10 Reasons Why This House Does not Belong Here

Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Some things just don’t go together.

For Example:
Pickles and Ice Cream
Dogs and Sweaters
Electrical appliances and water

Or, this house…

From Quetzaltenango 2010-10

…and Guatemala.

I see this house everyday walking to and from Spanish school and everyday I have a hard time believing that this house is actually here. I would expect to see this house on a lot of streets in the U.S. but it absolutely does not fit in here. I wouldn’t expect to see it in Xela, but I wouldn’t expect it to belong in any other towncityzonacolonia that I’ve been to within the past month and a half. Why? I’ll give 10 reasons.

1. It’s set back, away from the street
2. The exterior of the house has siding and is not painted concrete
3. The windows and doors don’t have rod-iron barriers on them
4. Although you can’t see it in this picture, there is a front yard…with grass
5. It’s not attached to another house
6. It’s twice as big as any other house near it
7. It has a porch
8. There are LOTS of windows
9. It has ‘turrets’ (Not sure what else to call them)
10. There is no re-bar sticking out of the roof

For comparison purposes here is what the street looks like 20 ft away from this house and what a typical Central American city street looks like.

From Quetzaltenango 2010-10

Here is the street I’m currently living on:

From Quetzaltenango 2010-10

This house and this region of the world clash.