As I’m typing this, there is currently a green and orange
lizard who has taken up residence behind our couch…. Normally, back home in the U.S. this would
have sent me running and possibly screaming. Today I say “Get busy eating some
spiders and mosquitoes, my friend. And please, pretty please do not choose my
face to scurry across in the middle of the night.”
*Note to self: wear
yoga pants with the tight pant legs to bed from now on, unless you want a
horrendous surprise in your personal bubble in the middle of the night.
We are learning many things other than to be thankful for
lizards.
Monday and Tuesday we went car shopping and house
searching. I had lofty ideals of going
to a used lot or 2, picking out a car, signing some papers and then happily
continuing on to meet a realtor to look at some lovely homes.
This is not how it works. While the suburbs in the U.S. are
brimming with mini-vans fit for a family of 6, not so much here. 5 seater cars
seem to be the max.
Here is how Monday went. We had an awesome friend driving us
all over, around and back again. It didn’t bode well when on our way TO the car
shopping we got a flat tire. Pastor Ivo,
Evaristo (our driver) and Evelin (our ever patient friend and interpreter) got
to accompany us on this super awesome day.
Ivo and Evaristo would pull into a car lot. We gringos would
stay in the car. Ivo had a suspicion that if the lot owners saw our pasty white
selves, the price would magically go up by hundreds of dollars.
He was right.
So he and Evaristo would search for something in our
parameters, get a price quote and then come back to the big van we were in and
tell us if there was something worth seeing.
Then we would hop out, go and look it over.
We found a great option, drove to two different mechanics,
just to find out that the engine was bad. This lost us about 4 hours. This is
with all of our kids in tow.
We felt TERRIBLE about wasting a whole entire day of our
friends’ time. Terrible. At least our
company was good. We got home around 8 p.m., made our kids some sandwiches and
went to bed.
Day 2: Feeling optimistic. New plan. Alex will go car
shopping. Because I no longer care. Then they will come back, pick us up, to do
the house hunting.
We get a phone call from a very excited Pastor Ivo about a fantastic
opportunity. From his excitement and very rapid Spanish, I can make out
multiple “huge opportunities” and “come to the church” “lot of clothes and
shoes.”
So we pack up all the school books, snacks and water, get to
the church and discover Ivo with 2 men from the Air Force. One pilot, one
mechanic.
They are based nearby for 6 months and like to spend their
off time making a difference in the community.
The long and short of it is this: They want to do food and clothing
drives in the U.S. Ship it all over for free in their huge planes. For free.
Free is very, very good. They also want to help out with work projects, help
distribute the food and clothes, have barbeques. Be a part of this community. They
have 6 month deployments, and then a new group comes in. But they do a hand
off, introductions and continue the relationship. This is hugely exciting for this city. I’m really praying it works out.
LOVE IT!! Plus, we can help them, with lots of kids to play
with and wonderful time spent with people in our community.
After we met with them, a car buying trip unlike any I’ve
had before ensued.
To be continued……
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