usually playing outside on the sand hill. I took a picture of 3 of the children that live in this house but there are also two little babies plus the parents. I'm really not sure how many people live in this house. The babies don't wear diapers so they usually have bare bottoms. The few houses like this that I've gotten to take a peek into usually have a shrine set up to their household idol/gods, maybe a wall calendar, a shelf with a few things on it and maybe a burner to cook on if they have electricity. There was another cylinder block house on this lot before they dug the big hole and it had one hanging light bulb. They sleep on the floor, sit on the floor, eat on the floor...no furniture. I have to say that this house is much more protective from the elements than some of the tarp tents I see on the side of the road. It poured down raining Saturday night and I really don't know what the people in tents do during monsoon season. Not to mention mosquitos!

If I try to imagine myself living in this house I wonder if I would have joy? I think I depend so much on my comforts to make me happy and content--much more than I realize. I would only hope and pray that I could be content and joyful sleeping on the floor, taking a bath outside in well water that I had to walk a mile to get, or watching rich people shop at the grocery store across the street.

I hope these type of posts don't sound depressing--it's just real and and everywhere here so I want to share.

This is the house in front of the pink building

The big hole

This is where they dry their clothes--on these poles