Walking with the Washburns

Finding a House

 

After looking through SEVERAL ads, we have managed to find an apartment for the five of us to call home for the next several months.

 

We will try to get some pictures up soon. It is on a quiet street - the gate on both ends keeps traffic down to a minimum. We found something on the first floor, which we are super, super grateful for. Most of the apartments we looked at were on the third or fourth floor. Here in Arequipa the windows are maybe two feet above the ground and very easy for children to open - can you see the problem I am getting at here? 

 

We do have a guard dog who lives on the third floor/roof, and his name is Rambo. Our landlord also lives right above us so that is comforting too. We do not have a great view but at least I know if  my children fall out of the window everything would be okay.

 

It is a three bedroom apartment, smaller than our house we had in the States which was about 1000sq ft. So it is pretty tiny, but again out of our options this was a great deal for the price. It was actually just built too, so everything is nice and new.

 

Since we are moving to Curahuasi where we knew the chances of obtaining a furnished place was extremely slim we decided to get an unfurnished house here. In the future this will be very helpful because we will have everything we need for the move to Curahausi after our language school is finished. Curahuasi is extremely small and really only has a couple of produce markets/a few local restaurants. This task of furnishing an ENTIRE house has proven quite exhausting and daunting. Imagine obtaining everything in your entire house at MULTIPLE (~ 40 different) stores/open markets, with children in hand, and only being able to carry as much as you can in your hands. Having to walk to every store, and then not having a car to take things home in has definitely gotten us into shape over these last couple of weeks :)

 

 Our hope of starting language school next week is dimming, but that is okay. We would rather have a home established and a safe place for the kids before we start on full time language school.

 

On another note, I (Crystal) flew to Lima yesterday by myself - I am getting brave! I went to get my carnet (visa). Mine was ready to be picked up but unfortunately John's was not ready. We spent about three hours sitting and waiting and standing in line. The reason we did not have to stay that long (even though I consider three hours to be long) is because I get "preferential" treatment for being pregnant. Yes, here in Peru if you are pregnant or with small children you get priority in store lines, aiport lines, bus seats - practically everything. That is a nice perk for sure -and this is the only reason I managed to catch my flight back to Arequipa last night. Lesson learned - I need to give myself a little more time to get to the airport. The traffic in Lima is less than desirable. But hey, I made it!

 

We have learned a very valuable lesson while here in Peru - If you can accomplish one thing in a day, you are doing a wonderful job. Seems crazy right? Well it is true, and our definition of being "productive" has definitely changed.

Here is a picture of Hannah in a handmade dress. Sometimes it is just nice to have things that look pretty, even if you know they will get horribly dirty.