Quarantine Part 1
Quarantining lived up to all my expectations. Now granted my standards couldn’t be set too high when you only bring a few items (see the list in post: https://www.sevenseasadventures.net/2020/10/how-do-you-move-overseas.html?m=1). We spent the first two days unpacking and cleaning the house. It was supposed to be cleaned before we came but my standards must be different.
Dennis had been sure to inform the kids all about the precautions to take before we got here. Make sure to close the toilet lid after each use and look under it before you sit down as something might be in it. Don’t walk under trees as snakes like to sit in them. Don’t walk barefoot in the dirt. Don’t drink the water from the tap or you’ll get a foot-long tape worm. Mosquitos can cause diseases that are deadly.
This fear made the first week interesting. From day one, the house was infested with geckos. As the kids hadn’t ever seen one before, the minute they saw one they ran for help. It seemed that every bathroom had a family of them living in it. Eventually they realized they could chase them out with the broom. It was extra comical as the geckos went into kamakazi mode to protect themself and fell from high places. You never knew where one might land. Yes, the geckos come back each night.
We also have a plethora of peacocks on our street. The gardener puts out rice for them in front of our house once a week so they stay. We love that the male peacock spreads it’s tail each morning right out our dining room window. The downside is that they land and leave a mark on everything. The kids have always wanted a pet. They now get the roof cleanup each week just like if they had a dog. 🦚
We spent the first week applying for our residency, doing our laundry in a bucket, and playing the same 6 games. As we weren’t used to the heat, we needed to run the air conditioning. We didn’t want to run it in all the rooms so we all hung out on the double bed and marble floor in the master bedroom. Now if that doesn’t sound like fun, I don’t know what does.
On day 5, Emma and Liam were able to start school and Nick and Ben started seminary. We had purchased a homeschool program while in the US and brought all the items with us. It’s a paper/pencil curriculum which I’m grateful for right now. Seminary is a scripture study program that our church offers for high school aged kids. It is conducted over zoom. They have trouble understanding the teacher, but do their best. They were finally able to meet some kids and make friends.
If it could go wrong, it did! We had set up a bank account here and were told when we arrived we could call and receive our debit card. When the call was made, we realized that the account rep had mistyped in our address. We couldn’t verify the address to send it too. When we told them it was wrong, we were told to change it online. We couldn’t do that as a debit card was needed to create an online account. This started the never ending circle of phone calls trying to get it fixed. This restricted us from buying anything online. We had to rely on church contacts to meet our basic needs. A leader in our church ordered bottled water, picked up fruits and vegetables, and answered a million questions.
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