Living on 5.5 with the fam

Most of the kids are back home again. Courtney came back after leaving Ecuador to start a new life and go back to college, Christina and her two girls, Frank, Manuela (his wife from Ecuador) and their son, and of course Nick is still with us and awaiting college in the fall. Ryan and his long-term girlfriend have moved up North where they are both teaching English.

We have goats (for dairy, eventually), chickens for eggs, dogs for protection and companionship and cats for mousers. We have been trying our hand at gardening, not doing to well, but we will continue to try. This year Frank and Christina will help. The property has an apple tree, peach trees, plum tree, elderberries, raspberries and blackberries. We are luck those don't need to much help. :)

Frank, Manuela, and Christina and planted some veggies for the spring, hope they do well.

Steve and I live in a THOF (Tiny House on Foundation), Frank and his family, Christina and hers, and Nick live in the Main house, and Courtney lives in a THOF also.

Steve stays busy working on projects on our farm, Windhorse Family Farm. I work as a Administrative Officer for a medical clinic, Courtney works a a college bookstore and goes to college, Frank works for a construction company, Christina just enrolled in college for the summer.

Hope  this catches everyone up for now.

Stay tuned...

Catching up

March 2013 - I moved back to the US, stayed with our daughter Christina in Macon, GA.
April 11 - our daughter Christina marries Avery, he prepares to leave for the Army.
May 2013 - found a job, left the job in June.
July 2013 -  Our son Ryan and Melanie moved to Savannah. To teach at Savannah State University. Moved to Asheville, NC for a job at a VA Medical Center, worked in Enrollment and Eligibility.
August 2013 - Steve and Nick joined me. Nick goes to 10th grade biggest challenge, not knowing what classes would transfer. Most classes transferred can graduate ahead of schedule. Steve is adjusting to high prices at the stores, we really miss the open markets.
December 2013 - Missing Courtney and Frank in Cuenca. A new addition to the family is born, our first grandchild Laura-Ann, lovingly known as Dash. My grandma was there for the birth. We had five generations of us there. I received a promotion at work. Nick turns 16 and doesn't want a license.
January 2014 - Nick takes Spanish 3 honors and doesn't find it very challenging, his middle schools Spanish was harder.
March 2014 - Our son Frank marries a beautiful Ecuadorian, Manuela. Steve takes a job to get out of the house.
April 2014 - My dad ends up in the hospital again and it reminds us how short life is. Steve and I wonder what we are leaving behind for our family and our son Frank has talked about moving back to the US with his wife and son, so we are thinking about buying a home.
May 2014 - My grandma passed, so happy I got to see her when our granddaughter was born. Our first grandson is born Abdiel Ramses. Wish we could be there to see him and hold him.
June 2014 - Found a house that needs a lot of TLC on 5.2 beautiful acres.
Throughout this time we have continued to try to live simply, we have saved money for the renovations and we would like to share our journey with you on this next part of our life.

Happy New Year!

Wow, the new year sure has come up fast on us. We had a great visit with our son Ryan who was able to make it out for a visit this Christmas.

Ryan and Steve

We went to Pumapungo Park for a visit.

Our daughter Christina called us on Christmas day with the biggest gift of our lives.

Christina 2011

We are going to be grandparents.

Then New Years came and we invited our friends Bill and Tom over and we bought effigies and burned then on New Years eve to get rid of the bad juju from last year and move forward to a better year.

Happy New year all!

Up to Seven in the house

Well, it has been a while since we have posted, as we've been busy with the influx of new people in the home. On September 11 our son Frank and friend Bill came to Ecuador. This was Bill's 3rd trip and hopefully he will get his residency this time and this is Frank's first time here. We are happy to have them here, but of course it makes for a more chaotic home.

In our home we eat and cook strictly vegetarian so that is a big change for Frank and Bill. Frank loves to go to the little snack shacks and get almuerzo (lunch) for $2, and if he'd stay there it would only be $1.40, but he brings it home. The first time he brought it home he wasn't sure what to do with the bag of red stuff. I informed him that it was some type of juice. So, he poured it into a cup and drank it all up. Bill goes out for lunch a lot to get his protein fix; he wasn't too sure about eating our "fake meats". I don't think he minds them much anymore.

Frank, Courtney and Steve have all started taking spanish lessons at Carolina Bookstore. They go twice a week. I am afraid they will pass me up, I better start doing my computer lessons :). Steve takes lots of notes and Frank says this is the most he has every learned, he attributes it to his teacher being nice to look at. Courtney doesn't take much notes, but says the class is reminding her of what she has learned already.

The first week Frank was here we let him settle in. The second week he and I worked together at Moca to get him trained. Then the next week he went on nights with Jenny, our Cuencana manager, so she could show him the ropes of nights and work on his spanish. Within Frank's first month here he was invited to attend the Miss Cuenca pagenant with a young lady he had met at the Mall. She was running for Miss Cuenca. Not too bad for only being here a month.

Nick has been doing alright at school. Courtney has been doing well working on her blog, her scarves and Moca. For all of the month of October, Courtney and Frank had been doing Halloween-themed movies on Saturday night for FREE. The turn out was low so I don't believe it will continue. The kids didn't make much money for Moca or for themselves (since they only get paid via tips for now).

Last Friday Bill's brother Tom finally made it to Cuenca with all his paperwork in hand and his life packed in two suitcases. He is ready to become an expat. We went out Saturday night to El Azteca and had some good food and good margaritas. This morning I went to meditation and my family, Bil,l and Tom came to have brunch at the Windhorse Cafe. Our friend Katie was there so she joined us. It is great to have a good bunch of friends.

I am still struggling to find things to do with myself. Being so young and retired is hard. Most of the retirees here are older and have other interests. I want to go to the Cajas and hike and go visit other small places near Cuenca. I have tried knitting and volunteering. I have to find something that I enjoy that makes me happy. I really enjoy meditation but I think Steve may be lonely if I meditate for hours on end. So I need to find something constructive.

We hope everyone is safe on the east coast, we see the nasty storm coming. We will keep you in our thoughts.

Rumors travel

According to Wikipedia a rumor or rumour (spelling differs between American and British English) is often viewed as "an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern".

Rumors can hurt people, families and business. Rumors have been around from the beginning of time. I myself have listened to them but I would check with the person themselves before saying anything. I think it is the smart thing to do.
Here in Cuenca the Gringo (Gringo (Spanish: [ˈgɾiŋgo], Portuguese: [ˈgɾĩgu]) is a slang Spanish and Portuguese word used in Ibero-America, to denote foreigners, often from the United States. The term can be applied to someone who is actually a foreigner, or it can denote a strong association or assimilation into foreign (particularly US) society and culture. While in Spanish it simply identifies a foreigner, without any negative connotation,^[1] in English the word is often considered offensive or disparaging) population is small in comparison to the Cuencano's. So word spreads fast good or bad. For instance if a store gets in American Peanut butter the community will know fast.
In this day we have many ways to receive rumors. Face to face, Facebook, Yahoo groups, Blogs and the list goes on. We have a responsibility to ourselves and each other to verify this information with the source. We should try not to hurt people intentionally.
Last year we met some people that started to try to spread rumors to our landlady but she knew us and asked us and it was fine, but it still hurt to know that people would try to that.
My POINT of this blog post is to get you to THINK before you share news/information.

Rumors hurt! Thanks for reading, Susan

Changes

We have been living in Cuenca for slightly more than thirteen months now, and hopefully are daily lives will begin to slow down over the next couple of months. Our son Frank is scheduled to arrive September 10th, so we will have three of our five children living with us here. In the USA we would have never considered inviting our older children to move back home, but here families treat each other differently, and it is more accepted to have unmarried adult children living at home. Our oldest daughter Courtney has already taken more of a leadership role at Moca, and the goal is have Susan train Frank once he arrives, so he can work at Moca with Courtney, and our manager Jenny. This will allow Susan and I, along with our partner Trish to act as mentors, and provide assistance when necessary. Susan, and I came here to retire, and the time to sit back and relax is becoming a real possibility with the arrival of Courtney and Frank.

Our other business, Cuenca Flats is gradually winding down, and we are limiting ourselves to managing only three properties for the immediate future. Managing properties is time consuming, and the money we earn does not impact our quality of life, so we have reevaluated the properties, and eliminated all but three. From the very beginning we let everyone know we weren't real estate agents and never had any interests in becoming one. We knew a few people (Ecuadorians) who owned properties, and they asked us to help, and we did for the most part. But, lately as more and more expats move to Cuenca I have become disenchanted with working in an area (real estate) that exposes me to so many expats, and so few Ecuadorians.

Let me explain the reason for my disenchantment. I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. We used to call San Antonio the capital of Northern Mexico when I was growing up. I was always comfortable being surrounded by the Hispanic community, and felt I had more in common with them than people for Minnesota, Virginia or Oregon. The Air Force sent me to live in the Azores for four years, and I loved the Portuguese culture, and left many friends behind when we returned to the USA.  My Air Force career of twenty-five years introduced me to many cultures, and countries beyond the borders of my home in Texas. I grew to understand that there were many great cultures throughout the world, and people regardless of where they were from, were just like me, but shaped by the uniqueness of their own culture and experiences. So, when we discussed moving from Atlanta, Georgia, we weren't moving out of a dislike for our own country, but instead in search of expanding our experiences, and those of our fourteen year-old son Nick by living in a different culture, and by not having to work any longer. Nick is now on his way to being bi-lingual (Spanish-English), and has matured so much in the last year, and I feel is because of his surroundings, and the additional time he spends with Susan and I compared to back in the USA.

So, in the last month in attempt to surround ourselves with more opportunities to experience the local culture, we have moved out of the very nice apartment in an affluent neighborhood to a house in a middle-class Ecuadorian neighborhood where we are the only expats. Our house is older, but our landlord allowed us to refinish the wood floors, paint, and refinish the kitchen ourselves (cost and labor) to make it our own. Our neighbor across the street is very friendly, and greets us with a smile when he sees us, and I have been accepted into the group that plays futsal in the park near our house. I am proud to be a Texan-American, and I am very fortunate to have grown up with an abundance of amazing opportunities that my family and country provided me. I am also proud of the twenty-five years I served my country, and feel great pride in what I accomplished as a member of the Air Force. And as a result of being raised in such fortunate circumstances, I know am blessed with the opportunity to live in Cuenca with my wife, and children. So, I will continue to offer a helping hand to an expat when I see they are in need of one, but I want to spend more time relaxing and getting to know my new neighbors, and understanding their culture.

While I will NEVER be accepted as a local, my hope is to be able to practice my Spanish, and grow as a person through interacting with my neighbors on a daily basis. I don't want to change my neighbors or my neighborhood, but I want to earn the trust of my neighbors, and to be a small part of the community. Hopefully they will gain something from interacting with my family as well. When you get down to it, we are all human beings, very similar in physical form, but our minds and beliefs are shaped by our experiences, and the people and cultures we interact with during our life. So, it is time for a change, and for me to take a big step back from all the things (Moca, Cuenca Flats, etc...) I have been involved in for the last year to relax, and get to know my new neighborhood, and my new neighbors.     

Children in Ecuador

Today a friend and I went with our lawyer (who is bilingual) to visit Tadeo Torres. It is an orpanage just on the outskirts of Cuenca, that is currently caring and housing 24 children under the age of five years old. They were so adorable. It is sad to see so many children without loving families. The orphanage has a nice main house where they dine and the infants room is there then out in the back are play areas and rooms which they call their houses. The rooms that open to the outside courtyard. There are playrooms and therapy rooms and a medical office. On the back part of the property is the nuns house.

We found out that in order to adopt in Ecuador you need to be a resident for 2 years, which puts a damper on my friends plans. She would really love to adopt a child and give them a home right NOW, but she will have to wait. They also have a screening process (more to come on that) and classes that you have to take once approved.

Here in Ecuador you don't get to chose your child. You can ask for a specific age range and gender and they give you a resume (basically) of a child. You then have two weeks to review it and make the most important decision in your life and theirs. You have to ensure that you are willing to become this childs everything.

We asked what they needed. They asked for diapers size medium to large and a formula brand called Nestle Nan 1 and 2. If anyone is interested in donating please bring the items or cash to Moca Cafe Bar on Gran Colombia y Manzaneros, Moca sits in between Unidad Nacional and Las Americas at the base of Edificio Excalibur next to Banco International.

Changes is in the Air

Change: "(verb) to become altered or modified, or to become transformed or converted."

The last three days we have had wonderful sunny days with a slight breeze, and beautiful moonlight nights. The weather has changed, for how long, I don't know, but I hope this is what to expect for the immediate future. We are changing as the weather changes, and it feels great. Nick's Spanish skills have progressed to the point he impresses Susan and I each time we hear him converse totally in Spanish with an Ecuadorian. Courtney has become comfortable working at Moca, and seems to be smiling and talking much more than I remember from when she lived in Atlanta. Susan is involved in several projects (Mediation group, Women's Group, and helping out our friends), and we are both spend Wednesday evenings in a book study group. The family seems to be smiling more, working together more often, and I can't remember seeing our home so calm. At Moca, we are gradually building a regular clientele, and welcoming new customers daily. Deportivo Cuenca Southern Express Fan Club, an idea for an expat fan club of the local futbol club by Thomas Golden has created a buzz in the community, and it is nice to be involved in futbol again. In the last week, we have sold our friend's second car for her, leased her rental apartment for two years to nice lady named Judy, and helped an expat get his upholstery, and rugs cleaned in his apartment. Additionally, we enrolled Nick in a new school for the fall, Centro Educativo Alborada.

Change, for us started with moving to Cuenca in July2011, and now after almost eleven months all the experiences we have had, the good and the bad, have changed who we are as human beings, and as a family. We are at peace with our surroundings, and the new culture, and no longer fighting uphill against things we can't change. Now we accept our friends, family, even strangers, and most importantly ourselves for who we have become. Cuenca has changed us for the better, and for that we are agradecido (thankful).