Christmas Carolling 2020

 We went Christmas caroling this year! This past Sunday, with the help of some musical friends from our local church, we went around the block singing some well-known Christmas songs.

Unfortunately, our time was cut short due to some serious rainfall. But we did enjoy singing in four different areas of our block. Several people greeted us and thanked us for bringing a bit of energy to the neighbourhood.

Flowers...

Scenic shots from our neighborhood

Here are a few pics I took recently as we were walking through the community.

In this photo, if you look real close, you can see the cross that the following closeup shows.

This is Mt. Cotopaxi, a volcano that 5 years ago was spewing steam and ash.

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...