The One About my Casita

When I was preparing to be a Peace Corps Volunteer I searched You Tube to get an idea of how PCVs live all around the world. Those videos served as a great tool for me and were essential in alleviating any worries my parents had as to the safety and security standards Peace Corps has on housing assignments. Now, it is my turn to give back. So one raining day (there have been a lot of those lately), I put together a video of my little home and posted it on You Tube. Maybe a future PCV will come across it and find it useful. Also for my faithful “armchair adventurers” who will most likely not be coming to visit me, this video will give you an idea of my life in the campo.

But first a few words:
Some recent circumstances have led me to ponder the question of what makes a house a home. Is it the security it provides? Or maybe the fact that you have something that is uniquely your own? Is it the people that live there? The memories made there? Or is it that one can find familiarity in a world of constant change? I still ponder this question, not really looking for an answer, and not really feeling like there has to be one. I am sure the answers are different for everyone. Regardless, I think we can all agree that in our society it is a monumental event in a person’s life when they acquire their first home aside from the one they grew up in.

The four years I was in college I switched houses ever year. I was always a renter, abiding to the landlords rules, and sharing the house with roommates…amazing roommates might I add. Those houses provided a setting for some of the best memories of my life, but those houses were never my home. I think you see where I am going with this… Who would have thought that my first home would be in this little Indian village in the Archipelago of Panama? But this is where life has brought me and this little house will forever be my first home. I have been living in this house for over a year now. That is officially the longest I have ever consecutively lived in one single house since I was in 9 years old.

A few months ago the community told me they will no longer accept rent from me. I see this as sign of respect, acceptance and a manifest indication to their knowledge that having access to safe and secure housing is a basic human right. I am surprised that in some countries much more “advanced” this basic right is sometimes difficult for its citizens to obtain. Even though Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden way back in 1854, I think his opinion in reference to “dwellings” is still very much accurate and relevant. Here are some of my favorite quotes of his:

“Though the birds of the air have their nest, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter.”

“If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man-and I think it is, though only the wise improve their advantages- it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”

“None is so poor that he need sit on a pumpkin.”

My home here in Buena Esperanza is basic, simple and austere in comparison to houses back in the states, but it is all I need. I have a zinc roof over my head that assists in providing me with the same life giving substances that it protects me from, water. I have a wooden floor, raised out of the mud, and four walls that bring it all together. One glance at the wooden boards will tell you they were cut with the steady, but human hand. The minor imperfections give them character and the crudeness remind me that these boards were actually part of a tree once. I am grateful for the trees that were sacrificed to make my ‘dwelling.’ I think in the states it can be easy to forget that your home is made out of wood…from a tree…from nature. Really if you think about it, it is not too far off to say that we all live in tree houses. So, this zinc and wood provides me with 90% of my security…. the other 10% I owe to the plastic shower curtains which cover all the holes between the siding where with the slightest breeze, rain can easily finds its way in. And for as much as I love to be outdoors, I can’t say that I like to shower when I’m sleeping.

If it is true that “Home is where the heart is,” then I would have to say that Tahoe and San Luis Obispo will forever have to share my heart with Buena Esperanza. Who knows where I will make my next home, or how many I will have after this… But one thing is for sure; my first home will always be this casita.



Enjoy the video…. Yes, I narrated it. I really hate hearing my own voice, it was nearly unbearable for me to watch, I hope you don’t find it so agonizing. But just in case, I backed it with some nice sounds of steel and wood.
-Miche