Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Life in Cáceres Begins - The First Month

It's been a little over a month since we made our cross country move and we are now settling in. There have been a few hiccups along the way.

Take phone and internet service for example. After more than three weeks and four different installers, we believe that we finally have everything working properly. Things don't usually get done right the first time in Brazil. Our street is a great example of that.


The morning after arriving here, we found this hole dug out in front of our garage. The workers told us that they are preparing the road to be paved and they needed to dig this hole to see about water drainage.




It's almost a month later and it's still not paved and they've dug up that hole three times. Next year is an election year so the mayor is scrambling to pretty up the city and make people think he is actually doing something. Sounds like things are the same all over the world.

Course it gets worse when it rains. See for yourself

We had been here a couple of days when the rain poured down. It was a welcome relief from the continuous 100 degree heat but it made a real mess in front of the house.

Inside the house wasn't much different. The house had been empty for several months and many of the ceramic roof tiles were broken or cracked. We were scrambling for buckets for Lewis's room, our room and the kitchen. Thankfully all the broken tiles have been replaced.

That's great news because our rainy season is just beginning. Between now and the first of April we will get about 24 feet of rain. I'm not joking.

Even though we've had these difficulties, we are growing to love Cáceres. I think we will stay for a long, long time.