Home With a Plan

We left rainy misty Boston for hot and humid Baltimore. I did not want to leave our very comfortable hotel, which turned out to be a very entertaining place to stay in Boston. I had booked and paid for four nights, so my niece Lorna is having a hotel stay tonight in the former jail, which is now a party and restaurant scene. My original plan was to stay in the cottage in Woods Hole, which is very basic, almost rustic, but it was not ready for us until last night. The Liberty Hotel was several steps up. I am not sure that it made a difference to Eric, but Maya and I liked all the extra touches. She is particular about hotels, and likes to make her own bed and wear the bathrobe and try out all the bath products. When we travel up next weekend, we will take the bus to the Cape and check out the cabin.

Our plane was several hours late, so Maya missed half of her ballet camp today. I was relieved that I had not booked any patients. I had little time between dropping Maya off at ballet and picking her up when it was done. I have booked a trip to Boston every weekend with Airtran, and the prices are right, but the service lags, so far each plane we have taken was over an hour late. My choice is to take Southwest to Providence and get a ride to Woods Hole, or fly Airtran to Boston and catch the bus,which can be a hour and a half ride or several hours depending on the traffic. We arrive around 7 next Friday and I expect the bus ride will be long as we compete with all the other weekend travelers heading for the beach. I am now remembering why I always have great plans to visit Eric when he is in Cape Cod, but lose my enthusiasm after a few weekends when it feels as if it takes as much time to get there as we have at the cabin, and then we have to head back for the long trek by bus, plane and car. We will stay there for a week this year later in July and will be able to take our time and enjoy our visit. I have two more weeks of work and then I have more availability; actually without work I am free to do whatever I wish. Staying in Woods Hole is easier that going back and forth, and I will enjoy it more if I get into the rhythm of the place. Maya is happy at the beach, fishing, or riding her bike, and is mostly happy to have her family together, although she is also very keen on her ballet camp and does not want to miss it.

My plans while home are to tackle one room at a time and pack up as much as I can manage, and when Eric returns for a week between the courses he teaches, he will remove what I have packed to the storage area, and we will have the house thoroughly empty and clean for the renters who move in on July 15. Tonight I will start with the easiest and emptiest rooms and that will be quick and hopefully feel like an accomplishment. I still have full days at work, but there is an end in sight, and the transition to new physicians is going well.

I continue to worry about my passport and my visa. Eric will go ahead and get his special working visa for himself and Maya, but I am not sure I will be able to add my name to his visa and may have a struggle to get a visa of my own. I may have to leave after 90 days and find another way to stay. It may not be as simple as I thought it would be. Not having a passport makes my life rather uncertain for a while and I am not sure Eric realizes how serious this problem may be. His attitude is that everything is both impossible and possible in Ecuador. It is a country of great contradictions. Corruption is against the law, but it happens all the time in all sorts of ways, from simple encounters with the police on the street to huge and complicated pay off schemes. When the answer appears to be no, there are often ways to get around obstacles. When yes is the answer, it is not always so, sometimes yes is said to please when the answer is in fact no, or it will take time to get what one wants. I am often confused, but have learned to be patient and wait, and somehow everything always seems to work out. When my passport fiasco happened, Eric was clearly perturbed, but appears to have have recovered and expects there to be a way to manage my visa problem. Eric has been to Ecuador at least ten times now, and has overcome all sorts of difficulties or found a way around the barriers, even when the language is an obstacle.

So I try to have faith, and hope that my passport will come soon, that I will somehow get on the visa before it is too late, that my status in Ecuador will not be an issue, that before too long we will be looking for a new home and exploring our new city.