Saturday, June 4, 2016
It’s moving day. I thought it was going to be a much bigger chore than it is turning out to be. Even though we have 12 suit cases and some totes, it’s easy to pack them. Emptying our closets, drawers, and cabinets and then filling our suitcases up with their contents seems to be going quickly.
When we moved into this place we asked that it be cleaned. It wasn’t visibly dirty, but after we moved in we could tell where the floor had never been swept or mopped, where grease was on the splash pad behind the stove top, where shelves hadn’t been wiped off. So we did all that.
As we are packing our bags, emptying our things room by room, and cleaning each room as we go, I know we are leaving this place in a much better state than how we got it. I hope the landlord will appreciate that. I feel bad we are breaking our lease, but he is keeping our month’s rent security deposit and hopefully he can rent it quickly.
How anyone will want to live here with the sound issues from the people below is a mystery to me. Last night they got in late and woke me up. I could hear them talking, dialing their cell phones, opening their cupboards, peeing and flushing their toilets. Too much for me.
I have hired a man named Alfredo to help us move our things to our new place. He is a pleasant Ecuadorian who speaks English. He was supposed to arrive at 1 pm but called me at noon and asked if he could come over now. I said sure.
When he arrived I learned he had a big family luncheon get-together he needed to be at by 1 pm. He only had a midsized hatchback, so we moved one load and then waited for him to return at 3 pm. We swept and mopped the remaining areas of the floor in the apartment, and then we waited.
It is hard for me to relax and just do nothing. We basically had an hour and a half to wait in limbo. I wanted to dial up a cab and take a few totes to our new place and keep the process moving. The problem I run into is that I can’t speak Spanish well enough to communicate that I need the cabbie to hang with me through this process.
Some cab drivers just want to take you from point A to point B without waiting to load and unload things. My impatience won out though and I walked out onto the main street and tried to flag a cab down. I figured I could communicate well enough if I had the use of my hands in addition to my limited vocabulary. This however was not meant to be. Every cab that passed me for the 15 minutes I stood there had a passenger in it.
I did have a floppy brown haired boy, maybe 10 years old and carrying a backpack that looked too big for him, walk up to me while I was standing alongside the road. He said something to me and I didn’t understand. I apologized in Spanish and told him my Spanish was limited.
He spoke to me again and I heard a few words but couldn’t get it. I asked him to repeat. He was asking me for a quarter for the bus. I really don’t know if he was going to ride the bus or not. I gave him the quarter and he went running up the street as his big backpack bounced around on his back. He was a cute kid, and at this point I gave up on the cab and went back in my place to wait for Alfredo.
The weather in Cuenca is different. It usually rains in the very early morning, mid to late afternoon, or both. Basically you have from 10 am to 2 pm for reliably clear skies and sunshine to get things done. It is 2:45 pm and the skies are getting dark.
Alfredo showed up just before 3 pm and Easton and I loaded his car and made another two trips. On the way back for the final trip, which was basically to get Heidi and Monte and then lock the door, the heavens opened up and it deluged. I haven’t seen this much rain since being in Ecuador.
It must have been unusual because the neighbors along our street were all looking out their windows and watching it rain as Alfredo and I pulled up. I dashed in the house and was soaked in the 20 feet it took me to get in. Alfredo called my cell phone and said Heidi and I should wait to come out until it let up. After 10 minutes it seemed to ease a lot so we dashed back out with Monte, got in the car, and drove toward our new home.
When we had all our things inside, we started unpacking and putting things away. This place does indeed feel good. 
The furniture is comfortable, the space is interesting as my eye lands on different objects and places in the room. It feels right and for the first time since arriving in Cuenca, I can see myself staying here without thinking, “how much longer”?
Chau.
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