Well, more excitement in Puyo, Ecuador. Susan and I hosted two Peace Corps trainees Sunday and Monday. They will both be in Macas. Ryan and Katie were genuinely nice people and like Susan and I, are trend-setters in the Oriente for Peace Corps. They will be the first Volunteers in their program (youth and family) to be in the Macas area. They arrived on Sunday and we had them and the other Katie over for dinner at our place. Susan made a fresh cucumber salad and I made, my now famous, burritos with home-made tortillas. They were a big hit. Our [View Full Entry]

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Well, the good news is that my tooth problem was not related to the tooth that had previous problems. In fact, it appears not to a tooth problem at all right now. I have a large space between my last molar and the gum - this creates a welcome home for bacteria and all sorts of nasties. Thus, I had an infection that felt more like a toothache. It is getting better. The bad news is that the last molar is slowly being eaten away so if I can not reverse this problem, I will probably lose that tooth. I now [View Full Entry]

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Well, once again dental problems have struck. I thought it was the same tooth I had work done on, however, it appears as though I just have an infected gum. Let me tell you that it hurts like hell. The dentist cleaned it out and said that it should get better in a few days, but if it doesn't then I have to return to Puyo (another 5 hour trip one-way) so that he can try a different course of treatment. These problems always seem to happen on weekends when I can't see the dentist. Dental pain is the worst ever. [View Full Entry]

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This is a continuation of my last blog. On Friday, I went to FRATES to finally meet with Umberto. I caught the 6:15am bus and arrived at FRATES a little after 7:00. It was a glorious morning. Umberto and I exchanged pleasantries and then got right to business discussing FRATES. He admitted that things looked much worse than he had expected, however, I don´t think either of us are going to let that dampen our spirits. Umberto is a very generous man and apparently an excellent cook as well. While here, he apparently cooks for anyone who works out at the [View Full Entry]

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Well this was certainly a week of interesting happenings. Work at the office has been rather mundane, mind-numbing, and yet strangely busy. This week saw the arrival of Umberto, the Executive Director of FRATES - which means that for the next three weeks I´ll be spending a great deal of time out at the FRATES facility, doing a lot of manual labor, which I have been craving for a very long time. Thursday I went to Macas with Andrea and Carolina (from Fundación Natura), as well as as couple of other people from the municipio. We were going to attend a [View Full Entry]

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Here is a website for the FRATES organization and facility that I plan to do a lot of work with and in while I am working in Puyo. www.4frates.org Looking at this website gave me hope that we can do a lot of good work out there. The sad thing is that now, if you went out there, things don´t look so cheery and it is rare to see any community members hanging out there except for Guillermo, the caretaker. Umberto, the executive director of FRATES is coming this week for a month and he and I are going to do [View Full Entry]

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Here is a link to the lastest batch of photos that Sue and I have uploaded to shutterfly. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbOHLhy0cNGhq I took a quick trip up to Baños yesterday to meet up with Quentin. Quentin and his wife are from Florida and are vacationing in Ecuador. They stumbled across my blog weeks ago and we have been exchanging e-mails ever since. Being the awesome people that they are, they brought me some world wall maps and periodic tables to use in the schools that I visit. It was a kind gesture on their part to buy 4 huge maps and 4 period [View Full Entry]

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I apologize ahead of time - this blog lacks the excitement and flare of some of my other blogs - I am just too worn out to be more creative - it was a long, but fun weekend. We entertained our first visitors this past weekend in Puyo. Our good friends Krista and Caleb came to Ecuador for their honeymoon. We were a little concerned about whether they would actually make it to Puyo since the road from Baños is closed. In fact, Sue and I were placing bets as to whether they would actually make it and we were coming [View Full Entry]

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So, I am amazed at what one can build with a hammer, a leatherman, and a broken drill. This past weekend, Saturday to be exact, I built a bed frame for Sue and I. I used the above tools to do it and only had to make two trips to the hardware store - nothing like the normal 5-6 trips to Lowes that I used to make during a project - though - I never let Sue on to the fact that I enjoyed going to Lowes and would often go there just for the hell of it. While there is [View Full Entry]

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So someone just posted a comment on my blog asking what I have against nails and slotted screws. It is a fair question - so I will respond. On the outside, I have nothing against nails or slotted screws. I love to nail and screw (interpret that how you want). However, the slotted screw, in my humble opinion, is the devil´s creation. Who else could make the process of screwing so damn difficult? Give me a good phillips head or square drive screw and I´ll put any slotted screw to task. I wanna screw that grips my driver - not one [View Full Entry]

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