A story Wolf told us, probably the first day in Crucita, when he drove us to PortoViejo to the Supermaxi for groceries. "An American man in Ecuador fell in a hole in the sidewalk and broke his leg. He tried to sue the city, and when he got his court appearance, the judge sent him to an Optomitrist, when he returned with a clear bill of health from the Optomitrist the judge said, 'well if you're not blind, you must be stupid, case closed'!" Seems like such a long time ago, June 2nd
Another thing I've been meaning to mention is the Ecuadorean's health. Now this is only observation because of the language barrier. Maybe 3% are obese, I would say there are some chunky ones but not near what we have in the States! The diet is healthier, although one expat did say the children consumed a lot of sugar, but I can't imagine more than the kids in the US. Big city people of course are different from the coastal fishing villages, but we've spent some time in the big cities too, and by the looks of it, the Ecuadoreans are very well balanced and healthy. Teeth are good, beautiful hair, and not much gray. They seem not to gray until very old, very agile too, now it could be that the ones who are in bad shape don't get out of the house, that's possible...their labeling on food is very vitamin and mineral conscience. Where in the States the label tells you it's "low fat" theirs tell you it has vit A,D &E. And very small windows of time between when a packaged product is made and it's expiration date. Both are on the label, very little in the way of preservatives. Good and bad, good for obvious reasons, but bad because I've lost some stuff in the fridge by not eating it soon enough. The produce is fresh, so it doesn't last, but at 10cents instead of 79 cents I can let that cucumber go. (Neither of us have weighed ourselves since we left in May, we were waiting for our bathroom scale in the container)
This is one of the area street dogs, I've named him Patsy, he is a boy, but I named him after Patsy on the BBC show Ab Fab. Because he (and she) is blonde and nasty (he has bad skin, she is a horrible person). He started following us one day way down the road in San Clemente, probably followed us a mile, then just kind of trailed off. Then he followed us on the San Jacinto side of the Malecon, but then the day this picture was taken, Mike saw him on the beach with another couple. Because of his skin condition we don't pet him, or feed him, or encourage him, but he is kinda cute.
He can walk with us anytime, and when he's done, he's gone.
Some of the expats "adopt" the street dogs, but then they get on a Facebook wondering if anybody has seen the dog when he's off doing his "street dog stuff ". You can take the dog off the street, but you can't take the street out of the dog.
I'm starting a list of things I want from the States, either if/when we go, or when somebody comes to visit:
Qtips, maybe REAL Qtips, not $1 store ones even
Fly paper strips, not for flies so much as fruit flies, those gnatty things are all over my kitchen
Hmmm, so far that's it, there will be more added to the list if we don't get our container...the fees are still mounting, it's just such a hurry up and wait deal here in Ecuador. Not much urgency in the bureaucratic departments. Donations are still needed, we've collected about $500, but at this point that's a drop in the bucket, storage fees are $1000 every two weeks, and it's been here now 2months. Every little bit adds up and helps, thanks in advance, this will be the last time I mention it. To donate go to the link below:
Ive told Catalina that this HAS to come to an end, we can't continue to live in this unfurnished house. It's either, get our container clear by the end of the month, or we have to start rebuilding. We can't sit and continue to watch the storage fees rise, ridiculous! But, in the meantime, we do this
A final rambling, my grandfather and grandmother bought an Airstream trailer, and after Grandpa's early retirement they attached that trailer to the back of their truck and took off. I'm not even sure where all they went, up down and around the States, thru some of Mexico, maybe Canada, spent a couple years doing it I think. I remember Grandpa saying that "one should be retired when they were young and could enjoy it". THAT obviously stuck with me. I recently found out that Grandma didn't always like that time in the Airstream, she missed friends and family, but she had Grandpa and he was all she needed. Myrl went "home" to him and Jesus yesterday. A long chapter, full of life has ended. It was a good read.
So sorry about Grandma. Hang on to the memories.
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