(Don't) Feed the Birds

One of my favorite things about the area I live in is that every morning, I wake up to the sound of birds singing. In Lima, finding a quiet neighborhood is really difficult, so I consider myself very lucky. There are a lot of different birds, but one of them makes quite a unique sound and it's by far my absolute favorite: The only downside to having so many birds around is that sometimes they leave you an unwanted gift. We have no dryer, so all of the drying has to be done the old-fashioned way on a line outside, and it's almost guaranteed that every time there will be at least one thing has needs to be washed again. Oh well, a small price to pay in my opinion.

Renter's Remorse

Yesterday, after three consecutive days of cancellations, the plumber finally came and installed our new toilet. This was really exciting, because we had been flushing using the ol' bucket of water method since Saturday. And, we were kind of sick of looking at our beautiful new toilet still in its cardboard stacked right in the entrance. I'd post a picture, but really, that's kind of weird.

When we moved in back in October, the apartment was a mess and the bathroom was absolutely disgusting. The previous tenant had been living there three years, and I'm pretty sure he never cleaned it even once. We changed the sink because there was just no way to get the scum off, but the toilet was out of our budget then. Now, in my opinion these things are the landlady/owner's duty (I mean, at least hire a professional to clean things for crying out loud) but we sucked it up because we had no choice.

Last Saturday when the toilet broke, she hired a plumber to come take a look. He said he could fix it, but because the toilet was old and fragile, it would probably stop working again and there was a chance he might actually break the ceramic while fixing it. We discussed putting in a new toilet and she said that she'd put up half the money. Again, I think this is her responsibility and not the renters', but we agreed because we really couldn't handle that old toilet anymore. Since we didn't have any cash, we told her to take our part out of the security deposit. She handed us some money and we went that day to buy the supplies. When we went to settle up later, she told us that all the money was from our security deposit and we had to pay for the whole thing! Including the plumber's fee. She seems like a nice old lady but that's just out of line. I was so mad you could practically see the steam coming from my ears like in the cartoons. I know this sounds petty, but I no longer feel the need to be quite such a considerate renter. I'll play my music as loud as I like and I'm going to use all the water and electricity that I feel like. Maybe we'll invite people over and have a loud party. (Actually, our place is too small for that, but it's the idea of the thing.)

Anyway, now we have a beautiful new toilet that flushes, and we also had the guy install the new light fixture that we bought. (The landlady also said she'd pay for that since hers was from the 60s and the bulbs were burnt out, but surprise! She didn't.) Most plumbers here are also electricians and general all-around handymen. We went to shut off the power so he could change it, but the landlady's daughter, who is mentally ill, came running and shrieking ready to fight us, so we had to leave it on and the man changed the fixture with live current running through the wires!

 Sometimes I think Peruvians are insane. Another example: a friend locked herself out of her apartment at 10 at night. There were no locksmiths to be found at that time, so we asked her doorman if he knew of any way to break in. Her place has a laundry room facing the courtyard, and the windows were open. The only thing: she lives on the fourth floor. So he brings up a ladder and lays it across from the balcony to the laundry room window. We all look down and swallow. The ladder barely reaches across and is incredibly unstable. She thinks about going, climbs up to the ledge, and then climbs back down. Before we can blink, the doorman climbs up, takes one step on the ladder, and launches himself into the apartment. You can bet we gave him a stiff drink after that, and also a nice tip.

A Sad Goodbye

In my last post about the school, I was very hopeful about the school year. Unfortunately, my expectations and the reality were very different, and today I had to leave my job for health reasons.

What I should have realized before accepting the job is that teaching in an institute and teaching in an elementary school are very different beasts: in an institute with adults, you can spend most of the class seated, whereas with thirty children you have to always be on your feet, demonstrating, circulating, checking. With three 90-minute classes in a day, plus recess duty and miscellaneous other fetching and running back and forth, this amounts to a lot of time standing. For an average person, this would merely be tiring, but with my history of inexplicable back problems it has proved disastrous.

As far as the job goes, I am sorry to put the school in such a difficult position, especially so soon in the school year. I feel like I have let them, and myself, down. I will miss my colleagues, especially the other teachers in my department. There are some kids that I will remember fondly, and others that I won't lose any sleep over. I feel relieved, and sad, and embarrassed, all at the same time, and more than anything I wish that things were different.

La BioFeria: the Best Farmer's Market

You know the saying, "If you want something done right, do it yourself"? I guess a variation of that would be that if you can't find what you're looking for, make it yourself. Well, that's what a ton of expats have done down here. I spent a lot of last year missing products that I couldn't find here without realizing that they were here along, right under my nose! Now there are two brewpubs in Barranco, both run by expats. There is a delicious eco-friendly bakery in Chorrillos run by a German. Yesterday I went to the BioFeria in Miraflores, a kind of farmer's market, for the first time, and it was amazing. At least half of the booths were run by expats who felt a need for certain products and decided to do it themselves. I found all varieties of herbs and spices, natural lotions and shampoo, organic coffee and chocolate, delicious pastries, even sprouted nuts and seeds. My favorite find: heirloom cherry tomatoes. I have been missing those since I left the states and was ecstatic to find them down here at last. That and the goat cheese I bought made for the best salad I've had all year. Unfortunately, I don't have photos but I'm definitely going back next Saturday so I'll take some!