Yesterday we finally got out and about to do some of our errands.
First order of business: finding a different Freezer/Fridge set up for this house. The kitchen is much smaller & we have no more housemates, so it was time to downsize our big chest fridge. So we are selling our current freezer & bought a 4 & a 5 cu ft chest freezer, to replace it. We have had no freezer at all since our regular refrigerator was killed by our bad power last year!
Let me try to explain why I am calling them all "freezer"...with our power set up we are always trying to live using less energy. There will invariably be days, maybe even weeks during the year where we have NONE! Running a generator is expensive, noisy & limited, so we try to live as much off the grid as we can so that it won't affect us as much. One of our near-future plans is to get solar power set up so that our batteries are used less & continually filled during the day. That means that we would be much better off with our basic power needs in the case of no electricity for a longer period of time.
As it is we have power from the city for about 8 hours every night. This charges our battery banks & then during the day we can keep food cold in the fridge & use our laptops/internet & fans! We have found that you can use a special thermostat to convert a chest freezer into a fridge. The reasoning behind it is that cool air drops, so when you open a chest freezer the warm air pushes the cold air down and keeps it inside, unlike in an upright, where the cold air pours right out! Also, freezers are typically better insulated so they stay cold longer. Some sites documented using only 8% of the energy that it took for a regular fridge, so a 92% kwh reduction. This means our fridge will be able to work on solar power once we set that up too!
Here is our new set up:
It was also a lift to my spirits to just go out & do a normal thing like shopping for those items & also some groceries. At our local hardware store, MSC, we ran into a couple of "friends" which immediately renewed my sense of community here and of belonging. They have recently had a stint in the US & left a young adult daughter behind as well, so it was sweet that God placed them in our path for a few minutes of brief conversation. Tara is also a midwifery student working in a birthing center here, so we had a chance to chat about that as well. It was a fleeting moment of semi-normalcy, in a place where when meeting up with friends, getting out to the store & shopping around town are NOT a daily occurence! Spending the day out helped lift the struggle in adjustment to the confinements of our life here, which had hit me hard upon arrival.
In a recent blog post, Tara wrote
"I submit to you that pain is a part of life. Goodbyes are a part of life. Disappointment is a part of life. Messing up is a part of life. Starting over is a part of life. LOVE and sacrifice are a part of life.They are worth the pain. Love washes over these things, love lights the path when things get dark or scary or very, very sad. Love gives you courage to do hard things."
I am so thankful for the other expats/missionaries that we know here who understand. It is an encouragement & reminder of God's faithfulness to us all.
So, in addition to our fridge set up, we also found a NEW best friend!!!
Meet "Winter" our first ever air conditioner. She is portable and refreshing, as our new place has very little breeze. We've made a very short list of items that we felt were imperative in staying here for the long haul & this was definitely one of them.
For Hugo's ever expanding fan base out there...he continues to do great & every day proves himself by far, to be the sweetest, easiest dog that we have ever owned! He's a little joy & delight to everyone that meets him & hasn't found an enemy yet. Here is the little traveler all crashed out:
