Moving US Style

Yesterday was moving day and for us, it was really a study in how differently things are done in the US versus Ghana, which is really our only comparison at this point. Our move in Ghana took 6 men and 2 full days during which the movers cut cardboard sheets to perfectly enclose our furniture, wrapped items with layers and layers and more layers of paper, and then painstakingly carried items either down 2 flights of stairs or down an elevator and then on top of their heads onto the truck.  It was by no means an easy move, especially with some of our solid wood African furniture.  However, yesterday, 3 men arrived at our house at 8am, packed and loaded the truck with the same exact items as we moved from Ghana, plus a little more, and finished by 2pm same day! Granted there were a few factors that made the packing and moving a little easier including special padded paper that doesn't exist in Ghana, a trolley for carting boxes around, a ramp onto the truck, and a ground floor house vs. elevator building but it really got me thinking about how the US is a pretty smooth running efficient machine most of the time. Wonder what awaits us in Peru?!

And to just add a little more stress to the mix of moving to a foreign country in a few days, Alan did something to his back on Thursday that basically laid him flat on the bed until today when he slowly started to move around. An MRI is scheduled for Thursday and we can only hope it is nothing serious. And Eli, who has been fighting a cold, now has a double ear infection. We just all need to be on the mend by Friday! Thank goodness grandpa and grandma are taking good care of us now that we are settled in with them until we leave.

Round Two

Despite taking 6 months off from the blogosphere, I am back in it now for the long haul. Somehow our life back in the US seemed rather mundane compared to the constant barrage of new experiences Ghana offered us and so I decided to take a bit of time off from recording our lives and commentary.  But, now I have good reason to get inspired to write again, as we are off to Lima, Peru in about a week where we will settle for a few years likely.  Alan has gotten a job with a mining company there.  But, our time back home has been wonderful. We've made a nice home with all of our African furniture and crafts.

Eli got settled in a wonderful Montessori preschool here in Athens where he made sweet 1 year old friends and has learned so much, and I have been busy baking with a local caterer which has been great fun. And meanwhile, Alan was busy looking for work both in the US and abroad and got a lot of quality father-son time with Eli while I was baking away.

We've enjoyed spending so much time with my parents, have gotten some good time in with extended family with visits down to Miami to see my brother, sister-in-law, and their 2 boys as well as attending Alan's cousin's wedding where we got to visit with much of his family. Alan and I took our first mini-vacation without Eli to Charleston, SC which was great fun. We've enjoyed watching Eli soak up new experiences that he just didn't get in Ghana like going to parks, going down slides, taking long walks, and playing in sandboxes.  He is learning things so fast and is now starting to communicate with words (well, we can understand some of them) which is really exciting.

But now the time has come to move on to our next adventure. We always knew Athens might only be a temporary home, as Alan would likely not find the right kind of job in such a small town.  We remained open to moving abroad again and so when Lima, Peru appeared as an option, we jumped on board. I have always wanted to live in a Spanish-speaking country because I know it is the only way Eli and I will really learn Spanish.  We will be close to Alan's sister and her family who live in Lima which will be wonderful, given she has two children not far in age from Eli. We will hopefully get to travel around South America and learn about Peruvian culture while we are there. I'm looking forward to the amazing culinary world of Peru and all the colorful crafts we will surely find.  I'm really optimistic about the experiences we are going to have but am also realistic that the beginning may be rough. So I will document the best I can our path towards acculturation and all the comical stories that will probably occur while on this path.