Walking with the Washburns

A Few Months In Curahuasi

No I have not died – although from the lack of communication you might have thought that I had. My lack of sleep and our lack of internet have put our blog on hold for a while. We are doing okay here in Curahuasi. We have been here for an entire month now. The kids and I have “settled” into the house and John started working at the hospital last week. His days are filled with interesting stories and many sad ones. Unfortunately a handful of people have passed away at the hospital over the last couple of weeks, including a newborn. John’s job is tough intellectually always having to translate in his mind from Spanish to English what is going on, learning the new meds that are available in the hospital (which are often not the same meds we use in the States), and just learning how to work with new people but none of these things are as tough as losing a patient. Medicine is tough on the heart. If only we had done this – If only they had come in sooner – If only we had had this type of equipment – horrible questions that plague the mind. The most terrifying question of all really is “Do they know their maker”? The only person in this entire world who can cure the most deadliest disease – sin. The hospital has a great system going and all the patients get to see the Jesus film while they are waiting for their appointment. Speaking of waiting- can you imagine waiting in line for days just to see a doctor? We would flip if we had to wait outside IN THE RAIN just to get an appointment the next day, and this is common practice here. Every day there is a line of about 150 people just waiting to be seen. I remember waiting for 3 hours once to see my OB in the States. I was a “little bit” frustrated,  but seeing the line everyday kinda puts that in perspective now.

John and I have moved  A LOT in our lives. My dad was in the military and John’s med school took him all over the place. Every time you move you find your “new normal” – your new normal food, your new normal routine – everything just settles into the new normal. John is working again – and is finding his new normal in his job. Which I think can be kind of dangerous. It is easy to develop a new routine, and really it becomes just like living in the States (minus lots of stuff). I cook, clean and watch the kids, and John works. It is so easy to just work a job and forget why we have really come. John has not come to just “see” patients but to show them Jesus. Not always as easy as it seems. John usually goes to work at 7:30 and returns between 6:00 and 6:30pm unless he is on call. He is usually exhausted from his day/night on shift, and then he walks 20 minutes each way home (and the hill up to the hospital is KILLER). John then watches the kids so I can finish up dinner.  We get the kids ready for bed. I spend the night making food for the next day/week, cleaning the dishes, and doing the laundry or just unpacking. The day is pretty much consumed for John and I. So what does ministry look like for John, or for me? Well we are trying to figure that out. Pray for us as we try to determine what things outside of the hospital/house that God wants us to be involved in.

Yesterday was the first day I made it out of the house with all three kids alone –quite the challenging task. I will not be doing that often, at the ages the kids are at now 3, 1, and 7 months. For me this means I pretty much stay in the house all day, every day. Thank goodness we have a small yard for the kids to play in, even so my life looks so different than it did in the States. It is tough not being able to get out of the house. By the time John gets of work and the kids are in bed nothing is even open here! I am finding that at least at this moment, my ministry will be my children and making sure that John can serve his best at the hospital. You would think that coming over to Peru would give me more time to spend with my family but sadly I spend most of my time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. EVERYTHING is from scratch. You cannot even find a loaf of sliced bread here! I actually really enjoy cooking but all day, every day is tough.  For the first time in a month I could actually sit on my couch at least for a few hours until another load of laundry finished drying on the line and then ended up on my couch. The laundry and cleaning never end. Three kids three and under is physically/mentally exhausting – and I have not even mentioned bugs yet! Yes, bugs – they are EVERYWHERE! I found a LARGE centipede in the house the second week we were here but that was put into perspective the day Caleb found a black widow in his pale outside (and let’s not forget the scorpions we have found in the house including in Caleb’s toys). Yup, I think I was screaming- and by the time I got done with it, it was definitely dead. That prompted me to make some door snakes – long, thin bags of fabric filled with rice to put at the bottom of the door so the bugs cannot get in. This was a great idea until the rain came through the back door – soggy, rice, in a bag- not good. The ants are always in my kitchen even if I clean it every night. At this point I have given up and now I know we will never be bug free. However, after putting up the door snakes now in the middle of the night when I wake up to feed Hudson there is not a constant crackling under my feet of rollie pollies. There are still bugs in the house but less of them. You see if I am going camping I know that there are bugs but for a short time – there is an end in sight – no end in sight here. Roaches, flees, spiders, worms – you name it we probably have it (including black widows and a scorpion that I found in Caleb’s legos). Just kill ‘em.

On another note,  after two weeks of sanding, putting chemicals and varnish on all of our furniture it looks like we have not gotten rid of all the mold which is kind of a bummer since I appear to be allergic to it. Unfortunately, our dresser which is molding is still sitting in our room, because John has not had time to resand, rechemical, and revarnish it. Needless to say we are not having fun with this…

And a few weeks ago I found BEETLES in my beans!?! They were in a bag from the vendor in the market – no such thing as pre-packaged beans here. Oh America! How I miss your pre-packaged goodness! That morning I was going to pull my hair out at the sight of beetles in the beans – but I couldn’t pull my hair out because I cannot afford to lose any more of the brown ones!

 

** I have attached a few pics of the outside of our house. We are incredibly grateful to have this home - made of cement - not mud.**