Week One: Working Out the Kinks

So, our first four or five days have been focused on getting settled in. Basically, the time here can be summed up into things that have worked surprisingly well, and things that haven't.

Things That Worked:
-The wood-burning barbeque out back. Note the grill which can be raised or lowered with a crank mechanism on the side.
-High speed internet within 24 hours of our arrival. Cell phones, also. We are fully wired, and fully wireless. That's impressive.
-Phone cards. For roughly 13 (Canadian) cents per minute, we can use a phone card to call Canada. Not super cheap, but not bad. And very convenient, which counts for a lot.
-Children's programming in Spanish: Joffre is picking words up already, and it helps distract him for a bit here and there.
-Taxis. Granted, we must wait for up to half an hour for a taxi, since we are supposed to use only Aerotaxi, for security reasons, but they are relatively cheap and the drivers are without exception friendly, helpful, and knowledgable.
-Laundry. A washer and a dryer that work, and if anything work better than the ones we had in Canada.
-Nina, the wondermaid. There's a WHOLE lot to be said in favour of a woman who cheerfully arrives at 8 am every second day to clean and tidy the house and fold and iron the laundry.
-Membership in the local club. Okay, this had a few hiccups, of the developing-world-bureaucracy variety, but we still had membership in the Club Internacional by noon Sunday, and we only got here Friday. This is important because it is the only playground I've seen since arriving here, and it is overrun with children - most of whom speak Spanish, whether they're international or not.

Things That Didn't:
-When we got to the house, they told us they would be back in two hours with a few staples for the house. Three hours later, nobody had turned up yet. This wouldn't be so bad except that a)there was no potable water in the house, b)there was no food in the house, and c)the only phone numbers they had left us were for cell phones, which can't be called from the house phone. So, we went and talked to the security guy at the gate, who called the security company that works with Aaron's employer, who called a couple of other people, and sent a car over to take us to a supermarket. When we got back from the store, there were 100 litres of potable water in the pantry, and some toilet paper, cleaning products, Danish cookies, chocolate bars, and two chocolate teddy bears sitting on the counter. So, they felt pretty lousy about ditching us without food or drink our first night here.
-And then there was this:

See, the floor of the house is always somewhat dirty, even if it's just been cleaned. And I get the sense that most people wear shoes, slippers, or flip-flops around the house, but we don't have any suitable footwear right now, and we go barefoot. So, my feet were dirty, and I didn't want to climb into the jacuzzi tub to wash them (yeah, poor me), so I lifted my foot up to the sink. And I didn't really apply any weight, but I did touch the basin, and it fell out.
-Ants. Thousands and thousands of ants have been on parade march through the living room, kitchen, and entryways, and no amount of cleaning them up has stemmed the tide. However, as we were going out a couple of days ago, a stooped old man carrying an unmarked can and a dirty rag turned up at the gate and said he was here to take care of the ants. He did not require entry into the house. And now the ants are gone. I'm trying not to think too hard about what he might have done.
-Generally, the house feels as though it were slapped together in a hurry, and is now falling apart. So, there are leaks (see the next entry), and there were burned out lights, open light sockets, and many unfinished details that need fixing.
-And until today there was no hot water. See, they use a solar heater, which in Arequipa normally works a treat. However, Arequipa is undergoing some serious cold, cloud, and rain (see the next entry). There's a gas-powered backup tank, but it was tiny and the house is huge, so by the time the small quantity of hot water reached the shower, it was tepid. They put in a new tank today, though, so now we have more hot water. Which, since it's been cold, is a nice thing.

A whole lot has happened in the past two days, but I can't write about it right now. I will try to catch up over the weekend!