Adjusting - March 7 - 10

The weekend and housing update:

We are making progress in our housing situation, but it is slow.  Since there are no queen size beds here in Huaraz, O&M went to a larger city on the coast (Chimbote) to buy our bed (a queen bed is actually on the suggested list for seniors) and some other things.  We requested a heater and expected a small one like in our hotel room, but they brought us a large heater/AC floor model which should be great if not too expensive to operate.

Friday evening we went shopping for couches and finally selected a three piece set--couch, love-seat, and chair.  They are nice (not our favorites) but now we are wondering if they will go through the front door :(  We also found a nice gas stove.  So, everything is supposed to be delivered tomorrow (but we know that "mañana"/tomorrow really means some time in the future, so we will see. 

Saturday morning we spent shopping in the central market area which is always an adventure.  We finally found a kitchen table and chairs, a large table we will use in the office to work on and a small work table for the kitchen since there is about 3 feet of counter space next to the sink.  We stopped at a large store and got some cleaning things and some Pyrex glass pieces.  There certainly are a lot of little things to buy to set up an apartment from scratch.

It is really nice to be getting all new furniture and appliances, but it is taking a lot longer than we had hoped.  To clarify about these expenses, the mission is buying all the basic furniture and we will be paying $100 a month "furniture rental" in addition to our rent and utilities.  It is still less than we expected to pay so that is good.  We think they will probably just keep this apartment for the next couple that comes since it will be all furnished.

Saturday we attended the Stake Conference evening meeting where we were asked to introduce ourselves.  Then Sunday we attended Stake Conference.  We have to say that the Peruvian members like to sing the hymns.  Again we were asked to introduce ourselves and explain what our mission is all about.  They had a family history hands-on meeting Sunday evening, with about 12 laptop computers, where we tried to help.  They think we are expert family history trainers but we are not expert anything.  Hopefully we will learn along with them.

Monday our trainer Juan was out of town so we went to the apartment and yes! the couches were delivered.  The main things holding us back now are connecting the hot water, blinds on the windows (which won't be ready for a week or more), and putting the bed together.  They sent 6 wheels and some weird connectors to hook the two box springs together and no one can figure out how they work.  So we are getting closer! 

Here are a few pictures of the marketplace -

Live ducks and rabbits for sale for food not for pets.

Live guinea pigs (cuy) for sale.

This one reminded Marilyn of Fluffy in a first grade story book.

Here we have live chickens in the bags and a street vendor with a mango/yogurt treat.

This cart had whole fish. Look carefully and you can see their tail fins sticking out from the red basket on his cart.

 

Buying housewares inside the two story public market place.

Inside the market building. Visual overload.

We love the hats the ladies wear.

 

More hats. Note the ladies along the curb with different type hats.

Note the design on the side of the hat. These vary in color and pattern and we haven't figured out the significance yet. Perhaps from different regions.