La Clausura

***UPDATE: Videos are now working***

The Closure. Sounds very final. Really it was just a celebration of everything the diabetes group from the health center (next door to the Casita de Chocolate) has accomplished over the past year. This includes working on our garden project, but mostly it is a way for them to celebrate the consistent participation they have shown in attending classes and aerobics at the health center. They've been practicing every day for the past week, and Tuesday was the big day.

Part I: The Dance



It ain't a party if there ain't music. And if there's music, there'll be dancing. No way around it.

Part II: Rhymes



Each pair came up and delivered some rhymes. The closest thing I can think of for these in English would be limericks: touching on the taboo (in our case, all things to do with el amor) but with humorous intent.

Part III: A Play in Many Acts

The first scene features the courageous protagonist, Don Antonio, and also - in his stunning stage debut - Mike.

We find our hero bragging about the fact that he has tres mujeres, then ordering a drink or three. Mike obliges.

Let us skip ahead to Scene Ten. Don Antonio, having visited each of his mujeres in turn, and having assured each that he loves them and will return next time with money to give them, goes out and parties. Don Antonio's party style includes much consumption of alcohol. Again, Mike obliges.

(At the end of this scene, one of his mujeres shouts, "Go back to the street!" Again?! Don Antonio complains. "Back to the street!")

Scene The Final: Don Antonio makes another round of visits and then goes right back to partying and alcohol (Mike once more obliges). And then, the climax - you knew it was coming - all the women converge and the cat's out of the bag. "Yo soy la mujer!" "No, YO soy la mujer!" Followed by a high-speed chase in which one of the mujeres flails her machete about in a terrifyingly careless manner. Mike, being the smart cookie that he is, has long since fled.


And...scene.

Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Winter

In coastal Ecuador, the rainy season - winter - aligns with school vacation. Perhaps this is because winter brings with it flooding, disease, and days of such stifling heat that sitting in a classroom would have such deleterious effects on students as melting into a puddle.

School started this week, so everybody's back in class. But, this past weekend, to celebrate the last days of vacation - and the fact that we hadn't melted - we took some of the kids from the vacation course on a field trip to the Civic Center park and public pool.

One of the moms came and brought her littlest along.

I think I was more disappointed than the kids were that school is starting up again; they've been looking forward to seeing their friends and having busier days, while I will miss the flexible hours and all the time we spent together. Goodbye, vacation. It was nice knowing you.

Even More TTDWFCTV

Things To Do When Friends Come To Visit, that is. I have been lucky to have a number of friends both willing and able to make the trip from the northern hemisphere to spend time with me here in the southern. Most recently, this lovely, talented, lovely, driven, and lovely lady set herself to the task of globetrotting, Destination: Ecuador.

I think we make a great pair.

View of the Parque Ejido in Quito. We spent our first day traipsing around the capitol.

Traipsing, of course, calls for snacks along the way.

These are cevichochos. They're harder to find on the coast, especially in big portions like this. Chochos are the small, bland white beans. They're served with onion, tomato, a bit of salsa, and chifles (a lot of the same ingredients that go into Ecuadorian ceviche - hence the name "cevichochos"), with the added bonus of pig skin if you so desire. Which we did.

We spent all morning exploring the Basilica.

We climbed the tower, which first required a walk across this bridge spanning the in-between space of Gothic arches and roof.

The top affords a view of the Panecillo, thus named (supposedly) because the statue sits atop a hill that resembles a loaf of bread (pan).

Another staircase took us to the belltower, where we found this sign:

Clock machinery Constructed in October 1993.
Clock machinery Retired in September 1993.
Are they talking about the same machinery? There may be something Dr. Who-ish about this whole thing.

These gargoyles take the form of various bird species native to Ecuador:

Later that evening, we got very wet.

Yes, it is still the rainy season. Fortunately, there were these:

Picture the one on the left with blue flames, which is how it was served us. A delightful way to warm up.

Thus endeth our journey to Quito. Fare thee well, intrepid explorers. We exit with a sunglasses salute.

Photos by Cristina.

Here Comes the Sun

The garden project hasn't been too active during the rainy season. We harvested before the big rains hit, but it's been tricky trying to plant during these months (roughly Dec-May) because the downpours do little to help the young plants, threatening instead to wash them out. Rice farmers here on the coast run the risk of losing a portion of their crop depending on how they gauge the weather and when they decide to plant; if they plant too early and more big rains come, their fields could be flooded. If they plant too late, the dry season's sun could wither or stunt the rice plants.

After one failed attempt at planting (lettuce), we decided to go for something hardier: corn and beans.

We didn't completely fill the beds, as we wanted to let at least some of the soil rest before we turn it and plant again once the rains die down (which, knock on wood, they seem to be doing).

Both corn and beans look to be getting along well. Time to find a recipe for seven-layer dip, methinks.

***PSA Ramble Alert*** This is a very long and rambly post about things like Broken Refrigerators and Rainstorms. Carry on.

Well, today was one for the books. Started out sunny and wet, ended dark and wet.

Explication (to that not-so-extraordinary-sounding beginning):

Took some of the kids on a field trip to the public pool this morning. We did the usual field trip thing (rode the bus to get there; got there; I got sunburnt; rode the bus home) and, surprisingly, everything went off without a hitch.

Then, Peter Pan the handyman (he actually did introduce himself to me as "Peter...like Peter Pan!") came upstairs to fix the fridge, which had been making such horrible groaning noises over the past week that my visitors and I were obliged to turn it off so we could finish our screening of A View to a Kill in peace. The Christopher Walken / Grace Jones villain duo requires minimal background noise, else you won't understand what's going on at all versus the normal not understanding what's going on just mostly.

So Peter Pan fixed my fridge, but it still sounded like it wanted to make noise, so instead of resettling my perishables I decided to give it a cleaning. This I accomplished with Clorox spray and a stack of paper napkins. It took a while. Meanwhile, as the refrigerator runs (Is your refrigerator running? - Yes - Better go catch it) and I see whether it behaves, my perishables are upstairs in a previous volunteer's old fridge. And my fridge is sortof in the middle of my apartment at the moment and still has a few panels unscrewed from when Cristina and I attempted to fix it. And the mattresses Cristina and I bought during her visit don't exactly fit my futon. And my futon is still stuck in the open position and refuses to close.

But I soldier on.

After cleaning the fridge and myself, I felt very, very tired. So I lay in the hammock in a rather enchanting state of bliss until the sun went down, upon which I clicked "play" on a movie, and then the biggest clap of thunder I've ever heard hit and the power went out with a POP. There I was, sitting on my bed and eating a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich in the dark. Nothing to do, really, but keep chewing and swallowing.

Two seconds later, host brothers Marcelo and Andrés and cousins Sebastián and Jorgito were pounding on my door as if the Ringwraiths were after them. They dragged me and my sandwich downstairs to be with the rest of the family, and eventually I made the huge mistake of bringing them back up to my place, where they spilled the water I poured them and threw the popcorn I popped them all over the kitchen and sala. (Admittedly, I was complicit in the popcorn debacle. We were aiming for each others' mouths, you see.)

Happily, my kitchen was not flooded (wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!). Then Marcelo alerted me to the fact that my bedroom floor was covered in a sheet of water. While I held aloft my candle and tried to figure out where all this water had come from (not the kitchen...not the balcony...), Marcelo helped by following along and making snide comments such as, Buena deducción, mi querida Watson! And then - could it be? No, no way - I opened the door to the adjacent bathroom, which had completely flooded and spilled over the inches-high step into my bedroom. GAH.

After the boys left I spent a good amount of time sopping up water and wringing out towels and muttering to myself. The bad thing about living in a city is you really miss the amenities when they're taken away. Though fortunately for me, this power outage did not leave me stranded on a tropical island at the mercy of a group of very intelligent velociraptors. Also, I really do love candlelight.

Just when I had decided me and my 97-year-old back had had enough of the sopping & wringing, I realized I could turn the oscillating fan on and let it do the rest of the work for me. (This is what I had done the one other time my bathroom flooded, the night Mike was over and said, Whoa, I've never seen your apartment flooded before, as he wrung himself out from his walk over from the bus stop. And I said, Me neither, not to this extent. And we raised our beer glasses and moved on. Except this time there was no beer, because my fridge has been out of commission.) Just as I finished pouring out the last sopped-and-wrung bucket, the power came back on, and then I realized my fan plan would not have worked if the power were still out, and then I became thankful that I hadn't realized this before and despaired; my soft citified hands were starting to blister.

So now the lights are on, the fan is on, I've set up shop in the dry (drier, at least) sala, and I'm pretty sure Marcelo peed off the balcony earlier when I told him he couldn't use my flooded bathroom. He said, Well where should I go? and I suggested the balcony. Marcelo usually understands sarcasm, so I think he consciously chose to interpret my suggestion literally. Likely it seemed an adventurous proposition. BOYS. Shoulda known.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I bid you goodnight.

Tangalicious

Recently I sent some of these for the peoples at home to enjoy:

I figured the exotic fruit flavors - tamarind, mandarin orange, mora, passionfruit - would be new and exciting.

Then my mom called. "You do know that Tang has been around for a while, right? It's not new."

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me! I blame my strictly fresh-fruits-and-vegetables, junkfood-averse, preservative-free upbringing for not knowing what Tang is.

Until now.

And guess what? Good news, folks! According to the packet, this powdery drink is actually beneficial to your health!

Vitamins A, B, C and iron: check those off your list.

Oh, and the packet also wants to remind you:

No hace falta agregar azúcar. Don't forget to add sugar. That's the most important part.

Mom, this one's for you.
Tang In Space,
J

"Guayaquil en un minuto"

Last July, to celebrate the fiestas de Guayaquil leading up to Guayaquil's independence day, the newspaper El Universo produced a series of videos featuring different aspects of life in the city. The theme was Guayaquil en un minuto, "Guayaquil in one minute," and each video was 60 seconds long.

Here is one of them, featuring some of the food you'll find if you wander around the city. Chuzos (sausage kebabs) y arroz con menestra (rice and beans). This video features one restaurant owner who has served arroz con menestra at his establishment in downtown Guayaquil for more than three decades.



"This is traditional food here," he explains at the beginning. And at the end, talking about the technique he's developed for manning the grill: "Here is where I die, from here I'll be taken to the cemetery. I've spent my entire life doing this."