Home Improvement

So we decided that, although living in drafty rough cinderblock was fun and all, a little home improvement would be nice. We asked Carlos and Suzanna if it would be ok if we helped them out with a little project or two. The first thing to do would be to cover the cinder blocks with cement.

Perhaps a little explanation is in order. From our trip with Elnora to her house in the Philippines, we learned that construction and improvement of cement homes in countries like Ecuador often progess in the following manner: (1) after a family has lived in a thatch house (or with their parents) long enough to save some money, a rough cinderblock house is put together. This basically consists of cinderblocks with some cement mud in between, a rough cement floor (think barn floor) and a roof made of log poles and either tin or clay tiles; (2) after again saving some hard earned money, the family can afford to cover the cinderblocks with cement, giving a slightly more "finished" feel; (3) more saving, and then there is enough money to smooth the cement covering the cinderblocks and paint. This last step is awesome. When we stayed with Elnora, we had the chance to help her paint the downstairs of her house, and what a difference it made.

So the Lopez Perugachi family is in the second stage, and we get to help them put the cement onto the cinderblocks. We are excited for a more finished look, and also hope that the cement can keep out the drafts. We are also helping to put up plastic covering (basically really thick garbage bag type material) onto the ceiling to hopefully keep in some of the heat and keep the dirt, dust and spiders from coming down from the clay tiles. The tiles are not exactly affixed to the roof, but just laying down on the log poles. If there is a heavy rain, there are some places that water comes in through the roof, and also a fine misty spray comes floating down onto our faces while laying in bed.

Here is Carlos' friend (I forgot his name), who we have hired to slop the mud onto the walls. He is mixing the water with dirt and cement. Audrey apparently thinks she is in charge of quality control.

The mud is wheelbarrowed into the first room of the house. Jorie here is getting ready for a parade at her school (the subject of a different post).

Here the mud is flung onto the wall and smoothed. You'll notice a piece of tin that is covering the other side of the little window in the wall between the kids bedroom (where he is working now) and our bedroom. This is to catch the stray mud that flies off the mudflinging instrument. We thought we were going to catch everything, but apparently there are some holes in the wall, and the wall doesn't quite reach the ceiling. When we went into the next room, we saw that our water bottles and some clothes had a fresh coat of stray cement.

This is Jorie on the other side of the wall. Also note the sophisticated door covering and our cool, Hong Kong purchased luggage piece. Earlier in the day I did some quick work with Tandanda, moving the stored medicine and miscellany into a new storage closet. We found their small library and Jorie (who had been starved from English language books for 4 weeks, sat in this chair the whole day and nearly devoured a book. Not a children's book either. 

Pizza!

On Sunday afternoon, we introduced the family to pizza. While in town we found some pita bread and some mozzarella cheese. Then we bought some strange looking hot dog like things and cut up onions, peppers and tomatoes. There are some pizza shops in town, but the kids had never tasted pizza before. They have a stove/oven combination in the kitchen, but the oven window was broken out about 6 years ago and they said they only used it once anyway. I got the oven to light (gas oven) and burned out all the dirt and junk that had accumulated. Then we got all the kids to put the toppings on their pizzas and I sat in front of the oven and switched them out when they were done. Considering the oven didn't have a real door, they cooked pretty well.

Here is the youngest of the family, Anahi (with emphasis on the last syllable), with her first pizza. She was stoked.


Here are Josue and Monica with their creations. They were quite particular about how their pizzas looked, and then made some pizzas for their parents as well. Here are the Lopez Perugachi children, out in the front patio enjoying their pizzas. It was definitely a hit with the family, and we told them about Hawaiian pizzas that we may want to try next time around. In fact, yesterday in the market we bought two fresh pineapples that were about double the size of anything I've ever seen in the US, and they were oh so ripe. 50 cents a piece and we cut them up and had them for dessert. Although to be honest, we ate them before dinner, because once they were cut up, they smelled so good that no one could wait until after dinner.

All the kids enjoyed the pizza outside. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, perfect for a homemade pizza party.
Jorie and Audrey couldn't stop talking about how the pizza was just like in Hong Kong. Nearly every Friday night, which Amy dubbed Friday Fun Night, we made pizza and watched a movie. It was good for the kids to reminisce about Hong Kong and to have something that was very familiar to them. Probably about 75% of the time we have soup for dinner. The soup is very good, and definitely more healthy than pizza, with lots of vegetables and once in a while some chicken. We have also made macaroni and cheese, which was a little overcooked, but good and cheesy. Amy has also whipped up pancakes a couple of times, and the family (especially Suzanna), loves them.

Laguna Mojanda

Last Saturday we were invited to go up to a lake high up in the nearby mountains called Laguna Mojanda. Otavalo sits at about 8500 feet, and the lake is at 12,125 feet above sea level. Needless to say, it was a bit chilly. It was a beautiful day down in Otavalo, but a bit chilly up that high. It was gorgeous, though, with steep craggy mountains all around. We tried to do a bit of fishing, but nothing was biting and the wind started to pick up so we gave up. Maybe it was because they were using smashed up bread as bait...

Here is Jorie, crouching down in the high grass to get away from the wind as much as possible. All of the ground around the lake was very spongy and had very interesting mossy and grassy plants. We also saw a lot of animal droppings that looked like rabbit, but didn't see anything. We were told that an animal that looks like a llama but smaller lives up there.

Here is a kind of pea plant that we saw, with very pretty flowers. The peas tasted somewhat bitter, but definitely had a pea-like taste.
A couple of other shots of the lake and the tall grass. This lake was a smaller one a little higher up. We took the kids bushwacking through this tall grass, and they enjoyed it, more or less. Every now and then we would see something that was a cross between a cactus and a aloe vera plant. Luckily none of the kids took a nose dive into one.

We drove up to the lake in the back of a pickup truck, owned by an american guy named Kerry who just moved to Otavalo to design and build kitchen cabinets. Very nice guy. A guy from the ward came as well, Santiago Andrade, who is a lawyer. He helped us to understand some of the documentation things that we needed to do after arriving.

Here is another picture of Audrey's and Josue's birthday party last Saturday. We actually had a few balloons and a cake that we had made in town for $7. Add a couple of sodas, some roasted guinea pig, potatoes covered with a rich peanut sauce, some corn that was boiled and peeled, and some fried chicken and you get a fantastic party.

From the house we have magnificent views of the two nearby volcanoes, Imbabura and Cotacachi. The following two pictures were taken from the backyard (where the corn and the peas are alternately planted). The first is Imbabura, and has some kind of sacred significance. In the morning, the sun rises directly behind the mountain, which is awe inspiring on clear days when it appears as though the volcano is erupting with a brilliant flash of light. Apparently Imbabura is relatively easy to hike, so we can hopefully do it as a family. The second, Cotacachi, is to the north of us. It regularly receives snowfall. When it rains at home, the next clear day the top half is white with freshly fallen snow. I have heard that Cotacachi is harder to climb, and if it is warm, the last hundred meters or so is very dangerous with a lot of falling rock. If it is frozen on top, one can summit without too much difficulty.


This is Suzanna, the mom of the house. She is such a great person and has taken care of us with much carino. She cooks a mean soup, and we are continually treated to hot tasty soup on cold nights. She also cooks a kind of cracked corn, that looks like big unpopped popcorn but tastes a bit like plain corn nuts. It's called tostado. Here she is with a bunch of bananas that we just bought from a truck that comes by once a week. We bought a bunch (literally) of bananas about three times this size for $4.
The older lady here is Suzanna's mom, the abuelita. She is probably the most relaxed person we have ever met. She whipped up a huge tub of dough to make what they call tortillas, which are much thicker and smaller than Mexican tortillas. Regardless, they were tasty. Not sure why, but for some reason they only make them over an open fire on an antique pan. Also here is Adela, who is (I think) 9 years old. This fire is where they cook everything that is not on the stove. There is a roof right above my head, which leaves the little room filled with smoke around half the time. Directly behind the cinder blocks to the rear is the guinea pig pen. I wonder if they could tell when we were cooking their cousins and the smoke went wafting over the blocks....

daily life

It's been 3 weeks now since we arrived, and we are settling in pretty well. The kids are making friends in school and starting to understand a little more when people speak to them. Amy, Jorie and Audrey are taking Spanish classes every day, which has been very helpful. Now Amy can speak with and understand more when Suzanna (the mom of the house) talks to her.

The end of the first week of school, some of the kids from school came by the house on horses. Of course, this was a huge hit with the kids. Jorie, Audrey and Bentz went riding around the neighborhood, bareback. Of course, now Jorie thinks she is an expert, even though I keep telling her she needs to have a little more time before she starts galloping.

Here is Bentz on the back of the horse. They have now all graduated to riding in front and guiding the horse.
Here is another shot of our little bathroom. Audrey is getting ready to shower. We try to take showers during the day when it is warm, before the cold settles in for the night. Carlos (the dad) finished the bathroom and the shower in anticipation of our arrival, which was so nice. Before they had been taking bucket showers. When we installed the tiny water heater, and the kids felt the hot water coming out of the shower for the first time, the look on their faces was magic.
This is a side-shot of the bathroom, with a better view of the sink (the only running water
other than the shower). Here we get all the water for drinking, cooking, washing clothes, etc. Here is also where they cleaned up the guinea pigs after slaughtering them. Nice.
We brought down a game of Uno with us to give to the family, and it turned out to be a big hit. The kids love to play it all together. Here is a bunch of them in our room, before dinner, playing a couple of games. The mat on the floor is some kind of woven plant, not sure which kind. We have one of them under each of the mattresses on top of the wooden planks. We also have one beside the beds to cushion the blow of the freezing cement floor in the mornings.

more pics

This is us getting fresh milk in the mornings. This truck drives by our front door around 6:30 or 6:40 every morning, with the driver honking the horn and the lady in the back yelling "Leche!" I can't remember now, but it seems like it costs about $2 for 4 liters. The milk is awesome. We boil it that morning and either drink it then or put it in the fridge to drink later. It's the best tasting milk we have had in a long time.

This is me and Carlos (the dad) cooking up the guinea pigs for the birthday celebration. They were de-haired the day before and marinated all night. Then we sharpened a couple of sticks and built a fire to grill them. We continued basting them with lard while they cooked. Like Amy said, the meat was delicious, much more so than I would have thought. The guinea pigs live in a little pen, and Suzanna's aunt (a hunched over old lady with no teeth who I can't understand) brings bunches of grass and herbs to feed them every day. We also feed them the peels of carrots and peas.

Here are the kids on the first day of school. The girl between Jorie and Audrey is Adela, who is 8 or 9. The kid behind Bentz is Josue, who just turned 11. Jorie turned 9 in August and Audrey just turned 7.

Here is Suzanna fitting Jorie with the traditional clothes for the first day of school. There are two skirts, which are really just bolts of cloth. Then they are cinched around with an embroidered cloth to make them not fall down. Unfortunately, Jorie and Audrey are not used to really tight waists, so their anacos kept falling down during the day, and we had to look for an indigenous lady to help us put them back together again. Probably one of the reasons that the girls decided that jeans was just easier.
Here is the road where we buy our vegetables (and chickens, which are plucked and sitting across the street). For a really big bag of nice fresh vegetables, it puts us back around $6.

I will survive!

Here we are in Ecuador. We have had so many great experiences already. The kids started school on September 6th. The community that we live in is called Quichinche. It is about 10-15 minutes up the hill from Otavalo. This picture is from a monument at the equator, which we passed on the way to Otavalo.The family that we live with is so wonderful. They have 5 kids and 3 of their kids go to the same school as ours. We share meals with them and enjoy their hospitality and kindness. The family is indigenous so they all have long hair, even the males, and the girls wear a beautiful shirt and skirt.
At the school the kids wear jeans and white shirts with the school sweater or the indigenous clothing. Our girls decided it would be fun to wear the same clothes as the family we live with. We bought all the necessary items and after the first week of school they decided that jeans were more comfortable.
We bumped into the missionaries on our first day in Otavalo and went to a baptism that same night for a boy in our ward. We have enjoyed attending church the first two Sundays.
Audrey celebrated her birthday on the 11th with the boy in the family we live with and it was a lot of fun. We ate guinea pig for the first time and it was actually really good.
The name of the family we stay with is Lopez Perugachi (Lopez is the father's last name and Perugachi is the mother's). Susana and Carlos are the parents, Monica is in high school and Josue, Adela, and Ruth go to elementary school, and Anahi stays home with her Mom.

We were given two rooms for our family with our own entrance. It is a rough cinder block building with unfinished wood holding up the tile roof. There are rough cement floors and a window in each room. We have a piece of material hanging on a string for curtains. We bought beds that we will leave with the family after our year and we also bought some woven mats for the floors. There is no heat and the windows are not completely sealed, needless to say it is cold every night. We are at 8,500 ft altitude so the weather is hot when the sun shines and cool when cloudy, and very cold at night.These pictures are the inside and outside of our little place.


We are getting used to the cold nights, we all have llama wool hats to sleep in and loads of blankets on all of our beds. We get up pretty early so we have to get dressed fast and warm up our clothes. The bathroom is in a separate little building and we helped them install a water heater so we can take hot showers.Here is Amy trying to stay warm. The first couple of nights we arrived it was raining and pretty cold. After a couple of days we had some sunny days, where we all put on shorts and flipflops. Still the nights are almost always pretty cold. Still working on getting the kids up in the morning at 6:15 to get to school by 7:00.


I have loads of pictures, they should help get the idea of our set up.
Outside the house there is a small vegetable garden in the back. Two pigs in a cinder block pen, chickens that sleep under a piece of plastic on the top of a tall stump. There are guinea pigs in another pen that the kids love to hold along with the baby chicks that hatched last week. There is a big open courtyard where the kids play soccer and laundry hangs to dry. Next to the bathroom is a big cement sink with the only running water for the house, we do laundry there, wash dishes, wash hands, and brush teeth. Here is the bathroom and the laundry/sink/clothes washing place.

I have a Spanish class now so Beau will post some pictures. It took a while to upload these few pics (slow connection I guess), so I'll post more later.

Please send responses and e-mails, we miss all of our friends and family dearly!