Here in the DR, I live in a house with my lovely host family. I live with a grandmother and her granddaughter, Morena and Cami, or as I call them, my mom and my sister. Our house has three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. Outside, we have a side patio where we eat all of our meals, a back patio where we do our laundry and an additional bathroom.
Peace Corps volunteers' housing is inspected and approved by our Peace Corps staff and medical officers to make sure we have a safe and healthy living environment. Some standards they look for are windows, mirrors, covered water sources, ability to have privacy, doors that lock from the inside, a place outside for a gas tank to be hooked up, etc.
We have running water for most hours of the day. Most days of the week, it goes out from about 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but is always on in the later afternoon or night. I don't mind this because I am not home when it's not on. I have running water in the early morning and nighttime, which are the only times I need it. When we don't have running water, we rely on water storage systems. In our shower, we have two buckets that we make sure to always keep filled in case we need to use water when it's not running.
