The Bolivian Mattress Part 2

It didn’t take long for us to create another story about furniture. Only a few days later we headed out to find a few mattresses to sleep on. We figured we could get by without a bed for a while if we had a mattress to sleep on. We found the store and went inside to check them out. Now Jennie and I are not expert Spanish speakers so trying to negotiate a price in a foreign language, with a foreign currency, and on a bed mattress in meters was not an easy task. After laying on a few mattresses we picked two in our budget an decided to go with them. One mattress for John and Jennie, and one for Ella who will be moving into a “big bed” when we get to the apartment. We finalized a good price and once again hailed a taxi to take to the apartment. After strapping our brand new mattresses onto the top of 1970’s Volvo, we headed off to the apartment. We decided we would have Jennie jump out and run around to the front door and open it up for us to carry the mattresses in. For security purposes you don’t want to leave things outside, especially at night, for very long. Even if you are standing with your item it can be dangerous. Not really thinking ahead, we just figured we could work out some sort of scenario where we could get the two mattresses, ourselves, and a baby in a stroller up to the apartment at the same time once we got them into the security of the lobby. . The taxi guy dropped us off at the door and we unloaded the mattresses while Jennie ran around to open the door. After about 3 minutes of waiting I got a phone call on my phone and it was Jennie saying, “where are you at? I am by the door and I don’t see you.” Yes, as you can imagine once again we told the taxi driver the wrong door. We were at the entrance to the other building. By now the driver had left and it was Jennie, Ella and I left there to carry two large mattresses around the building and up to the 5^th floor. We tried every scenario we could think of but we just couldn’t move the two mattresses as well as push Ella’s stroller at the same time. (up a hill by the way). So we came up with another plan. John hauled the small mattress into the parking garage and convinced the security guard to come and help him move the large mattress. We got to the elevator and loaded up the small mattress and up went Jennie, Ella and the mattress. John and the security guard then maneuvered the large mattress all around and of course could not fit it into the elevator. So up 5 flights of stairs we went. Luckily the security guard was a nice guy and was willing to help us. I am not sure what we would have done without his help. We gave him a nice tip for his efforts. So, that is the story of the Bolivian mattresses. Nothing is ever easy and we are learning that nothing goes as expected. I guess that is just the adventures of living in a foreign country!