With comps on the horizon for December, planning for Peru has begun in earnest. I signed up to an Lima-based expat mailing list and sent out a “seeking housesitting/rental” announcement and within a few hours had great leads… including referrals for pediatricians and OBs! The best news so far: the availability of a 3-bedroom Miraflores house where a family of three lives (including a 2-year old girl!). They will be out of the country for January and February and are willing to sublet to us at a reduced rate. (Hooray!) Paul and I have to talk more about it, but this sounds perfect… great location, high speed internet already set up, walk to parks, shopping, and amenities.
An interesting tidbit from one of the parents who responded: each child in Lima has a nanny. If you have three children, you have three nannies. The pay from expat families? Around $200-250 a month.
The next issue: we need tickets. The problem: flying in early January breaks all the frequent flyer rules, it’s about 50,000 miles per ticket — I checked this morning and it will take 157,000 miles for the three of us to fly via frequent flyer. (Otherwise, it is about $1000 per person for three of us.) There is no way we can get enough rent out of our house to cover that. So… Mom? No Christmas shopping this year! How about frequent flyer tickets for Christmas???
Anonymous | 28-Oct-05 at 11:58 am | Permalink
How long are you going to Peru for? What are you studying? Will you be back in time for having the baby? I need details:)
How are you feeling with the pregnancy these days? No recent blogs about morning sickness, so I hope that it has passed.
Talk with you soon,
Jodi
Holly | 28-Oct-05 at 2:23 pm | Permalink
We’ll be there in January and February, back for Mardi Gras. I’ll be brushing up on language and generally exploring and checking things out… doing some in-depth interviews, making contacts at clinics and NGOs and working with our faculty in Lima. I’m there to collect information to write my prospectus so that I can come back and finish it and apply for disseration funding to return for a more long-term research stay!