Here is a picture of our neighborhood. It is very ... homogeneous, at least from the outside,yet also beautiful. It is interesting living on a remote base. For being on the outside the epitome of small town America it reminds me a lot of communism. Everyone is allotted their housing, their food allowance, their pay. Everyone is allowed 1 car, there is one place to shop, and often only one option when you shop, and a lot of times, that one option is out of stock. 
Pretty much everyone hires a local gardener. The gardeners are very territorial and pretty much come with the house, unless you have a really bad first impression. My gardener's name is Arif, he does most of the yards on our block and then some in the area. He has two kids, he's shorter than I am, and I pay him $30 a month to water and mow my lawn, trim my roses, take care of my banana trees in back, the palm tree in front, he also takes my trash cans to the street and would wash my car once a week if I had one.
Matthijas has a nanny 5 days a week. Her name is Atife and we love her already. She is not much older than me, but she has a 17 year old son, Gokhan who just got engaged to his 16 year old girlfriend (though they aren't getting married for 4 years), and a 9 year old daughter, Menekse, who is a sweet little girl (we invited her to our Halloween party and she was so thrilled!) . Atife comes to help me with Matthijas every day from 9-1 since he can't stand running errands, which takes considerably more time here than you can imagine. This way I can get my chores done without a screaming meanie, and he gets to play outside, to go story time, and a fun playgroup at the Youth Center, all for only $15 a day.
Most manufactured merchandise is about the same price, but services and food are much less expensive. I go to the market most Thursdays, and I am amazed at how inexpensive food can be, and it is so yummy when it comes freshly picked from down the road rather than picked unripe and shipped in from Peru. I love Peru, and the food there is delicious when you are there, but it loses something en route.
We live in a cul de sac, and for the first time ever, really, we have neighbors with kids. So it's almost suburban. The kids all gather a few times a day to run wild in the streets with whatever bike or skateboard or scooter they have or can swipe from each other. The twins across the street however win the coolness prize hands down with the Lightning McQueen car Matthijas drools over. Sometimes he is lucky enough to hitch a ride.
The weekend Johannes left we had a Halloween / going away party, and had a lot of cute neighbor kids (and parents) over for food and games. The kids were having so much fun we actually had a few kids come in off the street we didn't even know who couldn't help themselves and invited themselves to join the party. Either way we had some cute kids and superheros here that night.
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