Thursday, August 23, 2007
INTERNET!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The guys finally showed up from the internet company. Congratulate us on joining the 21st century.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Living in the World of Yesterday
We have now been here for five months, if you can believe it. We can’t, the time has passed pretty quickly for us. We are settled into our house, into school, and sports. I can’t say that the boys are completely happy to be here now, but they are definitely adjusting. It helps that they leave for school at 7:30 and don’t return until after 4 PM. That leaves little time for brooding and complaining. School is a good thing.
The Aquabats are on TV right now. Noah has discovered a new kids TV show on Nickelodeon, it’s very weird, there are puppets, animation, guys in costumes, kids, and today the Aquabats. It’s pretty strange, I have no idea what it’s called, but it is definitely odd. I kind of like it.
I am enjoying having someone here to help with the cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. We hired a very nice lady named Celsa, she worked for a family that just returned to the United States. She was a nun, a preschool teacher, and a nurse. We really like her, she is taking very good care of us. Just so you are all very jealous, it is 10:30 in the morning, and my laundry is all done, the bathrooms are all clean, the beds are made, and I haven’t done any of it. Later, I won’t be cooking dinner, ironing any of the clothes, or sweeping the floors. Plus, I never realized how nice it is to sleep on ironed sheets. I am going to miss her when we return to the United States.
We still do not have the latest Harry Potter movie showing here. We really want to see it. It is amazing how far away we are. A lot of the kids at school went to Argentina or Brazil to see the movie. I keep hoping it will open here, or we are going to break down and buy a pirated copy off the guys on the street. I really don’t want to contribute to the intellectual property and counterfeit problems that are here, but I am just about at the end of my patience. Every Friday I go to the mall by our house to see if the movie is there, but it’s been more than a month and still no Harry Potter. We are going to have to be like the local wealthy families (without the wealth) and go to Argentina or Brazil to see the movie. It is funny, but there are families that drive once a month to Argentina to buy groceries, especially dish soap and laundry detergent. For some reason the dish soap here is bad, it barely has suds, and most of them smell really bad. I bought a bottle and smelled an old, moldy sponge smell, and I kept getting new sponges, and bleaching the dish cloths, and it turns out, that’s just how the dish soap smelled. So when Kevin went to Buenos Aires last week, I sent him with a list. He brought back nearly 40 pounds of groceries. There are things that we just can’t get here, besides Harry Potter and dish soap. We can’t get good toys (we can, but they are very expensive, a Barbie is almost $30), maple syrup, chocolate chips, Pepsi products, marshmallows, chili, peanut butter, enchilada sauce, Doritos, canned soup, or Pop Tarts. Some of those I expected and knew about, but the canned soup and chocolate chips really threw me off. I have noticed that there aren’t a lot of convenience food products here. Not a lot of cake mix, or any box mixes, canned goods, virtually no microwave products, except popcorn, no concentrated frozen juice, in fact the frozen section of the grocery store is very small. It has been weird, but probably a lot better for us to eat food that is fresh and not boxed, canned, or frozen.
The Aquabats are on TV right now. Noah has discovered a new kids TV show on Nickelodeon, it’s very weird, there are puppets, animation, guys in costumes, kids, and today the Aquabats. It’s pretty strange, I have no idea what it’s called, but it is definitely odd. I kind of like it.
I am enjoying having someone here to help with the cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. We hired a very nice lady named Celsa, she worked for a family that just returned to the United States. She was a nun, a preschool teacher, and a nurse. We really like her, she is taking very good care of us. Just so you are all very jealous, it is 10:30 in the morning, and my laundry is all done, the bathrooms are all clean, the beds are made, and I haven’t done any of it. Later, I won’t be cooking dinner, ironing any of the clothes, or sweeping the floors. Plus, I never realized how nice it is to sleep on ironed sheets. I am going to miss her when we return to the United States.
We still do not have the latest Harry Potter movie showing here. We really want to see it. It is amazing how far away we are. A lot of the kids at school went to Argentina or Brazil to see the movie. I keep hoping it will open here, or we are going to break down and buy a pirated copy off the guys on the street. I really don’t want to contribute to the intellectual property and counterfeit problems that are here, but I am just about at the end of my patience. Every Friday I go to the mall by our house to see if the movie is there, but it’s been more than a month and still no Harry Potter. We are going to have to be like the local wealthy families (without the wealth) and go to Argentina or Brazil to see the movie. It is funny, but there are families that drive once a month to Argentina to buy groceries, especially dish soap and laundry detergent. For some reason the dish soap here is bad, it barely has suds, and most of them smell really bad. I bought a bottle and smelled an old, moldy sponge smell, and I kept getting new sponges, and bleaching the dish cloths, and it turns out, that’s just how the dish soap smelled. So when Kevin went to Buenos Aires last week, I sent him with a list. He brought back nearly 40 pounds of groceries. There are things that we just can’t get here, besides Harry Potter and dish soap. We can’t get good toys (we can, but they are very expensive, a Barbie is almost $30), maple syrup, chocolate chips, Pepsi products, marshmallows, chili, peanut butter, enchilada sauce, Doritos, canned soup, or Pop Tarts. Some of those I expected and knew about, but the canned soup and chocolate chips really threw me off. I have noticed that there aren’t a lot of convenience food products here. Not a lot of cake mix, or any box mixes, canned goods, virtually no microwave products, except popcorn, no concentrated frozen juice, in fact the frozen section of the grocery store is very small. It has been weird, but probably a lot better for us to eat food that is fresh and not boxed, canned, or frozen.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Anecdotes and Observations
It is cold today. Yesterday it was just over 90 degrees, today it is barely 50. The weather here is so changeable. Summer one day, winter the next. It is not surprising that everyone has some kind of a cough or sniffle. Our bodies can’t keep up with the change. I can feel the wind blowing through the cracks between the door and windows and their frames. This house is not weather-proof. It lets in the cold air, the hot air, and has absolutely no carpeting. The floors are so cold that we have been wearing our warm slippers all day long, just to keep our feet off of the cold floor.
I finally got the last (or next to the last, because I am not counting the box of wipes and diapers that for some strange reason was in our surface shipment) box unpacked. It is nice to have everything put away, even if it is in a place that I do not want it. For example, there is no linen closet in the house. So I have linens in Sam’s closet and in my closet. I really would like them all together, and preferably not in my room, but sometimes you get what you get. Today we get small closets and not much storage. It’s good that we didn’t bring all of our junk, I mean, that I got rid of all our junk.
The boys started school last week. It is weird to think of Chris as an eighth grader. Eighth grade is so grown up. Next year is high school, after that will be college, mission, and adulthood. It is going too quickly for me. I really like where we are as a family right now. We have Chris at thirteen, a good young man, hard working, smart, and not quite into his teenage surliness (I hope he never gets there). Sam, at ten, still innocent and wide eyed, loving the world, and asking questions about everything. Marcus is seven, still enough of a little boy to crawl around with Noah, but enough of a big boy to ride the bus and read chapter books. And then Noah, three years old, cute, outgoing, funny, rebellious. I tell people that he is a brat with just a hint of pride. It is wonderful to have four different ages of childhood in our home, and I am going to miss leaving each stage (except for diaper changing) as they grow.
We have had some interesting and funny experiences while living here. It is really a different culture and I have learned to adjust my expectations and assumptions about how things should happen.
First, we have installed DirecTV from Puerto Rico. We had to buy the equipment, have it installed, and then contact DirecTV in Puerto Rico to get the signal sent to us. Kevin called the person that people in the Embassy have used to install their equipment. One morning, two guys came walking up our street, one of them carrying a big DirecTV dish on his back. They walked past our house, but looked lost. Kevin and I thought, “What are the chances that someone else in the neighborhood is installing DirecTV this week?” We figured none, so we asked the guys if they were looking for our house. They were. It’s the first time I have received installation services from two guys walking down the road carrying the dish that is going to be on our house. I wonder if they took the bus with the dish or just walked all the way.
Second, we went on a field trip with our Spanish class. It is nice, because they are paid for, except for our food and souvenirs. We don’t have to drive, or park, or get lost, it’s up to our Spanish teacher and the drivers to get us where we are going. We went to a small town just outside of Asunción, called Areguá. It is near Lake Ypacaraí, and it is a pretty little town. There is a hill close by called Cerro Koi; it is one of only three places in the world where you find natural hexagonal shaped rocks. It was all very interesting. The funny part of the story is when we were riding home and Kevin and I saw a truck full of wooden furniture in the bed, lashed on the top, and lashed on the back. And it was not a nice truck, with a covered cargo area. It was an old junker, with an old green tarp covering the back. And it was also full of guys, maybe five or six guys riding among the furniture. We looked at each other and said, “That’s the RC Willey truck.” We have had several workers at our house, painters, carpenters, locksmith, internet, and only the internet guys came in a truck from their company, the same as you would expect in the United States. Everyone else has come on foot from the bus stop, or on a motorcycle. It has really shown me what a different world I am experiencing.
I finally got the last (or next to the last, because I am not counting the box of wipes and diapers that for some strange reason was in our surface shipment) box unpacked. It is nice to have everything put away, even if it is in a place that I do not want it. For example, there is no linen closet in the house. So I have linens in Sam’s closet and in my closet. I really would like them all together, and preferably not in my room, but sometimes you get what you get. Today we get small closets and not much storage. It’s good that we didn’t bring all of our junk, I mean, that I got rid of all our junk.
The boys started school last week. It is weird to think of Chris as an eighth grader. Eighth grade is so grown up. Next year is high school, after that will be college, mission, and adulthood. It is going too quickly for me. I really like where we are as a family right now. We have Chris at thirteen, a good young man, hard working, smart, and not quite into his teenage surliness (I hope he never gets there). Sam, at ten, still innocent and wide eyed, loving the world, and asking questions about everything. Marcus is seven, still enough of a little boy to crawl around with Noah, but enough of a big boy to ride the bus and read chapter books. And then Noah, three years old, cute, outgoing, funny, rebellious. I tell people that he is a brat with just a hint of pride. It is wonderful to have four different ages of childhood in our home, and I am going to miss leaving each stage (except for diaper changing) as they grow.
We have had some interesting and funny experiences while living here. It is really a different culture and I have learned to adjust my expectations and assumptions about how things should happen.
First, we have installed DirecTV from Puerto Rico. We had to buy the equipment, have it installed, and then contact DirecTV in Puerto Rico to get the signal sent to us. Kevin called the person that people in the Embassy have used to install their equipment. One morning, two guys came walking up our street, one of them carrying a big DirecTV dish on his back. They walked past our house, but looked lost. Kevin and I thought, “What are the chances that someone else in the neighborhood is installing DirecTV this week?” We figured none, so we asked the guys if they were looking for our house. They were. It’s the first time I have received installation services from two guys walking down the road carrying the dish that is going to be on our house. I wonder if they took the bus with the dish or just walked all the way.
Second, we went on a field trip with our Spanish class. It is nice, because they are paid for, except for our food and souvenirs. We don’t have to drive, or park, or get lost, it’s up to our Spanish teacher and the drivers to get us where we are going. We went to a small town just outside of Asunción, called Areguá. It is near Lake Ypacaraí, and it is a pretty little town. There is a hill close by called Cerro Koi; it is one of only three places in the world where you find natural hexagonal shaped rocks. It was all very interesting. The funny part of the story is when we were riding home and Kevin and I saw a truck full of wooden furniture in the bed, lashed on the top, and lashed on the back. And it was not a nice truck, with a covered cargo area. It was an old junker, with an old green tarp covering the back. And it was also full of guys, maybe five or six guys riding among the furniture. We looked at each other and said, “That’s the RC Willey truck.” We have had several workers at our house, painters, carpenters, locksmith, internet, and only the internet guys came in a truck from their company, the same as you would expect in the United States. Everyone else has come on foot from the bus stop, or on a motorcycle. It has really shown me what a different world I am experiencing.
Cerro Koi
On that note, I have also discovered that in Paraguay tomorrow does not necessarily mean the day after today. Two weeks ago the internet guys were here and they said they would return tomorrow and install our internet. Well, no internet, no guys, nothing. Did I mention that we don’t have the internet? For three weeks, three days, and approximately eleven minutes, we have not had the internet! And it’s been plenty of tomorrows. So I can only conclude that tomorrow means sometime in the future, but probably not soon, and definitely not the day after today.
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