It is a top floor apartment. The bottom apartment is rented by another family who is rather quiet all except for their dog. We share a front gate with the family but then I have to enter and unlock two more doors before we get inside of the house.
The FIRST photo is the view when you just open the front door. Immediately to the left is a small guest bathroom. The first opening after the bathroom is the dining area (SECOND photo). The area across from the dining room, to the right of the door is the living area (THIRD photo). It is rather empty and still is pretty empty as furniture is very expensive here. There is also a balcony attached to the living area. The door way directly infront of the front door is to the kitchen (FOURTH and FIFTH photos). This is one of the largest kitchens that I have seen in Ecuador. I actually enjoy cooking here. And lastly the opening directly to the right of the kitchen is the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
The only two door on the right side of the hallway lead into the large bedroom (two beds but we have put three people in there) and the private bathroom. This has been the room of Johanna, Kony, Lisette, Kristen and now Mindy is staying there. The first door on the left is one of two smaller bedrooms and is currently changing room owners quite frequently (Yashira, Lilibeth, or Cira). The second door on the left is my bedroom (the photo with the bed, picture and nightstand). This room has also housed Vibeke and Cira. Carmen has also stayed over at my house. This makes a total of 9 people staying over one month and two people who have stayed once or more. That is quite a change in just three months.
First and second small bedrooms
My bathroom that I share with the occupants of the 1st small bedroom.
Laundry room! YAY it is indoors so we can actually hang things to dry during the rainy season! The open door that you see is the maids room, just big enough for a matteress and a shower/toilet (yes, the toilet is INSIDE the shower).
Laundry room! YAY it is indoors so we can actually hang things to dry during the rainy season! The open door that you see is the maids room, just big enough for a matteress and a shower/toilet (yes, the toilet is INSIDE the shower).
So maybe you can see that this house is HUGE. I feel that it is not an accident and that God has plans for us to use this house to His glory. We would like to use extra rooms to offer hospitality and even a place for rest and recovery from the busy lives that the ecuadorian women seem to lead here. We have been using our huge kitchen to invite people over and have meals together. Yes, that does mean I am voluntarily cooking. I enjoy the fellowship and believe that it is vital for the Christian believers to do even simple things like eating and talking together so that we can better work together in ministry. We even have more space to receive more single people called to missions! Now I just need to actually decorate the place. It is always nice to have a comfortable and warm place to invite people to (and I am not talking about the heat because we definitely already have that!). I am praying for furniture and know that God will provide what is necessary. We do have plastic chairs and an extra plastic table so we are not eating on newspaper on the floor like the first meal I cooked for people! Thai-style is what I call that sort of table. You should have heard me trying to explain why I wanted just any newspaper to the owner of the little tienda (store) just down the street. When she realized that we were using it to eat on, I think she took pity on me and started to just give me all of the old newspapers that she had. Fun memories.
Ok, come and visit me! I have room now!
