Friday August 31, 2012

Friday August 31/12 update

I was awake at 3am with my mind churning over ideas for a big meeting at 10 at the Kookaburra Café to determine the vision and focus of the Amigos English School moving forward.   We were supposed to have received ideas from everyone via email, etc but I never received a thing.   It bothered me that this meeting was to include all volunteers, teachers, Community reps, City reps, new volunteers, and especially the Hearts Of Gold Foundation where we are looking for funding.

I emailed everyone at 3:47 hoping for some response and offering to chair the meeting if necessary as first impressions were crucial.  I spent hours fine-tuning a detailed agenda in case I chaired the meeting, and finally at 8:34am I sent everyone a simplified proposed Agenda outline since I was leaving to connect with an earlier appointment.

I caught the #3 and was at the Kookaburra by 9:30 so I got all prepared and met the owners, Rick and Carol Smith, formerly of the Parkland area in Calgary.  Rick and Carol are looking to donate some old laptops to us but they haven’t got their residency yet so their container would be at least 2 months away.  Rick is also interested in helping out.

10am rolled around and I was still the only person in the room.  I found out that our group had been having a meeting outside on the sidewalk.  When they came in, I asked who was going to chair the meeting and they said Miguel, so I just put away all my hard work and let them have their way.

The five founding members, Miguel, Chris, myself, Tom and Linda were joined by two Community members, both named Patricio.  Melinda from Hearts Of Gold was there as well as two new volunteers, a Cuencano named Ivan and an Englishwoman named Christine.  Conspicuous by their absence were our teachers but we were told that Victoria had advised us that she had a conflicting appointment.

Linda had put together a package for everyone including the material I had provided and it was well received. They had made changes to one page of mine that made no sense to me, changing the name of the Founder to the name of the neighborhood,.. and then causing a spelling error on the Mission Statement.   Oh well….

Miguel spoke of many grandiose plans, including opening the school all day which caught all of us by surprise as that would be WAY down the road requiring many, many volunteers and loads of coordination. 

Christine was a fountain of great suggestions and I could easily see her taking the reins of the school and making it run well.   There was talk of changing the name of our organization to include neither English nor School which is fine with me.

Many of the ideas I wanted to discuss just went by the wayside because I was not interested in hijacking the meeting.  The good thing is that Melinda indicated that she would recommend that we qualify for funding from the Hearts Of Gold (started by Calgarians Richard & Sheryle Verkely) http://ecuazon.com/heartsofgold/.

We made a short list of immediate needs, being a storage cabinet, a large screen monitor, and supplies and snacks.  Then we need to get cracking to get someone to donate us some high speed Internet.

The meeting ended up with many conversations going on at once so we finally exchanged emails and set a date to meet at the school on Wednesday at 10am to narrow down some direction for activities, such as a long term goal of making a float for the Christmas Eve parade.

As we were leaving, I noted two ladies in the restaurant that I knew, one of them being Nancee, an English teacher from our Spanish class so we got talking.  Nancee has taught English in China and says she has many useful materials so she will join us Wednesday too.   Today was a success, just for picking up four new volunteers.

I decided to walk through El Centro as I had not been there in weeks and I wanted to see where they had had the fire next to the Cathedral.  The building maybe didn’t seem as white today, but I really couldn’t see any outward evidence of that major fire.  I guess it helps when the building is concrete.

Upon arrival at home I was dismayed to get an email from Christopher, our other teacher, saying that his MS had deteriorated so badly here that he and Pamela were making an emergency return to the US.  Their enthusiasm and expertise will certainly be missed, and we wish them well.

I had also stopped to see how Raoul is doing with his building construction and it is really progressing.  He hopes to have the first two floors ready for occupancy by the end of September.

That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.

Thursday August 30, 2012

Thursday August 30/12 update

The Boys are doing good and gobbling up everything I put in their sight.   Today I will be spending most of my day getting this blog prepared as there are many photos involved.

There are many things I didn’t have time to mention yesterday.   Tuesday, on the way up we stopped in Alausi, (yeah I know it’s a lousy name), which has a great statue to San Pedro (St Peter) dominating the town, and it is the hub for the train ride up the Devil’s Nose Mountain.  It was $20 for the train ride which zigs and zags, backwards and forwards, up the mountain at an incredible grade that defied most predictions.  Many people used to ride atop the train but we believe that practice was stopped after a few people got killed.   We opted to just tour the town instead.

The hotel in Riobamba was pretty neat with a few great decorations and lovely cacti growing in the restaurant window.  There was a bakery next door where I bought a huge banana loaf for $3 to take with us on the trip to see the volcano.

There is a military base in Riobamba with a couple of really old tanks at the entrance.  Miguel explained that there is a lottery now for military service between the ages of 17 and 19.  If chosen, you have to serve a year at no pay, and you get menial duties of guarding things like new sewer pipes waiting to be installed.

Miguel enlisted the aid of a local friend, Bolivar, to help guide us to the local sights and to the best view of Tungurahua erupting.  The trip was complicated, so we were glad to have his expertise.

On the way we stopped at this town called Guano, which loosely translated means Manure, or colloquially, Shit.  So now I can honestly say I have been to Hell (in the Cayman Islands) and I have in Shit (in Ecuador).  Actually this was a decent town with many craft stores, apparently known for leather goods, and a beautiful central park.  Another point of interest was a small museum behind the church which held an actual Mummy that was just incredible to view.

Beside these buildings were the ruins of an old monastery, built between 1550 and 1560, and destroyed in an earthquake in 1797.   We just don’t have that kind of history in our country.  These ruins were guarded by a young llama that didn’t look real, and a big sheep.

I am including a few links to these following mountains so you can familiarize yourselves with them.

On Wednesday, we were up early and waited on the others.   Anne and Michael came down at 7:30 and Miguel at 8, so we had a nice $3 breakfast, packed up and headed out at 9:30.  On the return to El Altar we took more shots of the area and its people.   Crossing the one large river we discovered another “broken bridge” that is now abandoned as a tourist attraction, just like the one in Cuenca.  In the town of Penipe at the base of El Altar Michael paid an indigenous man in a yellow hat and poncho 50c to take his photo and asked him a question.  Then the man began reciting information non-stop until we drove away.   As we rose up the mountain it was odd that the lower part was just a dirt track, dangerous in the rain, while the upper part was oiled or paved.  We could see patches of blue sky for a while but the higher we rose we just encountered more cloud, fog and drizzle or rain. 

We had no view of Tungurahua which had had quietened down over the last few days but there was no independent confirmation of visible activity due to the cloud cover.   We hung around for a while, hoping again that the wind would magically blow this cloud away but the weather got progressively worse.  Like I mentioned yesterday, we amused ourselves photographing the locals going up and down the road with their soggy animals delivering milk to some depots.  It seems that we do not have people living high up in our Rocky Mountains like they do in the Andes, with fields right to the summits.  The differences in climate and composition of the mountains are the difference.   Volcanic mountains are incredibly fertile, so that is why the locals risk their lives to farm in this danger zone.

It was a little frustrating to see the weather again get clearer as we descended.  I took many shots of the high Andes through the van window while in motion and also many shots of the mountains covered with patchworks of farm fields and some of the greenhouses.  The indigenous people are always doing something along the highway and carrying loads on their backs so we get a few shots of them always.   I am amazed how many shots turned out.   There are so many I won’t post them all, otherwise there would be over 100 of them.

We stopped at one town that normally has a clear view of Chimborazo but again today we are out of luck.  We picked up some snacks and kept on motoring.

One of the features we did not like seeing were all the blue “death hearts” painted on the highways to show where people had died, mostly after a long downslope to a hairpin turn.  One location had many, many hearts and that was very sad.  I didn’t even realize until I was processing the photos that I managed to catch some indigenous ladies putting flowers at one of the markers.
We are unhappy that our mission was not fulfilled, but we are certainly happy with some of the other photographs that we managed to obtain, especially in the rain on El Altar.

Today I received an email from NetTalk wanting us to pay to renew our NetTalk in a month.  Here is my second (third?) response to these bozos today:

Further to the email below I decided to call your support phone and was on hold for 90 minutes.   I just started relating my tale to Giovanni about all our prior problems with the two NetTalk Duos and suddenly I am talking to a busy signal.   Since I was not being rude or abusive in any way, just giving the background of our odyssey with NetTalk, I really doubt that he hung up on me but I am flabbergasted that he has not had the courtesy to call me back to finish our conversation!!!!    I'll be damned if I am going to wait another 90 minutes on hold just to have the same thing happen again.

We have nicely requested a fair extension on our expiry date for this unit that was not properly activated until March 12, per the emails below.

We have been nice about this and have had absolutely no response from you folks.

So now you should give us ONE good reason why we should renew???????  

Needless to say, I do not recommend that anyone get involved with NetTalk.   Spread the word.

That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.

Wednesday August 29, 2012

Wednesday August 29/12 update

Well we have made it back safe and sound with not too many hairy moments.   About 30 miles from home a truck carrying loose tires lost a couple right in front of us but Miguel skillfully avoided them both.

Our attempts to get to Banos were stopped by the military due to the evacuation order.   They were only allowing locals in for a few hours every day to tend to business and their animals.

Unfortunately we got shut out last night from seeing the Tungurahua volcano (16,480 ft) from the neighboring mountain El Altar (17,454 ft) due to heavy fog and rain that has hung around since Saturday.   We stayed on this mountain for 3 hours in the dark hoping the weather would break, but it just didn’t.  So we drove the hour back to our $15 hotel room at the Rey De Los Andes (King of the Andes) in Riobamba and had a good sleep.   Why I sleep so well in hotel rooms in anybody’s guess but I was thankful to get a few zzzzzzzz’s.   There was absolutely nothing wrong with this hotel at that price and it had an attached restaurant that served great food.

It kinda was nice that there were only 4 of us on this trip, and we all got along so well, no whiners or complainers, so we easily agreed on almost everything.  Thank you to Miguel, Anne, and Michael for making the trip enjoyable in spite of the disappointments.

We tried going back this morning to the same spot and we were always heartened by any glimpse of blue sky but the morning on  El Altar was no different than last night.  The rain and fog was exactly the same and portions of the road were more slippery plus we had to deal with two minor landslides.   The only benefit today was more activity from the local indigenous folks, most delivering milk to a central processing place nearby, using donkeys or horses.  They were really so friendly and fun to watch despite the fact that everything and everybody was drenched.

We also could not see the snow-covered Chimborazo mountain nearby so we had to make do with what was available.   Chimborazo, because it is so near the bulge of the equator, is actually closer to the sun than Mount Everest.   It is over 20,561 feet high.

I took well over 200 shots so I will be doing a lot of processing tonight and tomorrow.  I will have many shots of the Andes Mountains at around 15,000 feet, and cloud and fog, and more indigenous folks as we passed by.  The glory and majesty of these mountains are a sight to behold.   In many areas it is like looking at a vertical Saskatchewan, with a patchwork quilt of fields covering mountains from top to bottom.  These are generally family farms separated by little rows of shrubs or trees and it really is amazing to see farming this high up.  Not only that but we were surprised to see huge greenhouse operations way up near the summits as well.

As the crow flies, we are not going far, but zig-zagging through the mountains adds a lot of miles and it is a very tiresome trip.

The Boys were happy to see me home and to get fed a good meal.

I may get some photos posted late tonight, but more likely later tomorrow.   I gotta go make myself a quick supper.

That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos later at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.

Monday-Tuesday August 27-28, 2012

Monday August 27/12 update

I found out at midnight that I may be a great-grandpa sometime soon.  Todd’s daughter Heather is expecting.  It is hard for me to fathom that my son is about to be a grandfather too.   I guess this had to happen sooner or later as she is 20 years old already.  Congratulations to her and Trevor.

I am pretty certain that I am the first in our family to hit this milestone.   Since I should have another 40 years or so to go yet, there is a good chance I could hit Great-great0great grandfather status before the big red bus hits me.

Note that there will be no blogs likely for the next two days as I will be on the road trying to get hopefully striking photographs of the active volcano Tungurahua.  Apparently it has quieted down a little over the last few days and we are also at the mercy of the weather which is supposed to be rainy today.   Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow night.  I doubt that a $15 hotel is going to have wi-fi, plus we will be up half the night trying to get night shots, so I am not going to bother dragging the laptop along.

Tuesday August 28/12 update

We are up early and the Boys are very clingy.   They seem to know when we are packed up for a trip.   I have fed them once and will feed them again before I leave.

I just read the latest updates and the volcano seems to be showing more activity since last night which could be good or bad, depending on how you want to look at it.   It is drizzly here this morning but hopefully this will clear up as we head north.

That was today’s excitement.   Hugs to all.

Sunday August 26, 2012

Sunday August 26/12 update

Late nights and early mornings take their toll, especially when you don’t lock the Boys out.

I polished up a discussion paper for the Amigos School meeting on Friday as I nervously watched my email to see if we would have any more takers to go to the volcanoes.  Sadly nothing happened today on that front so I emailed the other couple to say I was still willing to go if they were agreeable in splitting the cost only 3 ways, about $35 more each.  Elation occurred when they responded that they were still agreeable so onward and upward in the face of adversity.

I contacted Linda & Tom to drop off my portion of the presentation and they said to come over, so I hopped the #3 at Monay Mall which takes me within a block of their amazing 3,000 sq ft apartment in Otorogo, overlooking the park and the large hummingbird display. 

They are such big-hearted people and an immense asset to the Amigos school.  We discussed many issues and topics before I caught the #3 home.

I wasn’t sure where the #3 would travel because the eastbound lanes on Suarez were closed for repaving.   The detour was ridiculously far but returned a couple of blocks from our bridge so I was OK with that.

I have mellowed over the last few years and learned to exercise more patience with most things.   But when folks are waiting on me to provide information that I must obtain from an unreliable third party, I begin a slow boil.  I have just fired off an angry email to the driver for the volcano excusion (Miguel, the founder of the Amigos School) who has been promising information for over a week now.  Here we are, with less than 36 hours to go, and about all we know is that we are going east.  I am not a happy camper and I let him know it.   That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.

Saturday August 25, 2012

Saturday August 25/12 update

To bed at 1am after watching a movie with the Boys.   Unfortunately, I was awake at 4am so I just got up and got to work.  I was tasked to make a photo collage as part of a Friday presentation to Municipal officials when we have another meeting scheduled to plan the future of the Amigos English School.  I finally completed the collage about 6 hours later.

The next task was to try to bring up topics for discussion at the above-mentioned meeting.  There is so much we can do but it is vital that we get some outside funding.   It is not fair that Tom and Linda carry the brunt of the expenses.  Most of us have time to volunteer but money is scarce.

I then got the most disappointing email from a Canadian couple that they have Visa problems that must be dealt with on Monday and Tuesday, so they are cancelling out on our volcano excursion.   Bummer.  I hate to give up on this trip so I put an ad in GringoTree to replace them.

I had a quick nap and cleaned up to go do my chores at Joe’s Secret Garden.  Supper tonight was Coq Au Vin (read Chicken stew in wine sauce) and it was really tasty, but the apple tart caramel dessert was the clincher.  There were supposed to be 3 Birthday girls tonight but two of those did not show up, however we found another gal whose Birthday is on Tuesday.  Joe wanted to be sure I got photos of them, so I complied.  The two gals both happened to be eastern Canadians as there was a huge contingent of Canadians on this evening.

I finally met Richard and Sheryle (from Calgary) who live in my dream house on the hill.   Sheryle does cooking classes with her Ecuadorian friend Carmita and Bella has attended their classes.  I have been invited to come and actually see my dream home anytime.

I was discussing the Amigos School with Sheryle who introduced me to Emilie and Melinda who run the Hearts Of Gold foundation.  Apparently they are looking for non-profit charitable organizations to donate to, and apparently they already know Linda Atkisson of our group.  Maybe this could be a good fit??
I had one lady approach me about doing another night photography tour so I guess I will have to do that sometime soon.  

I was sought out by a lady named Regina and her son Barry.   Barry lives not far away and is a computer guru.  Regina is actually going to be moving across the river from us in October in the new houses there and is looking for someone to join her on the bus to Joe’s and to share the taxi back.  No problem.   She also is a bridge player so I set her up with Joe so they can have two tables going tomorrow.   We all had a very pleasant supper together.

GringoTree posted my ad tonight already so I had one bite from a professional photographer from Ona, south of here.   I really don’t want to give up on this trip.

After reviewing my photos tonight, I can’t say that I very happy with them today.   I’ll have to keep an eye on this camera to see if the focus problems continue or if it was just a bad night.

That was today’s excitement.   Please see all photos at souvenircuenca.blogspot.com.  Hugs to all.