First doctors appointment in Cuenca

I ran out of one of my medications five weeks ago that I didn't count as being critical to my health at the time. So, I went to a pharmacy to see about getting it like I did with another medication, but it was going to cost over $80 for 28 pills. After hearing that I decided that I was going to make an appointment get my levels checked and see what other medications Cuenca has to offer.

Five weeks later and I finally made an appointment to see Dr. Anthony Guillen who I had heard that he spoke English, because we got his number when we first got her for Nick, but then never met him. I also referred some friends to him, and they loved him so it was finally my turn. On Tuesday I got the chance to meet him. He speaks English as clear as an American, so there are any misunderstandings, he is funny, and young. Dr. Guillen and I had a very through conversation about my problem. He took my vitals, listened to my lungs and heart. We decided that I needed to have my labs done, but I wasn't symptomatic. I asked if he knew how much they would cost he excused himself and came back to tell me $60. "$60 oh", I said. I really was thinking how that was a lot more then what I anticipated and I had only brought $60 with me. I rarely ever carry money. I asked how much his fee would be and he told me normally $20 but he would charge me $15 today. I told him I only has $60 and he said that I could pay him on Wednesday when I come back to review my labs.

Across the hall I went to have my blood drawn. Dr. Banegas (sp?) was a very pleasant man and spoke only a few words in english. He started looking for a good vein, but I had been fasting in anticipation of having labs drawn and they were a little hard to find. He finally decided on one and by that point in my medical opinion the tourniquet had been on longer then needed. He stuck me and on the first try he was successful and I was grateful. He didn't use the typical vacutainner or syring to take my blood he stuck a needle in my vein and let it drip into the tube. Don't worry it feels the same it was just odd to me. I've only drawn blood like that on a newborn infant. When I was done he asked me for the money which now was $65. I told him I only had $60 and I would pay him the $5 tomorrow. I am not sure what changed why I had to pay $65 not $60 maybe there was any extra lab he wasn't aware of. I think there was a total of 6 tests performed. I was told to come back Wednesday at 9am.

Wednesday morning I was at Dr. Guillens office a 8:50 and he was there waiting for me. He asked me to go to the lab to get my results, so I went across the hall paid an additional $5 that I owed the lab. Then went accross the hall to speak with Dr Guillen. I told him about my concern of the costs of the labs he explained that 2 of the tests I had were usually $20 tests and that he would talk to Dr. Banegas, because he thought the cost was a little high, but he was a new lab doctor there, so he wasn't sure. My results were elevated and it was nessecary to go back on my medication. I explained to him about the cost and asked if there were any lower cost medications. We talked he went downstairs to the pharmacy and spoke with them and came back with some options. I paid Dr Guillen $15 and no more I thought I would have an additional fee from review the labs but nope not required. We decided on one and off I went with perscription and told to call if I had any concerns and to come back in six months to have labs re-checked.

My overall opinion is that it was good care and I will go back to see Dr. Guillen and I will have him see my family also. Dr. Anthony Guillen is located on Av. Remigio Crespo and Las Americas upstairs from the Farmacia Salvador (that his parents own) it is the red and white pharmacy on the round about. His number is 095 398 105 you must call for an appointment.

The medication cost was $19.50 for 10 pills. So I will end up paying almost $60 for 30 pills.

Outside the Box

Susan, Nick, and I leaving Atlanta

There are endless opportunities in Cuenca, and sometimes it is good to think outside the box. During my twenty-five year career in the US Air Force I was fortunate to have some brave mentors who listened to my ideas which were outside the box, and even implemented many of them, most successfully, and luckily only a few bombed. The military is not always receptive to people who think outside the box, and I was not only thinking outside the box, the joke was I had lost sight of the box entirely. Sometimes people have a tendency to over-think, over-plan, and are over-cautious, and these tendencies can handicap any any project, idea, or in our case  relocating to a new country.

Thinking outside the box for Susan, Nick, and I has led us to retiring to Cuenca at an early age, but keeping our eyes open as we experience a new culture. We have allowed ourselves to be more social, and welcoming to new people we meet at Moca, or through facebook and our blog. By allowing ourselves to open up to these new acquaintances we have made some very good friends, both Cuencanos and ex-pats, but we have also been burned by a few people who we thought were close friends. But, by allowing ourselves to act outside the box, and open up to the people, and the culture around us, has enriched our lives more than we could have ever imagined, and have by far over shadowed any negative experiences. While living in Decatur as we first discussed our move to Cuenca, our hope was to change our behavior, and try to make new friends, and create new friendships to enrich our lives just as we hoped to enrich our lives by embracing a new culture. After six months, I feel we have just begun to understand our new surroundings, but by allowing ourselves the freedom to act outside the box we have experienced much more than we anticipated.

So, the point to the post, if there is such a thing in a blog like ours, is to let go of the restraints we all place on ourselves, and think, or even act outside the box to free up the endless opportunities here in Cuenca. Try new foods, get out of your comfort zone by riding a bus, offer help to a person you see who needs a hand, or just do something new today that you didn't do yesterday. You'll never know what surprises are around the next corner if you never turn off the path once in a while.

The Beginning of a New Year

Well, 2012 is here, and we only have to worry until sometime in December according to the Mayan calendar. Personally, I think the chief Mayan calendarologist figured they he had created the calendar several hundred years into the future, and liking even numbers decided to stop 2012. He must have chiseled a note to himself on an ancient post-it-note to add more years to the calendar in 1812, but unfortunately the Mayan civilization ended much sooner. so, relax, enjoy the entire year, and buy a 2013 calendar for Christmas 2012.

Susan, Nick, and I have already made  a few changes for the new year. We decided after a lot of discussion with friends, and classmates of Nick, to remove him for Santana for the rest of the school year. The reason for pulling Nick out was the teachers were not involving Nick in the class, and not even attempting to hold him accountable for any homework, or even work done in class. They decided it was easier to treat him as a foreign exchange student, than to take the time to work with him to make sure he understood any assignments. So, for the rest of the school year Nick will focus on his Spanish lessons, take online classes through Global Student Network, and tryout for the Deportivo Cuenca u14 soccer team. He will stay in touch with his friends from Santana, and have them over to the house as often as possible. We hope to enroll him in a new school in the fall that can provide a challenge academically, but at the same time allow him to have a social life.

Cuenca Flats, the real estate and property management company Susan and I started in September 2011 continues to grow as we add properties to our listings of residential, and commercial properties for sale and lease. All of our listings have been referred to us by friends, and satisfied customers, so we haven't had to search for new clients. We want to remain a small company, and focus on providing a level of personal service that wouldn't be possible with a larger company. For us personally, we are moving upstairs in our building to a new apartment, which is a little big bigger (3BR/4 Baths), and we will have a terrace off the master bedroom on the second floor. Susan has wanted an outside space, and we like our building, so moving upstairs was an easy solution.

Our friend Bill Mann, and I have discussed some interesting ideas over the last couple of months, and we have decided to start a new project together this year. The new company we have formed will allow us to use some of our past IT, marketing, and management consulting experiences to help local businesses develop some new methods of attracting customers.

Susan has begun Yoga with her friend Lizette, and though she was sore after the first day, she is looking forward to her next class. Moca Cafe Bar, which we co-own with our friend Trish is continuing to attract new customers, and recently Susan began baking jumbo apple-cinnamon and banana-walnut muffins, and everyone loves them. Susan, along with Moca's manager Jenny have developed some new marketing ideas, and we added Direct TV, so we could show the Ecuadorian national soccer team's World Cup qualifying matches during the road to Brasil 2014.

The big news of the last few days for our family is that our oldest daughter Courtney has decided to join us in Cuenca sometime in March. We are hoping she can take over some of the work at Moca, and spend her free time working on her photography, and writing as she tries to make her two passions into a career. Susan will be heading to Atlanta to help with the move, shop for some things we are wanting, clear out our storage rental, and with luck she all the rest of our children (Ryan, Frank, and Christina), and her father and brother. It was hard having our first Christmas without our four older children, and next Christina will be turning 19 on the January 13th, so this will be the first year Susan isn't there for Christina's birthdays.

We are hoping the new year brings us good health, new friends, and many new adventures as we continue to live in our new country, and we wish the best to all our friends.

Preparing for a holiday without the whole family

Tomorrow is Christmas and this will be the first without most of the children. It will be the first without Christina the 2nd without Frank and Ryan and Courtney have rotated Christmas' with us and Christmas in San Antonio with their Mom and grandparents.

Tonight we have a private party at Moca Cafe Bar with few of our close friends. I have baked an apple pie for all and a single serving apple pie without sugar for our friend Bob O. I also made some chocolate peanut butter fudge. I am excited to see everyone tonight and looking forward to having some deviled eggs, Trish is bringing them.

Nick's last day of school was 15 Dec and since then he has been going to Moca everyday and working on writing in spanish and goes to see Josh 2 hrs a day for spanish. He hasn't really complained, so that is great. Next year we will be starting him on some online class work.
Steve and Bill have started an emarketing business to help small businesses in Cuenca get online for cheap and work with some of the professionals to get better email addresses using Outlook. Who wants to email their doctor at hotmail or yahoo???

I have been upset this week about not having the kids her for the holidays so I will be the first to admit to you it is HARD being away from your family especially during the holidays. Last night I tried to think of a way to live back in the US without having to find a GOOD job, but with todays economy I don't think it would be possible and really even if we moved there would we really be able to see the children as often as I want? NOPE They all live in too many places. Ry in Illinois, Frank in Texas and the girls in Georgia. I think I will talk them all into moving here?

Nick's 1st birthday in Cuenca!

Yesterday was Nick's 14th birthday and for weeks we had been asking him if we want to do anything, invite friends, or go out? He really didn't say much until last weekend. He mentioned inviting some friends over and having pizza.
I started to get depressed that he wasn't going to have his brothers and sisters around but I don't think it bothered him as much as it bothered me.
Steve and I got Nick an ice cream cake from Supermaxi, and ordered pizza from Papa Johns. Yes, we have a Papa Johns here and it almost tastes the same as it did back home. I think the slices are smaller though.
Nick had 4 friends from school over 3 Ecuadorian and one Gringo. All of them spoke english, unless they wanted to speak fast about a video game they were playing then they switched over to Spanish. They are all so polite. Everyone of the Ecuadorian boys came up and gave me the traditional greeting of a kiss on the check and asking how I was. :)
Our friends Stefani and Bob were going to come but the boys were very unpredictable about what they were going to do next. So I brought them up some cake and after everyone left Nick went up to thank them and took them half a pizza so sweet.
Nick's 1st birthday in Cuenca went over well so we are happy and I think he is too.

Another meeting at Santana

On Monday we had another meeting at Nick's school to see if they can challenge him. The were very nice and polite and really insistant on Nick staying at Santana. The are always nice. They feel we aren't giving it enough time but we aren't asking for him to be fluent in spanish we are asking for them to challenge him, to give him hoomework, and to give him school work.


We've given them the rest of December to see if they can try to treat Nick as a normal student and not just ignore him. They are to fill out his agenda according to our meeting. I really want this to work. I don't want to homeschool him. I want Nick to be around other children his age. I guess we will see what Nick will be doing in the new year.


On another note...


Nick's birthday is in 8 days and Christmas in 24 days. I've asked Nick if he wants a party or have friends over but he said "no". I feel bad that the package his uncle sent him was returned to the states for having food in it and no letter from the food ministry (or something like that). Allen sent Nick his favorite chocolate (Reese's Cups)which cannot be bought here in Cuenca and some video games. Well, I must figure out what to do for him.

Where has time gone?

Wow, time has gone by so fast...

Moca Cafe Bar

WORKING AT MOCA CAFE BAR
These last few weeks have been busy. Starting November 1st we opened Moca Cafe Bar in the mornings and have been running it Mon-Fri ever since. We're enjoying are mornings there together and our siestas in the afternoon. I guess I can't say I am bored anymore. I, more than Steve have been having a difficult time getting motivated in the morning. Steve's been so great, he lets me stay home some mornings to try to sleep in which I am not able to do. I usually get up and surf the world wide web hoping to see one of my children online. I still miss them very much and I don't think it will get easier, but I know their safe and that even if I were living in the states I may not be seeing them either. Life is busy.

Steve and I have made some new friends through Moca. Bob and Stefani they are brand new to Cuenca. We talked with them and decided to show them how to ride the bus and take a trip to Feria Libre Mercado on a Saturday, one of the busiests days at the mercado. It was an adventure for them. Stefani isn't too fond of the busses and I am not sure she will ride it again, but she knows how if needed. We all went to Puerto Grill on Gran Colombia for her birthday, and enjoyed some great margaritas :). We met George and Monica and their beautiful daughter. They have plans to open a Thai restaurant. Also, we met Matt and Diana from Wu Wei We Go blog who have 2 children that go to Santana where our son Nick goes. Matt comes by Moca and takes advantage of the FREE wifi and gets some work done, if we aren't picking his brain. They will be leaving to head back to the USA soon. Last week we met Jeff,  he was here visiting Cuenca to see if this is where he and his wife would like to retire. He heard that we had a mall so we showed him how to get there via bus. It has been so exciting meeting all these great people in Cuenca. Almost everyday we meet someone new at Moca. I hope we continue to meet such great people.


NICK'S SCHOOL (SANTANA)

We recently received Nick's report card and saw that he is passing everything. How can that be? He isn't that great with the language yet and when we talk to Nick he says he doesn't do anything but sit in the class all day. We were really hoping that Santana would be the place for Nick and we know that it is going to take time because of the language barrier, but we don't feel as if he is even being challenged. He has had homework twice since he started yet our friend Trish's son in a lower grade then Nick has two hours of homework a day. How can this be? Nick says he doens't know when he has homework and he tries to ask his friends but they don't give him a straight answer and the teachers never have time so he says.
We had a meeting with some of the staff to see what we can do to help Nick. The staff were all so very nice and helpful and tried to reassure us that all will fall into place as he learns more spanish. We came up with a plan that Nick was to write the homework in his agenda and the teachers would initial it to show that he wrote the right stuff. This has not been done...
Steve and I worry that we are just paying for an expensive daycare. We are considering taking him out the rest of the year and doing some online classes and working on his spanish then try a new school next year. We have spoken to a few Cuencanos that say that Santana is more of a place for kids in the upperclass to go to socialize and network. When I went there last week with Josh, Nick's spanish tutor for a meeting I saw kids walking around campus with there Blackberries out and headphones on texting and listening to music and it was during a class period NOT break time.
We have started researching more schools to find a more challenging one for Nick. I worry about him not socializing with kids his age so I really worry about taking him out of school but I am paying a little too much for him to socialize. We will put him back into a futbol league to have some interaction with kids his age and hopefully Nick will stay in contact with the friends he has made at Santana.
Well that's enough for now. Hopefully it won't be so long before the next post.