My mom's third grade class was so sweet to send me letters from Circleville! It was super fun to read the letters and giggle at the way third-graders think... One of the questions that showed up in many of the letters was about people's homes here. "What kind of houses do they live in?" Well, as expected, there are the 'haves' and 'have nots' - but it seems a little more extreme to me here.

Here in town, there are apartments everywhere - not complexes, but buildings throughout the city, mixed right in with the restaurants and businesses. I think the majority of the city's population is living in these - the middle class.

Then, there are the houses... huge, landscaped, fenced homes. Nowhere here - absolutely nowhere - are there wide open lawns. These homes have lawns, but the entire property is surrounded by a wall, and topped with a hedge. So you see none of it. Walls - everywhere you look. I guess that's why their gates & doors are so ornate - to make up for the boring concrete walls. Now, these aren't the super rich - not like the difference between my neighborhood and hollywood hills. These are the norm for all houses around here. And the walls are the norm as well - there are walls around the pharmacies, mosques, schools, and businesses too.

And then you get out into the country. BIG difference. These folks build homes out of whatever they can get their hands on. Mud, rocks, pieces of tin, branches... I've not found a good opportunity to grab many photos - without trekking off road to get closer, but here are a few examples.


And even further out, I've seen villages - communities that are pretty much self-sufficient, farming, and living off the land. You'll see dirt roads with families traveling by mule to the nearest town, no cars. In every village it's easy to spot the mosque by the minaret. It's hard to tell from the photo, but these rural villages use hedges of cacti as fences to keep their sheep and cattle in place. I soooo wish I could visit one of these villages to see what life is like. Out this far into the country, though, the folks speak their own dialects of arabic, and I don't believe they are up for random tourists. :-)
So foreign to me is when I see someone walking out in the middle of nowhere. I've seen people walking through fields, or along a road and there is literally nothing within sight - no town, or village. This is how they travel - they walk, no matter the distance, and they must walk for an entire day to get to their destination and back. Also strange to me is that you'll see folks sitting outside in the most random places. A young boy - maybe 7 or 8 - just sitting against a tree along the highway - no one else, or no known building in sight anywhere. Or two women sitting on a blanket in the middle of a field.

The parks downtown here are also completely packed. Even though they are all bundled up (it feels like winter to them), there will be hundreds of people sitting in the grass, leaning on trees, picnicking, walking. Here's the difference - except for those with the large walled homes here in the city - so many other's homes are the size of a one car garage - and about as warm, since it is made out of concrete or stones. From what I've seen, there may be one room where everyone sleeps, a kitchen, and a living space for a couch and dining table. They don't lay on the couch at home. They get out and socialize and lounge in the grass and watch life go by. I wonder if that'll still be the case in July when it is unbearably hot outside...?