Snickerdoodle Mug Cookie. You’re welcome.

Posted on March 21, 2012 by kelsey

This post is only for people who like really really tasty things.  If you don’t, then you won’t like this.

Lately I have been making a lot of desserts in the microwave due to lack of oven.  Most recently I made this sugar cookie recipe and it was pretty tasty.  Many thanks to Melissa at No. 2 Pencil for being a genius!  After a few times of eating that I decided I would take her recipe and make it chocolate chip, even though she had a chocolate chip recipe I didn’t want to look it up and figured it probably just substituted half the white sugar for brown.  Also there are no chocolate chips here, but whatever.  I made it the way I thought and it was super tasty.  I looked hers up later and hers is slightly different.  I’m sure just as tasty.

A week or so ago we made snickerdoodles at the house of friends who own an oven.  Since then all I want to do is eat snickerdoodles.  This morning at breakfast time (don’t judge!) I realized I could make one in the microwave!  So, without further ado here are two ways to make snickerdoodles in your microwave.

Breakfast, attempt one:
1 Tbs butter
2 Tbs white sugar
Pinch of salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Few drops of vanilla
1 egg yolk
3 Tbs flour
More white sugar, cinnamon

First melt butter in a nice microwavable mug.  Then add sugar, salt, cream of tartar, and egg yolk, mixing them all together.  Then add the flour, and mix it up real good.  Sprinkle a liberal amount of sugar over the top, and as much cinnamon as you like.  If you are me you will cover the entire top with cinnamon.  Microwave for 30-45 seconds depending on how strong your microwave is.  Then enjoy.  It was super tasty and I loved it.  This is probably not enough to share with another person.

After dinner, attempt two (larger version):
1 1/2 Tbs butter
3 Tbs white sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 egg
Several drops of vanilla
5 Tbs flour
Sugar & cinnamon

The steps to making this are just like above except cook 45-60 seconds.

I made this version to share with the 3 other mouths that live at my house. In truth I probably only shared 7 small bites though. I actually preferred this version, and Aaron said it was delicious, but was almost more like a cake than a cookie. Either way, I highly recommend this tasty treat, especially if you don’t have an oven and are craving snickerdoodles. You’re welcome.

Posted in recipe | 5 Comments

Stupid Things To Do To Yourself

Posted on March 18, 2012 by kelsey

A few nights ago it was 10:30 and I needed some food.  I decided that I wanted an egg, but was really lazy.  Then I remembered I had half an avocado in the fridge.  Obviously I should cut up the avocado, put it into a mug, add the egg on top and microwave.  All went well until I pulled my late night snack out of the microwave.  Because I had just cracked the egg over the top and not scrambled it, the yolk was sitting right on top and looked questionably cooked.  Naturally I took my spoon to poke it to check it’s poisonability index and it exploded.  Into my eye.

Now there are a lot of things that feel bad, but one of them is having a burning hot egg explode into your eye.  Sure, the egg could have gotten on my face, in my hair, missed me entirely, but instead it decided to shoot directly into my eye.  Of course.

I hollered for Aaron to come assist his now crippled wife and he ran in like lightning and offered to flush it with water.  I declined and instead stuck my eyeball into a cup and turned it upside down onto the poor thing.  Then I proceeded to make great jokes about having egg on my face and the like.  Because come on, if you are going to be blinded by something, egg is a pretty funny thing.

Good news, I recovered and can see fine.  My eyeball just hurt for a couple of days.  So remember, don’t poke at the yolk of a egg you just microwaved.  It is a bad idea.

Posted in safety fail | 5 Comments

Maybe it’s just us.

Posted on March 17, 2012 by kelsey

You might remember this fine car driving into our house.  That didn’t exactly happen today, but still too close for comfort.

Aaron, Sammy, and I were in the kitchen at the back of the house while Harmon was napping in his room at the front.  Suddenly we heard a terrible crash and a squealing of tires out front.  I ran out to the balcony and was horrified to see a motorcycle on the ground in the road and a lady on the ground behind it, and a few others gathered around.  Aaron was now out on the balcony and I ran to find phone, blanket, and towel.  When I got downstairs Aaron threw me a bottle of water too.

When I got out to the road the water and towel were quickly put to use.  The good news was that there was almost no blood.  The lady on the ground had been rolled over and the only cut was on the palm of her hand and didn’t look too serious.  However her legs were bent into not so nice positions, so I would imagine she will be leaving the hospital in a cast.  Additionally, I only saw one helmet, so I am assuming the man driving was wearing it and not her.  He was sitting on the sidewalk trying not to freak out and holding his leg.  Another lady put the towel under the head of the lady on the ground and tried to get her to be as calm and still as possible.  Meanwhile a traffic motorcycle cop had arrived and an ambulance was on the way.

After a few minutes it was determined that this motorcycle had been hit by a white car that quickly sped away, hence the squealing tires after the crash noise.  More police showed up, the ambulance, and lots of bystanders.  The poor lady gets put onto a stretcher and put into the ambulance, and after getting his leg checked out, the motorcycle driver decides to go in the car with his friend.  At this point I am just standing by my gate, in case they need somewhere to park the motorcycle for the night/week/whatever.  Sure enough the crowd of my neighbors surrounding the driver and police men turn around one by one to look at me and I know that is what they are thinking too.  I open our gate and garage and guess what?  Now we have a free motorcycle!

Poor people.  I hate car accidents, and especially ones where people end up on the street.  But come on, what is it with accidents in front of our houses with white cars?  Watch out all future neighbors, we are bringing white car crashes to a neighborhood near you…

[Update: The motorcycle driver came with a group of friends to our house last night to reclaim his bike.  He said he was ok, just a few strained ligaments in his foot, and that his lady was going to be just fine, no breaks!  We were surprised that she didn’t have any broken bones, but very very glad.]

Posted in ecuador, I don't love it | 2 Comments

My Name’s Not Harmon

Posted on March 16, 2012 by kelsey

Sometimes I wonder why I bothered naming my children at all.  Almost a month ago Sammy declared that her name was “Gracie” after a cat in a Berenstain Bears book.  Prior to this she often spoke in third person, saying “the kitty wants to sit on your lap” or “the kitty wants a snack” but now she had a name to speak third person about.  “Gracie wants some candy!!”  Harmon took to this idea as well, and declared his name to be Simba (from the Lion King).  In the first week of this game if I referred to Harmon by his original given name he would declare “My name is not Harmon!!!” and would then refuse to respond until I called him Simba.  Sammy soon caught on, but was much more forgetful when I would use her real name.

After a week they tired of Gracie and Simba, and became Rapunzel and Eugene (from Tangled, can you tell we’ve been watching a lot of movies?) almost exclusively.  “Look at Rapunzel’s long hair!”  “Eugene doesn’t want to go potty!”

Moving into the third week, it is hard to know what my children’s names are.  Sometimes I will call for Sammy and Harmon only to be told that is not their names.  Then I will call for Simba and Nala only to be told I am wrong again.  After trying Rapunzel and Eugene and being rejected again I finally give up and say if you won’t tell me what your names are then I will just call you Harmon and Sammy.  (It’s like a game of Rumpelstiltskin)  This threat will generally cause them to tell me their newly chosen name and finally I can get out whatever it is I wanted them to do in the first place.

I don’t really remember ever asking to be called something else, although I do remember sometimes wishing I had a different name.  Of course if my mother reads this maybe she can correct me, as I don’t ever remember being 2 or 3.

Posted in harmon, sammy | 3 Comments

Lots of Randoms for Jessica

Posted on March 14, 2012 by kelsey

Today my cousin Jessica chastised me for my lack of posting. In the past she has also told me that our grandfather who is 80+ works 4 days a week, so I should at least be managing two posts a day. I complained to her I had a lot of posts written in my head, but they were all kind of rude rants, and she reminded me that was her favorite kind. She also suggested that I write about animals. Like stray dogs. And post pictures of them. Here is a random smattering of things from my brain based on my conversation with the lovely Jessica.

1. Yesterday I took a walk with the kids to get ice cream. We were crossing a not very busy street when a car comes speeding up and even though we were halfway across the crosswalk he pulls RIGHT in front of us, and would have hit us if I didn’t guess what he was about to do. As we walked around the back of his truck (he couldn’t turn, there were cars coming on the busy street, good thing he got there before us) I seriously considered kicking it. Why on earth people think it is an awesome idea to drive as fast as you can towards a lady and two small children is beyond me. As I got around to his open window I shouted at him (in Spanish) “HEY! You need to watch out for PEOPLE!!!” He didn’t look at me and perhaps thought I was not talking to him, but as he finally turned and passed us a ways down the street I gave him my evilest look. Similar things have happened other times, including one time when we were crossing a street and a taxi sped up to scare us. Aaron gave him a piece of his mind in English that time, but sadly he was too far away to hear it. But really, I should have kicked the truck.

2. There are not a ton of stray dogs in town, but there are a lot of dogs. Little white poodle type things are very very popular. But there are a lot of dogs, and to let your dog go to the bathroom you usually just turn them loose in the street. And then they do their business wherever they please and you don’t have to clean it up. I suppose that is great if you are the dog owner and never walk anywhere on the street, but for everyone else it is awful. Luckily the city has it’s own janitorial staff who walk around night and day (no joke I saw one out cleaning our street at 3am last night) with their broom and dust pan picking up garbage and other “surprises”. About a month ago there was a guy who lived near us who kept bringing his dogs on leash to pee on our front gate. One time Aaron caught him and ran out and let him know that he should not be doing that, and we haven’t seen the guy on our street since. (He lives on the street around the corner.)

3. Men using the bathroom on the walls in the city is not uncommon. It is nasty and I always have to remind the kids to stay away from puddles that are near walls, because they are not from the rain. This reminded me of a time in 2008 when we were living here. Perhaps I have told this story before. But if not, you might not want to read it anyway. We lived in the center of downtown and one time I thought a nice old lady with her big fancy skirt had fallen into the street/gutter. I foolishly asked her if she needed help and she looked at me as if I was insane. She was busy using the drainage system. I should point out that this is not common, but worth reporting nonetheless.

4. Jessica should start her own blog. Not only is she ridiculously funny, she sees lots of amazing things living in Baltimore. Today she told me about seeing a pot thrown onto someone’s car. Full of soil, soil everywhere. Just imagine if she had a camera. It would be a wonderful blog and we would all read it.  [Look what she produced today!]

5.

So Fancy. We bought some of these “puffs” yesterday. We don’t have a couch or really any furniture besides beds, kitchen table and chairs, and Aaron’s work desks, so these are our new most favorite things. They are not really beanbags and not as comfortable, as they are stuffed with tiny styrafoam pellets (I think) but they are better than no couch at all. Our big one is brown (so classy) and our two singles are blue & green, and pink & purple. Try not to be too jealous.

6. I hate cutters. This could be an entire post. But I think it is my biggest pet peeve. And is really really common here. For example if you were to go to a neighborhood tienda (store) and two people were already at the gate waiting to be helped/being helped, you would begin to wait patiently and then meanwhile someone else would come up and get the owner’s attention and shout “eggs! I want 7 eggs! And some papaya!” and you would stand there wondering A. why the store owner didn’t remember you were there first and B. why the person thought they were cooler than you and should go first. This would lead you to boycott many neighborhood stores, making your husband sad because he wants to get fruits and vegetables at the closer tienda, instead of the farther one. This is just one “hypothetical” of how cutting can ruin lives.

7. I have to go sit on the “puffs” now because I am tired of all this typing.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Holey Moley!

Posted on March 6, 2012 by aaron

A couple weeks ago I was working downstairs while Kelsey was cooking a delicious dinner. Suddenly I heard a rumbling thump. I knew immediately what it was but I was paralyzed with a knot in my stomach. Sammy was falling down the stairs. Luckily Harmon didn’t go tumbling after. He actually broke her fall a bit.

I came running up and Kelsey came running down — I was working and she was making salchipapas. After a few minutes Sammy was calmed down. She was apparently uninjured. But the discussion around dinner revolved around her fall.

“I went holey moley!” she said repeatedly, describing her fall with a smile. I think she meant “rollie pollie”, but whatever. At least she’s alright.

Posted in sammy, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

“Helpful” Old Ladies

Posted on March 5, 2012 by kelsey

These ladies are in every country. Mostly here they tell me to dress my children more warmly, which I have decided is largely cultural as the temperature never drops below 55 in the daytime, so 60 is cold, and I do force my kids to wear coats when it rains. Today’s featured lady however is typical of nosy know-it-all ladies found everywhere on the planet. (Admittedly I have not been to everywhere on the planet, so if you live somewhere there are none of these ladies, feel free to point that out. You know, like Antarctica. Maybe I will move there.) Granted, most of them mean well, but seriously. I was going to tell it to you in story form, but I think I will write her a letter, just in case she finds my blog.

Dear “Helpful” Older Lady,

Today we met you while we were walking to the fruit market. It is about a 25 minute walk for small feet, and having already walked half hour to the grocery store several hours earlier I was content with our pace. Halfway there we crossed you on foot and smiled at you. (New rule #1: don’t smile at seemingly innocent ladies.) We turned the corner a minute or two later and suddenly a car sidled up to us. I instinctively pulled the kids away, but when I saw it was you I relaxed a little. I figured you were going to ask us directions, because surprisingly enough I get asked for directions quite a lot. Instead you tell me you have a piece of advice about my daughter for me. I assume you are going to tell me that there are scary bad guys around or something of the like, because as it had been raining earlier, both my kids had warm jackets on.

You proceeded to tell me that Sammy’s crocs are not safe. Similar shoes are really popular here, and so I assume you mean that they will fall apart or something. I perhaps was a little condescending when I told you that mine were from the US and just fine for feet. But then you gave me a 5 minute lecture on how they will ruin my daughter’s feet. What I really needed to do was get some boots with arch support you said! As you will recall, I was pretty polite. I said ok, thank you, about a million times. Then after you decided to tell me that Sammy’s shoes were the worst you took a gander at Harmon’s feet and determined his firefighter rain boots were also awful and that he also needed some boots with arch support. Again I thanked you for your advice. I should now also point out to you that I also ignored the fact that I was wearing the exact same shoes as Sammy (you didn’t seem to be concerned for my feet!), and made no explanation to you about what I felt was proper footwear and what shoes my children actually wear on a regular basis.

I thought our conversation would never end, and wondered how I would get away from you without being rude. Because I only like to be rude when it is really warranted, and although you were pushing the limits, I was feeling kind. But then you had to put in one last plea, didn’t you? Well, let me give YOU some advice for the future. The next time you stop someone on the street to tell them what improper footwear they have on their child, do not use the following line: “but she is so beautiful, don’t you want her to grow up to have good looking legs?”

In case you need further explanation I will help you:
1. My daughter is two. And although I hope she grows up to have legs that are strong and healthy that she likes, I don’t really think that worrying about how good looking my daughter’s legs will be in the future is any of your business.
2. You simultaneously told me how ugly you thought my legs were, as I happened to be wearing a skirt and the same shoes as my daughter. (It was laundry day, otherwise maybe I would have been wearing pants and you would not have even noticed us at all!)
3. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!

I am sorry if my parting words were in an elevated volume, but I do mean what I said: They are MY children. Maybe you were offended by my walking off, but I was done with our conversations. Oh, and beware, because if you see me on the street again you can be assured I will have something to say about your shoes.

From the bottom of my sole,

Kelsey

Posted in I don't love it, letters, true colors | 8 Comments

It Only Takes a Week. Or so.

Posted on March 2, 2012 by kelsey

This has been the worst week we have spent in Ecuador so far. Mostly due to my extreme levels of stress (and work) but not great nonetheless. On Monday we went to the Visa office. When you arrive in Ecuador you are automatically issued a tourist visa good for 90 days. When we came in 2007 a few days before our tourist visas expired we went to the same Visa office, filled out a one page form, paid the fee, and got a stamp in our passport. Easy! This year we already knew that a few more papers were required (per their website) and also knew we had to apply 30 days or more before our visas expired, but thought it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Right.

Our first trip was the worst. After a 20 minute wait (not so bad) we got to see the man in charge of accepting visa papers. I don’t know if he was having a case of the Mondays, hated really cute (but loud) children, his suit was too tight, or maybe the lady right before us spit in his eye, but he did not seem to like us. He quite rudely informed us we didn’t have all the necessary papers, and acted like we were insane for even trying to apply. To be fair I did have all the papers listed in detail on the agency’s website, but apparently there were 17 or so new ones I was missing. Maybe I am exaggerating and it was only 4 (each, so that really is 16). At any rate, he told us that not only did we each need all these new papers, but that we couldn’t apply to be a family unit unless we had translated the birth and marriage certificates and had them notarized, and that we would instead be paying $230/person instead of $50 as dependents. GREAT! Needless to say I cried a lot at home because I thought my head would explode.

I spent the rest of Monday getting the required papers, then spent Tuesday translating the documents from the US, and then back to the notary to get them approved. First thing Wednesday morning we took back our one million documents back and hope for some sort of miracle. I joked that there would be a really nice lady who loved adorable children working, and after waiting for a long while we found that indeed this lady existed and was working! She was very nice and Harmon did a good job of flirting with her, but she then decided we were missing yet another paper that also needed notarized. On top of that the translations were not actually what they were looking for (oh, how awful for all the time/money I spent translating them and getting them certified…), to be a family unit we needed apostilles. Oh what, you have never heard of an apostille? Yeah, me neither. In case you care to read more about it you can do so here. The short answer is it a certification that means that whatever document you have is valid and recognized in any of the countries that accept apostilles according to the Hague Convention of 1961. (This blog is so informative!) A huge problem would be that we currently live in Ecuador and to get the apostilles we need to take or send our certificates to Olympia. And then wait for them to get returned. The time this would take would be approximately two or more weeks to get from Ecuador to Olympia, 5-7 business days to get processed, then another 2 or more weeks to get back to Ecuador, if it arrived. The lady overcome by my distress and the sweet faces of my children decided that she could go ahead and accept our papers as individual units, and if the apostille by some miracle showed up before our current visas expired then we could be a family unit, she could just change it in the computer and save us a significant amount of money. Bless her. I should also add that at the end of our interview with her the guy from Monday came over and was like “what are you doing??” She explained to him what was happening and he miraculously said “oh, good idea!” Phew.

We left still in possession of all our million papers and still stressed (me). At best they would accept our paperwork the next time we tried and maybe by some small chance the apostille would come in time. We came home and I immediately called my mom and left her a message begging her to do my 40 errands for me. I spent Wednesday afternoon back at the notary getting what I hoped would be the last of our missing papers notarized.

Thursday we went back to the visa office again. This time we were there before the office even opened, eager anyone? We went to the usual waiting area, and after 5 or 10 minutes we were escorted into yet another office with another man. This kind man told us the lady from Wednesday had explained our situation and he would be receiving our papers. He explained to us to either come back with our apostilles before the very end of March, or just to come back and he would accept our visas individually. He took all our paperwork, but the pointed out that if we were applying for an 180 day extension (you can ask for between 91 and 180 days more) that we should have tickets for the very end of September, not June. We had originally bought return tickets in June because we thought it would be easy to get a 90 day extension like in 2007 and that would have fallen under the limit. He asked us to get a reservation for the end of September and bring it back before the weekend. I asked him what I should do, because to change the tickets costs $200 each ticket, and what if they didn’t approve our visas? He assured me they would approve it, and told me I could just get a reservation online, and that I didn’t need to have them paid for. I was skeptical, but glad that he was taking our papers and just waiting on that one. And that I could come back alone to deliver it to him. Not that I don’t love my kids, but anyone who has tried sitting in chairs waiting with small children trying to keep them quiet will understand how difficult this is. We were overjoyed that our process seemed to be done (for a month) and that he was so kind and helpful.

I came home and found that you can in fact make a reservation (on American Airlines at least) and it will be held for 36 hours online. I quickly did this for the new date and printed it out. I jumped in the first taxi I could flag down and 15 minutes later I was again welcomed into the visa office. The man took my papers and said they were good. Whew! Finally I could breathe again. Upon returning home I received even more good news, my mom had taken care of all my papers and they were on their way to be processed. Thank goodness for her!!!

So now we wait. Wait for the apostilles to arrive (both in Bellevue and then Ecuador), wait until the end of the month, and hope that everything goes smoothly…

Amid all of my complaining about the ridiculousness of the process Aaron reminded me that it is just like that in the US for anyone trying to come. I thought about my sweet Ecuadorian friends who a year ago had tried to apply for a visa to visit all the volunteers they have served with in the past 10+ years and how after hefty application fees, travel to the embassy, and other ridiculous measures they were denied. Nevermind that at the other embassy in the country other friends were granted visas because they had friends who worked there. It makes me angry, but at the same time inspires me to be a little more fair, a little more understanding, and a little bit more patient. The world is not fair, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything about it.

This was the longest boringest post ever. Sorry. If you are still reading.

Posted in ecuador, I don't love it | 5 Comments

The Green Fort

Posted on February 24, 2012 by kelsey

I feel like I saw this fort a long time ago, but then forgot. Then last week I saw it again, and knew we had to make it. I purposely didn’t post hers on here because hers is 200 times cuter than mine.

Yesterday I bought a full sheet set to begin the project. This morning I was delightfully surprised to find when you cut the pillowcases open they were just slightly longer than the width and height of our table (enter side pieces). And then to find that the flat sheet was pretty much perfect for the top and remaining sides. Just under one hour of time and ta-da! A hastily built but already loved fort. Sure it’s not as cute as the one that the other lady built, but it sure makes quick and easy fort building. Maybe someday I will hem the door, make straps, etc. Yeah right. My next problem will be how to get the kids out to do anything else…

Welcome to our fort…

Looking out the back

———————
Fort naughtiness update:
About one minute after I wrote this (while the kids were happily playing in the new fort) I went downstairs to rinse out some laundry. I came back up and was pleased with how nicely the kids were playing in the fort together, no arguing, hitting, etc. I thought I would open the little door and peek at them just to see how cute they were. But sure enough, since they were getting along there was trouble going on. Upon lifting the door flap I found them huddled over Sammy’s snack plate with the carton of eggs, one having already been neatly cracked onto it. In Sammy’s hand was another egg which she looked about ready to break open, and Harmon told me “we were just having some eggs for a snack!” Nice.

Posted in harmon, sammy | 4 Comments

Carnival

Posted on February 22, 2012 by kelsey

Or “How Gringos & Ecuadorians Celebrate Carnival in Ecuador”

If you like water fights, you would like Carnival in Cuenca. If you don’t, then you better stay indoors. Starting on Saturday, water and foam spray fights began breaking out across town. The volunteers in the orphanages were attacked by the workers with buckets of water, and most of the orphan kids were armed with squirt guns and if they wanted got “thrown” into the kiddie pool. There were even reports of nuns getting in on the action. If you walked through town anytime between Saturday through Tuesday you were a moving target for groups of people in the back of pickups armed with water balloons, buckets of water, and spray foam. Or course you could just as easily be attacked by kids holding their cans of spray foam walking down the street. And finally you need to be careful of crazy people standing on their balconies hitting innocent people trying to get from one place to another. Like these ones:

We had lots of fun with squirt guns for about 10 minutes the day we bought them until they broke. On Saturday we broke out the two cans of spray foam which I originally thought was silly string, and the kids had fun spraying the patio. On Monday we decided it was water balloon time, and made 100. Mostly the kids dropped them over the balcony onto the front patio, but occasionally some English speakers would walk by on the far side of the road and I would loudly tell the kids to hit them. This made them laugh, as obviously a 2 and 3-year old would not be launching balloons that would land anywhere near them, and most would pretend to be scared as Sammy and Harmon threw as far as they could and reached the sidewalk on our side of the street. After a while Aaron took a break from working and came out below us. We made sure he got plenty wet, and he got us a few times with balloons he caught. Late Monday afternoon we were sad we were out of balloons with an entire day left, so we walked a block and a half to a little store that was still open (most everything has been closed) and bought 200 more balloons for Tuesday. Tuesday was pretty much the same as Monday, we sat on the balcony and had fun dropping balloons over the edge. I was apparently more careless with the filling of balloons, and made them all a lot less full, so when the kids dropped them, several did not pop. (Give me a break, filling up 200 balloons is a lot!) This meant lots of ammo for Aaron when he came out, and also several rolled onto the sidewalk, much to the joy of kids who passed who now had protection walking down the street. Oh, and one adult male who spoke English (slight accent, couldn’t place it) who was soaked with water and foam. He was happy to pick up 3 that had rolled to the street so he could protect himself and his wife. Aaron definitely won Tuesdays event, leaving the other three of us quite wet. And the playroom, and the windows.

It is a fun holiday in Cuenca, everyone does lots of BBQing, lots of family water fighting, music, and of course a few fireworks. It is more or less the same as when many other people in the world are celebrating, right up until what is called Fat Tuesday in the US, the last day before Lent begins. Today is Ash Wednesday, and here in Ecuador you will see many people who have been to church to begin their Lent observance with ash on their foreheads. In our house however, we are just sad we are out of water balloons again.

Posted in ecuador, holiday | 4 Comments