Our kitchen

Once you enter inside, you see that the bottom floor of the house contains the main living room (which belongs to Sam and his toys), the kitchen, and a small bathroom.

This is how our kitchen looked when we first moved in. Shortly after, Stuart went on a business trip for 2 weeks and I attacked the kitchen with some paint.                                                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turned yellow! We also had a huge 8 seater table removed from the living room (that took up half the room) and two of the bar chairs.                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My little model is showing off the room, as well as starting to beg for a snack. He loves cereal bars but for some unknown reason has named them “bookies”.

In this photo, you can see our dandy new oven. I like it, but right now the oven is cooking at almost 70 degrees Celcius lower than it should. We bought an oven thermometer in London to keep an eye on it.

The kitchen sink. This is where I spent a great amount of my time. As you may be able to tell, we do not have a dishwasher. Well, actually that is not true – I am the dishwasher.  The problem is that our water is not safe to drink because it comes from the river, and it has a higher bacteria count that our bodies cannot handle. So, when I wash the dishes, I then have to boil water in the kettle, fill a plastic tub in the stink (no stopper) and dip all of the dishes into the boiling water (using gloves, of course).

You can vaguely see our boiler on the wall outside the window. It provides continuous hot water on demand, which is great. But, it doesn’t always fire properly and if you aren’t paying close attention (or are sleepy, as in my case) and turn off the water and start again because it isn’t hot – the boiler will ignite all the loose gas with a boom and shake the windows.             

My new fridgie!! We had one before that was a bit larger, but it was damaged in an earthquake (before we arrived) and the main door wouldn’t close all the way – so I had bugs and warm milk. If you look closely, you can see the backdoor has a lock on it about adult eye level – that is to try and prevent a certain escape artist from sneaking out!                               

Looking from the kitchen back into the living room (and front doors).  I was in the middle of doing mass laundry after a trip, which is why there are 2 laundry hampers there. Also, to the right of the hampers you can see where I hang my fly swatter – the most important item in the room!

A little drive

Let’s take a little drive, shall we? 

Head out of Lima going south on the good ole’ Panamerican Highway.

Watch out for road repairs due to prior earthquake damage (specifically the big 8.0 last year):

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After an hour and some, when you see the V cut in the mountain ahead, you know you’re almost to our house! (I believe the oops truck is carrying bananas):

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Closer now. You can see “Asia” written on the mountain to the right:

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Round the curve:

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Aha! Here is our neighborhood! Slow down to take a turn in to the right:

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Entrance gates (which were subsequently painted lime green in the summer):

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Drive down the main road in our subdivision (hehe). The little hut looking things are actually placeholders for the land until the area is built up (or so I’m told, but I don’t see that happening any time soon). In the distance straight ahead, is the Pacific Ocean:

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The road comes to a T. Prepare to turn left. I have to admit – the first time I made this trip, when we were moving here, I started to wonder where the houses were going to fit since it seemed we were running out of land:

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After the turn, a short travel down a portion of the old Panamerican highway:

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Turn again – our driveway! You can finally see where we live. Notice all the grass and trees, and neighbors! (hah)

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Into our complex:

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Park the car at our backdoor. This is our building and our windows are the brown one (Sam’s room) and the one above:

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Walk around the building to the front and see our house! It needs some paint touching up.

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Sam checking out his kit (and my gnome):

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Open the glass doors and come inside!

Home tour manana! Ciao! (they say that here instead of adios)

Outside?

We have broadband now! Whee! It’s not wireless, so I’m anchored, but it’s much more dependable than that pesky old dial-up. This means I can start doing more photos! Aren’t you excited?

Me:  “Sam, do you want to go play outside now?”
Sam: “Yes, but first I need my jacket. It is cold outside!”

I am constantly amazed at how well his language skills are for a  2.5 year old. The other day he wanted me to follow him, so he said, “Mama! Come!” but I wasn’t fast enough. So he repeated himself and said it to me in SPANISH:  “Mama vien! vien!”

Knocked.me.over.

“Momma? You comin’?”

The other morning I woke up about 8 am and was listening to Sam (on the baby monitor) play happily in his room when an earthquake struck. Since I panicked over the last one we had, and I was pretty tired, I decided to wait it out and see what happened before I jumped up. It was all over in the amount of time it took me to think that through anyway. heh.

Just a rumble, rumble, rumble, SHAKE, rumble, rumble.

Sam was quiet for a minute and then spoke up in an alarmed voice:

“Momma?  You comin’?”

“Momma?  Sammy’s room is broken!”

Heh. He couldn’t think of any better way to describe it, and it just made me laugh!

The following comes from a great website that I follow (as well as everyone else out here). It is amazing to see how many earthquakes happen worldwide on a daily basis.

Check it out: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/  (click on the maps for details)

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	5.2
Date-Time	Saturday, June 07, 2008 at 13:06:28 UTC Saturday, June 07, 2008 at 08:06:28 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	12.412°S, 77.687°W
Depth	35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region	NEAR THE COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
Distances	75 km (50 miles) WSW of LIMA, Peru 145 km (90 miles) S of Huacho, Peru 205 km (125 miles) NW of Chincha Alta, Peru 270 km (170 miles) NW of Ica, Peru

As a point of reference, we live 107 km S of Lima, so we weren’t too far from the epicenter.

Ick!

Dear Sam,

Please, please, please do NOT lick the fly swatter!

Love,

Momma

Hello Daddy!

Stuart usually goes to work in my dreams, around 5:45 in the morning. Most days I wake briefly when he leaves, and remember it all in a blur. This morning was no different until the phone rang at 6:45 am.

“Hi, its me. I’m by the back door…can you let me in?”

(We have no key to our back door, for some reason, and he has to leave me the key for the front)

As winter closes in, the weather is becoming more humid and wet, and there is an incredible amount of fog.  Apparently there was a huge accident on the Pan American highway early this morning, and the road was blocked in both directions.  Stuart and the other men in our housing camp ride a private bus into work every day ( it is a 45 minute journey) and they made it less than half way before the driver was called and told to turn back due to the accident and resulting 15 kilometer traffic jam. The highway where the accident occured is high in the mountains where the fog is a problem even in the summer, and it is only one lane in each direction.

Here is the road as it looks in summer with minimal fog (and dry!):

Another bus of Stu’s coworkers was caught up in the traffic jam, and the men actually had to get out of their bus and walk back to another bus that could transport them back to our camp.

At 10:30 am, the call came that the road was clear and guys could board the buses and get back to work. Turns out it was a false alarm because Stu came home 10 minutes later. Yes, the road was clear to allow some traffic to flow…err…while they got a crane in place to help clear up the mess, at which time the road was closed back down.

They never did make it to work today.

We’re home

We’ve made it home to Peru in one piece, after a very long journey. It went pretty well though, and Sam tolerated the long flights like a champ, considering.

 I only had to catch vomit in my hands once.

We also got our luggage back. It eventually made it to Johannesburg just in time for the return trip, and the possibility of losing it again. We have since discovered that some items were kindly removed from the bags, which is highly annoying. Most notably, they took my Levis, my tennis shoes, a bit of my makeup, some of Sam’s winter clothing and his tennis shoes, as well as some gifts we were taking for the girls.

Bye bye shoes!

The weather in Peru has changed since we’ve been gone. It has gotten cooler overall, but the days are nice and warm (as opposed to searingly hot).

I really like it, and don’t want it to keep cooling down.

Checking in

We are currently in South Africa, sans luggage, visiting the girls.

Many photos coming.

Today, and all

I know there is a big chunk of the story missing, the bits about arriving in Peru for the first time and our adjustment to life here.  I will catch up on this, promise.

Sam and I have been back in Peru this week after a two-week trip to Dallas. We are settling back in and waiting for Stu to return from Chile and join us. Sam is very happy to be back – he missed his friends, and his playground, and his bed. For me, it’s not so easy.

This morning I woke up about 8:15 to the sound of Sam shouting to me over the baby monitor: “Mama…mama…wake up!  Mama…come here now!”

As I got up I realized that we probably needed to catch the bus to Lima today in order to get more water (and beer, but I’ll let you decide which is more important) because we won’t be able to go again until Monday.

Deciding at the last minute meant getting ready in a hurry. I threw Sam and I into the shower, dressed, shoved our breakfast into a backpack, grabbed the stroller and carseat, and rushed out the door to get to the bus stop by 9. 

Halfway there one of the drivers ran over to me.

“Senora, lada lada lada NO BUS lada lada lada lada.”

I understood enough and turned around towards home. Grumpily.

Later, I found out that there were major strike activities planned for today with tire burnings, marches and demonstrations expected along the Panamerican highway so the buses were restriced due to security reasons. In fact, the early morning bus from our camp, filled with the guys going to work, had to turn back after it was set upon and had things thrown at it.

(There is a fly on my leg, it will not leave me alone. I did not miss the flies, did not want to come back to all these flies. Have killed over 10 of them today, one was especially messy. This one does not have long to live.)

The fun part was that Sam got to play with some of his “uncles” and his godfather, since they were home for the morning. Everything cleared up before noon, which is good, but still no bus action for me today.

It is very quiet here, almost stunningly so. I was prepared for it, so I thought, because I knew the summer locals weren’t coming back after Easter, but it feels really bare here. Imagine that Sam and I have gone into the movie “The Shining”  again, and we’re holding up the hotel for the winter. The halls are empty, folks.

After lunch, I put a bag of popcorn into the microwave and stepped out the door to put laundry on. Burned the heck out of it (the popcorn, of course).

So, I promptly put another bag of popcorn on, popped into the loo, and burned this second bag worse than the first.

Ah well.

 

Moving, just photos

Lima out the window of our hotel:

 

Traffic, heading out of town:

 

Shopping center:

 

“Momma!  Save room for me!”

Starting the adventure

We are in Peru!  Unfortunately, I do not have an internet connection at the house, but I’ve discovered a free wireless connection in Lima at the Starbucks. Sam and I have travelled into Lima by bus (provided by the company) to do some interneting and grocery shopping. Stu is back in London for two weeks, so we are holding our own.

This is where we live. It is in the middle of nowhere. I will have more to say later and may update again on Thursday with more photos. I love it here – it is such an improvement from Nigeria.  The food is excellent and we love our little house. I am slowly learning a few Spanish words, but I have a long way to go.

Sam is loving it here also. He spends a lot of time playing outside and has befriended some children.

More soon.

In Peru

We are in Peru!  Unfortunately, I do not have an internet connection at the house, but I’ve discovered a free wireless connection in Lima at the Starbucks. Sam and I have travelled into Lima by bus (provided by the company) to do some interneting and grocery shopping. Stu is back in London for two weeks, so we are holding our own.

This is where we live. It is in the middle of nowhere. I will have more to say later and may update again on Thursday with more photos. I love it here – it is such an improvement from Nigeria.  The food is excellent and we love our little house. I am slowly learning a few Spanish words, but I have a long way to go.

Sam is loving it here also. He spends a lot of time playing outside and has befriended some children.

More soon.