A little of this and little of that...

Life has been going by very fast these last few weeks.

I volunteered for FASEC (the Foundation for the Service of the Illness of Cancer) on 21 Sept. It was nice . Myself and another expat named Ed were the first expats to volunteer. We had a great translator, Josh. He is an 18 year old expat who is bilingual. We got to spend time with a few patients before we were done. The coordinator Keith can be contacted at kbyancey931@yahoo.com . He has conducted training for expats to volunteer at FASEC and offers us 2 hour shifts.

On 28 Sept we went to the Ninth grade parent meeting at Santana, I was very worried about being able to understand the speakers. Instantly we were approached by a few parents that were bilingual. I was so relieved. They introduced themselves and let us know that they were here for us if we needed help to understand the speakers. After the meeting was finsihed we had even more parents introduce themselves. We were so happy. In the states you can go to these things and never meet anyone.

Santana School

We went home after the school meeting to meet up with our new friends Barry, Maxine, and Eva, Brian and Coriana. We decided to go on a day trip to Gualaceo to Ecuagenera, the orchid farm.

Steve

We took the local bus for 25 cents to the bus depot and there caught a nice bus with comfy seats to Gualaceo. We paid 10 cents at the depot and 60 cents per person on the bus. The ride was about a 45 minute ride, and the bus dropped us off right in front of the orchid farm. The tour fee was $3 per person, which include a tour guide. There were so many beautiful orchids is was great. The tour guide only spoke Spanish, but our friend Eva translated for us. He showed us the different stages the orchids go through. For the first year to two years the grow inside a bottle where they are sealed off from everything, in the next stage they are taken out of the bottles and planted in big trays, after this they are able to start to grow bigger and mature. It was amazing!

1st Stage

2nd Stage

Tour Guide

Eva and Coriana

On Saturday, 1 Oct, I went to The Color Purple Event with Trish and Eva and meet some new friends Denise and Kaitlin. Denise is actually the mother of Josh the translator from FASEC and Kaitlin is his 22 year old sister. Kaitlin is a very talented young lady. She is finishing her college degree online, while giving singing lessons and providing bible school classes to teens 13-18.

This was the first Color Purple Event to raise money for SOLCA's pediatric unit. SOLCA is a cancer hospital her in Cuenca. We had tomato soup, bread and salad. They gave away some door prizes while they had speakers tell us about SOLCA.

On Sunday, 2 Oct, Eva and I went to Kookaburra for an essential oil presentation it was nice. They also showed us Raindrop therapy which looked so relaxing we meet a local lady that provides this therapy here in Cuenca.

On Monday, 3 Oct, I went with Trish to look at some homes in case she has to move from her penthouse due to the her pet situation.

That's all for now...