"Like cold water
to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country."
Proverbs
25:25
Friday, August 5
Work Day 1
Back in the Guas!
Wow, where to begin?! The group arrived yesterday afternoon. Fifty-some people. The aeropuerto was completely loco! We managed to get everyone loaded into the bus and their luggage loaded on a truck--I rode on top of the luggage! Too bad I was the one with the camera, so no pictures...
Saturday, August 6
Work Day 2
Last night was bingo night...crazy! Grand prizes were a stove (cocina), refrigerator (refri), and a mountain bike (bicicleta). Abbey (Erica's sister) was doing the number calling, and at one point after a round was over she told everyone to "limpia las platas." She was trying to tell them to clear their bingo cards, but instead what she did say was "clean the silver!"
I am keeping a running list of all the things you can buy off push carts that go by on the road in front of our casa. Last year it was one of my favorite activities. So far this year we've got fish (whole, entire, head and tail and all), eggs, and armoires!
Today the casas will start on walls and at Mi Cometa there is a huge project to pour the loza, which is the floor of the third floor. It is a solid concrete floor, or will be, filled in around concrete blocks. It is held up, from the second floor, by large pieces of bamboo. All I can say is that I am not sure I want to be standing on the second floor when they pour the concrete!
The concrete will be mixed down on the ground (they have brought in concrete mixers, which are still by hand, but are better than just using shovels!) and then pull it up to the third floor in an intricate pully system. At the third floor the buckets will get poured into a sort of trough, which then angles down toward a funnel, where a wheel barrow is waiting, which when full will be wheeled across a narrow bamboo 'bridge' and then taken over to pour on the loza...quite a production!
Little Gary
Everyone gets involved in the project!
Eunice, 81, is from Erica's church in South Weymouth
Sunday, August 7
Another story from the Guas...
I have what has turned into a fairly raging sore throat. We were at the beach all day and just got back from the two hour bus ride (yes, I did take a two hour bus ride to the beach when I can drive to it in 15 minutes at home!) and I asked around to see if anyone had any medicine other than anti-diarhea...let’s just say, had my problem been that, I would have been covered, but a sore throat? Nada! So, I walked across the road to the corner Farmacia (I will definitely have to get a picture in the daylight, because you are likely not picturing it in its actuality, from this description!) which is just a ‘room’ on the corner of these people’s ‘house.’ I called in—I think they were eating or something, but the nice woman came to the ‘window.’
“I have a pain in my [here I pointed, because I couldn’t remember the word for throat.]”
“Is it inflamed?” [I think the woman said.]
“Yes, it is on fire.” [I think I said.]
So, having diagnosed the problem, she turned to a shelf, pulled off a box of some sort of pill, opened the box, cut off one of the pills from the sheet, and handed it to me. Somehow she communicated to me that this would take away the swelling, and was the answer. Oh yeah, it is an anti-biotic. I wonder if my new health insurance will cover the 35 cents that it cost? I think I have a $10 co-pay, so I am not sure if they need to pay me $9.65? If it does work, and tomorrow my garganta (throat, I found out) is better, I think I will stick with the corner pharmacy for my minor health needs—no lines, no prescriptions, but of course, no idea what the heck I just took! Don’t worry, Mom, I checked with Maria and she said it, Cataflan, was good and was what I needed, though she is going to make me some sort of herbal remedy that will soothe it. Looks like I am covered either way!
Last night Maria taught me some new recipes to take home and make. Maduro Lapreada (fried/battered sweet plantain, on the left) and Corviche (hard to explain, but sort of a cross between a pad thai peanut flavor, the shape of a pot sticker, and the outer part like a corn tamale...on the right)
I am now officially a wedding photographer! Two people in the community asked Erica to marry them. They have already had the civil ceremony at the court, but since Erica is the only pastor they have, they asked her to do it. I figured they should have pictures, so I went along too! Erica had printed out a wedding ceremony in Spanish, which she read, but nothing on her church’s website told her about the other functions that she would need to perform, such as opening the champagne bottle for the toast and dancing with the guests afterward! We had had a big day, and the wedding was supposed to be at 8PM. We were scrambling to get ready, and ran out the door, arriving a few streets down in the barrio at about 8:15. The groom answered the door in his shorts with some of the crepe paper seen in the pictures, in hand. We said we would be back in a half hour, were back in one hour, and were still just a bit early!
In addition to wedding photography I have found another job! I guess when it rains it pours, huh?
Just a couple more shots from our beach trip today.
We did have a mass (that is what all of the Catholic Ecuadorians call it, though I think any priest would be appalled to call it that!) and then after mass went swimming—not such a bad church, if you ask me! Shouldn’t every picture of a communion table have a beach umbrella in the background?
But of course!
Wednesday, August 10
Well, the good news is that the sore throat has lessened its ‘fuego’ somewhat. Who knows if it was the leaves that Maria has been making me eat (very chewy and very sour, but supposedly they cure dolor de garganta!), the one antibiotico that I got at the corner farmacia, or the ten hours of sleep I finally was able to get last night, intermixed with waking up to loud music, roosters, and the ever present sounds of the barrio.
This is a picture of what is affectionately called ‘shit creek’ because it is where the sewage goes, since there is no sewer system in the barrio. The utilities were all privatized, which here means sold by the government to make a buck, but with no restrictions/guidelines to follow. Since the barrio is not somewhere that the companies, such as Interagua (which happens to be a subsidiary of an American company, but not sure which one..google it...) stand to make much money, compared with the new suburbs that are being constructed for the middle/upper class, they have no vested interest in putting in the basic services such as sewers and have no compulsion to do so based on the lack of government involvement. This is what we protested last year, and were promised that would exist by this year, and yet nothing was done about the promise once we left and ‘the problem went away.’
So, what do you do?
To the left is the corner store where we buy our sodas and snacks. To the right is the house where I live...and in the middle, a bunch of crap.
