Sunday, September 20, 2009

Our New Home




As many of you know, we left the wonderful US of A and made a big move to South America. After 3 planes (2 excess baggage fees) and one taxi ride, we arrived in Canoa, Ecuador on the 2nd of September. Our apartment was not quite ready for us when we got here, so we stayed in another just above till ours was complete. We enjoyed a mini vacation getting reacquainted with all of the locals and preparing the kids for school.


We celebrated DJ's 16th birthday on
September 7th and
he had a blast (started
his first
job teaching surf lessons to a couple
of girls from the UK). DJ spent a whole day working with horses at the local Finca (ranch) on the
8th (16 and already has 2 jobs... no unemployment crisis here in Ecuador!).






Breana and DJ started school at the Interamericano school in Bahia de Caraquez
on the 9th and were welcomed with open arms (they already are so popular, who would have guessed!). It's a highly ranked private school in the area that is costing us $280 per month for both the kids and $100
a month for their transportation to and from the school. Thank God for my
wonderful husband who gets up at 5 in the morning to get the kids ready for school, they get picked up at 6 am by private vehicle and take a water taxi to Bahia at 6:30, then the school bus picks them up at 6:45 and start school at 7 am. School here is not only challenging for them as far as the language goes, but DJ is required to take chemistry, biology, physics, accounting, and investigation classes, on top of our US typical classes of english, physical education, and math (holy cow!). Both Breana and DJ are receiving daily tutoring in spanish provided by the school. They get out of school at 1:20 and are home by 2:20. They both seem to enjoy school and wearing uniforms (blue jeans, white polos, and black tennis shoes), but DJ was required to cut his hair due to their school rules (he looks so studious now, no more surfer look).



We were excited to move into our apartment on the 11th and it is so simple and nice. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath
(with hot water showers), with kitchen/common area, and a private patio/outside living area (it's just over 500 square feet total living area). The kitchen has concrete counter tops with tile backsplash (it's kind of cool). After eating out for a week (which seemed like for months), it was nice to finally cook in our own kitchen (Henry cooks (most of the time)). Our furniture is being made by one of the local guys and should be ready in a couple of weeks (but we are in Ecuador, so it could be a couple of months). It's hard to believe that this is now where we live and that we are no longer here on vacation. The view out of our front door, the sound of the waves, the people......... simply amazing.



The kids are having so much fun here. Breana loves it, even though she misses her Hannah, she has made a new friend, Leonela who lives in the same complex, and spends most of her free time on the beach. We have already had visitors this last week, it was great seeing Ryan and Vanessa and meeting Gary (their dog). Two days after we got here, another american couple from Florida (Mike and Needa) decided to make Canoa their home and became our neighbors. We have already had the pleasure of making new aquaintaces with people traveling through Canoa (Nadine, Aneesa, Liz, Stacey, George, and Allissa) and look forward to keeping in touch with all of them.


Sorry for the delay in setting up this blog, but we have just been busy getting settled in. We hope to blog on a weekly basis from now on (but again, this is Ecuador, power is not always on our side, so....). Please feel free to ask questions and or leave comments.