Traveling, Day 5 and settling in

Friday morning we woke up early, excited to begin our last day of travelling and finally see the place we would be calling home for the next year. We were unsure what to expect at the border crossing, but we were in and out before we could barely blink an eye. There were no uniformed people asking to see our passports or ask what we were transporting. We simply drove slowly through a lane while our vehicle was "scanned" and we were given a green light which meant we could drive on through. Easy peasy!

What was NOT so easy was the next part. We had been informed by the orphanage that since we were going to be here a year, we needed to get a tourist visa card at an INM (immigration) office. We assumed there would be signs somewhere once we crossed the border directing us to such an office. Nope. Thankfully, we finally got with the 21st century the week before we moved out here and got a smartphone (I know what some of you are thinking...it's about time!) Fortunately, our cell phone plan includes free roaming in Mexico, so I was able to pull up information about INM offices and noted that there were a couple in Ensenada, which was a major town along our route. So we drove on to Ensenada, enjoying the ocean views as we took it all in.

Now, Google maps informed me that there was an INM office right when you drive into Ensenada. As we pulled into town we saw a sign pointing to the right that said immigracion, so we turned right. We drove down the street looking for an official looking building with bold letters that said INM, but we couldn't find one. So we pulled a U-turn and drove down it again from the opposite direction, but still no luck. So we turned around and drove down it again for a 3rd and 4th time. Where was this INM office? Since we weren't having any luck there, we decided to try and navigate to another office in Ensenada. Except we couldn't find that one either. Google would direct us to the area it was supposed to be, but we couldn't find evidence of an INM building. So Gabe pulled over to the side of the street and sent me to ask for directions. HA! Me? Attempt to speak and understand Spanish?! I walked into a building and simply asked "Hablas Ingles?" The employees just looked helplessly at one another before one brave soul spoke up and said she knew a little. I asked where the immigration office was and she tried to give me directions in broken English. We were supposed to go just past the restaurant and turn right. It still took us a bit to figure out where we were supposed to turn right, but we eventually found it. We walked inside and informed the employee there that we wanted to get tourist visa cards. She hesitated and then the told us in broken English that she couldn't help us and that we needed to go to a different office. She looked up on her computer which office we needed to go to. She pulled up Google maps on her computer and pulled up the street we had initially been on multiple times. She pointed to the building on that street and said we needed to go there. *Sigh*. We were back to where we started. We drove back to the street we had already been at before and looked for the building she had pointed out. It still wasn't obvious to us and I think we drove that street another time or two before we figured out which building it was. It wasn't really labeled "INM", so no wonder it was hard to find! Once we found parking, we were able to go in and apply for our tourist visa cards without further incident. Whew!

Since the whole tourist visa process took a fair amount of time, we didn't pull up to the orphanage until around 2:30 pm. We had been instructed to go to the visitor's center and call the number on the whiteboard when we arrived....only we didn't know where the visitor's center was! However, the "oficina" was the first parking area on the right, so we pulled in there. There was nobody there. Nor was there any whiteboard. Thankfully, just as we were about to get back into the car and drive a little further up, a man came out from behind some of the buildings. Gabe explained our situation and he was able to call someone who then told him where to take us. We followed him to a row of duplexes and he brought us to #3. As we went in to check it out, he told us that we were going to be here temporarily, as they were fixing up another place for us. Well, that was the first I had heard of that. We were expecting a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom duplex. What we have right now is a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom duplex with a very large loft space which we are using for sleeping quarters. While the duplex may be a bit smaller, it is nicely set up and has room for all of us to sleep, so it's not too disappointing. It's just a little hard to know what to do with all our stuff, as we don't want to unpack it all, only to have to move again in another couple of weeks. Our future home is literally the next building over and we were able to walk through it and see it. Apparently it hadn't had any updates since it was built about 20 years ago and when they were initially cleaning it after the previous family moved out, they discovered mold and mildew and decided it needed some serious attention. It sounds like they ripped out carpets, sinks, toilets, etc and putting in new flooring and kitchen/bathroom fixtures. It should be really nice once they are finished! I look forward to making that house our home and "really" getting settled. Here are some pictures of our current housing.

The only downside to our transition so far is that we arrived after 1:00 pm on a Friday. I guess the staff are all off work early on Fridays and many of them are gone/unavailable on the weekends, so we really haven't been given a lot of information about where to find things, what time we need to be where, or if there are any rules/expectations we need to follow. We've mostly been left to fend to ourselves, which has been interesting to say the least. Friday night's sleep was not the best because it was SO warm (especially for the 4 girls who are sleeping in the loft area). So today we went out in search of some fans. Now, we have been told the orphanage has a large warehouse that has just about anything we might need, however it is not open on weekends. We weren't sure we wanted to wait until Monday for some fans, so we headed off into town. That was an experience! We looked up the Spanish word for fan and bravely went into store after store asking if they had one. After about the 5th store we finally found a couple at what appeared to be a large hardware store in town. YES! Success! Hopefully kids will sleep better tonight. There are still many items that we will need to get from the warehouse on Monday (for example we are short one chair to seat everyone around the table and we only have 4 forks right now), but we'll manage until the warehouse opens for the rest of what we need.

Although the transition hasn't been quite as smooth as we would have liked, we have seen God provide for us. And while it is uncomfortable being forced to try and navigate around on our own in a country where we don't know the language, we have still managed to find what we need. I definitely need to continue working on my Spanish, but I'll get there. No better way to learn it than to be immersed in it! Please continue to pray for us as we transition into our new lives down here. Pray especially for friendships with others down here and that we would daily increase our knowledge of the Spanish language. Gracias!