Life here, as everywhere, is made up of small victories and large vicissitudes interspersed with moments of calm.  I want to record one of my victories.  We have been here over a year now, and I have been working on my Spanish.  The first indication I had that I was winning was when I phoned the Electricity Board to ask when power would be restored. Not only was my request understood, without repeats, but the answer came straight back - two hours

A coupe of months ago, we were invited to the birthday party of our neighbour's wife..  We  were the only Gringos in evidence and I therefore found myself conversing in Spanish - for 5 hours.  We discussed art ( he is an artist and professor) literature, politics etc.  I got home from that and went straight to bed utterly spent from the effort.

However, small things like that gave me confidence and last week I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in Spanish and it only took a week.  The first 50 pages you are looking up every 5th word, but by 75%, you have absorbed all the new vocabulary and it goes as fast as English.  Of course, I have a new, totally useless vocabulary of witches, wands and broomsticks, but it is all very encouraging.

Best of all, among the local population I am known as the Gringa who can speak the language, albeit with a funny, Castilian accent.

And the rains came!  Last year, apparently ther were only six days of rain in total - we saw two of them after our arrival in March.  This year it has already been raining on and off for three weeks, with more promised.  This is great for the garden and the general environment, but has resulted in a lake outside the gate so that the street is closed to pedestrian traffic.   It is a dirt road of course and I have no idea how long the lake will last after the rains actually stop,  - meanwhile we are safe at least from Jehovah's Witnesses and assorted salesmen.  I am glad we invested in a 4x4.,

Christmas is no big deal round here, though if you are tired of Jingle Bells, try relentless Jose Feliciano singing Feliz Navidad.  But New Year is something else - three days of uninterrupted partying, fireworks and general mayhem when no-one seems to sleep at all.   This is also the season of the Manigotes, - paper-mache effigies which are burnt to dispose of all last year,s sins.   Some people still make their own, but most buy and a lifesize one can cost $100.  Talk about burnng money.
I can undertand an image of Bart Simpson representing my sins, but Snow White, or Tinkerbell?
I actually saw a lifesize Incredible Hulk riding a motorbike down the street.  Of course, he was strapped to the rider, but it looked funny, especially from the rear.  Some people believe that sea-bathing does the same job, so there is a sudden increase in old ladies taking to the water.  Of course, there are always the belt and braces types who do both.

When that is all over, the real work of the new year begins.  It is time to pay property taxes.  If you pay in the first half of January, you get 10% discount, diminishing every 2 weeks thereafter.  Of course all the gringos all line up to take advantage of the discount, but the Ecuadoreans have just spent everything on feasting and fireworks, so they dont.  As we are filing our first time, we initially have to get a letter from the Mayor's office to indicate that we are elderly and thus entitled to 50% reduction.  This took a couple of days, not least because Calvin and I had to apply separately as we jointly own the property.  However, after several queues and countersignatures, the property tax came to $20 for the year!  Is it worth collecting at this rate?

That done, we are coming up for elections next week.  Unlike the American three ring circus, candidates are only allowed to campaign for one calendar month and no alcohol is served for four 4 days around the election date.  But the system is weird, nonetheless.  EG there are 9 candidates for President, and after polling, if there is less than 10% margin between the first two places then there is another election to find a winner (it can take two or three extra elections to get an eventual winner)

We recently had a fiesta, and I never really understood what that means, before I came here.   November 2nd was The Day of the Dead when you visit all your deceased relatives in the graveyard and take floral tributes.  All very well, but that was a Wednesday.  For the rest of th week, banks, schools an government offices were closed while everyone partied.

On the Friday late afternoon there was a big fair up on the hill, here, with many food stalls, selling stalls, everything from dolls to air conditioners, children's rides and competing sound systems blaring out various messages and music in the salsa mode.  There was even a dog show, not to find the best of breed, but a fashion show to see who was the best dressed pooch!



We stuck the noise for a couple of hours and had good, though separate suppers ( mine was a roast pork roll - hot, with salad) and Calvin had goat stew.  Much dancing and pop groups were forecast for later in the evening, and apparently this fair went on the whole weekend.

On the Monday, fondly thinking it was all over, we went into Santa Elena to go to the market.  Fat chance.  We never even managed to cross the road, as there was a procession, withbands, and dancers and floats and marching ( in costume)  Again we watched it for 2 hours and saw no sign that it would end soon (and there were no repeats) Everyone and his grandma's cat was there, from every school, every municipal office, every local political chapter, football supporters' clubs and the bee-keepers, firemen and police.  so you can see, the town just couldn't function that day at all.

Now I understand a little about fiesta as seen from South America.

Ecuadorean houses are nothing like our own. The average plot size is 25m x 10m on which they then put a house which is 18mx8m, so no room for a garden.  two metres of this house will be covered verandah from the supports of which are hammock hooks.  I do not know if there is a law making his obligatory, but I have yet to see a house without them, or the hammock.  I have two myself, one a full size job and the other a hammock chair.

Inside the house, there are no passages.  The living space is open plan with just a counter to divide off the kitchen from the dining and living spaces.  Doors off this area are to bedrooms and bathrooms.  Ecuadorean bathrooms are typically as small as you can ge them, more like those on a ship than anything else.

Our own house is a little different in that it is on a double plot 500sq.m and boasts walk in closets (Ecuadoreans have no built in areas at all)  Also, our ensuite bathroom is good and big and has a jacuzzi with all the bells and whistles, so a gringo house.  We also have a pantry/laundry area in the kitchen.

Now that we have a house, we get callers at the gate.  At the weekend there is the fish and shrimp man, with buckets of really fresh stuff.  We bought a Dorado the other day, had it filleted on clean newspaper in the street, and it fed 5 of us.  With it we had our own limes from the garden.

One day during the week, there is a vegetable man, whom it is useful to use, since you can buy quantities you could hardly carry home.   Today we bought 15 mandarins or $1 and two pineapples for another one.  If you go to the supermarket, they have the really big pineapples, larger than my head, which we really don,t need.

The garbage men drive past every day but Sunday, playing their tune, and we hang a plastic shopping bag of rubbish on a convenient branch of a tree just outside the gate, and it is swept off into the truck, so they hardly even slow down.

The eletricity bill and Internet/phone/TV accounts are shoved into the gate every month, and the other day I had a man selling honey in 500mil bottles for $5.

However, the Jehovah's Witnesses have also found us!

As soon as you get your feet under the table, you discover the depth of your ignorance.  If you are just a visitor, nobody bothers to enlighten you.  It is not worth the trouble but once they realise you are a fixture, you had better learn what is what.  So I have found that there are no bananas in Ecuador!

Those lovely long golden curves which adorn our supermarket shelf, are called guineos.  Their foot long green cousins are plantains and are vegetables not fruit.

This other day I found long golden ones and was told that they were ripe. I could see that but apparently that's their name and they are ripe plantains. - maduros.

The upshot was that I have discovered that I do not like plantains, boiled or baked, but Maduros are delicious fried.  The Ecuadorians like them with fried eggs, but I had them as a relish with stew and rice.

And my adventures with vegetables is far from over.  I wanted leeks the other day and looked them up in the dictionary to be told they were long onions.  However, when I asked for them in the market, I was told that that is what Colombians call them - here in Ecuador they are white onions.  I pointed to a heap of beautifully peeled onions and asked what, therefore, they are called.  Oh, they are just onions, and the purple ones are pink onions.   Spring onions are green onions, and I have yet to find shallots.  Goodness what they will be called.