Housing Woes

Housing Woes

When I was moving to Apia, my expectations for living arrangements were completely different than I got.  It makes me miss my somewhat crazy Samoan family. 

I was expecting a house by myself, and got several teenage roommates.  These aren’t normal roommates, I have 6 girls aged 12-18 and a disabled 11 year old boy.  (Yesterday there was an additional 1 ½ year old baby, I am not sure if that one is a full time roommate.)

We have had our differences from the start, things I guess I should have expected from living with families for over two years, but was not ready for it.  It hit me off guard because they moved in one day while I was not home.  Things my new roommates like to do are: rearrange all of my things, eat all of my food, and be loud enough to keep me awake. 

Living with a family, I understand everything is the community things.  Some days it frustrated me when I was unable to find food in the house, but I knew that family meals were together and so it made sense to give all of the food I went shopping for to the family.  I ate all of my meals with the family which was nice.  Now, I cook for myself (whenever I don’t go over to another friend’s house), and the problem comes when my food is all missing that I wanted to cook.  (In addition, all my American food has been eaten, which is a bigger let down!)

Living in a house full of kids will make it an interesting year, just like family life, it won’t be dull.