Tuesday, June 21, 2016

My sister Lori made arrangements through our friends Annette and Greg, who live here in Cuenca, to have a care package brought down with their friends who were coming to visit them. What a blessing and a gift this is for us! Among other things, we now have a new coffee pot! It has settings for brew strength, delay brew, and an auto shut-off feature on the warmer. Imagine that. Yea!

There are some hard realities of living in Ecuador. One of them is the difficulty in getting products that aren’t available here, or if they are, they are extremely expensive. To mail items here one runs into costly shipping charges, prohibitive size and weight limits, the possibility of an exorbitant customs tax being applied, a six week travel time, and a real probability of never actually receiving the sent package in hand.

Because of this, the practical solution is to learn to use what is available here, or learn to do without. I think over the last five months we have done a good job adjusting to this reality. The only real way to get things here safely and economically is when someone can bring them in their suitcase. It was such a cool surprise when my sister worked with Annette and Greg, and their friends, to get us some things we have been living without. I can’t thank everyone enough who helped make this happen! We are so grateful; it feels like Christmas!

Guess what? I don’t think it rained today. I didn’t see the sun today, but we were able to go on a couple of walks and get some things done, like grocery shopping. We had been putting this off for the last few days because no one wanted to deal with the bad weather. I am really having to keep myself mentally in check over the weather. I miss the sun and the heat of the coast. Hell, I just miss being at the coast, and I am committed to giving Cuenca the time it deserves for me to find my rhythm here.

Chau.