No Dogs

After spending a month in Tennessee, I’m heading back to Guayaquil - just for a week this time. Waiting for the plane to board, I thought I’d look through my photos to reminisce, try to prepare myself for the big city, and find something I can post to my blog quickly. I have so many untold stories about our year in Guayaquil... and thousands of photos. Yikes! I get lost in la la land when I start looking at them.

I came across this photo, which is actually one of my favorites because it has a double meaning for Mike and me. This sign is posted in the entrance hallway of the MegaMaxi grocery store near our apartment. MegaMaxi is the most modern and highest quality grocery store in Ecuador. It’s like a small WalMart; you can buy clothes and tires in addition to groceries. I love this No Dogs sign because I think it exemplifies the coping strategies and personalities of the Ecuadoran people:

Make-do: This was the only clip art of a dog that was available.

Resourcefulness:  Somebody had a dog show (the prohibited symbol was added later), they saved the signs, and they were a friend of somebody who knew somebody who needed a dog sign.

The survival/take care of yourself first kind of attitude: Perhaps the person who was selecting the dog thought, “Hey, this is a good one. I like dachshunds.” Or “Hey, this is a good one. I got bit by a weiner dog once. I hate those dogs.”

Impulsiveness (I really want to call this one the lack of practice in critical thinking skills explanation.):  Need a dog symbol.  Google dog. First dog that pops up. There’s a dog! Done! No thought at all about generalization or the best representation for dog.

Fear factor: O.k., in Ecuador it could really mean no male dachshunds. Perhaps one of the rich customers brings her dachshund shopping with her, and it pees on the display cases. The store employees would be afraid to tell the customer in person not to bring in the dog.

So I’ve wondered for a year which one it was.

The other meaning is a more personal one  - kind of a joke between Mike and me. We don’t have any dogs. Mike doesn’t like dogs in the house. He doesn’t like dogs on the couch. My mom has a dog, a dachshund, and when she comes to visit, she brings the dog. It’s a house dog, not an outside dog, and not the kind of dog that just lays on the floor. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mike posts a similar sign on our front door the next time my mom comes to visit.

Año Viejo ...Old Year

An Año Viejo in the building where I had yoga classes.

The año viejos started to appear at the beginning of December. I was a little shocked when I saw my first año viejo, which was a life-sized ragdoll, dressed in a business suit, and being carried over the shoulder of a man who was also dressed in a business suit and walking on the sidewalk in downtown Guayaquil.  The año viejo “dolls,” which symbolize sins and regrets, are burned on December 31 just before midnight to give hope for a better new year.

This Año Viejo is posing with one of the guards
at Colegio Americano's main gate.

The dolls are displayed along with a box, which at first I thought was where you were supposed to put your sins. But no, the boxes are for donations…some say to help pay for the año viejo, others say for booze money. Although the dolls can be made in the image of a person you dislike, such as a politician, most of the ones I saw were fantasy or cartoon characters. Smurfs were popular. I’m sorry I’m going to miss the burnings.

Maybe one of my friends in Guayaquil will send a photo???

Año Viejo at Colegio Americano's Primary Bar



At the Library.
Is this the copy machine man?



A headless Año Viejo posing with one of the guards at Colegio Americano's Primary School gate. I donated a dollar to this one. I thought it needed some help.



At our favorite Domino's Pizza Restaurant.
I'm sure that taking photos of the Año Viejo confirms that I'm an extranjera.

This one is catching a ride home.
They were stopped in front of my favorite tienda about a block from our apartment.

Culture Shock!



Approaching a Commerce Center in West Virginia

Mike and I are on our way to West Virginia to get his truck. It’s 55ᵒ F (18ᵒ C) and raining. We just went through a toll booth, and there was nobody walking among the cars trying to sell us a slice of pineapple, watermelon, oranges, verduras, or funny looking doughnut shaped cookies. Mike gave the tool booth operator two (American) dollar coins, which she looked at in a funny way, but accepted. She didn’t give him a handful of receipts. Earlier we stopped at a rest area that had free toilet paper, hot water, soap, and a hand dryer that worked. We went through a Burger King drive through and got 8 napkins with our cheeseburgers. We’ve been on the road for 4 hours and haven’t seen a bus yet. I’m using my laptop in broad daylight in the car without fear of being robbed or feeling guilty that I own a laptop. Mike had to pump his own gas, which was $3.49 a gallon for super. The highways have multiple lanes that are divided with painted lines, and people are actually driving within the lines. We've been listening to a Malvina Reynolds Ear to the Ground CD (Little Boxes).

Sundown in the Mountains in West Virginia...
taken through the car window - no  time to stop

Catching a Ride to Work

I’ve been trying to take a photo of this truck full of workers all year; we see it frequently on our way to school in the morning. This morning, even though we were already running a little late because I was slow… as usual, Mike pulled over and waited for the truck to pass so I could get the photo. Thank you, Mike!

In Ecuador you see a lot of people with missing arms and legs. I read an article earlier this year that said that the country has one of the highest percentages of traumatic brain injury in the world. No wonder!

Things You Can Buy at the Stoplight

I have been keeping a list of the things you can buy at the stoplight or toll booth. I haven’t seen the kitchen sink yet, but I won’t be surprised when I see one!

A variety of fruit, in a bag, for a dollar:

20 Reina Claudia  - yellow plums.

Purple plums

Ciruelas – a little round green plum (I think) that turns red when ripe

A pound of strawberries (these cost $2)

20 small limes

Sliced pineapple

Sliced mango

Bing cherries

Sliced papaya

Apples

Peeled oranges

Slice of watermelon

Pieces of coconut

Choclo (corn) for Humitas & Lottery Tickets

Whole pineapple

Whole oranges

Avocados

Tuna – (not the fish!) the prickly pear fruit from a cactus

Long skinny green beans (verduras)

Choclo (corn) for making humitas
Platanos fritos (fried plantain chips, red or white )

Taffy and other homemade candy

Live crabs

Lobster

Fish

Frozen Kool Pops (20¢)

Frozen yogurt stick

Goats – o.k., I don’t know if the man in Quevedo was selling the goats or just giving them a rest in the middle of the intersection.

Agua! (water)

Variety of bottled fruit drinks

A small cup of water or fruit colored drink poured from a gallon jug or 3-liter bottle.



Selling Avacados, Choclo, and Fried Plantain Chips

Steering wheel cover
Santa Claus hat
Neon light stick
A long sleeve sun protector for the driver’s left arm

Bobble head dogs – from a tray

Sunshade for the front window

Opaque window shade for side windows

Retractable shade with suction cups for side windows

Flags/banners on a stick -  from different countries (related to favorite soccer teams?)

Inflatable Items:

Blow-up child’s life preserver (already inflated)

A fully inflated kiddie pool

Blow up guitar

Blow up red “Eyore” donkey

Child-size stuffed chair (I’m not sure if they were blow-up or actually stuffed)

Candy

A 5-foot hat/coat rack

A cell phone recharger/lighter jack

Cell phone or Blackberry case

Bungee cords

Nylon webbing/ tie down straps

Music CDs

Lottery tickets

Daily newspapers

magazines

A rose, sunflower, or bouquet of flowers

windshield wipers

A mini-show: jugglers, dancers, mimes, acrobatics, Michael Jackson moonwalk dance, fire baton twirler, life-size puppets, tightrope walker, juggling unicycle rider

Street Performers

a window wash

brooms, mops, and brushes

Mardi Gras week: a bag of balloons, silly spray, squirt guns

Ladies wide brim sun hat

Baseball caps

Poster size wall sticker

Novels

Beach mat

Beach bag

Area rug

Sunglasses

Wash cloth

Franela – a red flannel towel

Agua! - Water

Synthetic feather duster

Infant sized sports shirts - fútbol teams

Ankle and knee braces, waist support

Lamp

Personal size dry erase board

Variety of purses

Child size stuffed chair

Coloring book

Bamboo shoots

Furry rats – they looked real; we hope they were fake!

Smurf dolls, a variety of sizes

Practice test for a driver’s licenseLotion

Day planner
Key chains

Newspaper Stand

Gum

Candy

Halloween masks and wigs

Bobble head doll

House phone

Cowboy hat

Bromeliad plant

Reindeer antlers headband

Shoe polish

Kites

Mike's Students Help Prepare for a FUNEAP Workshop

One of my FUNEAP workshops was on reading instruction. My secondary goal was to address principles of Universal Design for Learning and to encourage interactive activities in the classroom. Mike’s Puerto Rico and New Hampshire classes got involved in the preparations. These students used their bilingual English and Spanish skills to develop “Foldables,” which are hands-on activities and three-dimensional graphic organizers, to address phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary skills. Thank you Puerto Rico and New Hampshire!

In case you’re wondering what Puerto Rico and New Hampshire are…

...at Colegio Americano, the students follow tracks according to their academic interests. They call the tracks “parallels,” and there are four parallels per grade level in the secondary school. Students in a parallel take all of their classes together. Puerto Rico and New Hampshire are 6^th course students (seniors). Puerto Rico students follow a program of studies that focuses on business, and New Hampshire students focus on sociales (similar to liberal arts).

Thanksgiving

Turkey Extraterrestre

Since we had to work on Thursday (kind of) and Friday, the gringos from Colegio Americano had an international Thanksgiving feast on Friday evening. Tom from England baked Yorkshire pudding, Willa from Holland brought Cabbage salad, Margaux brought hard boiled quail eggs, and the rest of us tried to make our favorite family recipes using Ecuadoran ingredients.

I'm thankful for all the wonderful friends I have made in Ecuador!

Margaux's Deviled Eggs and Hard Boiled Quail Eggs

Mike and I made pumpkin pie. Not so simple to do in Ecuador! Canned pumpkin is not available here. After asking around, we were told that we could find pieces of zapallo in the Mi Comiseriato grocery store. Zapallo is a large green pumpkin, which they sell in chunks. I cooked the pumpkin in the microwave, and Mike processed it in the blender…we don’t have a food processor. We couldn’t find any ground cloves, so Mike also ground the cloves in the blender and then we had to sift out the bigger pieces. They sell milk in boxes here – not very good – so we used powdered milk. The flour is different here and I was warned not to try to make pie crust from it, plus I don’t have a rolling pin, so I made a pie crust out of zoologia cookies (that’s what they call animal crackers).  I always laugh when I see the name, but I guess zoo cookies is no worse than animal crackers.

The pies didn’t look very pretty, but they tasted good. Everyone always likes the Berglund (Mom’s) pumpkin pie recipe.



A Chunk of Zapallo



Pumpkin Custard Pie



16 oz (1 ½ cups) pumpkin

¾ cup sugar

1-1   ¼ tsp cinnamon (adjust spices to taste)

¼– ½ tsp cloves

¼– ½ tsp nutmeg

½ - 1 tsp ginger

½ tsp salt

6 oz (¾ cup) evaporated milk

1 ¼ cups milk

3 eggs, slightly beaten

Mix ingredients in a bowl, pour into a 9-inch unbaked pie crust.

Bake at 450ᵒF (232ᵒ c)for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 325ᵒF (163ᵒ c)and bake for 45 minutes.

How do you like your pork?

Hornado de Chancho in Cuenca, Ecuador

Ecuadorans are proud of their “comidas typicas” (typical foods) which vary by region – coast, highlands, and the Amazon. The favored regional pork dishes are examples of comidas typicas. On the coast and in the highlands, the pork dish is called Hornado de Chancho. The coastal version of Hornado de Chancho is a pork leg that is cooked in the oven.

In Cuenca, which is in the highlands, the Hornado de Chancho is the entire pig cooked whole. The crisp outer skin - I think they call it “cascaritas” - is a delicacy; a blow-torch cooking apparatus is used to crisp the skin and layers of meat. In the market, the vendors use their hands to pull the meat from the whole pig.

In other areas of the highlands, the regional pork dish is called “Fritada.” The Fritada is cooked in a large pan over an open fire. They start out boiling the pork and pork fat in water, but eventually the water evaporates and the pork is fried in its own fat with salt, white onions, and garlic.

The beginnings of a Fritada meal.
Pork and pork fat in boiling water.




We enjoyed this meal of fritada with friends in Pallatanga.

 

A plate of fritada, platano, choclo, potatoes with onion sauce, and habas.

The fritada is traditionally served with a large white corn called choclo, potatoes with an onion sauce that is made with bread, milk, butter and salt, and cooked habas (I think this is a type of fava bean).  Mike and I had a wonderful fritada meal with friends in Pallatanga. I’m not sure where the pork came from, but we watched Marietta, the cook, prepare the meal from start to finish, and we decided that the pork was fried enough that it would be safe to eat. The meal was delicious!

Fritada in Mindo, Ecuador

These fritada stands are typical of eateries that you see on the sides of roads throughout ecuador. Some of the stands may have a plastic table or two for customers to sit and enjoy their meal.



This fritada stand is somewhere on the road between Mindo and Guayaquil.
Sometimes the stands will hang the whole pig.



Tricimotos and Carretas



This driver gives his children and their friends a ride home from school in  his tricimoto.

Tricimotos (motor taxis) are a common mode of trasportation in the poor sections of the city and in the towns and villages in the rest of the country. In the city, passengers get of the bus on the highway (apparently a bus will drop off and pick up passengers anywhere along the road), and then take a tricimoto or a carreta (the pedal-powered version) into the barrios where the roads are impassible to busses and in some places cars. In some of the more popular locations, such as the main entrances into the barrios, the tricimotos line up along the side of the highway like a cab line. The law prohibits the tricimotos from driving on the main roads, but like many other regulations here, there are few or no resources to enforce the law. 

Tricimotos on the  Main Street in a Fishing Village, Puerto Lopez



Tricimotos Waiting for School Dismissal on Isla Trinitaria

 


Children from a Public School In Guasmo Get a Ride Home in a Carreta




This tricimoto is in the front yard of a school in an invasions area.
The school and houses in this area have electricity, but no running water.