Arana, Arana , y mas Aranas!

This week has been a little difficult; however, the good is still overcoming the bad.  We have been very disappointed in the house that we have attained to live in.  For the amount of money that we have paid; we expected the house to be in superb condition to say the least.  It has been one thing after another here.  We have someone here that is paid to help, however, he's never here and his wife "speak no english."  So I believe Chris and I are about as tolerant as will ever be.  Chris has done everything from fix the garbage disposal to replacing the propane gas.  We feel very taken advantage of and are pretty much done with the whole situation.  It would be one thing if we were being paid to live here and take care of all of these problems but it's the complete opposite.  Not working.  So anyway, hopefully soon we'll find something that works a little better.

The biggest deal has been the spiders.  Not the tarantula spiders that stay outdoors, but the minature spiders that are everywhere.  They are poisonous and dangerous and at first we thought they were just something that one had to deal with in the jungle but we have been notified that they are in fact dangerous for the baby and are caused by the owner's inability to properly maintenance his house.  Hence, the feelings of being fed up. 

Besides all of that, we've managed to become more familiar with the ways of living here.  For instance, it's no problem for me to catch a water taxi and go get some quick groceries at the "minisuper" in the neighboring town.  The only thing I still have to get used to is that long uphill road to our house from the beach.  I will definitely have great thighs and calves before too long!

Joseph and I got to steal away on Tuesday or Wednesday to the beach by ourselves.  We were able to snorkel and swim and enjoy the beach.  Tuesday through Thursday beach days are usually bombarded with tourists from the cruise ships, so it's a lot of locals trying to sell you jewelry, hammocks, or massages.  Joseph spotted a beautiful starfish and we both saw some stingrays. 

 

I have to say that Joseph is becoming quite the fish in the water.  Jesse is still into building castles and turtles in the sand.





Julianne went to the youth group meeting here on the island on Thursday.  She was able to carpool and everything.  I believe we're starting to get the hang of it all. 

Yesterday, the older kids and I were able to make a trip to the beach while Daddy and baby napped, or baby napped and Daddy...well, I don't know what Daddy did.  Although we didn't see any more stingrays, we did see another starfish, some local fish that we couldn't distinguish and the sun was amazing! 



On Friday, Chris and I went with a local real estate agent to search the island for nice hidden spots.  On our journey, the real estate agent took us up to an empty lot to show us the view.  As he pulled onto the lot, Chris and I both said to ourselves, "ooooh, he's gonna get stuck."  Sure enough, he got stuck.  So we're two for two.  When we went to Belize, the same thing happened to us there.  That time, Chris had to get out with the agent and push our golf cart out of water that smelled nothing better than sewage.  This time, Chris was able to direct and not push.  I was very proud of him; he had on a white shirt and flip flops and managed to stay absolutely clean...and we were able to get out after about 30 minutes.  Still the trip was very fun and we were able to gain alot of knowledge about the island that we are now starting to call home!