Then and Now

Joshua needed to do an assignment for school that showed a remake of some photos from years earlier. So, here is an example of how the boys have grown from September 2012, through May 2020.

Flowering cacti

Flowers can be so colorful and bright. I especially love the contrasts between the plant and the flower. A perfect example of this are cactus when they flower. This photo is from a walk in the park during the "stay at home" order. We wore masks so that if we had the SARS-CoV 2 virus, we reduce the chance of spreading it around.

Fiery sunset...

We had an absolutely gorgeous sunset on October 10. This was in the midst of the unrest here in Ecuador. Rather ominous looking because two days later one of the government buildings in Quito was looted and set on fire on several different floors of the 8-story building.

Not yet as bad as Venezuela

We went to the grocery store on Sunday afternoon to pick up a few things. There was a bit of a panic buying as the government, last Thursday, had removed subsidies on regular-grade gasoline and diesel. From what we heard, Friday and Saturday were very crazy days at the supermarkets.

The store was having trouble restocking the shelves. Here is the milk section... not much available.

Not much in the chicken area either... fortunately we get our meat from a butcher shop only a few blocks from home.

As a result of the civil unrest, school has also been cancelled since last Thursday. Tomorrow, Wednesday, will make it one week with no classes. The school started sending homework via email yesterday, so the boys are able to do some schooling.

And to think that this past spring we had talked about home-schooling...

Science fair at school

A couple weeks back the boys' school had a science fair with the different ages in history represented.

Joel took part as a Roman thinker and we needed to build a column and a bust. That was an interesting project but it turned out pretty good.

Joshua took part as a Presidential guard for the Bolivarian revolution to create the Grand Colombia which included Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. (It is because of this history that all three countries have the same basic flag. Venezuela has some stars over the three color flag while Ecuador has a shield on the flag.)

Hail in Quito

April 16 we had a torrential downpour in the afternoon here in Quito. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but we ended up with a bit of hail which in turn, caused a Volkswagon Beetle to have problems going up the street. He ended up spinning out and needing to backup a bit to try again.

Hail in Quito is very rare, maybe 10 times in the past 18 years.

The BIG 13!

Joshua turned 13 years-old this month. The boys were out of school Monday which worked out well for us. The Presidential Palace has a changing of the guard every Monday at 11am and we had been wanting to take the boys to see it without missing a day of school.

It was something special for both of them as they have never seen it and President Correa was there for the ceremony.

For lunch we went to Rusty's, a hamburger place here which even has Root Beer! The owner of the chain, Rusty, was also there and when he heard that it was Joshua's birthday, he gave Joshua an ice cream. So, it was a very good day!

Joshua and Joel did a doodle for the event. (This is very common. The walls are covered with napkin doodles by customers.)

Happy Birthday, Joshua!