Moving back to Camp Guantanamo

Well, I knew it was coming for some time...but that doesn't mean I like it.

Over a year ago, we moved from camp into the village. Our house was awesome.
We had two rooms, a living room, a kitchen, a nice big bathroom - and a washer and dryer!! This was a HUGE step up from living in camp.

This week we had to start moving.

Here's our new place. It's roughly 35 duplexes that have been divided into two different units - each unit contains four rooms and one common area. The houses are in a compound and we have a bar, swimming pool, cafeteria, and gift shop (okay, it's not a gift shop, but calling it that sounds so less prison like than calling it a "commissary"). It is patrolled twenty four hours a day and is fenced in with high metal fences with razor wire.

My new running route. In the Village, they had different loops. Now I'm back to running a circle over and over and over again.

 We have two rooms in the same unit.

We're using this one as our room.

And this one as my closet the "spare" room. We'll eventually put in a couch and make it into a living room.

But somehow I have to remember how I fit all my clothes into this teeny, tiny little closet. I did it for over a year...but now the task seems almost impossible.

Ok, so far, I didn't really have any complaints. And then...I remembered the laundry situation.

 I spent hundreds of dollars replacing clothing because of the laundry service. I was lucky enough in the Village we had a washer and dryer so I could hide any clothes that I didn't want housekeeping to wash.

When I"m back in the new year, I'll be buying a washing machine so that I can wash some of my own clothes. It's a bit pricey, but so is replacing an entire wardrobe every six weeks!

As we left, I noticed this sign. What a lovely welcome back. Mosquitos and malaria are a big thing here, so they spray often. I guess it's not the worst thing but it always makes me wonder just what kind of chemicals I'm inhaling. (Side note: Every time I fly from Madagascar or South Africa - they always spray this ridiculously horrid smelling spray that's supposed to kill any pests. I think it just kills brain cells and shorten my life span...)

 At least I'll be coming back to a bug-free environment.

Technically, we don't have to be out of our house until December 19th, so after moving, we came back to our place. Which I guess isn't our place anymore, but I still like to call it that.

Camp is really not that bad. Laundry issues aside...I lived there for a year and it didn't kill me. I'm just spoiled since I've lived in a house since last September. A few people are talking about renting places in town, which seems like an interesting idea, but it kind of depends on my work situation. I don't think there will be a requirement for me to stay in Finance after May 2012, but ideally, I'd like to stay in Madagascar for another year or so after my contract expires. If that's the case, then maybe we'll look into alternate arrangments, but for now, although it's no "Home Sweet Home", things could be A LOT worse!

When I'm back after the holidays, I'll start decorating and moving things around to make it look more pretty. :)