Seis Puerqueños

I know you probably thought we lied, because you never saw any evidence. But we did. The rest of the trip was great, except for Harmon’s sleeping habits. We visited lots of orphanages, had a party with the ward, hung out with our good friends, and ate lots of tasty things. I feel like there should be something more exciting to say, but it was really a trip to go and visit people we love, not to do anything ultra amazing. We had a good time, and Harmon handled being passed around quite well. Even at the girl’s orphanage being girlhandled by 30 girls aged 4-24. He was a well-loved and popular kid, and we had to make many promises to return again soon.

Here are some pictures, sadly the cutest ones seem to be at the orphanages, which I cannot post on the internet. The rest of our photos are here. Sorry for the ultimately long witheld and not very interesting post.

I just wanted to beat Aaron to the punch. So happy anniversary dearest husband. You are a wonderful man, I am so lucky to have you. xoxo, Foxfish

P.S. I knew it was 2 years the whole time, I was just testing you.

[Disclaimer: I should point out that this is my blog and these are just my interpretations of things, and you should not take my observations as fact.]

I love other countries and different ways of looking at things. And one thing I really love about Ecuador is their many superstitions.

One that we keep running into this trip is whether we are having a boy or a girl next. First our taxi driver in Quito told me that surely it is a girl, because I am still feeding Harmon without any problems. Today a teacher at the orphanage told me he was wrong, and that it was surely a boy, for the exact same reason.

If you have a cold, or sore throat, you are not allowed to have anything cold to drink, for fear you may get even worse. Pretty much cold drinks are outlawed because they could get you sick on their own.

Shots in your behind seem to be the preferred way of medicinal healing here. Maybe because it’s such a big “muscle” or because any random person at the pharmacy can give you one because it’s an easy target, but either way, what happened to good old shots in the arm? I don’t know if that’s really a superstition, but kind of.

One we learned about last year was curing sad/sick babies with eggs. Not by feeding them, but by rubbing an uncooked egg all over their body. This will draw out all the evil spirits (or something) and if you do it long enough the evil spirits will all end up in the egg and the egg will become hard boiled!!! We witnessed this and when the egg was cracked into a glass of water we were told “see, the yolk didn’t crack” (it was suspended in the water, as any raw egg could be) and then told if they mom would have done it longer it would have been even harder.

I vaguely remember a way to cure fussy babies used by some in the orphanages when I was here the first time. Something along the lines of getting water in your mouth (maybe special water?) and then spitting it on the baby’s face. That sounds kind of bad, but it’s more like a misting of the face based on how you spit it out. This kind of startles the baby who then stops crying because they wonder what the heck is going on. There may be some more reasoning behind it, but that is all I was able to gather/remember.

I already mentioned how when the temperature drops below 70 (like 68) if you don’t have a hat and sweater on your baby, and a sweater and scarf on you, you will likely die from catching a cold. This is probably more an issue of it never gets really cold here, because lots of people in lots of countries believe you will get sick from being in the cold/rain/etc.

There are lots more, and wanting to think of them prevented me from posting this blog two weeks ago when I wrote it, but it seems silly to not publish it for a couple more I won’t remember.

But really slow at finishing our vacation report, posting pictures, and learning how to sleep again. But we are back. And had a wonderful time. More to come.

The first night we got here Harmon took a huge step back in sleeping. He went from sleeping to not. By the third night when he was up every 15 minutes we were more and more worried about him actually being sick instead of just not enjoying sleeping in Ecuador. We thought maybe ear infection, as he had been tugging at his ear, but he does that when his teeth are bugging him, so it was hard to say. Long story short we have a new favorite pediatrician who we wished lived closer to us, and Harmon has “gingivitis”, which is apparently very common among teething babies, or another way to say he has an owie because his teeth are coming in. He was just hiding it above his upper teeth so we couldn’t see it. It seems to be getting better and he enjoys the numbing medicine, although he’s sleeping only slightly better.

Today is Aaron’s cumpleanos, and we celebrated by making dinner for all the volunteers. Aaron made a delicious BBQ which was much loved by all. Also I made a most delicious chocolate cake from a mix that was well loved as well. But not as much as the BBQ.

We also celebrated by going to church (ok we were going to do that anyway). It was insane. Since we still knew most of the ward from living here a year ago, Harmon was mobbed. After Sacrament meeting he was stolen away from Aaron and passed around to more than a dozen people. He tolerated it well until the end, but the sadness was likely also due to sleep deprivation. We were happy to see everyone, and happy to show off our baby (we like to show him off, if you haven’t noticed, we are vain, we admit it) and have a little party planned with the ward this week just to get together and visit more.

We went by the boys orphanage again today, and got to see some old friends and meet some new ones. We only stayed for a few minutes, but managed to get all the younger ones riled up to chaos by the time we left. I’m sure Sor Teresa appreciated it, she was laughing after all. Harmon and Sor Teresa love each other. He loves to reach for her glasses and face, and she loves to smile and coo at him and tell him not to take off her glasses because she won’t be able to see. Sometimes I can’t believe this is the same Sor Teresa from 2004. I mean, I knew this ST was under there all along, but it’s crazy and wonderful to see it full time now.

Yesterday we went to OSSO’s orphanage. It was SO wonderful. I loved seeing my special kids from both the old places. They are getting so big. And some of them progressing so much. But some of them regressing, which is really hard to see. There is one girl there who used to be at the girls house who has some sort of disease which slowly makes her body deteriorate while her mind stays aware of what is going on around her. Her mom also had this, and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to watch her own sweet mother trapped inside a body and know it was going to happen to her soon. When I was first here in 2004 this girl, who is probably my age or perhaps a few years younger, could walk and talk. She was a little slow in speaking, and a bit off kilter when walking, but could do them. When we were here in 2007-08 she was using a walker, and had just taken a pretty big fall. She could still kind of talk, it was hard to understand her, but if you knew her and tried hard, you could still get most of what she was saying. And then this year. She is in a wheelchair. She can’t talk. I was so excited to see her, and talk with her, and she seemed excited too, even though she couldn’t express it verbally. Later on she was crying. I couldn’t figure out why, and she couldn’t tell me. And it was horrible. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like, to be trapped in a body that is shutting down. How is it that I am ever able to complain about anything?

Anyway, I love being here. I am so grateful for this opportunity to visit a place that I love so much filled with so many of my favorite people and memories. I realized I haven’t taken any pictures, and I should. The end for now.

I have to admit that I cried when we landed in Cuenca. I’d like to blame pregnancy, but I think it’s more the fact that Cuenca will always feel like home to me.

There are so many big and little things that I love and miss about Ecuador. Most of them I don’t think of at all, until I’m back. And some I didn’t even like when I lived here, but being here makes me like them. Here is a little (or big) list of things I love.

1. The Roseros, obviously
2. The car alarms. Everyone has the same one, you would never know if it was yours going off. And they have the same set pattern of 5 different alarm noises which become quite predictable after a short while.
3. Cheap fresh fruit & veggies
4. The trucks that drive around with a voice on a loud speaker calling out: “duraznos duraznos, 10 duraznos un dollar”
5. Mote, which is like giant exploding corn (hominy) but 3000 times better
6. Aji, a sauce made from the aji pepper
7. Sun turning to torrential downpour in 30 seconds without warning
8. Nuns, especially Sor Teresa
9. Locro de papas (potato soup made from potatoes and pretty much just butter)
10. The way Ishy & Sammy hug me when they get home from school
11. The OSSO house, and all the memories like blanket sledding down the stairs with Mikel, or sleepovers on the deck with Jess & Jill, hiding under Jen’s bed for a half hour to scare her, being locked out, the horrible floor polish smell, painting my room green, meeting new best friends and then having to say goodbye, laughing so hard you cry, crying so hard you can’t breathe and then have to laugh, comforting and being comforted by others, making popcorn, the french fry diet, being saved by Ashley’s gatorade deliveries, Emme’s guitar playing, Jade’s falling up skills, TeElle’s “entra no mas!”, sitting around on the floor talking about our crushes or boyfriends, eating finch eggs with Adam, meeting Rex for the first time, playing with Daniela, hours spent playing with Sammy & Ishy, and many, many more
12. The many different things honking means: I’m turning left, I’m right behind you, get out of the way, hey good lookin’, hi friend, let’s race, no one is around let me make sure my horn still works
13. Cold showers at least 50% of the time
14. How 70 degrees is “cold” and requires jackets and scarves
15. The ease of which you can do many difficult things
16. The difficulty involved with many simple things
17. Most of all, the kids. Who I still love more than I will ever understand, for all they gave me, and for helping me to become the person I am trying to be.

There’s a lot more, but Harmon is now ready for some playing, and you are bored of reading. It was for me anyway though

Harmon is finally napping so I thought I could steal a minute and blog our trip so far. Flights were on-time, we had our own flight from Houston to Quito, our taxi guy showed up, our hotel was good, we made the flight to Cuenca today, and all is good. The Roseros were waiting for us at the airport, because they are like that, even though we told them we were coming to the house in a taxi. Harmon seems to be quite taken with them, especially Ishy’s hair, but Ishy has extra so Harmon will pull some out to make himself a wig.

Harmon was so good on the flights, better than we could have hoped for. Plus traveling with a baby gets you perks like the short line through immigration, and boarding the plane first. Probably the funniest part was landing in Quito last night they made everyone wear a mask. That’s right, like in case you have swine bird or guinea pig flu. Then we had to walk by the camera sensor thing just to make sure our temperatures weren’t too high. Harmon seemed to enjoy his mask ok:

Also we seem to attract the same lady every time we travel. You know her. She is the one sneaking up behind you to cut in line. She will come to your side, then ever so “sneakily” pass you by. Then you have to decide if you are going to call her out or not. In Houston when she cut us in the getting your passport checked before boarding line we let it go, even though she needed chopped. When she was trying to pass us in the immigration line, after almost passing the people behind us, we were in no mood for her. Plus apparently the mask rule didn’t apply to her. Or her neck was the contagious part of her body. She didn’t manage to bypass us in that line, but as we were being helped we looked back to see her passing the couple with the 2 year old and crying baby, with the lady at our immigration counter yelling to the other counter not to let her go because she was cutting. Unfortunately her plan was not thwarted. I can only assume she was in the short line because she has a disability. You know, being more important than everyone else.

Anyway, things are great. More later.

This month I must have not taken very many pictures, but we did manage to do a lot and have a lot of fun. Harmon now says “mom” but mostly only when he wants some food. “Mom” seems to come at milk time, and “Mamama” seems to come when eating table foods, probably being “mas” (more) that we say to him. He is enjoying all sorts of new foods, including whatever he can get his hands on off our plates. Watermelon seems to be a newer favorite.

We have been meaning to take him swimming pretty much since he was born, as we both love it so much, but just haven’t made it to the nasty pool at the health club yet. Saturday it was so nice and warm we went over to grandma’s house and tried out swimming in her pool. He was slightly nervous at first, but within minutes was in LOVE. He wanted to be on his belly, kicking and splashing with his arms full-time. He didn’t even seem to hate every little bit when he would dunk his face in the water. We are happy he seems to love swimming just as much as us. Anyway, I’m sure there is lots more, but I have forgotten it all now. Maybe Aaron will update it later. Here are some photos, and a video of swimming. Note at the end of the video how all he wants to do is get back to swimming while his parents are concerned with his water intake.

It was a “funny” joke to pretend that maybe I had twins inside my belly. I don’t. Only one ALF. And he/she waved both arms at us, and kicked. That’s his/her alien head on the left, fat body in the middle, and arm waving at you.

I hate moving. Except we have 10 times the space in our wonderful new house. We spent all our money at Ikea getting new furniture to match our old Ikea furniture to fill in the spaces. There are still one million boxes to unpack. I secretly dream Aaron will do it while I’m sleeping and I will wake up to a put away house. But seeing as he has already put away all the ones that are currently put away, I don’t think that’s the most fair desire. But I still want it.