Household Photo Tag

My fabulous sister-in-law Gaby (shout out!!) has tagged me in a "Household Photo Tag". The Rules are that you have to take the pictures how your house is now- no cleaning up. Now, I must forewarn you that we are city volunteers so our home is a little more Posh Corps-y than the average campo volunteer (though I must say I have seen some pretty sweet pads in the countryside!). So don't be flabbergasted at our digs! And we did buy some of our things used or got them for free, and all expenses were within our settling in budget! No money from home, oooh yeah (well, ignore our 2 qt. jug of Kikkomans)!

Without further ado, may I present my house...

Kitchen Sink- We seriously need a drying rack. We always seem to have too many dishes drying so the sink fills up. Though granted tonight I did wash most of the dishes and Adam just made an iced mocha with our cheapy Ecua blender (cost $20 and takes FOREVER to blend ice).

Fridge- That is right, we have a big fridge! Got it second hand and it matches our sitemate Jason's fridge. Even in Ecuador we have too many condiments! A1, sriracha sauce, mayo, relish, oyster sauce...

Favorite Shoes- I would put my Rainbows but they are so worn out that I slip and slide everywhere. No fun. So I put down my flip flops that I bought in Cotacachi, Ecuador and my Keen sandals. The Keens would be my very favorite except that when I wear them, my feet stink to high heaven. So instead, they tie with the flip flops!

Favorite Room- For me, it would be the kitchen because I love that I am still able to cook and bake practically all that I want while in the Peace Corps. They recently started selling wonton wrappers at the market, and we discovered dry rice stick noodles a few weeks back, so being in the kitchen isn't bad! Plus I always feel like fixing me up a cup of locally grown coffee with my coffee sock (can you see it hanging back by the water?)!

Laundry Room- We do, in fact, have a laundry room. It is equipped with a washboard sink for handwashing, as well as a small washing machine. That is right, we have a washing machine. It is noisy but we aren't spending hours trying to wash a set of sheets! We hang dry our clothes downstairs on the line (and try to remember to take the clothes in before the nightly rainfall).

Bedroom Closet- Pretty much the entire reason why we chose to live in our apartment. It is outside of the center of town, but it is rare to find a place with closets! Most apartments are just four bare walls, so you have to create makeshift closets or live out of your suitcase (like Jason or Ethan!). So yes, we have amazing closets. I am sure all the other PC Ecuador vols are jealous.

Bathroom- Ok Gaby, forgive me. I forgot to take a picture of our bathroom tonight and was too lazy to upload more pix, so I used an old photo. Essentially our bathroom is exactly the same, except instead of the REI camp towel we now have REAL towels thanks to our trip back to the US! Note the lovely electric shower head in the background. Luckily it is really high so I can't accidentally shock myself.

My Kids- Well, since Adam and I don't have any children, no pix to show here. I would have posted a picture of Adam but he ran away and wasn't cooperating.

Self Portrait- Might as well be ridiculous and have two, right?

Ok, I am not sure if any of my friends will participate (I hope so!), but I am going to tag Maile (I want to see your apartment in China!!) and Lori in Loja (I want to see your new place!) and my little sister Betty (like she isn't busy enough already).

4/5 Photo- Bus Salesman

For anyone who comes to visit Ecuador and rides a bus, you'll be in for a real treat! Who needs QVC when you can get the real deal in person? I have mentioned before that many people will come on and sell things like pen sets, candy, newspapers, etc. The other day we were on our way to Liz's Passover Party (photos of that to come) and this man came on to sell some kind of vitamin powder drink mix (the kind that prevents cancer, colds, headaches, and makes your brain work better!). But unlike other vitamin powder drink mix salesmen, this man also had a binder filled with pictures of ginseng, noni, and internal body charts like you see in anatomy class. Awesome! So as our bus was moving along out of Loja, he gave us a 10 minute spiel with diagrams, charts, and photos. If that doesn't spark your desire to buy the packets, I'm not sure what will!

Next up...Household Photo Tag thanks to my SIL Gaby!!

4/4- Fundochamba Cont.

Wow, as I look at the date I realize that it was about one year ago that Adam and I left our jobs and started our roadtrip across the US. On April 4, 2009 we were in the Grand Canyon! And on Easter of last year, we were dyeing eggs with Drew and Jennifer in Austin! White eggs here are very expensive so no dyeing eggs this year. Nonetheless, Happy Easter! Eat some ham for me!

And without further delay, here are more pictures from beautiful Fundochamba!

The small church in town and the Good Friday procession (if you click on the picture you can see that there is a man carrying a cross and people dressed up)

More gorgeous views of the surrounding area

Ethan's host family's dog Campeon- in his site the dogs are sweet, unlike Liz's site where you have to carry rocks in your hand in case a dog attacks you!

The following pictures are of Ethan making cheese at his host family's house. They get fresh milk from the cows, add a tablet (some kind of enzyme to get the milk to separate), and then once it solidifies, Ethan put the solid parts through the grinder (not sure the name of the tool!). 

Grinding away

Then Ethan took a handful of salt and mixed that in

Shape it into balls and put it in the press- tada, queso fresco!

Coffee plants! Now I know what they look like!

4/3 Photo- Fundochamba

We got back from Fundochamba today and can I just say that Fundochamba is beautiful! It is a small town (population ~150) about 3 hours by bus south from Loja. We had a great time visiting fellow PCV Ethan in his site. He is a sustainable agriculture volunteer working with the coffee growers and microempresas in the Fundochamba area. Ethan knows everybody in his little town and we couldn't walk down the one road in town without running into his neighbors that would stop and chit chat- it was definitely a nice change of pace to see what a non-city volunteer's site is like. I will post more photos tomorrow.

Ethan took us out to walk along where the farmers in Fundochamba have their coffee plants (and where they let their cows roam loose to graze). If you see in the far distance in the middle of the photo there is a tree sticking up. That is where his house is!

4/1 Photo

This is the stairway in the building that I work in. It has an elevator but I won't take it. Good thing because on Monday the fire department had to come and help people out of the elevator- it was stuck between levels!

Note- we are heading off to visit Ethan in Fundochamba. No photo tomorrow!