We finally got moved into the new apartment on Sunday after the toilet was installed on Saturday night. But since the internet was moved to the apartment, I haven’t been able to update the blog any.
So here are some thoughts from the past week…
MOVING
I wish I had the camera for this. You know when you move it’s usually “Put the big stuff in the truck first.” Here it’s first come, first loaded.
We had a couple of mattresses, a small couch, washer and dryer, dining table and chairs, and lots of small bags. There was plenty of room in the truck if it had been properly loaded, but the way everything was shoved in, the doors barely closed.
The three guys that moved the stuff had to carry our stuff up 6 flights of stairs, and they did so with little hassle. Our chairs were loaded with 50 to 100 lbs of stuff, tied up, then carried on the back of the mover, often one-handed so the other hand could carry something smaller – or use the cell phone.
NO ROADS
CZ has built some nice (but small) apartments near the top of a mountain, then failed to make any roads to actually get up to the apartments. There are multiple roads leading up here, but they are all dirt roads, and because of the rain, they are all mud roads, and the taxis refuse to drive up them.
Speaking of taxis, they also refuse to drive up at night due to the crime in the area, and people jumping in front of the cars, then demanding money after being hit.
THE AMUSEMENT PARK
If you look out our back window to the left, you’ll see an amusement park less than a hundred yards away, but to get to it, you have to walk to the right, up around the mountain, then travel back to the left, higher up the mountain, past a playground (more like an exercise yard), then keep on walking up the mountain until you come to a pretty cool little amusement park with some traditional rides, plus an obstacle course and a horse ride. Once the weather clears up, we’ll take the boys over.
THE APARTMENT
Is cold.
We’ve installed electric heaters to warm it up, but we’re losing a lot of heat out the windows and because of the cement block walls and cold tile floors.
We also installed some “carpet tiles,” as Walmart calls them. It’s the soft, interlocking tiles for kids room, but they make all the difference in the world. They battle the cold, and also make it bearable for bare feet.
The toilet? Cold but comfortable.
WAL-MART
Yesterday, we went to Walmart to buy some stuff for the apartment. We had three carts: one for two of the boys, one for the tiles, then one for everything else. We got a lot of stares first for “Look, three boys” then “Look how much stuff they’re buying!” We were wondering how we were going to get everything out, but fortunately one of the assistants helped us take the cart outside and wait for a taxi, which was greatly appreciated.
It took a couple trips to carry everything upstairs, though.
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