The rest of the "yard"

The left photo is the remainder of the "yard", which is only the side 1 of our 4 balconies faces. More piles and dirt. You can see one of the front gates. A guard is paid to sit/stand there 24 hours a day (12 hour shifts), and open and close the gate when you pull up and honk the horn or walk in/out. Beyond the walls you can see our dirt road. The picture on the right is a bit of our actual view. The houses are all different- many stories or more than one house in a compound. The one guard we have met is named Harry. He speaks enough English to communicate with us. Yesterday I went and introduced myself as I want him to actually protect us and not just "turn a blind eye" if something is amiss. He asked me if I spoke French and I told him I know the most important words Si Vou Plais (Please) and Merci Beu Coup( Thank You Very Much). He laughed and agreed. Part of what they do to battle the boredom is wash your car. We told him once a week is fine, otherwise they will do it everyday- all the taxi drivers here wash their cars daily. They have taxi washing areas where there is a pump and the red dirt turns to red mud, they fill the potholes with huge rocks and there are ruts everywhere. As we were all leaving this morning another guy was there (all their friends hang out too, just usually outside the gates), he was washing our car so when Harry asked us to give him a ride we said yeah. He spoke no English, smelled to high heaven, but was grateful, I just hope the car has aired out by the time we leave.