Necessity is Indeed the Mother of Invention

When we moved to Arequipa, we came prepared to live with what we brought in our suitcases.  We originally thought we'd take all our belongings with us on the plane when we leave but have found a shipping company which will be cheaper and easier for us.  At any rate, we rented a fully furnished apartment and haven't bought much which has led us to be creative in some ways.  Just for fun, here's a look at a few.

When Josh went to Yurimaguas in February I got the itch to organize.  Our furnished apartment has furniture and bedding, but not much else so when I decided to organize the kids toys, I used what we had - water bottles.  They work well for keeping things sorted and helping the kids find their items.

Josh got the itch to plant when spring in the Northern Hemisphere rolled around so he took some water jugs and water boxes and got some dirt from the empty lot behind our apartment.  He planted some tomato seeds from a tomato we had on the counter to see what would happen.  The shoe strings are the water wicking system he created when we went to Lima to keep them alive - the climate is so dry here they need watered daily.  We also have kitchen scraps in a trash bag on the porch composting to fertilize them.

We have found many uses for suitcases.  When we first arrived, we built a fort for the kids with them.  The photo below on the left is our laundry hamper, although it also doubles as a play pen for Maggie sometimes!  The photo on the right is Maggie's closet.  The other 2 bedrooms have a set of drawers in one closet but Maggie's room has only hanging rods and no dresser.  So, we stacked up some suitcases and 'tada' we have a drawer for her clothes.  We'll be using the suitcases again as suitcases as the end of July.  Josh and the kids will finish school on July 22 and we'll be moving at the end of the month!

Fresh coconut is common here and quite delicious.  We have enjoyed several.  However, when we brought the first one home, we didn't know what to do with it.  No problem, Josh got on You Tube and found a video of how to open one with common things you'd have around the house.  The problem was, we didn't have any of those common things around our house - no screwdriver, no hammer - no tools.  Josh misses his tools!  No worries though, Josh has always been good at finding solutions with the resources available.  So, a large knife to poke holes in the eyes and a concrete window ledge to bust open the coconut and we have a delicious snack!  We have acquired a few tools in our time here - a wrench to take the crib apart and move it into another bedroom and a screwdriver to replace handles that were falling apart on the cabinets.  Josh looks forward to getting settled in Yurimaguas so he can go tool shopping!

I'm thankful for a resourceful husband, a gift I think we'll be using even more in the months ahead!
                                                                                                                             ~Jennifer