Where we have been living in Santiago

Many have wondering where we have been living in Santiago.  Santiago is not a tourist destination, so finding a furnished apartment here is hard, especially for only one month.  We let the local brothers and sisters know what we were looking for in the way of accomodations, and they went to work for us.  We wanted the experience of living like the locals, and that we got.  We wanted to have a better appreciation for the locals that we were preaching to and what they go through on a day to day basis.  The locals found us a local need greater sister that was going to be returning to the states for a few months to work.  We were able to rent her two bedroom one bath apartment (third floor) for $215 a month, which included electricity, rent, phone, water and internet.  We do not have an inverter (battery backup) so we have lost power, but have lost water more often than power.  Here are some pictures of the apartment and the surrounding area:

View out our back door area

Our front "terrace" where we dry the clothes

A Dominican washing machine - the left side is where you wash - takes 15 minutes to wash and then you drain the water on the floor and down the side of the building and then 15 minutes to rinse and water does the same thing again - the right side is the spinner - you put the clothes in one at a time and let it spin it out - the entire process of washing about 3 shirts, two pants and some undergarments could take about 45 minutes

Our view from the terrace looking south

Our view from the terrace looking across the street - there are several sisters that live on the second floor of the yellow building - they are in the Creole congregation

View from terrace looking north to the main street

I didn't take these pictures but were provided them by the sister that we rented from - this is the main bedroom that I used - the thing that is hanging on the wall is a mosquito net as there are no screens on the windows and most anything can come in - one night a cat come in through the cinder block holes in the girls closet - provided great laughter that night

Dining room - the shelves on the right is the extent of a pantry that we had to work with

The door on the right leads to the wash area and back "porch"

Since we have lived in a travel trailer for the past 4 1/2 yrs we have grown accustomed to a small kitchen (yes this is the entire kitchen) - so shuffling things around wasn't that much of a difference than at home

This is the living room - the couch on the left is not really a couch, but it is four trucks spaced out about 4 inches apart and a 4 inch foam mattress on top - Michael slept there

This is the room the girls slept in - the bed is help up by 4 one gallon paint cans

Once we were in the apartment for about two days we realized that it was going to be pretty cramped for 6 persons, so we learned that there was a apartment downstairs that was being vacated by a need greater.  The landlady really wanted JW to rent again, and it served our needs, so mom and dad moved down there for only 3200 pesos for the two weeks (which is about $85).  It was a good deal, since it gave us one more bathroom and it was a lot nicer for them.