The Good News...& the Bad (sort of)

The Good News
Let me start by issuing an apology for the silence on our blog. We have had limited access to the internet, and we finally got our internet set up at our house yesterday. Yes, we finally found a house and moved into it this past Wednesday. It took a bit of time to get it. The landlady showed it to us the first Saturday we were here, but didn't bring the contract, so it wasn't until a week later that we were able to sign a rental agreement. After cleaning it for a few days, we moved in last Wednesday. Here is a picture:


It is a nice two-story house with four bedrooms. We have essentially the same setup as we did back home in Texas: Justin & Kevin share a room, as do Colton & Jason. Miranda has her own room which was conveniently painted Pepto-bismol pink, which is simply too much for me, but if you know that Miranda's middle name is "Pink" (no, not really, but it might as well be), you know she couldn't be happier with it. I, of course, share a room with my most favorite person in the world, which is just the way I like it.

As you can see from the picture, the houses here are built against each other, and everyone has security bars on their windows. We have one of the few houses in our whole neighborhood that has a front porch. Heather and I sit out there often, saying ¡Hola! to whoever passes. Yesterday, a man from Scotland stopped by and told us (with a great Scottish accent) that he is the headmaster of a private school here!!! It is ,however, hard to get to know the neighbors since most houses are built behind 10-12 foot walls with broken glass & other sharp objects protruding from them designed to impale would-be intruders. But we are doing our best to meet and greet the folks that walk around the park that is our front yard essentially.


This is the view we have looking out the front of our house. It is a little slice of paradise in the middle of the desert coast of Trujillo. Our kids love playing freeze tag, hide & seek, and let's-roll-around-in-the-grass games. They are loving having this space to play in, especially since we have a tiny backyard. You can see the foothills of the Andes Mountains in the background which is often hard to see because of the hazy skies. We are in the middle of winter now, which means that the highs are in the upper 60's and the lows are in the upper 50s. I'm tempted to say that it gets chilly here, but I know that all my friends back in the states, especially in TX, would kill me for saying that. So I won't.


Another great benefit to living here is that we live right across the park from the Bradford's. They have four children. Their oldest, Mollie, is 9, and they have a son, William, who is right in between Jason & Colton in terms of age. They have two other kids, Hannah, and Andrew, and all of our kids have a great time with each other.

The Bad News (well, really just "frustrating" news)

I said earlier that we moved in. That is technically correct in that we are sleeping in it, but we haven't "moved in." The reason for that is that the container that we shipped to Peru has not arrived yet. Actually, it is due into the port in Trujillo today, and it will probally take a few days to get all the paper work in order. It was originally supposed to be here on Aug 5 (10 days ago!), but it sat in a port in Panama because of an accountant's error. This annoyance is mixed with blessing because it has allowed us the benefit of cleaning and painting the inside of our house (the living room was mustard yellow!!!). But we are really eager to get our stuff. Heather and I would simply love to be able to come home and sit on our soft couches!!!

Once we get our house set up, then I think it will be easier to get into a routine. If my watch didn't tell me the day of the week, I would simply be lost. We have been filling our time getting things we need and studying Spanish on our own as well as practicing with anyone who would be willing to talk.

Let me tell you, it is so frustrating not being able to speak the language well. For example, one of the men working on our house today saw a book on the table that I have been reading called, Reinventing Jesus [which is a good book about the modern insanity among so-called scholars & the popular media which is reinventing Jesus after their/its own desires]. He asked about it and then asked us about what we believe, and together, my wife and I fumbled through the Gospel in our broken Spanish. We invited him to our church, so we shall see. But nevertheless, it is very frustrating knowing what I want to say and not being able to find the Spanish words to speak them (yes, that is a prayer request!!!).