I didn’t put photos up yesterday but it wasn’t y fault.  We had another blackout last night so I couldn’t get on to the net.  We seem to be getting one most nights at the moment.  It is a little frustrating especially last night as I was talking to mum on Skype and her sound had just started working and then the lights went off.  Anyway, here are yesterday’s photos.

One of the things I love about living in Chulu is the 30 metre pool.  It is about 1km away so 3 or 4 times a week I can run to the pool and swim some laps.  It is a beautiful pool and being able to swim is such a blessing for me.

Here is the view outside the pool on my run.

Here is the pool.

And the other side.

I am actually quite excited about doing washing here in our new home.  Party it is because after two months of living in other people’s home and having to do it by hand or take it to someone else’s home it is just really easy to have my own laundry.  But also because my laundry is great as you can see from the photo.

And because I hang the washing up on the roof and this my view.

And here from another point of view.

Inspired by Jenny, Lesley and Tom I also am going to do a photo challenge of my own for the rest of Feb.  I am going to try to put a photo or two each day of some of aspect of our life here in Chulucanas Peru to give people a little bit of a feel for the place.

I am starting with two photos of the rain.  We are in the rainy season here and each afternoon/evening the heavens open and we enjoy the pouring rain and the cooler air.  The downside I guess is that the house leaks and as people keep reminding me the rains bring mosquitoes and they can bring diseases so we have to be even more careful.

But here our street with the rain flowing down and the children playing and the moto taxis not succedding in keeping dry.

And here is Nina enjoying the rain.  She is fully recovered from her illlness thankfully.  We just have to see out the antibiotics.

It has been a stressful weekend to say the least.  On Friday night around dinner time we noticed Nina had a bit of a a fever.  We checked her temp and it was about 38 degrees so we put her to bed with us and stayed with her to keep checking on her.  At 2am when she got diarrhoea and her temp had reached 38.9 we took her to the hospital.  The doctor checked her over and thought she was ok but he ran some tests on her poo and sent us home.

When we returned the next morning to get the results they were quite concerned about her and wanted to do a blood test and urine test as well.  So she was put into the hospital.  It took ages for her to do a wee as she was quite dehydrated so she was put on a drip to give her water as we couldn’t get her drink enough.  It was so awful watching her go through all this and I completely lost it as they put the drip in.  It was made all the more awful as doctors here don’t always communicate what is going on and on top of that I was missing much of it as I don’t know much medical Spanish.   In the end it turned out she had an intestinal infection.  She probably ate something not right.  So she needs to have antibiotics for five days.  They wanted to keep her another day at least to give her the antibiotics and to keep an eye on her hydration.  I was not coping with that idea at all.

Thankfully, a good friend of Martin’s, Sonya, is a nurse at the hospital and she offered to take us home, and come each afternoon for five days to give Nina her antibiotic and check on her hydration etc.  I cannot express how grateful I am to her.  I believe she is an angel sent by God.  Even though she was only there for about ten hours I have never been so grateful to bring Nina home.  She still has the drip in so that Sonya can give her the antibiotic each afternoon and water if need be and I feel sad when I see this big thing on her hand but she is fine.  We check her temp often and it is hanging around 37 degrees and she is eating and drinking ok.  She has a little diarrhoea still but she’s not worried.  She just plays as normal and climbs on everything and runs around the house.  She has been so strong really.

I haven’t been.  Despite having had a really amazing couple of weeks here in Chulu, I have to confess much of this has made me wonder if we have made a terrible decision coming here.  As I look back I do believe that the doctors and nurses did what they had to for Nina and are obviously experienced in these type of infections but I hated been in the hospital so much.  As mentioned their communication wasn’t always great and the cleanliness at the hospital could certainly be better.  And it was so hot without any air-conditioning.

But as always I know God was with us the whole time and that I must continue to trust Him even in defeat, as I did at Nina’s birth.  As someone who didn’t have antibiotics until I was 21 and then only once since I did not want this for my beautiful baby at 1 year and 5 months.  Accepting it  has been hard to swallow.  But I do thank God for antibiotics anyway as I do for Cesareans.  Who knows what she would be going through without them?

Thus, I continue to trust that this is where we are meant to be for whatever reason.  For the last 6 years we have dreamed of coming back to Peru, we have had different visions and hopes and plans for what we might be able to do here and I am not sure that it will work out as we had planned.  To be honest I have no idea what we will happen here but I continue to trust in defeat knowing that this is where God works in our lives and the lives of those around us.

For those of you who don’t have facebook here are a few photos of us and Chulucanas.

There is a discotech just around the corner from our house called “La Caverna” or the cave.  The cave isn’t really a very good name for it as most good caves have a roof and this discotech doesn’t.  I guess that is nice for the people who go but it isn’t very nice for those of us who live within two or three blocks because every Saturday night they play loud music until about 5am in the morning that we can hear very loudly and thus get fairly limited sleep.  A number of our neighbours have discussed putting a roof on the discotech with the owner but he doesn’t wish too as he doesn’t wish to pay for air-conditioning.  I am convinced he must be paying someone at the municipality to be getting away with keeping at least 100 people awake once a week but I guess it’s less than air-con.  I guess this is all part of living in a country that allows people to put up discotechs in the middle of residential areas.  I bought some cotton wool for my ears so got a little more sleep this week but we may have to start going away most Saturday nights.  Thankfully, Nina at least seems to sleep throught most of it.  She is a little harder to re-settle when she wakes (usually twice a night) but at least she’s not waking up more.

Despite feeling tired today was a good day.  I am trying to have a bit of a Sabbath on Sundays as a way of honouring the Creator of the Sabbath but I guess also as a way of caring for myself after the long nights.  So I do not wash or clean or cook or drink on Sundays no longer.  It’s nice.

I’ve been praying a fair bit since we got here, asking God what exactly we are supposed to doing here.  However, a week or so ago I started to get the sense that this wasn’t really the right prayer.  In a time of silence with Martin when we were praying for our new home the word “BE” came to me.  The question isn’t what should we be doing here but how do we be here.  Fully present to the people here, the land here, the spirit of God here.

So as we wait for jobs and more certainty about our future t I have been trying really hard to BE here.  Sometimes I do feel anxious but I keep reminding myself that God is with us and there continues to be so many blessings:

• I have been so much enjoying sitting out on the street around dusk.  As the air cools people move their chairs outside and sit and watch the world go by.  We chat about the day and the heat and whatever comes up.  Nina especially loves the donkeys that pass by or of course the dogs who she still calls Bitta.  If there other children around she attempts to play with them but she’s still entirely sure how to do that.
• I have been enjoying walking up to the “plaza de armas” with Nina.  This is the main square where people often come to meet.  Nina runs around and climbs on things and we inevitably meet with someone we know and have a chat.
•  I have been enjoying offering hospitality to different people.  Mainly Martin’s family with whom we have had a number of late nights now talking over a wine or two.
• I have been engaging with the whole slow food idea.  No food here comes in tins so everything needs to be soaked over night and then made from scratch without the aid of a pasta sauce or curry paste.  And all our water needs to be boiled.  I do still find it a little overwhelming how much thought needs to go into making food but I am starting to get there.
• I have been really valuing time at home with my amazing husband and beautiful daughter.  Sometimes the days seem very long as we don’t always do that much but I am sure there will com e a time when have jobs again and life speeds up as it does that I will long for these days.

I remember writing this back in June when we were making the decision to come and I guess it still remains true, “in the end it’s not really about what we do or don’t do. It’s just about facing the challenge that’s been put in front of us with all that scares me, excites me, thrills me, depresses me and in that trying to love those around us and been open to what they have to offer and what God gives us to offer.”

I have really been getting to know Chulucanas better over the last week. It really is a very beautiful place.  The surrounding area is especially amazing with flowing rivers and stunning views of the Andes.  We just love going into these towns that are still all dirt roads which we share mainly with donkeys and horses and drinking chicha the local drink and chatting to the people who live there.  They are incredibly poor but I think they have the best land and they are almost always so willing to chat with us.

Chulucanas is known as the “Tierra de Mango y Limon” or the land of the mango and lime and we have been enjoying both these fruits daily as they are so cheap.  On the weekend we had the amazing experience of visiting a mango farm.  The land belongs to one of Martin’s cousins and we walked there through rivers.  When we got there we were able to pick up mangos off the ground and just eat them then and there.  It was unbelievable.

Here is Nina and I delighting in the mangos.

We are in our own place finally.  I guess when you spend over 2 months moving around you really appreciate it.  We moved in Monday night and since then we have been running around cleaning, unpacking bags, etc.  Today I got to stick up some photos and pictures that make me finally feel like I am at home.

It’s a big house but it’s got the smallest kitchen ever.  Smaller than our kitchen in Alice if you can believe it’s possible.  Most Australians would consider it fairly basic – concrete floors, cold water (although we are going to put in a heater for our shower), certainly no luxuries such as air con (which I am missing right now, as I write this in the stinking heat, sweating like a pig) and it is in dire need of a paint job.  However compared to the way most Peruvians live it is very luxurious and I think we can be pretty comfortable here.  It has some nice outdoor areas that I like a lot and we have bought a few nice things to help us feel homely.  I am happy.

Nina has been a little unsettled of late.  She doesn’t seem to want me to be more than a few metres from her ever.  It has been somewhat trying and I hope been a steady home will calm her a little too.

The people who are currently in the house haven´t found a place they like yet so we didn´t manage to move into our own place on the weekend.  It really sux.  They have assured us they will be looking hard this week and that the will be able to move in this weekend.  I am really praying they find something.  I am not sure how much longer I can cope with the waiting.  I am trying to let this teach me to be patient and to trust but I am so tired.