Ghost Town

As Christmas day approaches, Villa Kampung Kumpul begins to become a little ghost town. The neighbor directly next to my room, Alex, has gone home to France for two months. The young man across the way, a Moroccan, has moved, apparently to more a more classy abode in Ubud. The large family of Indonesians in the room at the rear of the villa has returned to their various homes. This leaves only me, Peter the Dutchman, who has moved to his third room in the villa since coming here (what, only two months ago?) and is having as many complaints about this one as he had about the others, Sia, the part-owner of the villa, two rooms down from me, and Janette, who is now the longest term resident standing. I believe that Peter will also return to the Netherlands soon for some period of time. So everything has become very quiet and peaceful, and, at night, very dark with only two or three porch lights glowing.  

In fact, I myself will be moving soon enough--by March, if all goes according to plan. The building materials for the apartment complex have already been delivered to the site and the men are already working on the land, as well as laying a road into the settlement. This will be a whole new experience for me, as I have never in my life lived in a newly built dwelling. The place sounds like it will be very nice, as described to me by Louis--significantly larger than the apartment I live in now, with more amenities, a more functional layout, and so on. I'm looking forward to it.