16 January 2010

With the increased humidity that comes in summer here, the bugs and mosquitos are out in force. We bought mosquito coils to burn at night and bug repellent to sleep with, but there were always those few bugs that manage to find your ear or eyelid when you really want to sleep. So, we fashioned a frame for a mosquito net we had brought to Peru with us. We went to the local contractor/hardware store and bought lengths of PVC pipe. We tied these together and then hung our net. Haven't been bothered since. I think the netting has been treated with a repellent as well.

This purple building is where we are staying while construction continues on our house. The room we are living in is very small, but has a good sized closet. The bath has vey HOT water 24/7 except when the power goes out. The power has only been out twice in the last three weeks, and only for a couple of hours. The kitchen is in one of the ground floor rooms. It is also scantily equipped; two cooking pans, a rice cooker which doubles as a crock pot, a small refrigerator and a single burner to cook on. We do have a full set of dishes, silverware and glassware. Jay, our landlord, is so easy going that we end up sharing meals and food and everything balances out. The top deck is a great spot to sit as the breeze blows through and you have a great view of Vichayito and the ocean. Sunsets are spectacular!

At the construction site, the workers have poured the foundation and stem wall for the service area.

Yesterday they were digging the footings for the master suite by hand. Remember, this is very rocky soil. I was amazed at the size of rock they removed from the slope by hand. Today they were filling these footings with concrete. These guys just keep plugging away, 6 days a week. Tomorrow when we go out to deliver groceries and water, they will probably all hop in the back of the pick-up, all 12 of them, and catch a ride into town.

Nathalie, Georg's wife, and her two children are staying in their vacation home next door to the property. They have a swimming pool up there, but the water isn't very clean. For some reason, they have not been running the pump to filter and recirculate the water. Georg's son, Mathies and a friend, decided to go swimming. They looked at the water in the swimming pool and decided that wasn't where they wanted to go. So, they went down the hill onto our property and jumped in our "pool." The workers were incredulous...."What are you doing? This isn't a swimming pool!" The tank which you can see on some of the pictures is a storage tank for water which the workers use for the construction; mixing concrete, etc.

In our quest for buying groceries daily for 15, we've discovered a new little market stall. Sanchez, the guardian for the property, went with us one day as I didn't know what some of the things on our list were, and because we were unsure where to buy in bulk. This little market has a huge variety of beans, lentils and rice; sweet potatoes, potatoes, yucca; corn and many vegetables and fruits. We now go in there daily, hand the clerk our list and he fills it. A typical order includes 10 kilos of sweet potatoes, 3 kilos of chicken, S/.2 of limes (25 count), and several cans of tuna. We're spending about S/.50 to S/.60 ($18 to $20) a day for food for the crew. At the most with food and water we are spending $35 a day for 3 meals a day for 12 workers, plus the cook and her husband. So we cart all this out to the property every morning. I find a slip of paper between the bamboo slats of the wall which has the next day's grocery list.