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Published: July 19th 2023
Under the Table
CiCi says HOLA everybody! Welcome to Blog #170 !! During the past 17 years Jill has published an average of 10 blogs per year!! Greetings from rainy Baños! July and August are the wettest months...after all, it's winter here now! Mostly it's been raining at night. There are new leaks in my master suite roof with every downpour! The add-on, it seems, didn't add on seamlessly to the existing structure...and they seem to keep popping up in new places all the time. When I awake in the night to hear interior drip-drip-dripping, it's often hard to fall back asleep...my brain starts fuming. It doesn't even make sense to repair water damage of paint and plaster until I somehow get this resolved.T his week a worker is coming to 'silicon-ize' some problem areas. We shall see if there is any improvement.
Shana and I continue to have lunch and play Scrabble at least 2-3 times a week. CiCi is always under the dining room table while we're playing. She loves to be right by our feet and it's so sweet when she rests her little head on the base of the table. Shana's mobility issues continue to become more and more severe, but her mind is still relatively sharp when it comes to playing Scrabble. We both
Delery & Charlotte in Orchid Paradise
For the last session of our Spanish class, we were invited down to the jungle to Del & Vic's gorgeous home. Jamie & daughter Charlotte came too! enjoy playing so much and constantly remark on how grateful we both are to have a good friend and worthy opponent to share this time with. While she still has the abilitiy and I have the free time, we play as often as possible!
My expat Spanish class decided to take a several month pause since more than half of the students would be out of the country for part or all of these months. Before our hiatus, we took our last class session on the road and headed down towards the jungle. After a fabulous lunch of freshly caught and grilled trout (they were swimming around an aerated pond just moments before they arrived on our plates!) we continued on to Delery and Vic's magnificent home beside the Pastaza River.
They have a remarkable collection of orchids and hope to propagate vanilla orchids in the not-too-distant future. They bought a partially built house and have completed it in exquisite beauty! Delery studied architecture and interior design, so each detail of their magnificent home was carefully thought out, planned, and executed. I
My Musical Students
Jeremy and Anton and Vic jammin' in Vic's studio/office. A handpan and two guitars made for a transcendent sound experience. had not yet seen their office / studio space since it was still being used as a construction workshop the last time I visited (several years ago!)
We were getting a tour of their place and the next thing I knew, the three male class members had started jamming. Jeremy unpacked his hand pan drum, Anton surprised us by knowing how to play the guitar and Vic is a guitar master; he can improvise most any style of music. Vic accompanied me when I sang in public for the first (and only) time on my 60th birthday! It was delightful to be with this great group of folks, and not in our usual class setting!
If you read my last blog entry, you may remember that right at the end I alluded to my new role as local godmother to three young men from the jungle who now live in Baños and are completing their High School education. Backtrack almost a decade to when I first met Purvi - I was working at Hostería Mandala and she was breakfasting alone one morning
The Warusha Brothers
L to R meet Cristopher (21), Jimmy (19), and Sami (17) Their godmother, Purvi, no longer lives in Latin America so I am now the local godmother! when I had a few minutes free to sit and join her. At that time she was working with the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) based in Guayaquil. As we chatted, we determined that she had likely met Gilbert's sister, Angele who worked for UNHCR in Africa. We also discovered that Purvi had gone to college with Tamara, my dear friend and my co-madre with my former pooch, Chaco.
While working in Ecuador Purvi fell for one of the jungle guides when she took a trip to the Amazon...and she had fallen hard for his three sons who were in a difficult situation. At this time the boys were 10, 12, and 14 years old and their mother had died several years earlier. Since their father travelled a lot as a guide, he left the boys with an uncle who kept them out of school and forced them to work on his farm. Purvi decided to move them to Baños, set them up in an apartment and ensured that they were enrolled in school. I helped her find a place for them to rent in the guest house run by several of
These Boys Can EAT !!!
Stopping for lunch on the way back from our shopping trip to Puyo. (Sami left, Jimmy right) the women I was teaching English to. I saw the boys occasionally when I went there to teach and I was glad that their 'substitute moms' made sure their birthdays were celebrated, and even went to school to speak with their teachers when necessary. The father continued to be mostly absent and was pretty useless when he was around; appropriating the money that Purvi had sent for the boys in order to buy alcohol and entertain women.
Over the next 7 years Purvi went on to work in Mexico and in Perú, still with UNHCR (which is called ACNUR in Latin America - Alta Comisión de Naciones Unidas para Refugiados). She continued to support the boys during all this time, even paying for their gym memberships and trainers - the oldest is a competitive lifter and the youngest is a promising boxer. Purvi recently came to Baños to see the boys before she moved back to the US. I went along with her to start looking for a new place for them to live. The sisters who had been managing the guest house had all moved away and the place was
Jimmy's Hello Kitty Sheets
These are the bedsheets and curtains that Jimmy chose for his room. Whatever !?! not being adequately maintained. The boys found an unfurnished 3 bdrm, 2 bathroom place for significantly less than they were paying for a crummy 2 bdrm 1 bath place at the guest house. Since Purvi only had a short time to visit, I agreed to step in as local godmother to help the boys secure their new apartment and buy what was needed to get started.
We ordered mattresses and box spring bed bases here in Baños. It's the first time in their lives that each boy has had his own bed and his own bedroom! The brothers knew of economical places to get the other things they'd need, so we went together to Puyo (a town on the edge of the jungle, just over an hour from Baños). They picked out shower curtains, towels, bed sheets (Jimmy chose Hello Kitty! hahaha!). We went to the fabric store for material to make curtains, and I bargained impressively for their 3-burner gas cooktop; I even got the saleslady to throw in a couple of cooking pots! Since dressers and closets were not in the budget, we bought plastic stacking baskets to hold
Their Own Apartment
Sami's at the back door which opens off the large kitchen. New three-burner stovetop fits perfectly! A mini-fridge was purchased a few weeks later. their clothes, and the boys insisted they wanted a tablecloth. They already had a table (gifted from Purvi when they she left Ecuador) and I had a few extra chairs that I gave them to complete their dining room set.
After taking the boys grocery shopping to start them out with a big bag of rice, sugar, lentils, tuna, eggs, etc, I took them out to lunch. It's incredible that for the past 7 years they've shopped, cooked, taken care of themselves and each other. Each month they propose a monthly budget and Purvi sends them funds. Once she starts a new job, Purvi has promised to pay me back the money I laid out to help the boys get started, which I appreciate (over $2000). I'm happy to give my time to help them, but I simply don't have the income to support them financially. I invite them up to my house for lunch every few weeks and I've helped the two older brothers secure jobs with friend of mine. They are good kids, lucky young men to have Purvi as their (fairy) godmother! Keep on reading to hear about
Mother's Day Videochat
Maricarmen and Shana on a video call with Shana's daughter and grandsons. Look at those smiles! Cristopher's graduation!
Maricarmen and I celebrated Mother's Day with Shana. Even though she and I don't have children of our own, we both have children in our lives and we are furbaby moms! Shana was able to have a videochat with her daughter and grandsons, and then the three of us went out for lunch to Shana's fave restaurant in town, Swiss Bistro. They were offering a special Mother's Day menu and we were welcomed with strawberry daquiris. The food is consistently good and it's a splurge to go out to eat there every few months.
For Father's Day I got together with two couples I know. A few days before Father's Day I went around to a couple of hotels in town that I know do a Sunday brunch. Most of them were already fully booked, but at Hotel Floresta they told me they'd be having their regular weekend brunch until 10:30, so I asked the receptionist to make a reservation for 9:30 for six people. She told me that it wasn't necessary to reserve - that we could just show
Father's Day Brunch
Allison, Chris, Michelle, Miles & I had a special table in the gardens of La Floresta Hotel. Delicious breakfast buffet!
up. I reminded her that it was Father's Day and told her that since we would be a party of six, I preferred to have a formal reservation. After she scribbled my name on a loose scrap of paper, I asked for for a phone number to confirm. She gave me the name and personal cel# of the gal in charge of the restaurant. On Sunday morning before I went to pick up my friends I phoned her to reconfirm and she told me she had my reservation there.
When we arrived, the restaurant was completely packed with tourists...not a single table available. A waiter told us we'd have to wait 45 minutes. I asked to see the woman I'd spoken with just hours before and while he went off to look for her, I went over to reception and reminded the gal about the reservation she'd made for me. She gave me the excuse that a large tour group had gotten a later start that originally planned and that ideally they should have already been finished with their breakfast.
Meanwhile, several
Frank's bday
Olga, Frank, Jorge, Liz and Rocio along with Olga's parents and her brother Anton invited me to celebrate along with them. Fun evening! waiters were scrambling to set up a table for us in the middle of their beautiful gardens, dressing it with an elegant tablecloth and pulling out regal chairs. Luckily the rain had stopped and the skies were clearing. They treated us like royalty, bowing and scraping in apology for the mix-up. They brought beautifully decorated cake slices for the fathers and we all enjoyed a leisurely and joyful meal.
I was invited to a birthday party, which started around 6 pm and lasted almost until midnight! I had only met the birthday boy, Frank, once before, but I know his Russian girlfriend Olga and her brother Anton quite well. They manage over a dozen Air BnB houses in Baños, one of them right next door to me. Anton has only been in Ecuador for about a year, having just finished college in Australia. He's in my Spanish Conversation class and is making excellent progress. Two of the students in my English class work for Anton and Olga, so they were also at the party. A delicious meal had been prepared by Olga and Anton's parents, recently arrived from Russia. It was
Sushi Palooza
A Russian gal, Lana, is making special order sushi so a group of friends each pitched in $10 and we ordered a dozen rolls. Yum!! a joyful, multi-lingual gathering!
There's another Russian gal making and delivering delightful sushi every weekend. I got a group of friends together, we each pitched in $10 and everyone came over to my house for Sushi Palooza! Shana adores sushi and during quarantine we regularly ordered sushi for delivery from a so-so restaurant...but Lana la Rusa's sushi is waaayyy yummier and her presentation is oh so beautiful! So grateful for the variety of great food available in Baños. Since it's a popular tourist town, there are hundreds of restaurants and a quality bakery just opened...amazing sourdough bread! Oy, there goes my waistline...wait, what waistline?!
The expat community in Baños is relatively tight-knit, and if there's every anyone in need we all rush to their aid. Eric had an unfortunate accident as he finished construction on his house. He was on a tall ladder installing a security camera on the second story balcony when his drill hit a piece of rebar and the ladder went out from under him. He was lucky to have only suffered a broken elbow and a broken pelvis.
Eric's Homecoming
After his LONG hospital stay, a group of friends welcomed Eric home. I made a huge lasagna to make up for the horrible hospital food! He was unlucky to be taken to government-run hospital. The IESS medical system (Institute Ecuatorian de Seguro Social) pretty much collapsed during COVID and struggles to recover. Not even aspirin is availalbe at the IESS farmacias. Our beardy buddy Bobby slept on the floor beside Eric's hospital bed, helping him to navigate the nightmare. They were being told that Eric would have to find and buy the blood and the bolts and plates that would be needed for his surgery.
Eric was in an incredible amount of pain and after 5 days in the IESS hospital it was discovered that they had neglected to catheterize him. He felt immediate relief once they drained 2 litres of urine from his bladder which had been sitting right on the break in his pelvic bone. At that point Bobby, with the help of some other friends, managed to get him transferred to a private clinic. In the end he didn't even require surgery. Using Xrays they were able to refit the pelvic bone and attach an external metal fixator. He spent 5 weeks in the clinic and twice during that time I was able
Salinas de Guaranda
Tucked between dramatic rock outcroppings, this charming high Andean village is home to several factories. to drive the hour to Ambato to visit him and smuggle in some dried fruit and nuts. A few days after he got back home, I organized a homecoming dinner for him and friends who had helped him. I made a huge lasagna and Mayra brought a cake that she'd had specially made for Bobby, thanking him for reminding her what true friendship looked like.
I've spent quite a bit of time with new friends, Allison and Mark from Shreveport, Louisiana. Mark is a master home fixer-upper and has been incredibly generous with his knowledge and skill. He hasn't let me pay him for any of the work he's done to help me (removing the curlycue wrought iron bits from my stair railing, helping me measure and cut the substrate for my latest mosaic project, etc) SO, when Allison's 13 year old son Miles arrived in Ecuador I offered to take them all on an overnight get-away to Salinas de Guaranda. I had gone there last fall with my friend Laura, but was eager to return to this charming, interesting town nestled between rocky outcroppings high in an inter-Andean valley.
Salinerito Cheese Factory
Stirring Curds! Fascinating to watch the process, and we loved the delicious tasting room! It's a pretty long drive (over 3 hours from Baños), but we hit the ground running as soon as we arrived in town. First, a visit to the Salinerito cheese factory! From an upper viewing terrace, visitors look down on the production floor. Being at high altitude it's quite cool and it was obviously warm down below because all of the windows were steamed up and fogged over. While we were struggling to see the cheese-making process a worker inside turned his high-powered hose on the windows, clearing our view with one quick splash! The free sample counter clerk was incredibly generous, so that took care of lunch!
From there we continued on to chocolate factory. You don't really get to see the whole chocolate-making process, but the best part of this visit is the shop! All kinds of chocolate products at amazing prices. The town is called Salinas because there are salt pools on the lower hillside and from the upper floor of the chocolate factory there were great views of the pools (see pic at the end of this blog post).
Reading Glasses
When Laura was here visiting, she gifted this sweet lady with her dollar store readers. This woman says they have changed her life! Salt production is an arduous evaporation process, so not a lot of salt is produced here these days.
After that, we drove over to the yarn factory on the edge of town. The gal in the shop tried to tell us we could only visit the factory with an official guide, but I assured her that I'd been there several times and we didn't need a guide. She finally relented and let us go in. The first time I'd gone there, we were allowed to visit the whole factory. When I last went with Laura they said that the downstairs area was only closed for maintenance of machinery, but on this visit I learned that they no longer allow tourists past the green line painted on the floor, so we only got to see the washing process of the raw wool. The factory store was the highlight of our visit. Allison is a prolific knitter and crocheter (crochetist? no, she's not crochety!); she was thrilled to find so many colors and qualities of yarn!
We continued on to the nearby knitting ladies'
Pizza Anyone?
Since fine cheeses are manufactured in this village, some of the best pizza is also made here. This little CiCi look-alike wanted to share my oversized slice! cooperative where the gals gather to knit together in a sunny back room. Many also work from home and bring their finished products for inspection so they can be sold in the adjacent shop. When I came here before with Laura, she became best buddies with the boss-lady who was having trouble seeing the huge numbers on her oversized calculator. Laura gifted her a pair of reading glasses last fall, and on this visit the woman gleefully posed for me in her 'cheaters', telling me how much they had improved her life! I have a feeling that Laura will be back for another visit, bringing several dozen pair of readers for the older knitting ladies!
We had reservations for the night at the community hostel; simple but clean and comfortable lodgings. Miles was thrilled to have his very own room! After settling in, we climbed up on the roof to watch a spirited volleyball game going on in the town square below. We wandered around town and visited the charming church. We were lucky with the weather. It can get very cold and damp, but we had a sunny day. The
Congratulations to the Graduate!
Cristopher is the first Warusha to ever graduate from High School! Here he proudly emerges from their new apartment. best pizza place in town is conveniently located right across the street from the hostel. As if we hadn't had enough cheese already...but that's what there was for dinner! The drive back to Baños the next day was beautiful - glorious sunshine outlined the massive snow-capped summit of Chimborazo Volcano in the distance as we climbed over a high mountain pass through the vicuña reserve. Vicuñas are small, delicate cousins of the llama. Hundreds and thousands of them roam free on this high parramo. We saw several dozen grazing and galloping!
I was the representative parent for Cristopher's High School graduation (the boys have not heard from their dad in several months). Cristopher is the first ever to complete secondary school in the history of his family clan (Warusha). I sat with his brothers on the upper tiers of the HS Coliseum/Auditorium. All of the graduating students not only had to rent their caps and gowns, they were also required to have suits and dresses made in a specific shade of midnight blue and they all had to wear the same kind of shoes. The plastic chairs were 'dressed' with cloth
Proud Mama
The woman sitting beside me in the school coliseum wore traditional dress and proudly looked on as her daughter graduated. sheaths and colored bows, the 'junior' attendants stood by attentively in their matching outfits, and the entire ceremony was perfectly orchestrated and choreographed. They'd been rehearsing for a week and everything went off without a hitch. The senior student council had gifted the school a new computer-controlled sound system and thankfully, none of the many speakers and announcers rambled on for too long.
Friends and family members in attendance were all dressed in their Sunday best. I greeted taxi drivers and shopkeepers who recognized me from around town. I enjoyed watching the proud mother seated beside me, resplendent in her traditional dress. Cristopher's younger brothers were excited and cheered loudly as he filed forward to have his cap placed on his head and receive his diploma. The valedictorian made her requisite speech and the entire class of 115 students completed the graduation process in just over an hour and a half. After the ceremony I took the boys out for a big lunch. Alas, I hadn't thought to reserve in advance and the first few places we tried to eat were fully booked. Since each of the students was given only
Graduating Class of 2023
Colegio Oscar Efren Reyes is the largest public high school in Baños. This year's class was 115 students! 4 tickets to the actual ceremony, the post-graduation lunch was a chance to gather their whole extended family.
During this season of heavy rains, it's not uncommon for the pipes to get damaged or silted and we are occasionally without water for short or longer spells. Last month we went a full 24 hours without water. During these times it's important not to flush unless totally necessary. If it's yellow, let it mellow... Sometimes I forget and just automatically flush! I'm grateful that at my house there are four full bathrooms so, in a pinch, I can still find a toilet with a full tank! Occasionally the power goes out too, but that is usually only for short periods of time. The joys of living in a developing country!
I have a new renter in my little studio apartment up front- a young woman named Agustina from Argentina. We've been corresponding for over three months. She was working in Tulum, Mexico and deciding where she wanted to go next. When she saw the foto of the front window looking out on green
Proud Graduate
The gymnasium was decorated with a flower arch that each graduate passed beneath. hillsides, she said, 'That's where I want to live!' She told me she had visualized exactly that view in her mind. Within a few days of arriving in Baños she secured a job 5 days a week at the hip, new CBD shop. She's already asking if we can draw up a contract for her to rent for a whole year! My response, let's start with 3 months and re-evaluate then.
I had two paid driving gigs last month - I took my former Spanish student, Michelle and her visitor from Canada to Quilotoa Crater for a day trip. It's about 3 hours each way to the collapsed volcanic cone, which forms a caldera lake of the bluest blue-green! On the winding highway up to the crater we counted over 150 dogs who come up to the roadside in hopes that someone will toss them food from the car. Surely all of these dogs have a home somewhere in the pocket valleys along this stretch of road, but each morning they grab their briefcases and go to work on the shoulder, looking hungry and pitiful. We wished we had more goodies
Steve & Gorilla Friend
Nice hat! hahaha. Yes, we walked under this big guy's crotch on our way to the mosaic caverns. to toss out the window to them!
I also drove Steve and his former employee Kyle back down to the Mosaic caverns (Steve liked the place so much, he wanted to share it with his friend) and afterwards they took me out to lunch at my favorite place in Puyo, El Jardín. Of course we had to stop and visit Snow White and the seven dwarves on the way. The statues have been relocated and repainted (photos of me and the statues at the end of the blog). At the traffic light in the town of Shell, right where Snow White used to be), there is now an enormous bronze statue of Neisi Dajomes, Ecuador's first Olympic Gold Medalist. She is a weight lifter, born in Shell, and the oversized likeness depicts her in the act of lifting a gargantuan barbell.
Yet another trip down to Puyo, this time to help Chris (finally) get his driver's license. You may remember that we tried for his license back in May, but the rules had just changed and he needed proof of his highest
Against All Odds!
Chris got his driver´s license! It took several months and the help of a LOT of people to make this happen! level of education. No matter what they publish as the list of required documents, there will always be something missing! So, Michelle moved heaven and earth to get his 1973 High School diploma from Beverly Hill High School, paid hundreds of dollars to have a mobile notary go to the school and guarantee its authenticity with the school secretary, had her brother drive across the city to hand carry it and have it apostilled, and then had some other friends bring it back down to Ecuador with them. whew! Now we took this documentation to the Ministry of Education in Puyo to have it certified on the national register. The very nice worker there informed us that we could return in 3 days for the registered documents. I explained that we had travelled to get there, I had missed a day of work to help my friends (little white lie) and asked if there wasn't any way to push it through faster. She looked at her watch and told us to come back in two hours.
To kill time, we went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant we'd heard about (yummy)
Beach Glass Mosaic
Getting started on a new project. Sorting materials. Revving up the creative juices. and returned to collect our documents with the warning that the national system would not be rebooted and refreshed for 24 hours so the registry would not be able to be accessed until the next day. We decided to go ahead and try for the license anyway, and against all odds we were successful. Michelle had been concerned that Chris wouldn't pass the hearing exam - sure enough, he heard nothing. The examiner picked up the headphones, shook them and said, 'These must not be working properly' and went on to tell Chris which buttons to push so he would pass. Whew! Dodged another bullet. I held my breath while Chris took the 20 question online written exam. He'd been studying for it, but since he knows very little Spanish it was iffy. Hooray! He scored 19/20 !! He was walking on air as we left the DMV (ANT at the Civil Registry Office). Success at last!
I've been needing an art project to flex my creativity muscles and now that I had the substrate measured and cut, I was ready to start the mosaic for the backsplash of my bathroom
Bathroom Backsplash
Still so much work to do, but this is where it will eventually live sink. I've been collecting beach glass from all over the world for the last 40+ years, and now it was time to dump it all out and sort it by color...create my palette. It feels so good to be immersed in a creative pursuit again...it's been awhile! This blog entry has about 15 overflow photos, so if you'd like to see them scroll down and click next. Sometimes the captions are too long, so just click on the pic to see it all. Thanks for reading! Until next time...
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Kathy & Bernie
non-member comment
Super!
Love all your stories, but particularly taken with the Warusha brothers - what a heartwarming tale.