House Hunting Part 1

Considering the recent events leading us to feel unsafe and not secure in our present home, Jenni and I made the unanimous decision to move out. However, finding a new home has quickly presented us a challenge. Where do you find a room/apartment that is decently priced, close to the center of town, is safe, comfortable, and maybe, just maybe have a wireless internet signal? For over three months, our little hostel room has served us quite splendidly. Being within two blocks of the taxi stop to Campo Verde aka Home, only one block from the post office, vegetarian restaurant, french fry place, market, being right on the plaza (which is an easy orientation point when lost), not to mention the quite dependable free wireless internet that the Pronegocious warehouse has unknowingly provided us. God has blessed tremedously. However, we feel it is time to move out.

So, Saturday night and Sunday we spent apartment shopping. Well, it has been fruitful in many ways, finding some nice places and some not-so-nice places. From a dungeon/prison cell at about S/.120 (a little under $40 a month) to a fully furnished two bedroom, kitchen, and living room with outside garden, with air conditioning, water, and light included for a mere $350 per month (that’s about S/.1000 aka out-of-my-price-range-but-lovely-to-look-at), we searched Pucallpa. Sunday afternoon we went around town in a motokar with a “real-estate agent.” Actually, he was a guy that is developing some new homes/apartments and wanted to show us. Well, quite fun, mostly cause we got a free ride around town, but also because we got to become a part of Carnival.

Carnival is a Peruvian holiday that lasts the entire month of February. Hearing stories about past experiences during the month of February, made me dread the coming of February, but now it’s here and it isn’t even half as bad as I had heard. Let me explain. I don’t know too much about it, except that for the whole month it is a huge water fight between guys and girls. Guys throw water on girls and vice-versa. Fun right? Well, the problem and grossness comes in when people decide to throw water that isn’t really water, more like sewage and other nasty stuff. That’s not fun. However, this year a law was passed that states no dirty water can be used and if caught, the device used to throw will be confiscated (however, if it’s an arm used to throw the dirty stuff, I’m not sure how that works) and if it becomes a public annoyance, then the person is arrested. Amazing. So walking and driving around town on Sunday was quite fun and refreshing. I was hot and tired, and some Peruvian guys must have seen this and decided I would be a perfect target for their water balloons. I was actually quite grateful and felt refreshed after. Driving around town with our “real estate agent,” we were able to see quite a number of young people in little groups, waiting for the perfect person to chuck a water balloon at. A few times, I just smiled real nicely at some of the little kids and I think they must have gotten scared cause they didn’t throw any at me or Jenni. Haha:-) We also witnessed someone getting arrested for throwing apparently dirty water at passer-bys. So the law is enforced around here, which is good to know.

Since school is out for almost all the kids, they are definitely taking advantage of Carnival month. Little groups of kids gather on street corners waiting for people to pass by before throwing water balloons at them. And of course, white girls walking by always has a special draw to the Peruvian guys for some reason and so they seem especially eager to get us wet. I think it’s hilarious, not to mention it feels great to cool off. I think our team should pick a street corner next Sunday and join in on the fun!