Frustrations

No pictures today, we were too frustrated to remember to take any. We’ve had our share of difficulties in the past few days, and morale is dwindling. We are spending a second night in a hotel in Cuenca, because we have to receive official permission to go up to the house at Mazan and start living there. We STILL haven’t even visited to know what condition it is in. However, we’re fairly certain that not much has changed. We’ll see. Tomorrow we are going to ask permission, and then we’ll see the house. One thing we know for sure is that there still isn’t hot water. Our requests are few: hot water, a bed, and a little more electricity. Most people here would consider those essential elements for living.

Earlier this week, I had some other troubles. On my way to PUCE, my Teva sandal fell apart. I was just walking along at my normal pace, taking a short cut through the park, when the strap came loose. The stitching had fallen out. Has anyone else ever worn out a pair of Tevas? They’re good shoes, and I never expected this (although she has beaten the crap out of them). However, Giovanni came to the rescue and took me and my shoe to the “shoe doctor.” He sat at his large, man-powered Singer, and in a few minutes and a dollar removed from my pocket my shoe was healed.

Later that same day, my computer died. Died. Never to come back again. It got the “blue screen of death” and said that a very important file was corrupt. We’re talking about my itty-bitty netbook without a CD drive, and it says I need to use the Windows CD to reinstall. I don’t have the CD. I also don’t have all the files that were saved. Luckily, I backed everything up before leaving Ohio, but those backups are safely tucked away thousands of miles away. Again, we lucked out. Our friends here in Cuenca recommended a “computer doctor” who might speak even better English than Brad (he’s too frustrated to look at the computer, so I can get away with saying this). Manuel, the computer expert who went to Purdue, said that he could fix it. First, he tried to recover all of my files. No luck. Then he said I’ll need to buy a new hard drive because mine is physically damaged, bummer. That’s going to be a $100 part and we’ve only just arrived here! Money goes fast.

Today, we spent the day running errands and preparing to go to our new house. We got lost searching for the Ecuadorian version of Sears, but a nice lady showed us a shortcut and got us back on track. We bought two hideous looking blankets, covered in tiger- patterned print and actual tigers on the bottom. These are the most popular kind, and although they are UGLY they’re supposed to be the warmest. We also got a surge protector, a water dispenser, and a new door knob complete with locking mechanism for our room. While we were at the mall, I decided to add more money to my cell phone. You can add either $1, $3, $6, or $10 typically. I chose $6 because they advertised a 3x1 deal. They put the money on my phone, and then I realized they hadn’t given me the deal. They said that you can only get the deal if you buy a minimum $8 of credit. The sign didn’t say this, and I will admit that I am not proud of the glare that I gave the girl (I’m proud of the one I gave her, though. - Brad). Why couldn’t she explain this BEFORE the transaction?

We also went to the bank in order to open an account, but they swiftly and easily rebuffed our efforts. We have black and white copies of our visa documents, but NO! they need color copies. We also need color copies of our passports, a utility bill, a letter of support from an Ecuadorian affirming that we are not, in fact, drug traffickers, and three benjamins in hand. I thought we were giving them the opportunity to hold OUR MONEY, but apparently that’s not how they see it. We now have most of these items and will try again tomorrow.

The pick-me ups today were few and far between, but there were some. We returned to our favorite Columbian restaurant for the $2.50 lunch which was delicious. We also stopped in a furniture store that was full of beautiful things. We may need to check into shipping items home, because we found the perfect set of table and chairs for an incredibly reasonable price - all hand made. We also get to stay in a hotel with sweet hand-made keys. The old kind like Mr. Jing-a-ling used to carry at Christmas time.

Tomorrow we will endure. We’ve circled ads for 16 different vehicles, and we will meet with the park people to gain permission and to express our concern about the current living quarters. We will grocery shop. I will pick up my computer and start from scratch. We will open a bank account. Or at least a few of these things will happen . . .