July 15th

The kids are outside playing with the grandkids of our neighbor's downstairs.  They are the nicest, kindest, most helpful people and landlords.  I thought it would annoy me a bit to have them downstairs, but it has really been a blessing.  They are only here on the weekends, but I like having them here.  It just feels more comfortable knowing there are people downstairs.  Their grandchildren are fantastic.  There is Estephanie, Maria Paz, little three year old, Mario, the older red-headed grandson and Belen.  Belen is almost done with her studies to become a dr., but she acts like a kid and plays with them all the time.  They are playing volleyball right now, and yesterday they got a mean soccer game together.  Belen brought granajillas, or is it granadillas, for the kids to try last weekend.  They look like an orange, but the rind is very brittle and breaks open very easily with your nails.  You rip open a hole at the top to form a little bowl.  The inside looks like snot with little black seeds.  Then you take a spoon or your fingers and scoop out the snot.  You swallow it whole.  You do not chew the seeds.  Despite the look and texture they are very sweet and really good.  We bought a couple of new fruit yesterday, chirimoya.  I need to google how to eat them.  They are supposed to be the fruit of the gods.  The neighbors also sent up homemade empanadas today for lunch.  They had meat, eggs, celery and raisins in them.  Really good!!!  Culturally we are now supposed to return the favor and give them something as a gift, but I don't know what to give them!  Can I just say how nice it is to have neighbors that actually care about you and don't look at you and treat you like scum???  Very nice!

As you can see we finally have internet.  Really not a bad timeframe, one week, but we were going crazy not being connected.  Every day we had to find and walk to a restaurant that had wifi.  We ate at Pizza Hut 4 nights in a row.  It was beginning to be embarrassing.  We also have a fridge, stove, and a washer and dryer.  Progress!  We ordered a couch, loveseat and chair for the tv room, and we ordered our king-size bedframe and the queen-size frame for one of the guest rooms.  Along with that we ordered a computer desk, nightstands and a tv console.  All of the pieces of furniture are handmade and take three weeks to make.  So, we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor and sitting on our footlockers.  I'm already sick of it and can't wait until we have furniture.  Everything is echoey and that is annoying.  Luckily our mattresses were delivered the day we moved.  That is one thing that is funny about Ecuador, but pretty cool.  We walked into the store and ordered the mattresses.  They said, okay and loaded them and us up into the truck and away we drove to our apartment.  We walked into the appliance store and ordered the appliances.  We could only pay for the fridge and stove that week and asked that the washer and dryer be delivered the next week when we could pay for them.  They delivered them altogether and said to pay whenever.  Nice!

Today we went to the market called Rotary Plaza to find bed frames for Tali and Finn.  Mark really wants them off the floor, but they don't seem to mind.  We found frames for $65 each and they are being delivered at 3:00p.m. today.  Another box checked.  After that we are headed to the toy store to buy some toys for Finn and Tali.  They are starting to get bored and don't have much to play with.  We tried to find them a trampoline, but the only store that sells them won't have any until September.  Bummer!  And, they are $800 to boot!  Worth it though, I think.  It will get a lot of use, both by Finn and Tali and by the kids on the weekends.

On Friday Mark and I went out for our 10 year anniversary dinner.  Caroline and James Drummond were nice enough to take the kids for the night.  They had a blast and Mark and I had a great time.  We went to Mansion Alcazar.  It was a beautiful dinner and so quiet.  I really needed to be quiet for awhile.  The kids are driving me crazy with all of their questions that I have no answer for.  For example, we are sitting on the curb waiting for our taxi driver and Tali asks me what direction Freddy will be coming from.  I don't know!!!!  And that was like the 2,000th question I had been asked THAT DAY that had no answer.  Mark is standing right there.  Why can't they ask him some of these questions that have no answer?   Hmmmm?  They must think I have a crystal ball!

Now that we have internet I will try to backtrack and catch up on the trip from Ohio to Cuenca.

These are pictures from today walking along the river and of the Rotary Plaza.

 This is a small hardware store.  We are trying to get copies made of our keys.

 Keeping the city clean.  There are three colors and they are each responsible for different services.

 Rotary Plaza.

 A stuffed goat.  :(      For real.

 Indigenous women selling fruit.

 An indigenous women with an empty load buying bread.

 This stand is selling garden tools and decorations.

 Lots of knick knacks and quirky things.

 What shall we buy?

 A ceramic bunny and puppy, that's what.

 Two abuelas in indigenous clothing and a granddaughter in "modern" clothing.

 Indigenous women with their baskets of wares trying to keep out of the sun. It was brutal today. 

 Teenage boys kicking back and enjoying a Sunday afternoon.

 Lots of baskets.  We bought a woven grass rug for $8 and it is really made well.  We will probably go back for more. 

 Cutest little nino. 

He wanted a popsicle very badly.  He finally got his wish from the man in the background.