Visas in My Name

We are nearly two weeks into our Peruvian experience. Thus far we have done the following...

Not brave enough to go "Australian Style" like Rich, I went butt first. 

• Rappelled waterfalls and made some new old friends (Rich and Cherith Chapman) while Brigitte collected some "goods" to deliver to Reb who will mule them to Annie. We really appreciated spending time with Rich and Cherith and seeing what they are doing with the Peace Corps. They are helping develop tourism in Bucay, Ecuador. Now go rappel a waterfall!



Ever the dutiful wife, Brigitte followed my lead.


• Watched a Wolverine movie on a bus (during which our camera may have been stolen...or we just lost it in our move) that even had English subtitles!
• Overstayed visas only resulted in an Ecuadorian "tsking" and a 9 month 'no return' ban...but thankfully not $400. (This was during our night bus border crossing from Ecuador to Peru. The night bus is something that I hate...yet cannot escape. We ended up arriving at Mancora, Peru at close to 4:30 in the morning. The bus stopped. Lights flashed on. "MANCORA MANCORA MANCORA" was shouted at us as Brigitte popped up from a dead sleep and proceeded to headphone whip all of our immediate bus neighbors with her earbuds. I was jamming shoes on my feet, forgetting my kindle and stumbling my way behind her. We left the bus to be surrounded by pitch black power outage and "greeted" by a million taxistas struggling to obtain our business, advertise hostels, and generally just agitate the hell out of us. Brigitte shouted "ESPACIO" which means "space"...and they backed up a centimeter. We ended up waiting for the power to come back on in the lightless police station surrounded by all of our belongings. We spend the time trying to sleep, haggling over a taxi, and sharing peanuts and raisins with officer friendly until around 8 in the morning, when finally the ATM worked and we could take "Soles" (the Peruvian currency) from our ATM. Que bueno!



Brigitte stunned at the sunset and the seeming suicidal birds.




Mancora Sunset

• That said, we loved Mancora, Peru. On the beach, we saw late whales try to catch up with their long departed friends heading south to Chile and Antarctica. We watched birds seem to commit suicide as they dive-bombed beak first into the salty sea, only to resurrect themselves moments later full of fish. And we watched "Argo" the movie on a projector with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore in the background.
• We took buses 9 hours which was actually 11 hours south to Trujillo, Peru, where we saw incredible pre Colombian ruins. Even though our hostel was owned by a justice seeking table turning lawyer, we still were on the wrong end of a fake 10 sole bill (3.63 American dollars, not the end of the world). 



Listening to our guide coach us through the litany of accents in the world in both English and Spanish. (Oh, and there were ruins too.)




Me sitting beneath a very very very loud speaker.

• We took a night bus to Huaraz, Peru and I finally successfully slept on a night bus, after the snacks, drinks, and movie had ended. We are in Huaraz right now and are thoroughly enjoying the Peruvian Andes. We have enjoyed water of all forms...aqua-marine lakes, hot springs (really a bath tub that three of us shared), glaciers, water-falls, and lots and lots of rain...and even hail, ya?



Good Work Anna!



Listening to glaciers snap, crackle, and pop...and moan.



Chasing waterfalls



This is what hot springs look like in other countries. Which would you prefer, shower or tub?

• One more very important note about Peru thus far. The food is really tasty. We have eaten the following so far...duck, goat, fried potatoes filled with onions and meat, trout (Brigitte of course), mashed potatoes meets shrimp, fried pork sandwiches, and lots of different spicy sauces of which may or may not be affecting my very stomach at this very minute!

  

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An Invitation

Our lives have been fairly comfy here in Cuenca. We have had an apartment, routines, and good friends. We have explained to a variety of people what we are doing next...but just in case you have not been privy to that information, here is our graphic organizer with notes to follow.

Oh the places we will go! From 'A' to 'T'.

Peru

Our plan is to arrive in Peru this Saturday. In Peru we plan on doing the following...

• Going to the beach
• Seeing ruins that are NOT Machu Pichu
• Seeing ruins that ARE Machu Pichu
• Going to the mountains
• Going to Lake Titicaca
• Going to Colca Canyon
• Being there until January 7
• Meeting Brigitte's parents David and Cindy
• Meeting our good friend Reb Duke

Chile

Our plan is to arrive in Santiago Chile to meet one...maybe two people on January 17. In Chile we plan on doing the following...

• Meet our good friend Ashlea-Ann
• Hope to meet my brother Dud (BUY YOUR TICKET!)
• Go to the desert
• Go to the beach
• Go to Valparaiso
• Drink wine
• Eat meat
• Go to the Lake District
• Go to Torres del Paine
• Hope our gear for Patagonia will be sufficient
• Probably get wet
• Camp
• Be there until the middle of February

Argentina

Our plan in Argentina is less clear. 

• We hope to go to Tierra del Fuego
• Go to Bariloche
• We hope to take trains
• We hope to go to Mendoza
• Catch a plane on March 18 from Buenos Aires heading back to the states

There is still time!

If you have any free time, have the means (I am thinking of certain family members who like frequenting Latin American countries all in the name of "tires"), or are about to have the time (you are a week or so away from quitting) we want to invite you to come join us for any part of this journey! Seriously, we mean it! Come back pack Patagonia with us. Come explore Buenos Aires with us! Join the now growing list of visitors (Greg Boecker, David Anderson, Cindy Anderson, Reb Duke, Ashlea-Ann Thorton, Dud Bucher (?)) and share in this adventure with us!

The People: Part 3

It usually takes me about 6 months of netflix and frozen pizza/beer weekends to make friends in a new place. What do I mean by frozen pizza/beer weekends? That is when I move to a new place and I do not have any friends, so I end up eating a lot of frozen pizza accompanied with beer and netflix. But that is not the issue at hand. Usually it takes 6 months for me to feel like I fit in...like I have friends...like I belong. This time in Cuenca I feel like it has happened so much faster! And without frozen pizza (though there has been beer involved...though it is see through). This is mainly because Brigitte is a better friend maker thank me. 

So we begin our last segment of "the people" in Cuenca.

Monica and Brigitte displaying the tools of the trade.

 Monica is a worker at the Fundacion Arenal. For those of you who don't "hablo espanol"...that is Foundation Arenal. She patiently put up with our attempts to help little pre-school to kindergarten age chicitos work on their homework. This meant her both patiently explaining the homework to two groups. First, to the ninos. Then to Brigitte and I. She is incredibly patient and uses all sorts of tactics to motivate the kids to work. It is only by the grace of God and Monica's patience that we were able to lead kids across town on the buses (it was craaaaaazy. we filled up half the bus!).We will miss Monica!

Fausto taking a rare pause from work for a photo.

Fausto is another worker at Fundacion Arenal. Fausto reminds me of my father (and I have an incredible amount of respect for my father). He is constantly working. He is a musician (he said he plays a variety of Andino instruments), a teacher, a worker at an after school program, he visits the sick and the lonely...he just does not stop! He has a magicality about him that gets kids to listen. Whenever the kids were acting out of line, all we had to say was, "We are going to tell Fausto," and suddenly they were saluting at attention standing rigidly and waiting for orders. His Christian passion for service and sharing love with others is enviable. We are going to miss Fausto.

Don Gabriel and I hamming it up for the camera.

Gabriel, or Don Gabriel has been one of our closest friends in Cuenca. Early on in our time here in Cuenca he looked at us and had compassion on us. We have traveled to his home town and sampled the finest salchipapas this side of the Mississippi. We have been with him on Harry Potter buses. We have snorted tobacco together. We have swam behind waterfalls together. We have attempted running early in the morning together (it lasted about two weeks and we only actually successfully met up about 2 times. The other times we made plans to meet each other, but for some reason or other couldn't find each other in the morning...it became a running joke, "See you tomorrow to run," one of us would say, and of course we would not see the other when we ran...). Did I also mention that he was Brigitte's teacher for nearly three months? We are going to miss Gabriel. Ya tenemos un amigo. Tenemos a Don Gabriel.

Don Gabriel and Brigitte

Brigitte and Esperanza take a moment out of negotiating.

Esperanza has been our go to in the market. She points out what is in season. She can make a bag of 10 oranges in 2 seconds flat. Esperanza means hope...and her bright spirit and joyful attitude always made us feel like we had done so much more than just conducted a transaction at the market! She would even sometimes throw in a "yampa" (a yampa is an extra...an extra tomato...an extra orange...we learned this and then would ask for yampas all the time).

Marcela y Anita doing what they do best. Marcela explaining how we are going to cook some food, and Anita taking notes over how to cook the food!

Marcela taught our cooking classes. She is a great chef. She likes everything to be tiny. We will miss her shouting, "MAS PEQUENO!" at us when we are cutting up onions (seriously...I have never seen onions cut so small). From her we learned how to make empanadas, papas locras, empanadas, and a million other dishes. We are going to have withdrawal tomorrow afternoon when it is time for cooking class and we will not be here! We will miss Marcela. 

Anita is the secretary at Amauta. She let us into the building every day when we would buzz the door. She just got married last Friday. She would always talk to us about how she didn't want to go to her English classes on Thursdays (she wanted to stay with us and eat after the cooking class). She is a sneaky English speaker...we think she is very fluent, but she hides it. And only when you need a random word translated does she bust out her English. We will miss Anita!

Brigitte and I with Isabel, our last teacher we had at Amauta.

Isabel was our last teacher. We had Isabel after we decided to take classes together the last month (up until then, we had taken classes separetly when I was under the impression that I was more "advanced" than Brigitte...she caught up and we combined classes). We enjoyed Isabel's advice on parenting (kid wants to try a cigarette, make them smoke the whole pack...kid wants to try a alcohol...hear comes a hangover), her love stories (ask her about her declaration of love to the American whilst singing ballads in the room next door), and her grammatical explanations (something about rum and whisky). We will miss Isabel.

Adriana and I...Adriana was my teacher for one day!

I started out with Gaby as my teacher. But when Gaby went away I had one day with Adriana. She introduced me to Oscar Wilde (that is irony, isn't it?). She is a really good teacher, we had many friends who had classes with her who said very postitive things about her. We will miss Adriana. 

Daisy and I. Daisy was the teacher I had for the longest period of time. We shared a love for bikes and talking about Justin Bieber.

Daisy was my teacher for the month of September and October. She was incredibly patient. She put up with my pathetic Spanish and my pining for things American (she endured my stories of the Cubs and how we never get what we want (Joe Girardi)...how I missed pizza...etc...). She pushed us to speak Spanish. She said, "I don't want to hear you speaking English any more during the breaks!" We needed to hear that. After that rebuke, it was all Spanish all the time...so much so that other students asked us, "Do you guys ever speak English during the breaks." No. We don't. We didn't. Thanks to Daisy. We will miss Daisy.

Brigitte and Miriam lounging on a couch at school. 

Miriam teaches Spanish as well, but both of us have never had her. But, she is the one who introduced Brigitte to "bailo terapia", which means dance therapy. The whole province has a new initiative to make the women of Ecuador healthier, so they are now counseling at dance therapy...it is really just a dance/ aerobic like class in the park. Brigitte will miss going to "bailo terapia" with Miram. 

Gaby and I. The first of many teachers that I had!

Gaby was the first teacher that I had when we started here at in Cuenca. Her and Gabriel were a killer combination of teachers. Every weekend was a different excursion around the town of Cuenca...all mixed up in with different legends and stories of Cuenca past. We will miss Gaby!

We are so thankful for the people we have come to know here in Cuenca...and we did not list them all...the guy that sold us milk and yogurt, the German girls who volunteered with us at Fundacion Arenal, the many different students who came through and took classes with us (such as Raymond and France...Steve...John...Kevin to name a few)...we are so thankful. It has been a great experience...tomorrow we will finally get up and leave our apartment and head south. 

The People: Part 2

We have been going to a church that meets every Sunday at Fausto's car repair shop. So, it is like we have been going to a  Goodyear or Firestone every week for church. It has been refreshing to go to a church that is not dealing with new locations or "staying relevant". It has been what church should be. Family. Here are some of the people we will be missing from our iglesia. 

Jennifer caring baby Nicolette Ecuadorian Style.

The England Family founded our church. Let's start with the youngest England. We will miss Nicolette's kicking, dancing, squirming, and pulling on her mom's earrings during the music portion of the service. Next, Micheal Jr. will be missed for conversations about music. Andy still has hope for him to start a brother sister band a la White Stripes with his sister Natassja. Also, it was always fun to see what Natassaja was crotcheting every week...from braclets to little stuff animals.  She really has a gift. Jennifer is always friendly and welcoming to everybody she meets. Jennifer has a unique approach to Spanish grammar in that she doesn't always follow the rules, as Micheal pointed out one week. Micheal is the pastor at our church. He has a "Lon like" ability to learn new languages (Lon is Andy's best friend, who speaks English, Spanish, and Hindi). Every well prepared, Bible based sermon is "en espanol".  One teaching that we will remember (we kind of knew it but we needed to be reminded) is that we have already started a family by getting married and family doesn't start when you have kids...it only continues. So next time someone asks when we are going to start a family the answer is we already have.  Andy will miss their semi weekly discussions about American Football and the inferiority of the Seattle Seahawks.  We will miss all five of the Englands. 

Micheal using his two favorite languages. Spanish and body.
From left to right Andy, Micheal, Fausto, and Davidcito are using a part of a plow to cook meat.

Fausto, Estaban, and Hilda at the Wawa competition. 

Fausto is the officially unofficial greeter and usher of our little church. His mutant power is word play and puns.  Sometimes our Spanish does not pick up the nuance of his jokes, but we can tell they are funny by both people's reactions and Fausto's hearty belly laughs post pun. Hilda is his wife and the glue of the church... glue being meals made, competitions organized, and helping with Sunday School. We are going to miss Hilda's insights and thoughtful conversation and we will miss Fausto's one liners and strong handshakes. 

Christmas boots made of recycled Coca-Cola bottles. 

The women of the church are pretty active with crafts and get togethers. Alex who is next to me, has the gift of craftiness with a focus using used and recycled materials. Erika is on the other said of Alex,  and is from the cost, but unlike the people of the cost she speaks slowly so that us gringos can understand her. I am also amazed how she is able to pay attention at church while she patiently runs around after 2 year old daughter. Nancy is down below and helps with Sunday school. She is also the reigning champion of the Wawa competion. 

 We were humbled and surprised at the generosity and love we received during our last day of church. Fausto gave us some t-shirts with the name of his business on it and the church women made cards and gave me some jewelry.  We will miss our churchito. We should have called Michael a month earlier. A shout out to eSteve Heinold for connecting us with Michael and Jennifer. 

T-shirts courtesy of Fausto and the cards we received from the church. Alexandria exhibiting her incredible craftiness once again!

Alex made this "kitchen" out of cardboard and recycled materials (plastic bottle caps etc...). We thought it was really cool because it has an oven and we don't, so we cooked a lasagna. 

The People: Part 1

We are leaving Cuenca in a few weeks, so we are feeling more reflective. We are beginning a series of posts about people we have come to know in Cuenca. 

Our Conversation Group

Luis

First of all Luis is Vladmir Putin's biggest fan. You might be asking yourself, "why is an Ecuadorian enamored with the president and former leader of KGB of Russia?" Good question...well Luis actually used to be wrestler for the Ecuadorian National Team. He wrestled a number of Russians at championships and came to admire Russia in general. Naturally, the next step is to love the man with the steely blue eyes, who can wrestle bears,  supress all kinds of freedoms, and steal super bowl rings all on a typical Saturday morning. Don't get the wrong impression of Luis. He is a lover not a fighter. He is vegetarian due to his love for animals. More than once naive older gringo women have fallen to his charms and found themselves in our conversation group. One time a woman even said, "I don't know what I am doing here...I just met this guy (referring to Luis). I'm not ready for a Spanish immersion group (responding in English to all of our Spanish inquiries)." She paid and left. One last note. Luis and Andy have begun a personal revolution to change the Spanish language. In Spanish, it is not OK for a man to call a man handsome. Andy has made this mistake more than once. Luis and Andy are ignoring the norms of Spanish and pushing through calling various men handsome. We will miss Luis.

Mayra is in the hat with the yellow purse.

Andy once said that Mayra is the star of our conversation group. She comes every week smiling and giving sweet salutations to the people in our group. People light up when they see her come through the door. One thing I noticed about people who live in Cuenca is the way they say "no".  They extend the "N" sound and hold it like a person singing the last note of a song. Then they throw the "O" at the end with finality. It is something like "Nnnnnnnno!" When I brought it up to Mayra, she denied this saying "Nnnnnnnno!" It was so funny. Now she exaggerates her "no"s for me.  She is also a great help in our group. She speaks English very well and has lived in the United States. She is always willing to help us with our pronunciation while looking and dressing beautiful. I am impressed with her shoes and her scarfs. I love her accessories. We will miss Mayra. 

Sandra and Wayne are in the middle. 

Sandra and Wayne are the founders of our Conversation Group. I started talking to Sandra in a coffee shop one day and she told me about the group. Since then, we have been seeing them almost every week. We want to be like Wayne and Sandra when we group up. Wayne is a genuis. No really. He has a PhD in, I think, micro biology (if not micro biology, it definitely has an "ology" at the end). He also computer programer, tai chi practitioner, and a future barista. His hobbies include thinking and refuting bad arguments found on facebook. 

The city of Cuenca should hire Sandra and give her backpay for all the times she has informed people of all the events happening in Cuenca. If you ask Sandra "what is happening tonight?" she can usually tell three options with each having a sub option or two. She knows more about what is happening in Cuenca than the mayor. We kneel before her Spanish ability. She tells interesting stories in Spanish (and English...and French?) with grace and accuracy.  She continues to edit PhD theses and is in an constant state of revision in order to exploit Wayne for mugs of coffee and dinners. She finished revising a paper yesterday, but don't tell Wayne. We will miss Sandra and Wayne.

To be continued.....

We Won't Get Fooled Again?

A wise man once said, "fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me." A less wise man once said, "fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me...you can't get fooled again." O that Brigitte and I would learn to heed these less than wise words. We did get fooled. And then we got fooled again. We are starting to wonder if we are in need of a name change of our blog. Are our "misadventures" simply a self-fulfilled prophecy? Does any of this actually happen or are we just staging pictures and fictioning our way throughout "Ecuador" while really living in suburban Ohio? The world may never know....

This time we were in Vilcabamba. Vilcabamba reminds me of Sedona in Arizona. Lots of New Age folks in a small area. Lots of yoga (we said "hola" to one woman and received a namaste yoga greeting straight out of India....really? Couldn't you just give me a fist bump or a hello or a guten tag or a handshake... a high five? Brigitte and I froze with indecision and uttered Spanglish nonsense). Lots of retreats. Lots of nature as well. Brigitte and I don't really qualify for New Age spiritualists. But we do qualify for mountain and nature appreciatists. 

Vilcabamba is famous for its water and the longevity of its residents...allegedly. Even our taxi driver boasted of a 97 year old father who is actively continuing to  actively enjoy his life taking regular walks, bench pressing 250 pounds, and solving multiple sodoku puzzles a day. 

We arrived on Friday afternoon. We went to a nature reserve called Rumi Wilco. We rented "rustic" cabins for $26 a day. We thought it ironic that these "rustic" cabins had more kitchen tools than we currently do in our furnished apartment. Or that they had an oven...which we do not have as well. 

So many beds we didn't know what to do. We ended up rotating throughout the night in 15 minute intervals. We also invited a stranger from the village to use one of the beds so that they would all be occupied.

Note the pans below the sink. We were overwhelmed with options.

That is what greatness looks like when it comes to breakfast preparation.

The neighbors. Not sure if they were Ewoks or the Swiss Family Robinson.

The part underneath is the bathroom. Hot water. Hot tub. Sauna. OK there wasn't a sauna.

Getting Lost Part 1
Saturday we got up early for our hike. Our goal was to hike to the top of the "Cara de Mandingo". This is translated loosely as make sure you get up early to hike so that it is not in the heat of the sun and also remember that it is an "in and out" hike and not a loop so do not take the loop because you might get lost...or it could mean "face of the Incan"...I cannot remember which.

If you look at the formation in the mountain you can see the forehead, a nose, lips...Brigitte was reminded of the sleeping Ute in Southwest Colorado.

On this hike there were two crosses. We found them both before we busied ourselves with getting lost.

Cross 1. Brigitte and I getting about the business of selfies...does this count as a selfie if it is two people?

Brigitte was inspired by the crosses and the vista of the city below. She jumped.

We then proceeded to take a wrong turn and eventually had to bushwhack a path following the barking dogs, the mooing cows and squishy cow pies back to a road to successfully make it back (we were never really that lost...we could see the town the whole time. We just had to "make" a trail).

If only we had a Dolorian to go back and tell the Andy in this photo, "You're going the wrong way!"

Getting Lost Part 2

The second day we learned our lesson and got up early and did not get lost. Psych. We slept in. Our goal on our second day of hiking was to find a waterfall. We talked to a variety of people and had the impression that it would take us about 2.5 hours out and back. But 2.5 hours in we still had not seen a waterfall. We had run into a group of Ecuadorian women who had mentioned something about going left...but we never saw a place to go left...until we were on our way back...(and yes, it was marked in red with an arrow pointing at it. But it also looked like private property) 3.5 hours into our hike and with our dreams of waterfalls shattered. We were not to smell the spray of water cascading over cliffs. instead it was a day of dust and dirt. That said it was really a nice hike.

You can see Vilcabamba in the distance. This is before we knew we were lost.

Still do not know we are lost.

OK we are probably lost. Instead of taking pictures of waterfalls here are some leaves.

We were defeated...but can you really be defeated when you have a lunch of brown bread from a French bakery and two delicious Ecuadorian apples?

Vilcabamba. A great place to get lost. Next time we will definitely take that first left.

And the Winner is...

First thing's first. We know that many of you are dying to know the answers to last week's questions about the words in the old Incan language of Quechua.  The correct answers are in bold.

1. Choose the correct meaning for wawa

a. one who is a baby
b. hungover
c. really cold 
d. none of the above
e. all of above
f. only a and c
g. only b and c       

2. Choose the correct meaning for achachay

a. one who is a baby

b. hungover

c. really cold 

d. none of the above

e. all of above

f. only a and c

g. only b and c       

3. Choose the correct meaning for chuchaki

a. one who is a baby

b. hungover

c. really cold 

d. none of the above

e. all of above

f. only a and c

g. only b and c       

Speaking of wawa's we could not escape them last weekend. Last weekend was the equivalent of the "Day of the Dead" here in Cuenca. People make bread in the shape of babies. Then they decorate, and eat them. We were bombarded by wawas. Friday featured wawas for the afternoon snack...

These guys were ecstatic about eating their wawas! Juan Carlos is in the front...he does not like to do his homework.

Last Friday we were thankful to experience our first symphony. It was incredible. Why was it incredible you ask? Well let me tell you why. First, it was free. Free is good. Second of all it featured fireworks and mariachis. How can you beat that? The piece featured was the 1812 Overture (if you follow the link you will recognize the part at minute 4 and other intermittent parts) by Tchaikovsky (I just looked his name up on the internet)...which we didn't know that we knew, but turns out we know...you know?

Awkwardly close and incredibly intense fireworks mid symphony!

Saturday we enjoyed the celebrations of Cuenca's independence day. Ecuador is not satisfied with just a one and done experience a la Fourth of July. No. They have independence days for nearly every major city. Imagine if we had a different independence day for New York, Philadelphia, and Boston? That is what it is like. So it was the perfect storm of celebrations. The "Day of the Dead" meets independence day. So big that Marc Anthony himself came down to sing a few songs to the good people of Cuenca (on a side note, the ineffable Bieber was in Quito last week...we so wanted to go but just could not justify the tickets...but who knows...maybe another time we will make it...never say never). During our wanderings of the celebrations we encountered some paintings by our salsa teacher Francisco (he teaches us the same steps every week and every week we promptly forget them...he is very patient) who as it turns out, is quite the artist.

Sunday we had a great day which featured many competitions and many "wawas de pan". We have been going to a small church here in Cuenca. The church features a few different families, some American and some Ecuadorian. After another englightening sermon in Spanish from pastor Michael, the competitions began. Which kid could memorize the 23rd Psalm the best? Which mother knew her family's love language the best? And lastly, and most importantly, which family could decorate the best "wawas" (the winners of each competition received gold medals). The last competition involved multiple counts and recounts...and unlike the good folks who do not live in swing states, our vote counted! 

Last place. Sorry guys. 

Suit and tie for the man and a dress for the woman. Second to last.

4th place.

A ninja "wawa de pan". 3rd place. Their children did not vote for them. Michael is the pastor of the church. 

2nd place.

These were the gold medal winners. 

Oh! One more thing. Last week we finally consumed cuy. Cuy is what we call guinea pig in the United States. 

Our cuy being prepared.

The conclusion of the matter? Cuy is good, not great. The legs taste better than the other parts. Brigitte sampled an ear, which was in her words, "crunchy." It was almost like the dark meat of chicken with a muskier taste. When it comes to Ecuadorian food, at this point, we still prefer salchipapas...

Translation...salchipapas without shame, or shameless salchipapas. This poster is hanging in the room of our teacher.

One last note. We are thinking and praying today for our three year old nephew Simon who today is having a "little surgery to remove a Thyroglossal duct cyst in his neck, "a common anomaly" according to my sister-in-law Ginelle.

Simon is just another one of the guys!