We are Learning the Language

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I have been back in Cuenca for about 3 weeks now. With the holidays behind us the first item on both our agendas is to learn to understand and to speak Spanish.

Chuck is taking private lessons from Mia. She is located at the language school in the Carolina Book Store. This is an English bookstore run by our ex-pat friend (Carol) from the Carolinas.

Chuck has been taking lessons for one week now. His teacher is very helpful and besides being his instructor she has assisted him on numerous projects. (Getting our internet up and running, finding out information about the finish on our kitchen table and chasing down my stolen cell phone).

I started school yesterday. I chose to go to a more structured program since I am not as far along in my Spanish skills. I am attending Estudio Sampere. It is a school established in Spain. They have four schools, three in Spain and this one in Cuenca, Ecuador.

Here is their sign on the wall outside the school.


I am in the beginning level which is right where I belong. The classes consist of grammer, conversation and culture. I go 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. I will be attending for the next three weeks. There are two other students in my class. They are both from Switzerland.

Here is a picture of my classmates and one of our teachers.


Actually there are only about 12 students in the school at this time and I think all but two of us are from Switzerland. So when I am not learning Spanish, I am hearing a lot of German. What fun!!

The school is small and is located in a very beautiful setting.

This is the walkway I use to get to the front door. It makes me feel like I am in an old European country.


Chuck and I are each learning Spanish in a way that suits our individual learning style. We are anxious to become intergrated into the community.

We are out to prove that the old proveb "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" does not apply to us.

Gotta go grease my brain now.

Nancy

New Year's Eve Celebration or "The Burning Bush"

Dear Family and Friends,

Last night Chuck, Audrey, Jim and I set out to find out exactly what New Year's Eve is like in Cuenca. We left home about 9:00 pm and went to the BQ (a local sports bar) for dinner.

After dinner we started strolling through the neighborhoods to see what was going on. It appears that in Cuenca the coming of the New Year is celebrated outside. The streets were crowded with cars cruising and pedestrians.

One very interesting custom is that men dress as women and beg for money. I understand the history of this custom is they are dressing as widows (of the old year), but the ones we saw were dressed more like hookers. They would stop traffic and not let the cars pass until they received some money.




As we walked toward the city center we saw the stuffed bodies with masks displayed in many different scenes....waiting to be torched. Some people blocked their street and put up quite elaborate displays. Between this and the cross dressers it made for some terrific traffic jams.

In the midst of all this, people were shooting off all sorts of fireworks. All the ones that are illegal in our country are fair game here. It was incredible to see small children shooting off Roman Candles.

This display was in front of an auto parts store. Notice the person in the car (Chevrolet).


If I could have read the Spanish better, I am sure I would have gotten the jokes.

Here is a scene of a family sitting around a table. Instead of masks, the dummies had actual pictures of the faces of the family members.

As we walked by the pharmacy, there was a dummy of the pharmacist. I bet his employees had fun putting this one together.



One of the most elaborate scenes we came upon was of the congress in Ecuador. It had every member labeled. These are not real people, they are dummies and at midnight they were all piled up and torched.

We found this display that we could relate to. It was a scene of Bush and the Iraqi reporter throwing his shoe at him. Here is the whole display.


A close up of the shoe throwing reporter....


A close up of Bush's secret service agent. I love the dark glasses and black suit.



And of course, a close up of Bush.



We couldn't be everywhere at once so we chose to hang around here until midnight. We wanted to see how they burned the scene. They had a DJ and some of the neighbors were dancing, some were toasting drinks as they waited for midnight. At midnight, they pulled the scene apart and piled it up in the center of the street. Then they torched it.

"The Burning Bush"

As we walked back home there were fires everywhere.

This has to be one of the most unique New Years Eve we have ever experienced.

Today, Audrey is starting her journey back to the U.S. But not before we have our black eyed peas.

Chuck and I wish you and your loved ones a very happy new year.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

New Year's Eve in Cuenca

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been very fascinating. I have been watching the numbers of stuffed bodies and masks growing by the day. They are for sell in every section of town.

Headless bodies...


Heads for bodies....


Bodies with heads...


It is a tradition in Cuenca to burn these dummies. The faces of the heads are mostly hand made and represent politicians and other public figures. People buy them and assemble their victim and on New Year's Eve the fires begin to burn. If one has a beef with another person, they just torch them at midnight. Seems a little like voodoo, but actually it is done all in fun.

They are made of flammable materials....


Here is a body with a BIG head (wonder if this is mean't to be literal?)


There is an excellent blog all about this tradition on Cuenca Highlife.

We are looking forward to witnessing some of the celebrations tonight.

Nancy

Christmas Day in Cuenca

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck, Jim, Audrey and I had a quiet Christmas day.

We had a nice brunch and then opened our stockings and gifts.

Christmas trees are quite new to this culture. Not many people have them and the government keeps reminding the citizens that the nativity is their custom, not Christmas trees.

Those who have Christmas trees have only artificial ones. There are no fresh cut trees to be purchased.

Chuck and I decided to not have a tree to be in keeping with our new home.

We did however, put our stockings under our flower arrangement just to have a focal point for our gifts.

Here is a picture of Chuck and I sitting beside our "Christmas Focal Point."


For Christmas dinner, we had a very non traditional meal. Grilled steaks, potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and a green salad.

We had a very special guest, Nikki. Nikki has been reading my blog and emailed me before we even left the U.S. She said that she would be in Cuenca and would like to meet us. She called me on Christmas Eve and I invited her to come for our Christmas dinner. She is a very delightful 21 year old woman. She helped make our Christmas special and we are so glad to know her. I have a feeling we will be seeing quite a bit of her in the future.

Today was the first day of the modernizing of our bus system. Audrey has done a wonderful blog regarding the new system. Click here to read all about it.

Now we are getting ready for New Years celebrations.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

Christmas Eve in Cuenca - Passing of the Children

Dear Family and Friends,

Christmas Eve in Cuenca Ecuador is a magical day. Every year they have Paseo de Ninos (Passing of the Children.) It seems that every child in Cuenca dresses up and passes through the streets. I don't know the history of this custom, but it has probably been going on for many years.

Chuck, Jim, Audrey and I left our house this morning about 10:30am. We returned about 5:00pm. All during that time we witnessed the passing of the children. It was so delightful that I must share some of the pictures I took.


Some children were riding floats

Some were in their mother's arms.

This little angel was on her mother's back.

This dog even got into the parade. He seems to have a monkey on his back.

There were ornate floats such as this one.

Beautiful children

Little toreadors

A Senorita...



Dressed up babies...

And young people dancing.





Here are some children dressed from the Amazon area of Ecuador.





This little guys parents covered him in charcoal.

An Amazon princess

There were a lot children riding horses and burros.










Therefore there were a lot of animal tracks....


We had to step carefully....

Oops!! The bottom of my shoe...



There were a lot of little angels.....




Sleeping babies...






Thousands of little children and young people passed through the streets of Cuenca today.

Here are some more photos of these precious children...














It was so wonderful being able to be part of this experience. The most wonderful Christmas Eve I have ever spent was in a missionary hospital in Rawanda Africa. click here . This Christmas Eve was the second most wonderful.

Chuck and I wish you a peaceful, loving holiday with your family and friends.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck


Audrey has started her own blog. She has more pictures of this wonderful event. If you would like to see her photos click here.