Halloween

The post title tells you how far behind we are in our posts. Most of the reason is that it takes so long to upload posts, and the fact that our pictures are on our laptop, which we have to take somewhere to try and find a wifi connection. Also, we just got busy with life down here. We were realizing the other day that much of what we would think is unique and cool here is starting to become normal and we don´t realize right away that it would be something cool to share.

Anyway, we (mostly Amy and the kids) decided to do Halloween. The Lopez family had never heard of it before, but of course the kids were game to be involved. Here the kids are all dressed up in their costumes. Jorie was an elf fairy, Audrey was a ballerina princess, and Bentz was a ghost.





















The Lopez family of course wanted to join, so Amy helped them out with costumes as well. As they weren´t as well versed in all the intracies of Halloween costume design, they decided that that all the girls wanted to be butterflies and Josue wanted to be a rabbit. They had a lot of fun.






We didn´t feel like involving the whole neighborhood in the repartition of the candy, so we improvised. Each adult would sit in a different room of the house, and the kids would go from room to room and shout out, ¨dulce o trampa!¨ Here is Carlos, dishing out the candy to the trick or treaters.






One thing that is universal among kids is how quickly they can ingest the candy. Here they all spilled their bags out on the table and began the bartering for favorite kinds, the comparing of who had the biggest haul (lukily they were all equal), and of course, the stuffing of their faces. It was awesome.  

Planting

Like I said, we would have a post on planting. This was back in October, if I´m not mistaken. The whole process involves multiple steps. First, the land is cleaned from the last crop. This involves scraping off the weeds and old plants from the surface, letting them dry, and then piling them up and burning them. The ashes are then scattered over the field to enrich the soil. The second step is to turn over the soil. Basically what a rototiller would do, but by hand with a big hoe-like instrument. The third step is to make rows, like you see here. Then the planters walk down the rows. The first makes a hole with a stick and drops a couple of kernals of corn in (dried on the cob from the last harvest). The second and third persons drop beans in the same hole and cover it up. You can see here that the field is planted in two stages, with a couple of weeks in between. This is so they don´t get overwhelmed with harvest and food all at once. 













Here you can see Carlos with the stick and the corn duty, with Audrey and Monica following along with the beans and covering up. They also plant habas (a kind of lima bean that is really tasty). One of our favorite meals here is papas con cascara y habas. Basically boiled potatoes (with the skins on) and lima beans. They are all boiled together, and then we put some salt or hot sauce on it and have some popcorn. Sounds simple, but really just good and tasty.















Here Amy has joined in the planting, and has taken over Carlos´s role. He followed along at first, just to make sure that the space between the rows was good. This field is directly behind the house, which you can see just over the head of Adela, in the background. This is also where they deposit the pig manure and guinea pig manure, and where we throw our lemon peels, to help the soil.




Here is Susana and Anahi, taking a rest and checking out Amy and the kids planting. Contrary to what the picture shows, she is one of the hardest working women we have ever met. She just does not stop with the laundry and the cooking and cleaning. All this takes much more time down here than it does with conveniences such as washing machines and dryers, indoor kitchens, etc. Her life is basically just keeping up with all of that, with essentially no time left over. Sundays they go to church in the morning, and every now and then they go on a walk, but not much else in the way of recreation.

Around town

Down the street from where we live, there is a small, run-down park. It has a few swings with the seats broken off, some teeter-totters with the seats broken off, and a couple of slides with a bum-shattering incline. Here the kids are perched under the slide, enjoying an orange soda and imagining something exotic, I am sure. It was also sunny and very hot that day, and they were all trying to escape the sun. Something crazy about how high we are (8500 ft) is that, when the sun is out, it is burning hot. Once you are in the shade, however, the temperature probably drops 15 degrees instantly. 
















Here the kids are posing (well, except for Bentz) on a bridge into town. This small stream that flows alongside Otavalo is no ordinary stream. It changes color everyday. We are told that somewhere upstream is some kind of factory that makes clothing, and the some of the die used is emptied into the stream. So sad. Also note the palm tree in the background. Yes, palm trees grow at 8500 ft above sea level.




Here is another really cool shot of Imbabura, the father (or taita) volcano of the valley. Cotacachi is known as the mother volcano. It is quite common to have levels of clouds, perched on the mountainsides or hiding in the ravines like little puffs of cotton.















Here I am with our good friend, Santiago Andrade. He and his family have been amazingly kind and generous to our family during our stay here. We met them the first day at church, when he came up and told us he was a lawyer as well. Here is is helping us buy a truck. It has been an immense help to have a vehicle here, and has allowed us to visit much more of the country than we otherwise would have (sanely) been able to. I have grown accostomed to driving like a local and hope that I can revert to legal driving practices when I return to the US.

Daily life

We thought that another post of some daily-life occurences has been in order.

Here is Audrey at the was basin. Of all our kids, she is the one who most likes things to be in order and to be clean and tidy. It hasn´t been a surprise, then, that she has enjoyed helping with the dishes. Here is is scrubbing some pots after lunch. Usually (if the parents of both families are on top of things), each person takes their dish outside after eating and washes the dish and spoon. Then all that is left over are the pots, which we kind of take turns washing. One interesting tidbit is that the Lopez family believes that washing dishes after dinner would be way too cold. So after eating dinner, everything is just left on the table, to be done the next morning.
















Here is Jorie, feeding the chicks. These aren´t the smallest ones that are currently wandering around the yard, but they are the biggest and so get to the corn first. They all spend the day wandering around the yard and the fields. Usually in the morning Susana takes a dried corn on the cob (called choclo) from last year´s harvest and pulles off the corn kernals from the cob. This is what the chickens love. When the chicks are very small, they run the dried kernals through the hand cranked grinder to make pieces smaller.



Here is Bentz, making a kind of empanada. This kind of empanada is made with green plantains (big bananas). The platanos are boiled for a while to soften them up. Then they are smashed and some salt is added. The paste is then pounded into a small circle and cheese is placed on half of the top. The other half is folded over and the semicircle stuffed with cheese is then fried. Delicious.










Amy gave in and bought a traditional anaco and blouse like the girls. We were invited to the wedding of one of Carlos´s nieces, and Amy wanted to dress up. As all of the other guests were indigenous, she thought it would be nice to be dressed similar. Here she is in Susana´s bedroom after getting all done up. Beautiful.

Sewing

Ok, this first picture has nothing to do with sewing, but I thought it was a great picture of Amy, out in back of the pig pen. This was plantin day, and she was checking out the kids planting corn and beans with Carlos and trying to decide if she was going to join in. You´ll see in a later post that, of course, she did.















Here you can see some real sewing going on. Susana (sometimes with the help of Monica, the eldest daughter) takes on occasional sewing projects to help bring in some additional revenue. Mostly it involves sewing the intricate beadwork into the blouses that the indigineous women wear.






Here is a better shot at one of the shirts she is sewing. The blouses are similar in that they have a row of beadwork and design around the collar and then another around the chest. The interesting part is how many different disigns and patterns they can come up with.

Another interesting thing is where everyone fits in the production chain. Susana could obviously design and sew the shirts to sell herself, but because she has never had the capital to purchase the supplies (and perhaps the time to leave her children to go to the market or to other cities to sell the goods), she has remained the laborer. Maybe this would be one situation where micro-credit would help her move up the chain.

Home

This is a cool picture I caught one morning at home. The mother hen hatched 14 little chicks. The kids got to watch them coming out of their shells. Although this is not a unique experience to be had only in Ecuador it is great for our kids to be able to watch the process of egg to full grown chicken. This was the second batch. Jorie really wants to eat the large chickens from the first batch that hatched when we first arrived here.





In this picture the hen is protecting her little ones from the neighbor rooster that comes over to visit sometimes.
This made me think of the scripture that reads: ¨...how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings...¨ (Matt 23.37)












Here is a picture of our two families. In the back row are Carlos and Susana, Amy and Beau. The kids are, from left to right, Anahi, Adela, Josue, Ruth, Monica, Bentz, Jorie and Audrey. 


The picture is out on the street in front of their house, looking towards the north over the valley. Hiden behind the clouds is the volcano Cotacachi. We thought we were going to have good light for the photo, but at the last minute a bright ray of sun came out. 


We have really grown to love our new family, and will miss them dearly when it comes time to leave. 

Quotes of the day

This post doesn´t have any pictures, so use your imagination. One morning a couple of months ago, Bentz said something pretty funny. Jorie decided to call it the ¨Quote of the Day¨, and ever since then we have been gathering quotes of the day and repeating them ad nauseam. Also, a lot of them have to do with potty humor. Since we continue to have more than our fair share of gastrointestinal issues, I think that is ok. Here are a few examples for your reading pleasure:


¨Mom, I have something squishy in my pants¨ Bentz, 1/3 of the way through church one Sunday, with his first big bout of diarrhea. I have a hard time distinguishing the occurrences, but I often end up taking his undies into the bathroom and washing them out. This was the one that started it all off.

¨Holy crap that´s a huge city - I think we´re in Guayaquil!¨ Audrey, on our way down to Guayaquil to visit the temple. We were only passing Quito, which is about 2 hours into a 12 hour trip.

¨What the helicopter!?¨ Bentz, looking out of the restaurant window in Puerto Lopez at a military helicopter flying by. This was during the police strike and possible coup attempt a while back. The greatest thing is that only Amy and I knew why it was so funny. The girls started laughing only because we were laughing so hard.  

¨Bentz, don´t farmer blow in your bed!¨ Amy, one morning, tired of the fact that Bentz was blowing snot out of his nose onto his pillow every morning upon waking up. This is partially due to how difficult laundry is. 

¨Dad, I think some poop came out.¨ Bentz, in the basement cafeteria of the Guayaquil temple. Amy was in a temple session and the girls thought it was hilarious that he pooped all over the chair. Once again, I took Bentz into the bathroom and washed his shorts and underwear in the sink with handsoap. 

Jorie and Tandana

Continuing on that day in Minas Chupa, here is a beautiful shot of the community as we are approaching it from the bumpy dirt road. Yes, that is the community's school, perched like an eagle on the side of this steep mountain overlooking the valley below. I'm not sure that any other elementary school in the world has a better view from their classrooms.













Here are all the students from the school, lining up to be given anti-parasite medication. We used to call it "de-worming" when we gave similar medications to our cattle. Somehow that seems inappropriate when used with people. 














Jorie was a great help. She sat at a little desk and handed out the parasite pills for the kids to take.














Some kids had a hard time swallowing the pill. So Jorie would break off a little piece of bread and, when the kid wasn't looking, stuff the pill into the middle of the bread and give it to the kid. All the kids loved bread and would devour it with the pill inside.

Minas Chupa

Here are some photos taken on the way to another community where I went with Tandana to offer health care services. The place was called Minas Chupa. This photo was taken from the back of a truck, looking back towards the other truck from our group and out across the landscape. Some volcano is rising up in the distance. I can't remember which one.













Here is another snow capped volcano. I think this one is called Cayambe.














One of the greatest things about being in Ecuador now is that I have been able to spend much more time with the family. During the two weeks in October that we went up into the mountains, I let the kids take turns missing school and coming with me. Jorie had a turn on this day, and had a great time on the two hour ride up to the community. Here is a picture of us both.














The views from some of these communities are utterly breathtaking. Here is a shot looking out across the valley from one place. I love the patchwork nature of the small plots of land, the farmers taking advantage of every arable scrap of land they can find. Luckily enough here there is not enough rainfall to make landslides be as frequent as they were in the Philippines. Here corn and potatoes and quinoa can grow on amazingly steep slopes.

Huayrapungo

While working with the Tandana Foundation (Beau here), one of the communities we visited was Huayrapungo. It took about 1.5 hours from Otavalo in truck, and it was quite high, I´m guessing around 10,000 ft. Here is a photo looking back towards Cotacachi volcano. Also some of the houses that are more typical the farther out we go from Otavalo.













Here is a picture of some of the kids from the local school, lining up to take anti-parasite pills. In many of these communities without adequate water sanitation and where the hygiene and food treatment isn´t spectacular, we assume that nearly everyone has parasites of one kind or another.















Here you can see the kids scaling the windows to get a peek at what is happening inside...















And here is what they are all checking out. The local dentist that accompanied us on our trips to the communities was stationed inside this classroom. Whereas it is possible (but infeasible in most cases) for people to see the doctor, it is very rare to see the dentist. Needless to say, a lot of teeth were pulled from kids where the teeth were too ruined to save with a filling.  

Lago Cuicocha

In front of the Cotacachi volcano is a large crater of a now extinct volcano (probably the same volcano, but I don´t know). Many moons ago, the volcano imploded and the glaciers that covered the top of the volcano melted and formed a crater lake that is now called Lago Cuicocha. It has two islands in the center. We visited the lake with our host family and several other host families and volunteers who helped with the health care visit in October. Here are a couple of pictures of the family at the edge of the lake. You can guess which one is the normal one. Also note that Bentz is clowning around in both.




























Here is the boat that carried us around the islands in the center. Everyone in Otavalo thinks that the crater lake has no bottom. We learned that it is several hundred meters deep. Yes, it looks like Jorie is about to test out the depth, but no, she did not fall in. Just playing around.















Here is a picture of one happy camper.

Crazy Flora

Here is an example of some of the awesomely diverse plants that Jorie and I saw on our hike. You can see that the leaf below, in addition to being large, is covered with thorns. I've seen fuzzy leaves and rubbery leaves, and leaves that were big enough to wrap Bentz in, but I had never up to this point seen leaves with large stiff spines growing out of them. It reminded me of some movie with similar leaves, except the thorns in the movie were dripping with a venom that left the victim paralyzed in minutes. Needless to say, we didn't prick our fingers just to find out if they were poisonous. Also below is a picture with Jorie to give you a picture of the size of the plant.   

The Caminata #2

Continuing on the hike, we entered a narrow ravine, which we more or less followed all the way to the top. Sometimes it was deeper or narrower than at other times, but it was always beautiful, with the sides covered by moss.














Here is one of the stunning panoramas from the hike. In the distance, you can barely see a little town, which is called Minas, and which was our starting point.














Here is another picture of Jorie, looking and feeling like she is on the top of the world. I really am proud of her for doing this hike. It was steep all the way up, and she was such a trooper. I think most of the adults I know would have a rough time at it, especially since we started at around 9000 ft above sea level, and she is only 9. 















Here is a good picture of one of the volcanoes in the background. Here we were finally on the downhill part of the caminata, and Imbabura is in the background. Otavalo is at the base of Imbabura. Good times were had by all. Jorie kept at it until the very end. Only with a few kilometers left, when we were just outside of Quichinche, did she start thinking about how tired her legs were, and showed me her "sewing machine leg" to prove it.