Settling In

Slowly, very slowly, we are finding a place for ourselves here.  It's a subtle change.  On Tuesday, for instance, Aaron was the only person not to have a meltdown.  The last few days have been relatively happy.  Each day we say a "sweet" and a "sour" thing about the day.  Thursday, one of the kids had part of school as their sweet.  It's these little shifts in acceptance that are making things feel better.  It is still a bit overwhelming.  Yesterday I went to the market after class (5:15pm) and was greeted with closed doors.  That meant no dinner until our neighbors rescued us by inviting us to join them for dinner.  We paid way too much for laundry because we turned over the clothes before hearing the price.  These kinds of things are setbacks.  But we are moving two steps foreward, one step backward, and that is about all we can hope for right now.

Today was a day off from school so we spent the morning going to the biggest market in Cusco.  The kids tried sugar cane and we bought plenty of food so if the smaller market is closed next time, we won't rely on our neighbors to feed us.  We also saw starfish for sale, some sort of dead animal, live frogs which they will prepare for your lunch, and octopus.  The kids were surprised at how pale the dead pig looked and I was, as always, amazed at how many fresh fruits and vegetables I can buy for a relatively small sum.  We ate our usual lunch- bread from the fancy bakery with delicious avacado and tomato on top.  The side was a new kind of mango we've never seen before and pineapple.  Yes, I'd say we are settling in nicely.

Tomorrow we are going with our friends to a fancy playground, complete with all of the things a pediatrician traveling to a developing country wants her children playing on: trampolines, merry-go-rounds, and tall slides.  If we survive that, we are going to go to some pretty amazing ruins to have a picnic and play some soccer or frisbee.  Hopefully we will have another pretty great day.

Cole asked that I post a picture

of his homework.  They went on a field trip to the zoo and had to draw pictures of animals they saw and label them.

Anna has decided she quite likes sugar cane.  Over her shoulder is the alpaca sweater we bought to help keep her warm at night.  We all now own alpaca sweaters and hats.  The kids sleep with their gloves on as well.  It's cold here.  Really, really cold.  And it is colder in our apartment than outside.

Cole playing socer in the street with some of the local kids.  He now has a ball as well so can initiate play.  Today I saw him out there with August, our neighbor, kicking the ball around with the policeman who was patrolling the street.

Anna and Zadie are playing with animals near the soccer field.  We feel so blessed to have our neighbors be the people whose blog we have been following for the past few months.  They have made the transition so much easier for our kids.