17.3.07

Furniture moving at Orphanage 2 (1/3/2007)



We'd already been to Orpahange 2 quite a few times. It's around a 30 minute drive, in an area of Cochabamba called 'Israel', so the orphanage is called Israel also. It's only just been finished and there are no children in it at the moment. The house parents have moved in and are getting it ready, we also had been helping clean and paint. Mike ordered some furniture for the bedrooms which were pretty big. In fact they we're the biggest wardrobes I think i'd ever seen. They we're delivered before we arrived and left down stairs. Mikes hope was to move them upstairs. After alot of dents and chipped paint it looked like these things weren't going up any stairs (they're also made from solid pine which didn't help the equation) Mike the optimist felt that the stair railings we're the problem, so 15 minutes later around came the local welder who before you know it had hack-sawed the entire metal bannister off. Another attempt, another pile of plaster, and still 3 wardrobes sitting in the lounge. Now a new solution arose, of which we'd joked on earlier....they'd definatly fit through the windows. But let's clarify, by that we mean, they'd definatly fit if we remove the whole window frame. This was no problem though, as our welder was apparently quite an experienced window remover. 45minutes later and out comes the back bedroom window. Mike backed his truck up, we hoisted the cupboard on and in went the first cupboard. Now there was some talk about the other 2 cupboards and how they'd fit into the other bedrooms. All we'd do, is bring them up the same way, slide them through the bedroom door, around a tiny U-bend, across the L-shaped corridor and into the bedroom. It was generally felt that this was all good. Anyhow up came the next cupboard and into the opposite bedroom, no problem. Before we hoisted up the 3rd, we tested whether it would fit using the 2nd wardrobe. More chipped paint and scratched walls and not really. By this stage it wasn't too much of a surprise when, 40 minutes later, out came the front bedroom window.


Anyhow, it's good to know that all 3 bedrooms have wardrobes in and to have experienced furniture removal the Bolivian way. During which, we also learn't how to carry a baby on the back like the ladies here.

1 comment:

Steve said...

And we was getting nowhere, and so we had a cup of tea......