Three months in
I have not written anything in a while. We have been so very busy and this just hasn't been a priority, but I wanted to write something new.
We are three months in now. We have been living in the house we rented for about 2 months and have pretty much filled it with the things we need with a few small exceptions. I have an indoor patio upstairs in the back of the house that we turned into a dedicated school room, and the kids will be starting their 8th week of school on Monday. We are getting into a routine somewhat, but we are so busy. Between multiple appointments for visa applications, cedulas, etc. we have been on the run a lot. Our visas were approved and we got those the last week in September, so we used the return part of our original airline tickets here to go back to Virginia for a 2 week visit. We had left some things behind that we couldn't bring initially, and I was terribly homesick and missing my parents so Tom blessed us with the trip home. We hugged some necks, went to our home church twice, visited family, and brought back another load of things we wanted/needed. It was SO hard leaving again. Tom has no problems with this; he doesn't miss Virginia at all and has adopted Ecuador as his new home with no reservations. I am slower in coming around. I do like it here, and I think when all is said and done it will be a fantastic opportunity and experience for our whole family. But I miss the familiarity and comfort of the place I've called home for 40+ years. And I miss my family. I will say that video calling makes it bearable; I'm not sure I could have done this years ago without the ability to see my loved one's. But God is good and I am relying on Him to get me through these tough times.
It is different not having a car and relying on public transportation; the bus service is excellent here but it still something to get used to as far as planning times to leave the house, knowing how far you have to walk to your final destination, etc. We have about 6 bus lines within 3 blocks of the house, which is nice, and the TranVia (a light rail like the Tide) is in the last stages of construction and will have a stop (the end of the line, actually) about 4 blocks from us. It makes getting around pretty easy, which helps, but we are still considering buying a used car at some point in the future for day trips, etc.
Things are getting easier as far as handling business. We have figured out the cell phone bills, and some of the utilities we can actually pay online. We have to travel back to Azogues on Wednesday this coming week to apply for our cedulas (national ID cards) and have decided to apply for drivers licenses too for the times when we rent a car, etc. After that the business end of things should slow down at least for 2 years.
The day to day is starting to fall into place also. We have picked a new home church, Siervos del Senor, and feel like it is definitely the place for us. The pastor is an American who has been serving on the mission field for 4 decades. The service is all in Spanish, as are the home groups, so I can't understand all of it but I will get there. We are looking forward to getting involved with serving; they have started intentional efforts to serve the Venezuelan community here that is coming due to the issues in their homeland, and they have relationships with some schools, even government run ones, where they go in and mentor the kids. We missed the last serving day where the church provided food and clothes for the Venezuelans because we were in Virginia, but hopefully we can get involved with the next one.
We started Spanish classes this week, twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays. I was so nervous the first day! They come to the house and do one hour with the three kids, one hour with Tom, and an hour with me. We are enjoying it so far and hope it will accelerate our language skills. I am believing that once we get more comfortable with that so many things will be easier.
Now, for the things that annoy me about Ecuador -- there have to be some, right? Maybe this is me being spoiled, but honestly I never even considered these things before we left the states and was taken aback by some of them not being here. Wake up call for sure about taking things for granted. Anyway, here they are in no particular order:
We are three months in now. We have been living in the house we rented for about 2 months and have pretty much filled it with the things we need with a few small exceptions. I have an indoor patio upstairs in the back of the house that we turned into a dedicated school room, and the kids will be starting their 8th week of school on Monday. We are getting into a routine somewhat, but we are so busy. Between multiple appointments for visa applications, cedulas, etc. we have been on the run a lot. Our visas were approved and we got those the last week in September, so we used the return part of our original airline tickets here to go back to Virginia for a 2 week visit. We had left some things behind that we couldn't bring initially, and I was terribly homesick and missing my parents so Tom blessed us with the trip home. We hugged some necks, went to our home church twice, visited family, and brought back another load of things we wanted/needed. It was SO hard leaving again. Tom has no problems with this; he doesn't miss Virginia at all and has adopted Ecuador as his new home with no reservations. I am slower in coming around. I do like it here, and I think when all is said and done it will be a fantastic opportunity and experience for our whole family. But I miss the familiarity and comfort of the place I've called home for 40+ years. And I miss my family. I will say that video calling makes it bearable; I'm not sure I could have done this years ago without the ability to see my loved one's. But God is good and I am relying on Him to get me through these tough times.
It is different not having a car and relying on public transportation; the bus service is excellent here but it still something to get used to as far as planning times to leave the house, knowing how far you have to walk to your final destination, etc. We have about 6 bus lines within 3 blocks of the house, which is nice, and the TranVia (a light rail like the Tide) is in the last stages of construction and will have a stop (the end of the line, actually) about 4 blocks from us. It makes getting around pretty easy, which helps, but we are still considering buying a used car at some point in the future for day trips, etc.
Things are getting easier as far as handling business. We have figured out the cell phone bills, and some of the utilities we can actually pay online. We have to travel back to Azogues on Wednesday this coming week to apply for our cedulas (national ID cards) and have decided to apply for drivers licenses too for the times when we rent a car, etc. After that the business end of things should slow down at least for 2 years.
The day to day is starting to fall into place also. We have picked a new home church, Siervos del Senor, and feel like it is definitely the place for us. The pastor is an American who has been serving on the mission field for 4 decades. The service is all in Spanish, as are the home groups, so I can't understand all of it but I will get there. We are looking forward to getting involved with serving; they have started intentional efforts to serve the Venezuelan community here that is coming due to the issues in their homeland, and they have relationships with some schools, even government run ones, where they go in and mentor the kids. We missed the last serving day where the church provided food and clothes for the Venezuelans because we were in Virginia, but hopefully we can get involved with the next one.
We started Spanish classes this week, twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays. I was so nervous the first day! They come to the house and do one hour with the three kids, one hour with Tom, and an hour with me. We are enjoying it so far and hope it will accelerate our language skills. I am believing that once we get more comfortable with that so many things will be easier.
Now, for the things that annoy me about Ecuador -- there have to be some, right? Maybe this is me being spoiled, but honestly I never even considered these things before we left the states and was taken aback by some of them not being here. Wake up call for sure about taking things for granted. Anyway, here they are in no particular order:
- no changing tables -- WHAT??!!!?!!?!?!?! I literally have only seen 3. The airport in Guayaquil, Mall del Rio, and one other place I can't remember. Even the American franchises like McDonald's and KFC do not have them here. I have changed diapers on park benches, grassy spots in the median, my lap, with her standing up in a bathroom stall. Never did I consider they would be nonexistent, but I hardly ever see anyone here changing diapers in public so I have no idea where they are changing their kids...
- no water fountains -- another thing I totally just assumed would be around. Silly me. I was forever drinking water in the states, and always had a water bottle with me that I would fill at a water fountain when I ran out. Not happening here. Again, the airport in Guayaquil had one but that is it that I have found. None in the malls, none in the public parks, etc.
- no Amazon Prime -- I could say I was just kidding but that wouldn't be honest
- no free refills -- you don't know how much you appreciate something until you don't have it anymore (isn't that a song or something?); anyway there are no refills here. And the cups are smaller. It seems like everything in the US is getting bigger, but here there is incredible variety in the sizes of drinks that restaurants serve with meals, and they are all small-ish. It's not uncommon to get a meal with a plastic cup that holds about 8 oz of drink. Can you say ALWAYS THIRSTY?
- potable water outages -- this one is one of the most annoying. Randomly our water will go out, for the entire day, from about 8 am to 5 pm. I do get updates from the public utility office via Facebook, and these are due to the construction of the TranVia, but usually a notice will come through at about bedtime that service will be out the next day. It's hard to try to plan around these and figure out how to clean my kids and myself, cook, and have water for flushing and laundry. I am praying that once the TranVia is up and running these outages will cease, but it really makes you grateful for having consistent, reliable, water service
I am sure with time these won't be such a big deal. I can get over Amazon, and Sofia is almost potty-trained, and a bottle of water here is less than $1 and tiendas are ubiquitous. At the very least these shocks to the system are teaching me to be more content and thankful for God's blessings. And that is never a bad thing.
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