When it rains...

Here in La Libertad, we are no longer in "Summer". Since Sunday around 2:00PM, we have been in "Winter" full-blast. I use quotes around the seasons because they are nothing like seasons back home, Instead of temperature differences being the main change with the seasons, down here it is just changes in precipitation. That´s why I can point to an exact time for the change in seasons. It started raining on my way back from town, and has rained every afternoon since then. This is a big change because it hadn´t rained here for a couple of weeks. Apparently, the dry season this year was pretty short, so I´m hoping for a light rainy season, but if this first week is an indication, I´m not going to get my wish. Every morning has been clear and sunny, but around 1-2 o´clock, the clouds roll over the Eastern ridge of the Andes (Mts. Rumiñahui and Cotopaxi). It is pretty interesting to watch because those peaks are about 7-10 miles away and I can watch the rains move towards L.L. trough the valley between us. It has rained every afternoon for about 3 hours and then let up to cool and damp evenings. The good thing is that the rain has killed the dust bowl that was forming around here. Without rain for those weeks, everything dried up and since the soil is basically all fine volcanic dust and it has been windy as well, it was horrible to walk around. Some of the roads had 2-3 inches of dust on them, so when the wind picked up, you couldn´t keep your eyes open.

Enough of the weather report. Nothing really exciting to say, I had another computer class with the ladies at the bank, and this time some of them actually showed up. We spent 2 hours going over the basics, and I think they learned a lot. Hopefully they will be back next week for round two. My biggest challenge will be getting them to type with more than one finger.

The only thing out of the ordinary this week was that I went to my first Ecuadorian wake. A 24 year old from outside of town committed suicide on Monday and the wake was the next night. It was held at his family´s house about 15 minutes from where I live. They set up a tent outside for people to sit and had the body in the "Family Room". I went with some people I knew to pay our respects (even though I didn´t know the kid). It was obviously very sad.

On a lighter note, I made pickles this week (worst segue ever!). When I was home, I picked up a package of "Bread and Butter Pickle Mix". I just had to add vinegar, sugar, and of course cucumbers. I´ve tried some store bought pickles down here, and they are so bad that I threw them out after one bite, so I was glad that these turned out well. I was also pumped that when I gave some to the family members, they didn´t like them. Since I have to keep the pickles in their fridge, I was going to let them take what they wanted. Now, I get to keep them all to myself (selfish yes, but we´re talking good pickles here).

The only funny story of this week is from yesterday when I was helping my landlord do some metal work. He is a smart guy (although after this story you may doubt that) and makes all sorts of metal objects (window frames, truck bed rail, etc.)for people in town. We were working on a set of decorative window bars when it started to rain. He kept on welding, but I thought that maybe that wasn´t a good idea, so I went under an overhang by the welding machine. I was standing there waiting to have to shut if off when he dropped the stick and started cursing. He was fine, just a little shocked. He went right back working and got shocked 3-4 more times. I just shook my head. High Current + Water = Bad Idea, but he didn´t care.

P.S. - This is the same guy that blew up my septic tank!