So Far Away Yet So Close

Being on the bottom half of the world has its benefits, but one of them surely is not being away from family. Though occasionally things happen that seem to make the distance more tolerable.

A few days ago, some volunteers assigned with the responsibility of purchasing fruit from the fruit market twice a week came home and mentioned they had purchased pears this week that were imported from Washington. So as I examined the box they came in I was surprised to find the following...

Those of you from the Rogers clan should recognize Lake Chelan. Seeing this took me back to my very cloudy memories of the vacations we'd spend there on the ranch. I was young enough that most of my 'memories' visually come from the pictures I looked at growing up. Although I do not remember much of those times together as a family, I do remember the more recent times together and cherish them.

We love and miss you all. And it's like they say, it's a small world after all

Household Pet to Delicacy

In Ecuador and Peru, the Guinea pig is a delicacy. A few weeks back we toured a farm, we saw in a little shed where one would expect to see chickens, dozens of guinea pigs scurrying about. Odd to think that each one of them would be sold to a restaurant for $8-10 where they would turn around and sell it for $12-15 as an entrée. So after living here six months, we finally got around to getting one for ourselves to share with the volunteers. The pictures below relate our experience.

WARNING: Anyone who has owned a guinea pig as a pet may not find the following amusing.








Two volunteers decided to each eat an eyeball. Interesting, but really not that appetizing
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Danika initiated her first phone call in spanish

It has rained off and on almost every day this week, so we had pictured spending our weekend indoors. However we woke up Saturday morning to a bright sunlight and clear sky. That’s when I told Lee, “Remember how the Arciniegas family invited us to use their swimming pool whenever we wished to?! Well, I’d like to give Tami Arciniegas a call and see if today is convenient, would you help me prep for the phone call?” So together we put together what I’d like to say and then I gave her a call on speakerphone.

“Podria hablar con Tami?”

“De parte de quien?” (it was her son).

“Soy Danika Rogers,” (pronounced Royers) I replied.

While he went to find Tami I decided to take it off speakerphone so I could hear better, but I accidentally hung up. Opps.

I called back and this time Tami answered.

“ Hola Tami, soy Danika. Nos dijo que podriamos pasar y usar su pescina. Es conviniente hoy?” I asked.

“Si pero me deben advisar con tiempo para calentar al agua,” Tami replied.

“Esta bien no importa,” I said.

“Pasen no mas.” She said.

"Gracias! Pues vamos a ir."

We quickly gathered our things and walked to the Arciniegas home 25 minutes away.

The pool was cold, but lovely.

Fue exactamente lo que necitamos ayer!

October Tales

Every 2 months or so the volunteers put together a slideshow of their service here. They include photos and music of their memories. The slideshow is played at a going-away banquet for the exiting volunteers. Volunteers always take pictures of us but we normally don't get copies of the photos except for when we spot them in a slideshow. Here are a couple of pictures that we found in the last slideshow. The first four were taken at an orphanage called"Hogar Para Todos" in a city called Azogues.




This last photo was taken at Trinidad. Lee and I are teaching the children how to play "Doggie Doggy." I discovered this game summer 2008 while visiting family in Incline Village. It was a lovely week with lots of time to play with nieces and nephews.

One day the kids were bored so I googled " kid games" and thats how I found "Doggy Doggy." A child sits in a chair with their back to the other children. An pen or another object was put under the chair. That was the bone. While 'the dog' was turned around with his or her eyes closed, someone would sneak up and steal the bone. Then everyone would sing: "Doggy, Doggy, where's your bone? Somebody's took it from your home."Then the dog has three chances to guess who took the bone.

While at Trinidad I told Lee that we should try to teach the children the game, so he quickly translated the phrase and it turned out to work really well. The words are just as cute. "Perrito, perrito, donde esta tu huesito?" It made me think of my nieces and nephews who we miss so much.

Ruta Nocuturna 10k

Danika and I officially survived our first 10k together. For Danika it was her 3rd (she did a 5k on her birthday a few years ago, she ran in the Ragnar Relay, and now this 10k in Cuenca) while this was my first. I am learning that running is 80-85% mental and the rest is your physical ability.

Danika loved the whole run, while I on the other hand struggled for the first 3 or 4 kilometers. We were approaching a fairly steep, 200 meter climb when I suggested we walk it. Danika said try it and do your best. Then it clicked and my racing mentality kicked in and just to prove it to myself I almost sprinted the hill. From there on down the race was easier. Danika and I generally ran side by side, except for when having to split up to maneuver around other racers.

I was extremely grateful they had marked each kilometer with a large banner that hung over the street, this allowed us to track our progress and/or count how many we had left, depending on our level of fatigue. After a few minutes after passing the banner marking the 8th kilometer, I started looking for the next banner, which I had seen earlier that day when we drove by with the Roseros, that was nowhere to be seen. It was when I caught a glimpse of the finish line that I realized they either had taken it down or that it had fallen, either way I was a happy man. I sprinted to the end and crossed it as the race timer read 1:00:50, but seeing we were at the tail end of the 5,000 participants when the race started, we didn't cross the line for probably 3-5 minutes hoping to wait out the dense crowd. Fortunately we had been given chips that would clock our exact time. We haven't quite figured out where our times have been or will be posted but that's okay.

We enjoyed the thrill of a race and were more than happy to only ran the 10k (we're not quite as intense as you Em!)

Just recently added some pictures that Rodrigo took of us.



Tying to our fee the chips that would measure our time right from crossing the start line to the finish line.

Funny picture of us squinting before the race

So Lee isn't too tough to spot because he's a head taller than everyone else, but can you find Danika?

Nice and wet after the race.

Our personal cheer squad. As I was within 200 meters of the finish line I heard Sammy's (the Rosero's 17 year old daughter) distinguished screech of "LEEEEEEEEE!!!"