So here it is...our home for a month or two. However long it takes for the management to secure us a house. It takes time here because they're looking at mostly apartments, which I'm learning are owned by individual people and not the apartment building itself. That's one of the management team's biggest hurdles--to track down the owner of the apartment and to work out a contract with them. The embassy contracts are probably not the locals' favorites because they have to allow the embassy to make certain security and standard of living improvements to the apartment if they're not already in place. So we're not holding our breath on being settled in our new place before Christmas. Learning to be flexible and adaptable and to take everything in stride. It's not always easy, but I'm trying. :)
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| The thing I struggle with the most in this house, is the lack of lighting, both natural and artificial. There's a large mango tree in the front of the house that blocks the natural light from coming in and the back of the house is in the shadows of larger buildings. |
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| One bathroom for all of us. :) Doable obviously and we are grateful for the running water and toilets. It's just funny how we went from our apartment that was excessive in the quantity of bathrooms it had (5 full baths), to this house that has one. We've had to be smart about when to schedule showers and baths. |
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No dishwasher. Again, not something that I am complaining about because I'm just grateful to have hot running water to do my dishes. The lack of a dishwasher is forcing us to stay on top of the dishes so they don't pile up, especially because it's a small sink. It's provided another opportunity to try and teach the kids to clean up after themselves right after they use the dishes. One of these days we'll perfect that...I hope! 
And I'm grateful for these! They're in a separate room apart from the house that we share with the upstairs tenant. Unfortunately we have European washers and dryers here--the wash cycle takes 2-3 hours depending on the cycle and water temperature you choose. The dryer takes equally as long. In our apartment before, it would take a full three hours to dry a load. And this is a very SMALL load. These are not large capacity washers here. So you have to plan on a load taking at least 5-6 hours. I try to throw a load in early in the morning and then again at lunch time to get two loads in during the day. I hang dry a lot of clothes too which I've always done, even in the states. I'm missing my drying racks though. I need to hang them on a line like the locals!
These buckets here are in our "front yard" by a water spigot. Our first 4-5 days here, I watched our guards use these buckets in the middle of the night, to wash clothes, shoes, or just to fill with water to carry home (we have guards 24-7). Other men that I think are guards at the embassy, would come also. They would talk and bang the buckets around, apparently not realizing that they were waking us up. So I talked with one of the guards about it. He had some fear in his face as I spoke with him because I think he thought they were in trouble for using or taking the water. It's technically not what they should be doing, but we all understand the plight of the locals. They have to pay for their water to be brought to them and of course it goes quickly. They can't afford the cost. I've talked with other embassy folk who have told me that their housekeeper or cook will ask to take home any empty bottles or containers that are going to the trash, and then they will fill them up with the purified water to take home. So I explained to the guard in my broken Portuguese that it was okay with me that they use the water so they didn't need to come in the middle of the night. In fact, it's better that they come during the daytime hours! Yet another reminder of how very blessed we are. |
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| Water purifier. Very grateful for this!!!!! |
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View from the girls bedroom. The girls didn't have any curtains on their windows, so we had to get resourceful and use boxes to block out the morning light and create privacy. The walls are concrete and cinder block, so we couldn't pin anything up and we don't have strong tape. The girls were waking up at 4:45 am which is a whole hour earlier than the already "way to early" wake-up time they have for school. Actually, the kids do great with the early rising time. In fact, they wake up on their own naturally with renewed energy and vitality. It's me that wants to sleep in! :)
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| The girls are sharing a room. They got their toys out and nested. |
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| And Thomas used his bookshelf as a place for his toys. We're patiently, or should I say, impatiently waiting for the rest of our toys and books to arrive! |
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