Waka Waka

I’m writing this while watching [Spain win] the World Cup in Josefa’s house with her, Wellington, and Tom, on the second day of the best weather we’ve had here during the entire trip... the clouds have disappeared for the moment, and we’ve been enjoying sun and surf during an entirely too lazy weekend.

Tom’s bus did not end up arriving in Pedernales until about 9am Thursday morning, due to a bad accident on the only decent road from Quito to Pedernales... as a matter of course, our cell phones didn’t function as planned, so I stayed up til 5am waiting and wondering whether he had arrived or not, and he stayed up trying to reach me to tell me what was going on. The bus station and international telephone booths opened up around 7, though, and we managed to get in touch and piece together a new plan. We finally reached the ranch later that morning without any further problems other than minor infirmities from the lack of sleep. We were supposed to help out on the ranch that day, but after a pretty embarrassing miscommunication, we ended up just riding horses around and hanging out instead.

Friday morning, we showed Tom the ropes of brick-making and were able to turn out about a hundred bricks before the power went out for the rest of the morning. It was the nastiest day I’ve seen here in Cojimíes, and we had a very cold and muddy playtime with some of the kids outside La Casa del Niños after lunch. Next, I introduced Tom to Marcelo and family, who offered us dry shelter and hot showers for the evening... we’re very lucky to have met these extremely generous people. After dinner, we were given an opportunity to get in touch with our feminine sides when Janneke (our tourist friend from Holland), Marcelo, and Zoilita (Marcelo’s mom) gave us an arts & crafts lesson... Janneke wants us to bring string to some of the poor girls that live at the nature reserve we might go to later this week and show them how to make bracelets. The idea is that Marcelo can later sell these bracelets in town, providing these girls’ families with a small, supplemental source of income. It sounds like a good idea to me, so I hope we can go and help make it happen.

Saturday, we slept late and awoke to a very sunny day. We went swimming, read for a while on the beach, sold water, and ate $20+ lunches for $4.50 at a restaurant by the port. After more relaxing at the hotel, we went to 7:30pm Mass (there was another visiting priest from Pedernales) and spent another night in comfort at the hotel. This Sunday morning, we were invited to celebrate another Ecuadorian tourist’s 13th birthday breakfast (with cake, no less) with her, and one of the girl’s relatives suggested that we go to his house near Riobamba (a few hours from Quito), where he runs a highschool and where we can climb a volcano! I don’t think we’ll be able to take him up on his offer, unfortunately... but this is a perfect example of how incredibly warm and hospitable the people are in this country.

After selling more water with Marcelo after breakfast, we returned to the ranch, and here we are... after the game, we’ll go to Pedernales to check emails and post this blog entry, enjoy another one of Josefa’s fantastic meals, and pray that the nice weather continues for tomorrow afternoon’s fishing trip. So far, it’s made for a very re-energizing weekend, and we’re more than ready for another week of hard work with the brick business!

More Photos:

We've been sharing the ranch house with some furry friends these past few weeks, but Pedro recently placed fresh rat poison in strategic locations about the house, and they're dropping like flies. This one was caught dead in the very act of trying to get into Tom's backpack. Yum.

Some miscellaneous photos from the day before Tom arrived: