Ecuador 7/27/2023

Thursday, July 27, 2023 - Laundry Day

We woke up at 8 o'clock and went to breakfast at 9. We had scrambled eggs with hot dogs, coffee, yogurt, and bread with mortadella. After we finished our food, they brought us a cup filled with delicious boiled tree tomatoes. It reminded us of stewed peaches.

It was laundry day. Though they have a washing machine, things get so dirty that they always pre-soak them in detergent in a plastic bucket. Shina and Nena rolled up their pant legs and stomped the laundry in the bucket to agitate it in the soapy water. It reminded us of people stomping grapes to make wine.

Craig took a shower, but the water was cold. We heard the tell-tale song of the ice cream truck passing by the house. It turned out that the kids had bought strawberry vanilla swirl soft serve cones. They knocked on our door and handed me two cones. Craig was just getting out of the shower, trying to warm up and dry the cold water off of his body. I told him to hurry up before the ice cream melted. We laughed that he had cold ice cream after a cold shower!

It was quite warm and sunny today, so we went outside to enjoy the sunshine and warm Craig up.

Nena was playing peekaboo with the baby by covering her own eyes rather than his.

Lunch was mushroom soup, lentils, steak, rice, and plantains.

I took Kuri for a ride in his little plastic car. Then we went into the casita, where I applied for some jobs on the computer.

The kids came to the door to tell us there was a wildfire on the other side of the ravine. We walked out into the back fields to look over at it. Sisa was worried that it would jump the ravine and come over to our side. The other kids didn't seem to be concerned about it.





We came back to the room and I took a shower. I was illogically hoping that the water might be warm this time around, but it wasn't. After getting out of the shower, I applied to another job and we listened to some music.

Then we went into the kitchen and had coffee and leftover birthday cake.

Dinner was soup, beef stew, rice, and cauliflower with tree tomato juice. Nena was being hilarious. She said that Achi Mama laughs at everything. The family was mortified and made her say "sorry" to me in English, but I thought it was apropos. She is always just so funny, I always do laugh in her presence. There is also probably some degree of nervous laughter, since we are often outside our comfort zone and/or don't always understand what is going on around us when here. At any rate, I certainly wasn't offended.

Sisa was preoccupied about the fire, but Antonio then told us that it had been extinguished this evening. This news calmed her down considerably.

We went to our casita at 10 o'clock.

Nena and Shina agitating the laundry

Nena and Shina agitating the laundry

Achi Mama and Kuri

Achi Mama and Kuri

Nena, Yupanki, Shina, and Kuri

Nena, Yupanki, Shina, and Kuri

See all photos from July 27





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