Life in Protugal

I've gotten some questions about my new living situation now that I'm in the city, so I thought that I would slowly share what the new place is like.  Today, outside the compound...

Here's my gate.  Keep in mind that I took these in the early morning.  There are always, always people around here- day and night.  It seems like around 7am is the only time there are no people on the street, so I took advantage to take some pictures.  I'm usually not on the street at 7am either.

 Here's my street.  I live on a side street in a densely populated area of the city.  The side street has no vehicle traffic ever due to the mound of dirt and gravel across from my car gate which I never use and the fact that sometimes, the end of the road you see here is only a ditch.  Other times they put concrete slabs over the ditch, I guess whenever they clean the ditch they leave it open for a few months so people never get in the habit of driving down the street.  The area right outside my house-less than the length of a block is called Portugal.  I have no idea why and neither does anyone else, but I promise though I've never been to real Portugal, this place is nothing like it.  But within 200 yards of my house there are more shops than there were in all the villages within 5 or possibly 10 kilometers of my old place.  Big city living!

This is the view down my street in the other direction.  It has a T junction into another street, which is where I go if I want to hang out with some teenage girls.  There's a family just a few houses down that road with 6 teenage-early 20s age daughters.  They're a fun group to go hang out with.  I can also go the other direction to head toward the market.  It's not right around the corner but close enough I don't mind going every couple of days to get vegetables and etc. I'll say it again- Big city living!  It has its advantages.

Next stop.....

inside the compound.