Ecuador 8/2/2023 |
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Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - MassagesWe woke up to our resident southern yellow grosbeak knocking on our window at 7:30 a.m. Craig and I joked that he was our alarm clock. Then he did it again at 7:35. I guess he has a snooze setting! Then again at 7:40. Ok, we're up, already!Breakfast was scrambled eggs with sliced hot dogs, bread, ham, and coffee. After breakfast, the family mysteriously led us outside to the yard near the street. They seemed to be up to something, but we weren't sure what. They brought a bench for us to sit on and proceeded to give us shoulder massages. This was a nice surprise! Then they brought a tortora reed mat and had us lie down on it one at a time. They explained that in their culture, they have babies walk on their backs to massage them (boy babies walk on women, girl babies walk on men). I went first, laying on my stomach, and Aida held Kuri above me. His little feet walked on my back and it felt amazing. Then it was Craig's turn. While Nena was walking on his back, Abuelita came out and sat on the ground. When Nena was done, Sisa, Yupanki, and Aida massaged Craig's limbs. Abuelita then stood up, took off her head covering, breathed into it, and swatted at Craig with it. While Craig was laying there, a baby chick walked on his arm. Everyone wanted to get in on the action! It was quite windy, and the tortora reed mat kept rolling up. Craig's hat even flew off at one point. We went back to our casita. We left the door open, which we don't normally due since flies tend to enter. With the door open, the mama kitty came in to join us. Eventually, we were able to coax her up onto our laps, where she sat purring. What a change from when we first arrived and she was so skittish that she wouldn't even let us touch her! We stayed seated in the room for a while, not wanting to disturb her. Lunch was soup, beef stew, broccoli, and llapingachos. After lunch Antonio's phone was ringing. Kuri was outside but could hear it. He picked up a little plastic toy, put it to his ear, and said "Allo?" He is such a cutie! He is really on the verge of walking and talking more. I wish we were staying longer so that we could witness his development. We made the 101 Dalmatians puzzle again with the kids. They really like it. Since this was our third time making it, we each worked on different areas than we had the previous times. Shout out to Craig's brother Steve and his kids, to whom the puzzle used to belong. We went outside to look at the super moon again. It really was spectacular. We had coffee and another slice of our anniversary cake. Dinner was soup, fried shrimp, salad, fried egg, and fries. As usual, Nena didn't want to eat real food. Aida has an app on her phone called "Policia para niños" which pretends you are calling the police on a child. A voice answers and asks what the problem is. Sisa then says "Nena won't eat her soup. Please come as soon as possible." It is hysterical to see the fear in Nena's eyes when they do this. Talk about scared straight! During dinner, Sisa and Shina was harassing Nena, and Nena said, unprompted, in English, "Be nice, Sisa! Be nice, Shina!" This is something the kids all picked up from context, from us telling them in the past to "be nice" to one another. They were saying it long before any of them knew any other English. |
 Nena walking on Craig's back  Mama kitty visiting our casita  101 Dalmatians puzzle See all photos from August 2 |
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