Clare, Douglas and I live together in the 12 x 20 brick hut in the center of the picture. It has a dirt floor, a thatch roof and is very comfortable. Although we have no running water, no electricity...we live very comfortably. We use a pit latrine...we draw water from a dug well, carrying drinking water to our cabin, or bathing water to an outside bath house. Living in the tropics is totally different than living in Maine. We live outdoors, rarely going inside except to sleep in our hammocks and escape the rain...other than that we live outdoors.The house to the left is where Clare's mother, father and youngest sister live. The brick building just to the right of our cabin is the kitchen. Nearly all the homes in the village have an external kitchen. The posts you see leaning against the trees will become the corner and mid-support posts for the new house that Clare and I are building.
...This is Clare working in the "kitchen area". The table and chairs were hand made by her uncle. The entire set, a table and four chairs made of some of the most exotic woods known, cost the equivalent of $125 USD.And, we do have "modern conveniences". We have an automatic dish washer.
As soon as Douglas wakes up in the morning, he "automatically" grabs the wares, goes outside and washes them...then he fetches water for the cabin and fills buckets for the three of us to bathe...see, we really do have running water and modern conveniences.