Wednesday, May 4, 2016

It’s moving day today! We are moving out of the Otorongo Apartments where we have lived for a week since coming to Cuenca. We are all looking forward to settling into a place of our own!

Daniel our realtor is bringing his car over to help us move our things, and our friend Sergio, who drove us from Bahia to Cuenca, is coming with his truck. Between the two of them we should have our 12 pieces of luggage and 4 totes moved in one trip. What’s in our luggage and totes is all we own but it seems like a lot when we have to move it!

We are all exhausted, mentally, from the move out of Bahia and trying to find a place to live here in Cuenca. We are packed and ready to go by 9:15am. Daniel will be by at 10 am and Sergio at 11 am. Check out is noon.

We loaded up Daniel’s car and Easton went with him to our new place. When Sergio arrived we loaded his truck with what was left, and it just fit. Heidi and I and our two dogs got in Sergio’s truck and he brought us to the place that we will be living for the next year.

You know what buyer’s remorse is, right? Buy a place and after the deal is done you second guess yourself and have regrets about the purchase. Heidi and I experienced what I would call renters remorse. When we got into our new place it just started rolling in on us.

The owner had brought over the rest of the furnishings for our “furnished” apartment and it was disappointing.  The coffee and end tables are cheap brown wood pieces that are too small for the black leather couches and the large 8 person dining table and chairs that fill the open living and dining room.

The kitchen ware is sparse. Basic and cheap. The oven is still not installed after 4 days. The towels provided for 3 and ½ bathrooms are cheap, thin, and each a different color. There is one bath towel for each bathroom.

In the beginning when we were asking questions to the owner he said he would provide two sets of sheets for each bed and bath towels for each of the baths. When it came down to it, he pulled back on the bed linen. We bought one set of sheets and a mattress cover for each bed. Total cost: $400. These are not great sheets either. Such are things in Ecuador. We obviously will be buying bath towels as well.

What is happening with me right now is that I see we are going to be buying furniture, linens, and kitchenware items that I had no desire to spend money on. We are not going to live here beyond our year lease, and where we live next will involve a move.

We cannot take a bunch of stuff with us when we are traveling around the country or South America. This means we will be selling whatever we purchase and most likely lose money. What is really going on with me is that we had everything we will be buying and more when we lived in the States.

Before we moved here we sold all of it or gave it away. Obviously we sold it far below what it would cost to replace. That was a hard process for me, but I wanted to be in Ecuador without the responsibility of having things to worry about at home or cart around with me in Ecuador. The reality I find myself in this morning is antithetical to what I created for myself.

The bathrooms are small. We knew that. What we couldn’t really understand until we started putting our things in them is how much space and surface area they lack. We will need to find some sort of shelving and figure out how to make it fit.

As it got dark we turned on the lights in the place. Every light is the white florescent type often used here. They create a blue white glow that for me is hard to see in. It’s like having light that doesn’t really let you see. Plus, it casts a cold interrogation like feel into the room. So we will need to buy and replace all the lights with the type that throw off the soft, warm, and brighter yellow light.

We are exhausted. Heidi has been sick with a cold for almost 5 days now. One has started rolling in on me a couple days ago. It has been a long haul for us over the last three weeks. I know that my filter is not perceiving my surroundings in an optimistic light.

The reality I am experiencing in this moment is not the reality I will create tomorrow or the days following. I am choosing to be kind to myself right now for complaining. It’s not my usually mode of being but it’s here and it’s happening.

What I know is that Heidi and I are creative people, my wife more than me, and we will find appropriate solutions to the challenges I am experiencing today. In the realm of what is happening in the world today, in Bahia and Manabi in general as it rebuilds, I am living in luxury, safety, and better than so many others.

My filter is already beginning to shift.

Chau.