Monday, June 24, 2013

Our First Week of Language School & A Mouse in the House
 
Starting off the week well...trying to shew a mouse out of the house. The mouse was quite frightened, as was I. The mouse was jumping in the air, as was I. It was quite the sight to see. Too bad we do not have it on video. So the mouse poison is out - not in the house of course because of the kiddos, but outside. Hopefully this will solve our little problem, as our little problem has already wreaked havoc on my oversized bag of oatmeal!
 
It has been an interesting couple of weeks : we have started language school, John went to his first clinic here in Arequipa, and I went to a doctors appointment where the doctor never showed up!

Language school is going well. It has been quite busy for us though. John goes to classes in the morning and I go in the afternoon. I come home and spend a couple of hours cooking dinner, and then we spend a little "together time" as a family before the kiddos head to bed. After the kiddos head to bed it's homework time! We spend a couple of hours on homework each night. I wash the dishes and the laundry, and then we head to bed. Late nights, early mornings - are we in college again??? Language school is going well, and we are enjoying perfecting our Spanish. Sometimes we are so consumed with Spanish I feel like we are losing our ability to speak English!
 
Here we are enjoying a little family time watching a movie, and eating some popcorn. This is one of the kids favorite things to eat for sure.
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The kids are doing much better this week than the last. They seem to be adjusting a little bit better. Caleb is enjoying all of his toys and Hannah is enjoying all of her stuffed animals. Caleb has started speaking some Spanish as well - not intiated by us - which is kind of cool to hear. Hannah is becoming more vocal as well, saying "UP" for everything! They are growing up so fast. Caleb is adjusting to the idea that he will have a brother soon - not sure if he really understands but he seems excited.
 
John visited a clinic in Arequipa today. He was able to join another group of doctors and see a few patients in a school that served as a clinic about thirty minutes from here. He is learning many good lessons about patient care and how that differs from back home. He also got to help diagnose a case of placenta previa and help with some minor surgical procedures today as well.  He enjoyed being able to practice medicine again even though that is not our main focus during language school. It is quite important that we speak Spanish well before we can truly help people - minor details huh??
 
I also went to my 37 wk doctors appointment this week. It was supposed to be at 5 pm. When 6 pm rolled around John and I decided to head out to a "welcome party" some friends were throwing for a few of us newbies. Since there were several people waiting in front of us and the doctor still wasn't there, John and I decided to call it a night. Here appointment times are not really "appointment times", they are suggested times when you might want to see a doctor. Just because your "appointment time" is at 5pm, it does not mean you will see a doctor at 5pm , more like 6:30 or 7pm. Everyone just shows up and it is first come first serve. Not sure what happened at my last "appointment time" but we are assuming she was delivering  a baby. She is the doctor, nurse, secretary, and cashier, so we never got a call telling us why she wasn't there. Oh well. Good thing I am married to a doctor huh? I just hope she is there for the delivery. Be praying for us as I could deliver any time -woohoo!
 
Saturday is market day for us. We get most of our fruits and veggies that day. The market is only a couple of blocks away so we pack our bags full and head home with our fruits/veggies for the week. It has been such a fun experience for me and the kiddos. I get to use a little bit of my Spanish and get to know the local vendors and Caleb enjoys bringing his basket and helping me carry apples. They have pretty much everything at the market to include huge slices of meat they sell right out of the back of their cars. Definitely a little different than your everyday trip to Target - but hey it's fresh right. Everything has to be sanitized, which usually takes a few hours. We only have one sink and very little counter space so sometimes it can be a little challenging but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. I buy everything in bulk, sanitize it, freeze it, or make bulk quantities of sauces (or other things) so that I do not have to cook as much during the week. Cooking takes quite a while when you have a small stove, you have to boil your water to wash with, and then you have to handwash your dishes. I have never been so grateful for hot water or the dishwasher I had in the States. I think I appreciate that appliance a little more now.
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We are super excited to pick up a package hopefully this week. Some friends of ours have sent us a little something in the mail, and we cannot wait to pick it up! We just have to coordinate our schedules with the schedule of the post office...not always an easy task.

Praising God for:

(1) John and Caleb took a nasty fall this week into a drainage ditch full of water. Hannah was on John's back as well but she made it without a crash. The only injury we had ended up being a rather large bump on Caleb's head. He is fine, and we are happy everyone is safe. Walking a night can be kind of dangerous with the condition of the sidewalks.

(2) That we did not burn our kitchen down, after discovering a charred plastic and cardboard box underneath our oven. Apparently some pieces to the oven were in the bottom drawer of the oven, which gets incredibly hot, and all this time I thought I was smelling "new oven" - um no that is burnt plastic! The oven gets so hot when I cook that even I cannot touch the outside of the oven. Good thing we taught the kids not to touch the oven.

2 comments:

  1. It is so exciting to us to read your blog and to see some of the Peruvian way of life. I pray that there will be an abundance of grace for your cooking, cleaning, Spanish studying, parenting, and especially giving birth. God is with you!

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  2. We enjoy your blog so much. We are thankful that you can find the time to keep us all informed. Keep up the good work.

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