October 2009
At last we arrived at our new home. This has been the goal of nearly 10 months preparation. Our hosts met us in Sevilla and we drove to our city farther to the south. As members of WA we are short term assistants to long term workers in the west Mediterranean area. They consist of nearly 40 persons from 12 different nations who are working in 9 different nations. Now that is diversity we can embrace! For conversation purposes you can just call this W. but in fact that generic term covers a multifaceted network of national and international organizations that send and support language workers and the field organizations in which they operate. For example W. USA recruits, trains and supports translation and support workers who operate overseas.
But back to our job, we shared the guest side for almost one week with a wonderful family who had to come here for a short stay. This will help us understand the dynamic of group living. On Monday, after our first full week here, our guests had departed so we then began changing and washing bedding and towels and prepared a room for those who arrived on Tuesday. Every room has a ceiling fan and the blades needed cleaning so we cleaned all of them. Robert cut the grass [yes there is a small yard with a resident turtle named Jazmine] and changed the gas tanks that fire up the water heaters.
Other jobs since arrival include sorting and dumping odd stuff in the garage [Rob had ample experience in this at home!], repainting the garage wall and constructing storage shelving. We are also reading some books on cultural differences as a part of our orientation. Then there is the bus system to learn since we don’t have a car and the 40 minute walk to the post office [good exercise]. Such is our life. It is good.