Monday, July 23, 2012 – Cuenca, Ecuador

Today when we woke up there was no propane for the stove.  I guess we used it all up heating the apartment yesterday.  No propane meant no coffee.  So Bruce went downstairs to let the owner know.  Usually, they are very responsive, but today – no such luck.

After waiting awhile we decided to head to Magnolia Cafe for breakfast.  We get there just in time.  They stop serving Desayuno (breakfast) at 11:00 AM.  In Ecuador, when a cafe serves Desayuno or Almuerzo (lunch) it’s presented on the menu as just that.  You order it and get what you get.  It’s sort of like eating at home when you were a kid.  Fortunately, I haven’t had a bad Desayuno or Almuerzo yet, but then I’m not a very picky eater.

After breakfast we head back to the apartment to make a few calls and get our week of house hunting set up. Problem was, the mobile phone we bought last week only makes calls to people who are on the same phone service. We need to buy a separate card so we can call wherever.  We even tried setting up our MajicJack account to make the calls, I tested the connection by calling my son back in Texas.  It worked fine and will be a good way for our kids to reach us.  But when we tried to make the calls within Ecuador it was a no go.

To round out our day, Bruce is still feeling under the weather, and we missed laundry day (the apartment offers laundry service on Monday and Thursday mornings).

So my big adventure today was hand washing enough clothes so we can make it to Thursday (the next laundry day).  Being the inventive team we are we used the drain board on the sink as a washboard.  You young-un’s will just have to google that to see what I’m talking about.

But, even on days like today we must not lose sight of our many blessings.

LESSON LEARNED:  This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24