Wednesday, October 26, 2011

PCP CRIBS: My Paraguayan Home

About every Peace Corps blog post starts with the sentence "Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but here's what I've been up to." They then precede to write a several thousand word paragraph using minimal punctuation and many references to their host country language.

I'm not a particularly gifted writer, nor have I ever had a good relationship with grammar, but I am shooting for some level of readability here. So if I ever throw up an atrocious post that tries to explain everything I have done in the past month in some pseudo stream of conscientiousness format, please inform me. I'll stop blogging that day and probably kill myself.

That being said, sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here's what I've been up to. ;-)



I've been putting together my apartment one fruit crate at a time.  Fruit crate? YUP! The building blocks of Peace Corps engineering. I just sold everything I own not but six months ago, so I feel no inclination to buy a lot of things knowing they are all going to go away in 22 months. Therefore, I'm trying to use as much recycled/ re-purposed material as possible as I make my house into a home. What's one of the most plentiful resources in Paraguay? Old fruit crates no longer being used in the market.
It looks much less caddy-wompus in person.

Essentially, I stack them and lash them together with duct tape to make what I need. My closet/ desk really is my masterpiece. It's got a place for everything. A book shelf, shirts, pants, A closet rod to hang things. Despite the way it looks, it's pretty structurally sound.

I also mashed together a kitchen counter out of scrap wood found on the side of the road.  I wish I had taken a picture of what I started with. It was a broken fruit stand that was much bigger, and with out a solid top. I sawed and rearanged the pieces of wood till it came together. Top it with two fruit crates and I call it a kitchen.



Next week I hope to start my small vegetable garden using recycled materials. I'll get some pics up to show you what I conjure up with that project. It's kinda incredible what you can make with garbage.

Check out the rest of my pics on facebook here.






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