Guatemala and Ecuador 6/30/16 - 7/20/16

Friday 7/1/2016 - Hanging Out with the Kids This morning I got up at 6:30 a.m. for my day of working remotely. The time zone here is 2 hours behind home during Daylight Savings, so I had a meeting at 7 a.m. local time. This actually works well for me, as it means I also get out of work early. Paulina brought us each a cup of coffee in our room. It was much appreciated as I wiped sleep out of my eyes and joined a conference call on my headset. Kids came in to say good morning, being very quiet and respectful of my meeting. The kids put Boni the bunny on to our bed. Today Boni was wearing a tiny red vest with gold trim, with a "B" emblazoned on the back. Boni hopped onto Craig's lap, where she contentedly licked his jeans. After my meeting, at 9 a.m., I took a short break and joined the family in the dining room for a breakfast of oatmeal and (more) coffee. Aracely and Boni Aracely and Eddy are out of school for summer vacation. Paola, Yasmin, and Yoselin had the day off from school, so everyone was around the house today. Yasmin left briefly to participate in a soccer game. Eddy kept his English reading and writing skills fresh over the summer by copying pages from a book entitled Mr. Mogg and the Log. After breakfast, I returned to our room to work. At 1:30 p.m., we had lunch consisting of black beans, rice, fresh corn tortillas, and fresh juice. The kids were watching "George of the Jungle" on TV. It was amusing enough. The time zone worked in my favor, because I was done with work at 2:30 p.m. local time, ready to enjoy some fun time with the kids. The kids' cousin Chilo came over to play with Eddy. The boys used my camera to take some photos. This was a rite of passage from our first visits in 2007. The older kids would be allowed to take photos, as long as they put their wrist through the camera strap to prevent them from dropping it (we had learned this the hard way). The older kids have always taught the younger ones how to operate the camera, and how to use the wrist strap. Of course, nowadays, the little kids always expect the view screen to be a touch screen, which makes us feel ancient. We went up onto the roof deck and enjoyed the view of the surrounding volcanoes. There was a very nice breeze. We were surprised to see Boni the rabbit up there, but Aracely tells us that she hops up the stairs frequently. I held the bunny and she licked my arm with her warm little tongue. Aracely brought some greens up for her and she ate them the way bunnies do, starting at one end of the stalk and chomping down the whole thing until it disappears. Eddy and Chilo came up onto the deck to join us, followed by Yasmin and baby Ian Ivan. Paulina came upstairs too. It was a regular party! We chatted, and Paulina asked about our house and neighborhood. We got my laptop and used Google Street View to show her. We then navigated to our web site to show pictures of Ecuador to Paulina, Aracely, Eddy, and Chilo. We explained how our Ecuadorian compadres practice subsistence farming, and showed them photos of the house and the family members. Aracely is starting to get excited about the trip; it's like it is finally becoming real for her. Darkness fell, so we went back downstairs. We helped Aracely to pack some clothes for the trip, and tried to create a list of things that she didn't yet have that we would need to purchase. We talked about airport and flying procedures. Harkening back to our conversation yesterday, Aracely mentioned that she definitely wanted to have a donut at the airport. I told her that we couldn't guarantee that there would be a donut shop at these airports, but we would do our best to find her a donut. As Aracely was packing, she showed us one of her favorite shirts: Disney princesses. It is too small for her and she said that she loves it from when she was little. She said she'd like to bring it "to give to the little girl" (Sisa). Aracely is such a sweetie! We ate salad and noodles for dinner at around 9 o'clock. The kids were watching "Combate" (a game show) and "Confessions of a Drama Queen" (a favorite of theirs which we have watched with them several times over the years). We retired to our room at 10:30, and went to bed at 11 o'clock.

Yasmin Craig and Paola Yoselin and Ian Ivan See all photos from this day