A three hour lunch break

I was warned. Repeatedly.

Slow.

Expect slow.

Give 'em a Coke, and they'll take a break. Give 'em two Cokes, and they'll take two breaks.

And so they did. And so it went. Our move yesterday I mean. The beginning of the packing.

S-L-O-W.

First the movers arrived at 9am. An hour after their 8am scheduled arrival. They worked until 11a -- with two breaks, both of which followed me offering them some refreshments.

Then at around 11:15a they went to lunch. They returned to work at 2:30p and left at 4:30p.

That adds up to about four hours of actual work time.

Add to that the fact they are significantly undermanned, and they are telling us it could take them five days to get our house packed up.

Three men will take five days to do what two men in the U.S. did in a day and a half.

I asked Hatice why they are so slow. After translation I came to discover that they get paid monthly. There is no incentive to work faster. No bonus for pushing hard. They do this every day. Why do it any faster?

I see.

Anyways, so yesterday they began to pack us out. Much of the house is gone. It's starting to feel real. Starting to become evident that we will indeed be leaving.

And in the midst of the craziness of a move, some adventure. As always. Including:

1. The moment, and I mean the moment the movers finally pulled up, an hour later than they said they would be there, Elijah cut his eye open. Ran right into the couch. JB investigated. No stitches. But glue. Elijah was a trooper. Laid down on the dining room table with a pillow under his head and didn't cry a bit. One of the Turkish movers came over to investigate. He spoke no English, so he just shook his head and said, "Thank you. Thank you."
2. Abigail moved from a crawling position to a sitting position. Multiple times. She is growing up so fast. She'll be nine months old right around the time these movers get out of our house.
3. Once again, friends stepping up to help just blew me away. Angelica watched Abigail. Kimberly took Isaac. Anu had Elijah. Dan brought dinner. The community here is so incredible. Leaving it, so hard.