3 Weeks Later

I can't believe that 3 weeks have gone by! Here's a quick update:
We got here on June 2, and had to get along with the things we had brought in the truck for a few days. We shared the house with a lot of Daddy-Long-Legs, because the screens were out being replaced. On June 4th, the screens came back, Thursday June 7th the movers brought our stuff (there had been a delay because one of the 7 crates had not arrived in Laredo with the rest, and they had to wait till they were all there to cross the border). On June 9 we got Internet (!!!), which also meant we once again had a US phone, and on the 11th our Dishnet was hooked up. One of the moving guys was stung by a scorpion while collecting empty boxes, and we saw a couple more than I am comfortable with (which is none), so we had the place fumigated. The only good scorpion is a dead one. We haven't had any more problems with them, but we are careful about walking around barefooted.

Walt didn't feel good, and thought he might have an infection, and now we know the quality of Mexican health care. So far we have only good things to say! He got an appointment an hour after he called, and for $230 each US, we can have unlimited visits with all the Drs at the clinic for a year, (housecalls included ) and discounts on other services. Lab tests were $35, a prescription was $15. He loved how the Dr really listened to him, and next week we are both going in with our medical records, just to chat. Walt is much better, too, by the way.

For my part, I have a certain frustration with how slow it is to get things started...For those of you who are old enough, the Cat Stevens song, "Father and Son" keeps running through my head, the son always in a hurry and the father telling him to relax. But I would love to get the rest of my books and videos out of the boxes, which requires shelving to be built, and I'd like to hang up all the art, but the walls aren't painted yet, and I want to have some window treatments made and a chair recovered. (Today I found someone to do that, so I feel a little more relaxed. ) We have a wonderful maid who comes in 3 afternoons a week, and a great gardener who has loved our garden for the last 6 years, and will continue to do so. But you can't just run to the mall or find someone in the yellow pages here, it takes word of mouth to get things done. And not everyone has a phone, or speaks English. We have got to get cracking on our Spanish lessons!

We had a great time with Andrew here; he met a lot of our friends, wrote some music, painted, took a ton of photos, and just fell in love with this area. He did a lot of translating for us,too. I know he'll be back often.

One thing that is absolutely wonderful about this area is the food. I have cooked twice since we've been here. There are just so many excellent restaurants, and all nationalities, and reasonably priced. We already had our favorites, but now we have some new ones.

Tomorrow we're going to visit a little home-church in Ixtlahuacan with our friends Sara and Enrique (if we can find it!). Next week Enrique will be coming to help me choose paint colors, someone is coming to measure for shades and to pick up the chair, and we are going to Guadalajara to sign up for IMSS ( insurance program for major medical issues). Hopefully the next update will not take 3 weeks.

The rain season began about a week ago with a couple of tremendous storms. The lightening and thunder were awesome to see and hear. We have get used to shutting windows when the winds hit.

Here are a few glimpses of our first few weeks.