TTDWFCTV #2.5

Keep them from getting amoebas.

This is accomplished by (1) using lots of hand sanitizer, all the time; and (2) making sure any fresh produce we prepared was properly soaked in a bacteria bath to get rid of any would-be amoeba friends. Those amoebies really can be friendly and engaging little guys, it's just that depending on how sociable your gastrointestinal tract is feeling, you may or may not get along.

Things To Do When Friends Come To Visit #2

Buy lots of tropical fruit, then eat it.

Step 1: Make friends with the vendor at the market. That way, when you pull your digital camera out in front of everyone, you will have someone to watch your back.

Step 2: Learn them fruits. Here, we have guava (Spanish: guayaba); guanábana; and chirimoya.

Step 3: Ingest. There are a few different options - subcategories, if you will - to this step:

Step 3, Option 1: Ingest raw.

Step 3, Option 2: Ingest in batido form. That means blended in a blender with milk and sugar. That means yum.

Step 3, Option 3: Ingest covered in chocolate.

Step 3, Option 4: Ingest in sangría. This is my favorite option.

The End.

Things To Do When Friends Come To Visit #1

Take them on a bus ride.

City buses in Ecuador have set routes (though it's hard to know what they are except by hopping on a bus and riding it). Unlike in the States, however, city buses here do not have set stops: you can hail one down at any point along the route, and likewise you can ask the driver to stop and let you off at any point. As far as measuring this little system in terms of efficiency, I'd say it can be a pain when you are on the bus and running late and the driver keeps stopping to let more people on, but it's sure a lifesaver when you're the one standing in the rain flagging down the bus.

Another tidbit about Life on an Ecuadorian Bus: street vendors regularly board the buses at intersections to hawk their wares to passengers. They sell anything from candy to "health drinks" to water to coconut juice to who knows what. Sometimes people get on and sing, then troll the aisle asking for tips. Sometimes men dressed as clowns get on and tell jokes.

Example of a joke:

I will preface this with a brief vocab lesson.
(1) Subir is a verb meaning "to rise" or "go up." Whenever the city buses stop to let people on, you can hear the bus attendant ushering people up the steps and into the bus by saying "Suba, suba suba!"
(2) Mono in Spanish means "monkey." In Ecuador, it is used as a joking term for someone from the coastal region (due to the somewhat indiscernable accent and rapidfire speech of costeños). One action verb for monos - monkeys - is trepar, to climb. As in, climbing trees.

...Can you see where this is going?

Okay, so here's the joke:
In Guayaquil, what do we say when people get on the bus? We don't say Suba, suba, suba, we say Trepa, trepa, trepa!

I'm not sure that joke was good enough to warrant the lengthy explanation it required. If you didn't understand it, please accept my apologies and just forget about the whole thing. And on that extremely complicated note, I will end.

Seriously, Rain.

Foggy (neblina). Cloudy (nublado). Wet (mojado). Drippy (???). COLD (a relative term).

Sometimes the sun comes out, just in time to make the water steam off the pavement and thicken the air to a nice level of Lung-Clogging Humid, and then the clouds come back.

Gradually I'm becoming a rain connoisseur. My favorite state of precipitation at the moment is the light drizzle accompanied by refreshing breeze. Last year the rainy season was delayed for months and months, and farmers outside the city were losing up to half their crops to drought. Now? It doesn't even feel like Guayaquil anymore!

Christmas at the Casita

I made mention the other day of a special Christmas activity we did with the children in the after school program during my sister's visit.

An extremely generous surprise gift from my grandparents made its way to Ecuador and to the kids at the Casita de Chocolate:

For kids in the States, I think the anticipation for Christmas Day builds up because they're hoping for shiny new toys from Santa; clothing isn't usually at the top of their Christmas list. Things are a little different here. Just look at the excitement on these faces:

(Okay, so the guys were being all "cool" and studly at the moment. Don't be deceived by the deadpan stare; they are pumped about their new outfits.)

That's more like it!

They really valued these gifts. Lots of children here belong to large families and wear mostly hand-me-downs. It's out of the ordinary to get your very own, brand spanking new outfit. For many of these kids, this was the nicest - or only - Christmas gift they received.

And they have something to say about that...



Maicol: Well, thank you for the clothes, for the calculators, have a good Christmas, hope you are doing well, take care, and thank you for everything.

Sara: Thank you for the clothes, thank you for the sandals, I hope you're doing well, thank you for the bracelets, and I hope you have a very nice Christmas.

It was a big deal for the kids to want to send a message on video; they're usually fairly shy about addressing the camera. But they were so excited and wanted to say a big thank you to Gram & Ril! So excited, in fact, that I'm afraid some of them got a little confused as to what they were supposed to do with their gifts...

Or maybe it's just a brother thing? - and one that crosses cultures, too...here's my own freaky brothers as proof:

The kids kept pestering me to have a turn at giving their own little thank you speeches...



Aarón: My name is Aaron, thank you for the clothes, I belong to the after school program, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.



Lucía: Thank you for the toothbrushes, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and thank you for the clothes and the bracelets, have a Merry Christmas, and I also thank you for all the clothes, for everything you've given us, thank you very much.

These gifts made Christmas extra special this year, and the kids will certainly get a lot of use out of them every day at home and at school. I'll echo the niños and say Muchas gracias!

Bring on the Rain

There are crickets everywhere and my kitchen flooded last night: it must be the rainy season.

This morning the rain continued. Still, our core group of garden volunteers showed up. We had a grand old time harvesting ripe veg, planting some new veg, spreading the humus, and generally neatening things up -- getting thoroughly soaked in the process. But hey, where's the fun in gardening if you can't get a little dirty? Plus, Mike pointed out a very valuable lesson learned from this morning: If you want to change your cold Guayaquil shower into a warm one, all you have to do is spend the morning in the chilling rain, then go home and jump in the shower. Done and done, my friends. Bring on the rain!

Feliz Año!

(1) The week before Christmas, my host family trooped through my door carrying three very large boxes. "We see your apartment is sad," they said, "so we are bringing you some espíritu navideño--some Christmas spirit."

Then, this happened:

And this:

Technically it is a stool dressed up as a Christmas tree, but I think the many sparkly things on it give it the final transformative touch, wouldn't you agree?

And let's not forget the nativity:

The jurassic nativity.

If you were ever in doubt as to how many velociraptors were present at the birth of Christ, now you know: at least one left her gingerbread house to witness the event.

(2) My favorite Christmas present this year was A VISIT FROM MY SISTER.

Man, I'm spoiled.

(3) While she was here, we had a cookie decorating party (to carry on the tradition started with Molly Mag-Mar last year!).

Brought to you by the illustrious firm of Nom, Nom & Nom.

(4) We took a trip into the hiemal (look it up; it's my new favorite word) heights of the Andes to spend Christmas with PCVs George and Heather.

While there, we made glue, which is a very delicate process requiring an innate sense of stirring technique and an intimate knowledge of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Argon, Hydrogen...um... As such, I stood back and took pictures.

Heather's moment of glory.

We didn't make all this glue just for fun, though fun it was; we made it in order to paste giant portraits of indigenous locals on the revamped community center.

(5) We also did a Christmas activity with the kids at the after school program in the Casita de Chocolate in Guayaquil...but I'm saving that for a separate post.

(6) Here's a gratuitous picture of Sunny with a llama:

(7) Happy New Year!!!