Within the first week of arriving, I'd already had my share of language mix-ups. Instead of "Merpisa" (the local supermarket chain), I came out with "mariposa" (butterfly), and instead of "empleada"
(employee, i.e. Lucia), all I could pull up was "empanada" (meat bun). I'm also prone to resorting to French, which after four years of high school drilling, makes up most of my brain's foreign language compartment. This is especially for little words like "okay," "here," "there," "maybe," "nothing," or at the end of a Spanish phrase that has a French sounding word. Thus, "would you repeat" seems like it should end "podrias repetir, s'il vous plait!" Hmm, that's not right--how about "podrias repetir, por favor."
All to say, I have enjoyed Charlie's little mistakes--telling Lucia's husband that she should take the medicine every "ocho anos" instead of "ocho horas." Eight years instead of eight hours! Another day when we were looking for a place to buy light bulbs, we stopped to ask directions from some nice young jewelry vendors. Charlie asked them to speak more slowly and they bemusedly complied, directing him to turn at the "pared a Maria." "The wall to Mary? The wall to Mary??" Charlie looked at me confused. As if I would actually know anything, I replied without hesitation, "Sure, it's a Catholic country, the wall to Mary...we'll find it, let's go!" Wisely, Charlie asked them to repeat again and they did patiently, and in great amusement. Then Charlie heard his mistake. "Ah! Pared amarilla--yellow wall!" I guess sometimes more slowly can be too slowly.
I must say that at times it feels like my Spanish is getting worse, but I think it's partly because I'm attempting more. Sometimes, there just is so much I want to say and I feel like I almost know how! The first time I took a cab by myself, knowing everything I needed to get where I was going, I eagerly addressed the driver and ended my directions with a bunch of garbled words. He was so taken aback that he didn't even reply, but just waited for me to compose myself and attempt a repeat. I am a mumbler by nature which doesn't help. Indoors tends to be echo-ey with all the tile, cement and outdoor noises from the open windows, and outside is just, well, noisy. There are no monthly inspections or vehicle emissions tests, so riding in a taxi can be quite loud. Anyway, another time I tried to take a cab to the 1200 (doce ciento--twelve hundred) block for church. The driver took me to the 260 block (dos sesenta) and the whole way I was trying to figure out how to say I thought we were going the wrong way.
All to say, I was really glad to start official Spanish lessons last week. I am being tutored for one hour, four mornings a week with Noemi, the pastor's wife from the Arevalo church (more on the three parishes later). She is gentle, but precise, and somewhat formal during lessons. I feel like I would be very embarassed (not to be confused with embarazada--pregnant) to show up without my homework completed. Therefore, it's time to go do some conjugations!
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
More pictures!
http://picasaweb.google.com/cnrgibson/March2007InTrujillo
Here are some more photos, many of them taken by Andy Sumpter--one of the sons of our pastor when we lived in Maryland and Alaska. He´s been here sightseeing, helping, and checking out Peru Mission this week. A lot of places he and Charlie visited while the kids were in school. Our brand-new camera battery is faulty, so it´s been nice to have Andy acting as the group photographer. I tried to get a shot of Thomas´bulletin board this morning on my own for everyone to see, but the battery was depleted! The class is studying parts of the body, and there have been a three foot high naked cartoon boy and girl on the white board for a week and a half. This is a Christian private school, but evidently, some curriculum is mandatory for the country.
Big news this week, besides Andy´s visit. We found that our payment to the phone company kicked in and now we can dial out local numbers. This came just in time as Andrea, Lucia´s daughter, locked the girls´bedroom door and we could not get it unlocked (the first locksmith also failed). We used our neighbors´ phone a few times, but they had company and it was getting late, so we gave our phone a try and--hooray! Also, Charlie found that he was able to get a wireless connection in the apartment, at least for yesterday and this morning! God hears all our prayers.
Here are some more photos, many of them taken by Andy Sumpter--one of the sons of our pastor when we lived in Maryland and Alaska. He´s been here sightseeing, helping, and checking out Peru Mission this week. A lot of places he and Charlie visited while the kids were in school. Our brand-new camera battery is faulty, so it´s been nice to have Andy acting as the group photographer. I tried to get a shot of Thomas´bulletin board this morning on my own for everyone to see, but the battery was depleted! The class is studying parts of the body, and there have been a three foot high naked cartoon boy and girl on the white board for a week and a half. This is a Christian private school, but evidently, some curriculum is mandatory for the country.
Big news this week, besides Andy´s visit. We found that our payment to the phone company kicked in and now we can dial out local numbers. This came just in time as Andrea, Lucia´s daughter, locked the girls´bedroom door and we could not get it unlocked (the first locksmith also failed). We used our neighbors´ phone a few times, but they had company and it was getting late, so we gave our phone a try and--hooray! Also, Charlie found that he was able to get a wireless connection in the apartment, at least for yesterday and this morning! God hears all our prayers.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Lucia, continued
Well, we´ll see how this entry goes. I´m back close to home now at the Sticky Keyboard Internet Cafe which has a new feature--timers on the computer. I´m a pretty slow and inaccurate typist and the Spanish keyboards seem to have significant rearrangements on top of it all. I´m not sure what happens when time runs out and I only brought enough money for half an hour!
Anyways, to continue, Lucia has been a big part of my life the past two weeks in her presence and absence. First of all, I´m not used to having someone in my ¨space¨all day. Also, we´ve been a little isolated with the kids in school all morning and some of them sick the first two and a half weeks. The missions team here had their hands full with an RUF team of 24 from the States and some of the families have had sick kids as well. Since I wasn´t teaching English or taking Spanish yet, I took the time to go to the mercado with Lucia three times (she´s a pretty shrewd shopper) and to ask her for a lot of vocabulary. She´s been very indulgent and patient, but since I´ve started lessons, I´ve discovered, too indulgent. She´s let pass some significant mispronunciations!
One of the things that amazes me about Lucia is that she is only twenty years old! She is married and has a three and a half year old daughter. They are members of the mission church. Lucia usually works full-time cleaning the main mission building where the language institute, seminary, college ministry, and administrative offices are housed. I think she is enjoying being on loan to us. She said that the work is not as hard and she loves to cook. She´s definitely used to hard work though. Apparently she first started working at eight years old! Her mistress beat her for not washing the dishes properly, so she stopped working and didn´t take another job until she was ten. That employer taught her a lot, including how to read and iron. She said that when she was pregnant she would spend four hours a day walking around the city with her mother, gathering recyclables from the trash for money.
Well, time to go again--I ran out of time at Sticky Keyboard yesterday and am finishing up at the nice internet store near the kids´school this morning. Both times I checked email first, so I ran out of time. More photos to come!!
Anyways, to continue, Lucia has been a big part of my life the past two weeks in her presence and absence. First of all, I´m not used to having someone in my ¨space¨all day. Also, we´ve been a little isolated with the kids in school all morning and some of them sick the first two and a half weeks. The missions team here had their hands full with an RUF team of 24 from the States and some of the families have had sick kids as well. Since I wasn´t teaching English or taking Spanish yet, I took the time to go to the mercado with Lucia three times (she´s a pretty shrewd shopper) and to ask her for a lot of vocabulary. She´s been very indulgent and patient, but since I´ve started lessons, I´ve discovered, too indulgent. She´s let pass some significant mispronunciations!
One of the things that amazes me about Lucia is that she is only twenty years old! She is married and has a three and a half year old daughter. They are members of the mission church. Lucia usually works full-time cleaning the main mission building where the language institute, seminary, college ministry, and administrative offices are housed. I think she is enjoying being on loan to us. She said that the work is not as hard and she loves to cook. She´s definitely used to hard work though. Apparently she first started working at eight years old! Her mistress beat her for not washing the dishes properly, so she stopped working and didn´t take another job until she was ten. That employer taught her a lot, including how to read and iron. She said that when she was pregnant she would spend four hours a day walking around the city with her mother, gathering recyclables from the trash for money.
Well, time to go again--I ran out of time at Sticky Keyboard yesterday and am finishing up at the nice internet store near the kids´school this morning. Both times I checked email first, so I ran out of time. More photos to come!!
Help Arrives
We´ve had Lucia for two weeks now and she is terrific. She´s an outstanding cook and housekeeper--hard-working, frugal, patient, cheerful, creative, and kind. She came just in the nick of time, as the merpisa/supermarket where I can shop alone is on the expensive end, especially for packaged items that require less prep time to cook (spaghetti sauce, sandwich bread, cereal...) Also, our laundry pile has been steadily growing. (Madeleine did earnestly try to honor my request to not make a lot of dirty clothes by showing up for the fifth day in a row in the same outfit. I finally noticed, appreciated her attentive efforts, and had her change. Note that days three to five she had been feverish and overall apathetic due to her cold.)
Anyway, Lucia arrives in the morning, tidies up, and sweeps out the rooms, often remaking our beds (I guess they don´t look made to her). Periodically, she rearranges the furniture. We have nice built-in closets and drawers, each section with its own set of doors. She usually shuts all of these, as, afraid of mildew problems, we´ve left them open to air. I´m sure she thinks we´re strangely slovenly, lax about bedding and clothing, but washing our produce with bleach and brushing our teeth with bottled water. She then gets going on lunch which is the main meal of the day. She eats at the table with us and then goes on to more in-depth cleaning or the laundry (hand washing--we have no clothes washer in this apartment, though some do--and ironing).
We´re trying to have the kids help serve and clean up in the kitchen like they did at home and Lucia seems to understand this. Some things she does better (making our beds) or before we get there (setting the table, putting away the ironing). Also, the kids are truly blitzed from waking up early from school, so it would really be difficult for them to help out in the same ways they did at home. I find that I still do a lot when I´m home. I serve breakfast and supper and help wring and hang the laundry (Lucia is too short to reach the line.) I also have to take care of laundry that we need washed and dried on the same day (bedding and uniforms) by hauling it to a neighbors´or a laundromat. Last week she was sick a couple days with bronchitis and we had to insist that she stay at home. She does tons and we´re working on expressing gratitude and consideration, and in Spanish.
So far we´ve had chicken many different ways, all delicious. Peruvian spaghetti and hamburgers, pork, fish, and fried rice have all been on the menu. Most meals have been served with rice or pasta, plus potatoes or yucca. Bread here is not terrific, thankfully, as we´re digesting as many carbs as we can already! There are lots of different variations of ahi (spicy sauce made from local fresh peppers). They are all delicious. Lucia also cooks with lots of limones (a kind of lemony lime) which is very flavorful and refreshing.
Time to pick up the kids--more later!
Anyway, Lucia arrives in the morning, tidies up, and sweeps out the rooms, often remaking our beds (I guess they don´t look made to her). Periodically, she rearranges the furniture. We have nice built-in closets and drawers, each section with its own set of doors. She usually shuts all of these, as, afraid of mildew problems, we´ve left them open to air. I´m sure she thinks we´re strangely slovenly, lax about bedding and clothing, but washing our produce with bleach and brushing our teeth with bottled water. She then gets going on lunch which is the main meal of the day. She eats at the table with us and then goes on to more in-depth cleaning or the laundry (hand washing--we have no clothes washer in this apartment, though some do--and ironing).
We´re trying to have the kids help serve and clean up in the kitchen like they did at home and Lucia seems to understand this. Some things she does better (making our beds) or before we get there (setting the table, putting away the ironing). Also, the kids are truly blitzed from waking up early from school, so it would really be difficult for them to help out in the same ways they did at home. I find that I still do a lot when I´m home. I serve breakfast and supper and help wring and hang the laundry (Lucia is too short to reach the line.) I also have to take care of laundry that we need washed and dried on the same day (bedding and uniforms) by hauling it to a neighbors´or a laundromat. Last week she was sick a couple days with bronchitis and we had to insist that she stay at home. She does tons and we´re working on expressing gratitude and consideration, and in Spanish.
So far we´ve had chicken many different ways, all delicious. Peruvian spaghetti and hamburgers, pork, fish, and fried rice have all been on the menu. Most meals have been served with rice or pasta, plus potatoes or yucca. Bread here is not terrific, thankfully, as we´re digesting as many carbs as we can already! There are lots of different variations of ahi (spicy sauce made from local fresh peppers). They are all delicious. Lucia also cooks with lots of limones (a kind of lemony lime) which is very flavorful and refreshing.
Time to pick up the kids--more later!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Really Nice Cabin Camping
Trying to get settled and plugged in! It´s sort of like trying really quickly to move more slowly. Setting up house and schedule definitely take longer, and for as little as we´re äccomplishing¨(compared to what we´re used to), we´re exhausted and spacy!
Here are some photos--a series of us in the San Salvadoran airport, where the electricity for the entire facility went out twice and only Charlie and a few other foreigners looked up. Along this process of moving, leaving, visiting, and traveling, Thomas rediscovered his long-lost ability to nap! Photos also of my only two safety concerns--being in a large tour group in low, narrow catacombs in Lima (I could just hear my friend H.B. saying I´m sure the fire marshal would not approve¨) and our lovely floor-to-ceiling sliding windows that look down 3 floors. Click here for the photos.
We don´t have internet access at the apartment, but there is an internet cafe around the corner. It is very teeny, the keyboard is frustrating and the booth smells like the last three people who used this station.
Things are really going well though. Our phone number is 51-44-280103. Very limited outgoing calls--not even local cell phone numbers. Living so far is like cabin camping (no hot water at kitchen sink, hand wash/hang dry, dull knives, limited pantry and cookware, no window screens, earthy smells) in a terrific cabin (adequately furnished, electricity, gas stove, 10 gallons hot water at a time for baths, nearly the square footage of our house, house help coming Monday). The missionaries are easy folks, the Peruvians are patient. Charlie and I are unplugging, recharging, and thoughtfully reloading. Kids are well, but Mdln has cold with lowish fever which I just caught. Elise is thriving, soaking it all in, leaving the house on every errand possible with us. Thomas lost his first tooth and is a little uncertain esp about going around dark, uninhabited corners of the apt, fastidious about not drinking the tap water. Paul was a big hit with the director in his school interview (went in with his big open mouthed smile and dimples). This is my first time online since we´ve arrived and reading the mail does choke me up though I didn´t feel sad before.
Here are some photos--a series of us in the San Salvadoran airport, where the electricity for the entire facility went out twice and only Charlie and a few other foreigners looked up. Along this process of moving, leaving, visiting, and traveling, Thomas rediscovered his long-lost ability to nap! Photos also of my only two safety concerns--being in a large tour group in low, narrow catacombs in Lima (I could just hear my friend H.B. saying I´m sure the fire marshal would not approve¨) and our lovely floor-to-ceiling sliding windows that look down 3 floors. Click here for the photos.
We don´t have internet access at the apartment, but there is an internet cafe around the corner. It is very teeny, the keyboard is frustrating and the booth smells like the last three people who used this station.
Things are really going well though. Our phone number is 51-44-280103. Very limited outgoing calls--not even local cell phone numbers. Living so far is like cabin camping (no hot water at kitchen sink, hand wash/hang dry, dull knives, limited pantry and cookware, no window screens, earthy smells) in a terrific cabin (adequately furnished, electricity, gas stove, 10 gallons hot water at a time for baths, nearly the square footage of our house, house help coming Monday). The missionaries are easy folks, the Peruvians are patient. Charlie and I are unplugging, recharging, and thoughtfully reloading. Kids are well, but Mdln has cold with lowish fever which I just caught. Elise is thriving, soaking it all in, leaving the house on every errand possible with us. Thomas lost his first tooth and is a little uncertain esp about going around dark, uninhabited corners of the apt, fastidious about not drinking the tap water. Paul was a big hit with the director in his school interview (went in with his big open mouthed smile and dimples). This is my first time online since we´ve arrived and reading the mail does choke me up though I didn´t feel sad before.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Rae Speaks
Well, we're at the end of a visit with my parents and I just finished packing for three months in Peru. Tomorrow morning I'll pack for three days in Maryland, and then we'll be off. While I'll be glad to be done with the packing, it'll be hard to leave Virginia. Our last Sunday in Norfolk was bittersweet and tearful. We leave behind forever friends. We finished up with the house on Monday and then said some very difficult good-byes to our family, friends, and neighbors. I still feel sad today when I think that this time in our life is over. No matter when and how we return, life will never be the same. It was particularly difficult to see my sister-in-law and nieces cry. Some people we're not used to leaving. Actually, just trying to type that makes me cry again.
On a brighter note, the selling and packing of the house and the moving of our possessions went relatively smoothly. We had lots of help from friends and family, which made what I had dreaded as impossible, much less overwhelming. Many thanks to everyone who helped with selling the house, childcare, meals, moral support, packing, moving, and cleaning. We REALLY could not have done it without you!
(next day update) Click here for some pictures from our first day in Peru.
On a brighter note, the selling and packing of the house and the moving of our possessions went relatively smoothly. We had lots of help from friends and family, which made what I had dreaded as impossible, much less overwhelming. Many thanks to everyone who helped with selling the house, childcare, meals, moral support, packing, moving, and cleaning. We REALLY could not have done it without you!
(next day update) Click here for some pictures from our first day in Peru.
The Gibsons have moved!
As many of you may already know, our house in Norfolk is now sold. Closing was Feb 16. We packed up and moved out this past Friday and Saturday.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Our letter from January 2007
Here below is the letter we sent out to family and friends in January. If you did not recieve this letter that means we didn't have your mailing address. Please email me at chas.gibson@gmail.com and I'll be sure you are included next time if you would prefer updates via US mail. Click each page to see it larger.
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