Is Harper a Daddy?

There is a husky dog called 'Nuve,' who lives in the other house on our land. She had pups three weeks ago now and we currently have 3 beautiful puppies living in our garden. Her owner told us that the father is a black lab, but from before she came to live here! It is extremely coincidental and there are hardly any Labradors around. Tom googled it to see if the time frame fits and it's possible - we hope they're his because they are gorgeous!! Not sure what we will do with more dogs but we'll wait and see. The good thing for him if he is the Dad, is to know that he was able to have puppies, as he had the chop about 6 weeks ago!

Escuela General Fiscal Pintag

This Saturday we were doing more work at the Escuela General Fiscal Pintag. It is a school in a poor community only 10 mins from the BSQ. An ex-colleague, Yvette and I set up a link with the school in July this year. Between our friends and families and some money raised at school we are paying the nursery teachers salary for 6 months. Last year the nursery was shut down because they could not afford to pay the $150 a month salary! We are also running a programme with the secondary students at the BSQ. They have to complete a certain number of hours of community service, so they are helping with a programme to improve the school at the weekends.

So far Martyn and I and lots of BSQ students have rubbed down and re-painted desks in one of the classrooms, we have provided the school with lots of books that have been donated by parents of the BSQ, we have given the school a number of rugs so that the children can have a reading area, we are in the progress of re-painting the playgroud and have cleaned up the nursery.


Below are some pictures from previous visits to the school. See October post for some more pics.

Arenal market and Lauralee's birthday

This weekend was very busy. After helping out at the school in Pintag in the morning, we went to Lauralee's for lunch. It was her birthday and friend and family were invited over to celebrate. She had a lovely marquee in her garden with great food, I think there were 5 courses in all! On Sunday I went with Miranda to the Areal market whilst Tom played golf.

November at BSQ

Our classes take it in turn to go down to Tori's class in the nursery every other week to teach them how to play. They absolutely love it and my kids get lots out of being the teacher! I love the pic of our kids showing the little ones how to brush their teeth!




These are some pics of my eco-club. We sort out all the paper at the school and then make things out of rubbish! This term we have been making loads of things out of boxes, splatting pictures and making note books out of used paper. I think it's lots of fun and the kids enjoy it.


We celebrated fireworks night at BSQ. All the kids came in fancy dress and we had a guy competition. They also took part in the BSQ idol. The kids all had lots of fun.

El Canyon del Chiche

We went down to the restaurant at El Canyon del Chiche for Sunday lunch with Mark, Ewan and Miranda. Tommy absolutely loves the steak (says its even better than Argentian steak!). It's right at the bottom of the canyon and we can take Harper with us. Harper absoultely loves swimming in the river and eating the steak too!

Half Term November 2009 - Banos & Riobamba

We headed to Banos for half term with some friends from school, Ewan and Miranda. We stayed in a lovely eco-hostel just outside Banos called 'La Casa Verde.' We spent the first day visiting some local thermal baths with all the locals and then hiked up to a nearby waterfall. The next day, we cycled along the cascade route following all the waterfalls south of Banos. I have never been so scared cycling through a tunnel in the pitch black! Typically I got a puncture and luckily Ewan was with us and was able to fix it for me! We got back from the cycle and went to a local spa. The girls had a body mud mask followed by a sauna in a box!! It is such a great idea, you sit in a box with your head sticking out and the vapours cover the rest of your body underneath. It looks hilarious but it such a great idea. The boys had a sauna and a massage - very good all round. We then got up at 4am to drive to Riobamba to go on the 'Devil's Nose' train ride. It was a beautiful ride with some amazing views overlooking a canyon. We got there to find out that there was nobody to pick us up so we were stranded 3 hours south of Banos. We had to get a taxi back and then drive for almost 6 hours to get back to Quito, it was a very long day......

Day of the Dead

Ecuador and other South American countries celebrate 'the day of the dead' on the 2nd November. In Ecuador the holiday is interpreted as a day to “catch up” with the ones who are no longer with us but have a life in a different world. People pack lunches of traditional food, flowers and offerings and head for the cemeteries where they spend the day as a family talking, eating and performing routine maintenance on the grave site. The traditional food of the season is called 'colada morada,' which is a thick purple drink, and guaguas de pan, sweet bread in shape of dolls. Weeks before the holiday supermarkets and bakeries begin selling the ingredients and store-made versions of the drink and breads. To some people the purple/red drink symbolizes blood, which in turn symbolizes life of the ones how have moved on from this existence. At BSQ each child was given bread shaped as a child to decorate and a glass of colada morada.