Saturday 17 November 2012

My!............... how time flies!

We are coming to the end of our 7th month in Cuenca. What??!!!
Where does the time go?
Here it is Saturday, and I could not tell you where this week disappeared to...... let alone the past 7 months.
It's been 6 or 7 weeks since my last post....sorry family. Every night I say to Doug....I didn't get to the blog today, tomorrow for sure I will post.....
I have the morning to myself. Doug has gone off with a group of people to look at some volunteer work helping to rebuild a washed out walkway at a rural school.
Let me see if I can fill you in on the past weeks........

I have been very busy with dental stuff. After a failed attempt to get implants, ( they discovered when they cut in to put them in, there was a thin spot in the bone that was not wide enough to support the implants) I am going to  specialist, and have had a bone graft to strengthen the area. For three weeks, I have been going to the dentist EVERY day to make sure things are progressing as they should. So far so good. Now I have to wait 6 months for the graft to be strong enough to put in the implants. I have been waiting a long time to deal with my teeth issues......there are days when I want to give up on it, but Doug keeps reminding me of the big picture. Hopefully, by the end of next year, I will have a complete set of teeth!

We are getting quite settled into our apartment.
Our landlords, a wonderfully kind and warm family of 4 daughters and loving parents,  have kind of adopted us and have include us in family trips to the country. The mother, Raquel, is always bring us food and pots of soup.

We have been taking Spanish classes twice a week and find that we are actually able to undersatnd a lot of what is being said to us! (If I were to give one piece of advice to anyone moving here, it would be to learn as much of the language as possible before you get here.)

On our first trip with the family, we went for a drive to a small village called Barabon. We stopped at a small roadside restraunt for a late afternoon lunch. There are many different cultural things in Ecuador,not the least of which is the eating experience. This restraunt had an open pit grill that had Chicken and Cuy roasting over charcoal. I had the chicken, but others tried the Cuy......I am not going to say what Cuy is.....look it up if you want to know.........
Here are a few pictures we took on this trip:

When's the last time you were able to ride in the open bed of a pick-up truck?
 The eldest daughter Andrea

yummy...............................................................................


Our friend Bob and me......dig the hat?
Raquel and Maunual....the parents


The four daughters Alita,Michele,Carolina, and Andrea
 This church, in the small town of Banos, was built in 1951...


 
Some other things we have done with the family are a trip to thier farm about an hour and a half outside of Cuenca, and we were invited to join the family at a Quinceanera....which is the celebration of the 15th birthday of a in Latin American countries, which marks the passing of the youg lady from childhood to womanhood.It was a huge celebration with tons of food, drinks, and dancing. We stayed to the end of the party, which was about 3 a.m.! Not an easy task for us old people.....
 
The past few weeks marked the celebration of Cuenca's independecne and there was much ado for this event. Also, there were big celebration for "The Day of the Dead".
I have a lot more pictures to share, but I will do that later. It's time for me to get on with my Saturday....going to the market for fresh Prawns and veggies for tonights' dinner. The fruit man will be driving thru the neighborhood soon and I will be getting my fruit from him. he comes twice a week, so I don't have to carry fruits home. For less than $5.00 I get:
a watermelon, a cantaloupe, 12 juicer oranges, 12 mandarins,6 banannas, and a pineapple.
 Delivered to my door!
Life is good!