Fourth Week in Cuenca

Tuesday was the beginning of our fourth week living in Cuenca. The majority of the things you associate with getting settled into a new home are done. We have a beautiful apartment (12 month lease) with all the luxuries we had in Decatur (minus family of course). Our landlady Martha, and building manager Edgar have become good friends, and they enrich our lives daily by challenging us to speak more Spanish, and to enjoy what Cuenca has to offer. We are comfortable walking to the farmers market called Feria Libre for our fresh fruits, vegetables, rice, and to a nearby bakery for delicious cinnamon rolls (and more). We can also walk to Super Maxi (similar to a Publix), but we limit our purchases to cheddar cheese, chocolate, and few other things due the higher cost of goods. Being a vegetarian household, the abundance and affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables is awesome, and we have reduced the amount of processed foods in our diets by at least fifty percent.

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Nick at soccer practice

Nick is playing soccer three times a week, and has already played one game, and has another game tomorrow, so Susan and I soccer parents again. I ride the bus (#7) with Nick to practice three times a week, and then spend the 2-3 hours reading my kindle, or talking with another soccer dad in a mixture of Spanish and English. It takes us about 15-20 minutes each way on the bus, and I must admit it is nice to ride a bus here instead of driving to practice in Decatur. So far, I do not miss having a car at all,!

Susan teaching English

We are have our very own students (Joaquim, Ebony and Lisabeth) who visit each morning for their daily English lessons, and in exchange helps us learn Spanish. Depending on how early our students arrive, or whether Nick has soccer practice determines who the teacher is each day. Lately, Ebony and Lisabeth have been hanging out with Susan for 2-3 hours after classes are done to watch English language cartoons on my laptop.

Cuenca Bus Card

With the help of our upstairs neighbor Edwin, we are the proud owners of our very own prepaid Cuenca bus cards! The card has set us free in Cuenca. No more worrying about change for the bus before leaving the house. The card itself cost us $1.75 (we bought two), and we loaded $10 on each card which is enough for 40 bus trips each. Yes, the bus cost $.25 per trip, and we haven't found anywhere we cannot get to by riding the bus, and it feels safer than using MARTA in Atlanta.

Nick Spanish Language School

On Monday, Nick begins Spanish lessons at Amauta Spanish School to prepare for his placement exams for the Santana School at the end of the month. His lessons are two hours a day, Monday-Friday, with a pupil-to-teacher ration of 2-1, and last for four weeks. Once Santana School begins September 7th, the plan is to continue Nick's Spanish lessons for one hour a day, 2-3 times per week to help with homework. Santana is a private IB certified school which teaches in Spanish with the exception of ten hours per week of English lessons, and as parents we are excited by the opportunity to have Nick become bi-lingual.

Now that we have been here a whopping 24 days, I must admit I love it here, so here is a list of ten things I enjoy about living in Cuenca.

1. Public Transportation is cheap, reliable, and safe.
2. The availability of fresh fruits, and vegetables has made me forget all about Whole Foods.
3. Weather is unbelievable.
4. Ecuadorians are friendly, helpful, and smile when we say hello.
5. Green! Everything is green, and beautiful. Hard to have a bad day when you are surrounded by the natural beauty of Cuenca.
6. Smiling children playing outside.
7. Walk-ability. We can get just about anywhere by foot with relative ease.
8. The sounds of the city. I may be strange, but I enjoy the sounds a city makes, and it gives off energy that makes me feel alive.
9. Spending time with my wife, and son without having to rush off to work, soccer, or somewhere else as we did in Decatur.
10. Safety. I have yet to feel uncomfortable, or as if I should be worried about my safety anymore so than I felt in downtown Decatur, and I feel safer here than in downtown Atlanta.


If anyone ever reads this blog, we hope our ramblings are at least entertaining, and maybe even a little helpful. Take care all.
    

Soccer, Santana School Visit and Visa Paperwork

This morning was Nick's second day of soccer practice, and we took the bus instead of a taxi. The bus is the same one we rode to Mall del Rio, and it goes right pass where Nick practices. The bus ride took about five minutes longer than the taxi, but you can't beat the cost savings (taxi $3, bus $.50). Nick scored a goal during the scrimmage today, and his teammates seem to have accepted the new gringo kid.

After getting home from soccer we had to take a taxi to the Santana School for a meeting with the Secondary (High School) School Principal Margarita. She explained the school's philosophy, uniforms, academics, costs, and the application process. One uniquely "Gringo Rule" that was explained to us came about because of some previous experiences with gringos. Example, an Ecuadoran family can pay the tuition and fees on a monthly basis, but gringos must pay 2-3 months in advance, because evidently some gringos have just quit midway through the school year without any warning. We have to get a slot or quota from the government for Nick to attend Santana, and evidently there are limited slots in the Santana School. We told the Principal that Nick would be entering 8th grade (completed 7th in US), and she told us there were no slots available in the 8th grade class this school year. We thought great, now we have to search again for a school for Nick. But, after talking with the Principal, she explained that Nick should be entering the 9th grade, because in Santana 1st grade is Kindergarten. Obviously, we were relieved that there is a slot available in 9th grade, but now we must begin the application process tomorrow which includes testing for Nick, and interviews with a School Psychologist for the three of us.

This evening we meet with Linda, who is our lawyer's (Gabriella Espinosa) representative here in Cuenca. Yesterday we received a call from Linda telling us we needed to go to the Immigration Office (near our apartment luckily) to get a "Movimiento Migratorio" for each of us. Susan, and I walked to the office with little idea of what to do or expect, but after about an hour and a half we walked out with the documents we needed, and $15 lighter in the wallet. So, now Linda has all our Visa paperwork to send to Gabriella's office in Quito, and Gabriella told us she expects to have everything submitted within the next two weeks. So, we have started the journey through the visa process, and we hope to avoid any surprises.

A long day is complete, and we are one more step closer to having our lives in order.

Futbol (Soccer) Practice

Yes! Today Nick joined the La Liga Quito (LDU) youth futbol club here in Cuenca under the direction of Pablo Marin a former LDU, and Ecuadoran National Team player. Practice was very much the same as his practices in the states with the exception of the lack of water breaks. The practice was two hours of non-stop activity, and Nick had no communication problems once he was on the field with his new teammates. The registration process was fairly easy since the team manager is Pablo's daughter, and she speaks a little English.

During the practice I had a conversation with one of the other fathers named Luis, and we talked the whole time with my limited Spanish and Luis's limited English. The best part was seeing Nick smiling, and having fun again with kids of a similar age. Futbol has been Nick's main source of interacting with people his age for the last several years outside of school, and it is a place he feels comfortable, and confident. Next for Nick is finding him a school. I contacted a private school (Santana) this morning, which is IB certified like his school back in Decatur (Renfroe Middle School), and now we are just waiting for an email with the instructions for registration.

One thing I relied on in the states was the ability to use Google to find a contact, or information for schools, physicians, futbol clubs, and anything else I ever needed. In Cuenca, It took me ten times as much work to find a contact for Nick's new futbol club, and someone at Santana who spoke enough English to help us. Susan, and I discovered something in our apartment called a "Phone Book".  The funny thing is, we declined and never used one in the states,but here it is actually more helpful than the internet for a lot of things.    

Teaching English

I started teaching English to our building manager (Edgar), and his nine-year old daughter (Ebony) this morning in our apartment. Ebony has three workbooks for teaching English from her school, and they are very well written in my opinion. The plan is to have lessons Monday-Saturday beginning around 7:30 AM for an hour each day. I was a bit nervous to be teaching, since Susan was an actual teacher in the Air Force (Medic), and I was no more than a guest lecturer, or a Quality Air Force teacher a few weeks a year. Luckily for me, the expectations of my students is relatively low, and I am doing this for free, because I have no desire to work for an income ever again. As soon as money is involved the fun and enjoyment seems to slowly disappear. The benefit for me is I get to work on my Spanish in a low stress environment, and continue helping others as I did with soccer coaching in the states. Day one was fun (Susan joined in mid-way), and I gave homework to Edgar and Ebony, and they gave Susan and I homework as well. In August we resume our daily Spanish lessons with our young trio of teachers, Ana Isabel (11), Juan Jose (8), and Joaquin (8), so we will have 2-3 hours a day of Spanish/English lessons in our apartment, and lots of smiling faces to brighten our mornings. Life is good.

Steve

Water Update

We have water, both hot and cold, so we were excited to shower. Also, the new all-in-one washer/dryer was delivered, but the installation team arrived four hours after the delivery. After the installation, the person explained how to use the machine to my wife, and our landlady Martha. He explained it would take 4-6 hours to do one load of clothes! Martha immediately saw her electric bill rising rapidly above an acceptable level. So, Martha told Susan jokingly we could wash one load a week. Well, I spent an hour searching the web for an English version users manual, and found one. After reading the entire manual I discovered that the average time to wash and dry a regular load is 1 to 2 hours. Also, by creating a custom program you could shorten the time to 1 hour for a load. It is a very high-end LG unit with more options than the Space Shuttle, and more options than we could ever use. Well now after thinking about her purchase for a few hours, and the fear of a high electric bill, Martha has decided to return the washer/dryer for a different model. All of this is fine with us, and it just puts off washing clothes for a few more days. Luckily for the three of us we brought plenty of clothes. Just another part of the adventure in our new home.

Steve

Need water!

Yesterday, we noticed some problems with the hot water. So, we went down to Edgar (our bldg manager) and asked for help. He worked on it and called someone else they showed up right away and looked at and realized it needed special care. This morning they showed up bright and early to take it to a shop to get it fixed. We are still waiting at noon. We also received our washer/dryer today Yay! Of course we can't try it out until the water is back on. LOL

I've been in contact with a few people here in Ecuador to try to decide what to do about Nick and schooling. We have met with the Yahoo home schooling group here and another family and I've been emailing Trish from New Beginnings in Cuenca blog and our landlady Martha is realling advocating that we put Nick into school here. We have to try to contact the schools which we aren't having any luck yet.
More to come...

From the Mouths of Babes

Today we began our daily hour long Spanish lessons with Juan Jose, Joaquin, and Ana Isabel. The are 8-11 years old, and they teach us Spanish, and in return we teach them English. They are cousins who we met through our landlady Martha, and they come to our apartment at 8:00AM each day for an hour before heading to basketball camp at the Coliseum. Before we moved here I was a youth soccer coach for a club in Atlanta, and had several players who were refugees from Sudan, and Afghanistan who were part of our family, so it is nice to have children to interact with again. One of the toughest decisions for me personally was to leave my coaching job to move to Cuenca, because my players brightened up even my worst day with their smiles. Also, Edgar our building manager is measuring our windows for new curtains, and the laundry room for a new all-in-one washer/dryer. Our landlady Martha is spoiling us with all the high-end furnishings and improvements to our apartment. Example, we have shower curtains, but Martha insists on installing glass doors to make the bathrooms look nicer. Martha is eager to get Nick into a good school she has taken it upon herself to help us find the best school. One of the reasons we decided on our apartment was Martha and Edgar treat us as family, and are always looking for ways to help make our transition to life here easier. We feel very fortunate.

Steve