"Independent Living: Take 2"

Following my initial appointment, emails slowed down, and it appeared that most of the ads for shared apartments included shared bedrooms. I think I'm pretty open about living with strangers, but I wasn't ready to sacrifice having my own space. A few people told me my budget was too low for what I was seeking, but there wasn't much I could do about that. And I knew other volunteers had successfully handled the budget-hurdle.

Then, Mary Andrews, a volunteer from South Carolina alerted me to a place she was going to see. It was near Plaza Italia (my ideal location at the time) and only $320 pesos for your own room. "It's a small room," she was warned, but for $320 ($105 dollars) per month, I knew I was at the bottom end of the private-room range, and small was to be expected.

I joined her, to check the place out, and as we waited for Antonio, who was supposed to show us the place, we met several others who lived in the building. They seemed friendly, and older than the early-20's University crowd, which was a big plus for me. Antonio finally showed up and lead us to a through a hallway, onto a patio with several doors. One of which he opened into the available room.

It wasn't too small. It had a bed and dresser...and an incredibly overpowering stench of cigarettes, no windows. I was trying to figure out if it was possible to air the room out, and how likely I'd be to socialize with the other people in the building, if we only shared the patio, as he showed me the bathroom. Passable, but not exactly inviting.

"And the kitchen?" I asked, still pondering the potential for social interaction.

He was headed over to a little electric stove in the patio, but stopped and looked at me, appearing either startled or exasperated, "It's 120 pesos!" ($40 dollars) He exclaimed. "There's no kitchen! What do you expect for 120 pesos?! You get a private room and all this! That's unheard of for 120 pesos! Impossible! You want a kitchen?" Taking a deep breath, he gestured to the stove, "This is the stove, if you want to cook, there's a sink over there."

I looked at the room again, tempted by the challenge of living so simply. "How many people live in the building?" "It's a very quiet building," he assured me, "Only students and working people, that's all I allow. You must be employed or a student, it's a very quiet building."

"How many?"

"About 50, but they're very quiet, very nice..." he went on. I was calculating...the constant flow of people in and out...people paying $120/month for rent. (One night in the hotel we stayed in was $180 pesos.)

But it was a good deal for $120...anyone looking for cheap rent?