Got my license, got my job back, and there's not much else to say!

This might be the worst license picture yet.  The lady at the BMV said "Smile if you want, or not," so I smiled really big, which she laughed at, and then proceeded to imitate (more like mock) my smile, which made me start laughing, and *~cLiCk~* goes the camera.  I'm laughing and my face is bright red!  Is that a legal picture!?

A.J. and I have enjoyed being back with our former congregation, seeing all of our friends, along with some new faces.  Things sure change a lot in a year!  Infants in car seats when we left are now running around and talking!!  Our Watchtower overseer is the C.O. that we had before we left for Ecuador, as he and his wife have settled in our congregation after being on the road for 31 years!  ¡Qué privilegio!

Something that won't be a change is my place of employment ~ I start back at my former job next Monday!  I was beyond thrilled that they've accepted me back after our year away . . . things are falling into place and we thank Jehovah!

For our Ecua-peeps reading this ~ te extrañamos mucho, y esperamos oír de usted muy pronto!

Until next time . . . again, signing off indefinitely . . .

Miscellaneous updates . . .

We moved into the downstairs of our friend's double in Lakewood.  It's nice and spacious and cool despite the heat.  We've been moving in bit by bit, running back and forth from A.J.'s parents' house to retrieve essentials.

I still haven't had the joy of driving a car since we've been back, since my license expired when I turned 29 in June.  I tried to renew it yesterday, but the system was down, state-wide.  I called today and they said it was back up, so hopefully I'll be legal before 5:00.

We don't have internet at our new place, so for now it's difficult to check emails and to put up new posts.  We were way better-connected in Ecuador!

Until next time . . . signing off indefinitely . . .

Quick update

We made it back safe and sound to the U.S., and are now at home in Cleveland.  All's well and we're busy getting things back in order.  I'll write longer next time, but for now it's time for bed ~ I'm exhausted and my brain is fried! 

Here are the links to our last two photo albums from Ecuador:

English District Convention
Ecuador Branch Tour

Some convention highlights!

We're just off the "Remain Close to Jehovah" District Convention here in Guayaquil, and what an amazing weekend it was.  We always say "That was the best District Convention ever," and this year is no exception!  Each and every part was so motivating to draw even closer to Jehovah, and it instilled in us even more how we want to remain as busy as possible in Jehovah's service, and keep theocratic goals in front of us.

Also motivating to us was the unique spirit there, as most at the English convention are serving in different South American countries from all over the world ~ it's like a mini international convention!  Aside from Ecuador and the United States, we talked with friends from Japan, New Zealand, Australia, England, Peru, Canada, Colombia, Holland, Germany, Belgium, and Italy, just to name a few off the top of my head!  At one point a speaker asked all those in full-time service to raise their hands, and it was probably about 95% of the audience!

Most talks have something in them - at least a mention - specially geared toward serving where the need is greater, and keeping up with the work.  The brothers on the branch committee expressed their appreciation to the audience for serving where there is a great need, and shared the exciting statistic that Ecuador now has over 71,000 publishers!  With over 142,000 Bible studies being conducted, the potential for more growth is amazing.  Ecuador had the greatest increase of Kingdom proclaimers in all of South America last year with 7%. 

As is true everywhere, there is a great need for more publishers in the field, and for more brothers in the congregations and groups.  The announcement was made several times that there is a great need for publishers to learn the indigenous Shuar language here in Ecuador.  According to government estimates, there are around 50,000 people who speak Shuar, yet there are only 10 publishers in Ecuador who can speak it!  The branch hopes to hold two Shuar language courses for those interested in serving in that field in the near future.

Although there are many languages to learn in Ecuador, Spanish is still the main language, and one example of the growth in the Spanish field is from a group in the province of Manabí.  In January 2010 there were 6 publishers in the Paramo group.  Today, eight months later, there are 32 publishers, and their Memorial had an attendance of 76! 

The language groups and congregations that were highlighted for "Help Wanted" on the back information board (aside from Spanish) were English, Kichwa, Shuar, Sign Language and Chinese.  Speaking of Chinese, Damaris is one of around 60 publishers who are serving in the Chinese field here in Ecuador.  Way to go D!

We're definitely on a spiritual high now, and are excited to go back to the branch today for a tour.  We stayed at the branch when we first came to Ecuador in 2008 for a visit, but we never got an official tour!  Tonight we'll be going to bed early as we leave for the airport tomorrow at 5:00 a.m.  We'll be landing in Cleveland close to midnight tomorrow, so it's gonna be a long day!  We can't wait to see everyone!!

The hardest part

In between all of our packing, organizing, and cleaning, we've managed having guests from Guayaquil, two parties, two dinners, two meetings, and this post you're now reading.  It's been extremely hard saying goodbye to the friends, and our congregation going away party was the sob-fest of the year for me.  They had two performances ~ a song our friend Miguel wrote for us and performed with several other brothers, and a native dance done by some sisters.  A.J. and I both had to give speeches about our feelings, which I'm sure you can imagine was just a little bit difficult (and not just because we were speaking Spanish!).  As for saying goodbye to other friends, we still have the English District Convention to go to together, so that's a huge comfort!  We can say "See you in Guayaquil!" instead of "See you . . . ? ? ?"  As for Sunday of the convention...we won't think about that quite yet.

Here are some weekend highlights (for the full album, click here) >>>

Our final dance party in Apt. #301 ~

Michele, Megan, Brittany and me

A.J., Naoko and Wakana

D and Marco

A.J. and Teby

Our final meeting at Narancay ~

A.J. and the Castro boys

Me and Marlene

Final meeting with English ~

With the Lakes

Our Narancay going away party ~

Dancing!

Miguel's song

The girls' dance

This could potentially be my last post from Ecuador since these next two weeks are gonna be crazy...

It's been very busy around here as we wind down our stay.  We celebrated our one year Cuenca anniversary on Thursday before the meeting, with a fabulous steak dinner at an Argentine parrilla grill close by our house.  Our meal cost a whopping $5 a person!  We ran from dinner to the meeting, and A.J. had his last Thursday night meeting part.  He's been especially busy with parts; though today was his last part in Ecuador for a while. He had his first full Spanish public talk on Saturday, and today gave that same talk in English.

And speaking of English, it was announced at the meeting today that the group will be a congregation as of September 1!  The work continues to grow, and we can see that well here in Cuenca.  Another foreign language group, Kichwa (an indigenous mountain language native to Ecuador), became a congregation as of July 1.  And in the Spanish field, our sister congregation Baños split once again (I heard the average is about once every three years).  That makes 5 congregations in our Kingdom Hall, and the new congregation, along with Baños, only have ONE elder each!  Help is definitely needed, as today's Watchtower brought out!

Service these past couple weeks has been a lot of letter-leaving in doors since it's pretty difficult to find people at home.  All but one of my studies is turned over (which will happen tomorrow), and I'm very happy that they're all in such good hands!  And it especially thrilled me to hear them asking their new teachers questions galore...way more than they ever asked me...hmmm...were they under the impression that I wasn't fully understanding them?!??

We've been trying to catch up with all of our friends before we leave, and this weekend we had the nice opportunity to see many friends all at once at a 25th wedding anniversary party.  It was for our friends Lenin and Mary, given by their children Esteban and Daniela.  It was a great time, and a highlight was a person from every family saying something special about the couple.  There was a common thread through all of the comments ~ that they are an amazing family, loving all the time, ready to help and support everyone.  We certainly experienced that while we've been here!

This upcoming week is our last week of "normalcy", though it's not really normal since we have things crammed in to most days before we pack up shop and head to Guayaquil for convention.  It's going to fly by...From Guayaquil it's onto Ohio, and onto reverse-culture shock!

To see the latest EC happenings, click here!

Only in Ecuador...(part II)

A.J. asks the waitress "Can you please separate the check?" and she replies "I'm really tired." 

And that was his answer, she wasn't gonna do it.  So hilarious, I love it.

Only in Ecuador...

I hear a noise and think "Is that my phone vibrating?...Or was that a cow mooing?...No, that was definitely a cow..."

Elsie and Hannah

We met Elsie and Hannah at the English District Convention last year at the branch.  They're sisters serving in Tumbaco, one of Quito's valleys.  Hardworking girls from Oregon (pronounced OR-uh-gahn ;).  We talked about a visit here in Cuenca, and once the girls found out we were leaving for Ohio in August, they made good on our planning and booked their plane tickets!  We packed a lot in to one weekend ~ El Cajas, el centro, a sweet party ~ and they recount it all beautifully on their blog...See part I and part II by clicking on part I and part II!!  They describe our beautiful city oh so wonderfully...

And to see my pictures from the weekend, click here!

Thank you for visiting girls ~ see you at the convention! :-)

Hannah and Elsie at Turi

Thank you Fred!!!

While Fred visited us in Cuenca, he showed us a great time, generously taking us to our favorite places, even Vilcabamba for a vacation!  Thank you Fred!  We miss you and look forward to seeing you again in August!

Me and Janneth with Fred in Vilcabamba

We were so occupied catching up with Fred and having a good time, that we woefully neglected picture taking.  Hopefully Fred will have a better album than we do!  Click here for pics!

A most encouraging visit

We start our week with Fred spiritually refreshed as our other visitors leave to go back to the branch.  Mike and Teryl visited us for the weekend and brought their dear friend Cloris along.  We had the most amazing time.  Mike and Teryl are visiting from Brooklyn Bethel for seven weeks while Mike works at the branch here.  Cloris has been serving in EC for 44 years now (40 at the branch), and was with her husband Harley the entire time until he suddenly died last December.  She is a rock and was such a boost to all of us!  We got to hear about the beginnings of the work here in Cuenca, and walk down the street the first missionary home was on ~ her home 40+ years ago!  It was funny when A.J. asked her what congregation she was in when they first started their missionary assignment here in Cuenca...Oh right, there was no congregation in Cuenca when they got here!  And today, 33 congregations later ~ amazing!  Another highlight was catching up with Teryl and reminiscing about old times pioneering in Lakepark together.  It was a weekend we will never forget and will always treasure.  Mike, Teryl and Cloris are likely in Guayaquil now, making their way back to the branch.  Tomorrow it's service and the first day of our C.O. visit.  More on that and Fred's visit to come...

CLICK HERE for photos from Mike, Teryl & Cloris' visit!

I (heart) EC

We went to a graduation party on Friday and as I looked around the room I thought, "I'm really going to miss this place."  I actually didn't just think it, I said it out loud to my friend Janneth, but she told me to not think about it right then.  Of course the thought's gone through my mind many, many times, but the closer August 3rd comes, the more real (and sad) it is when I'm surrounded by awesome Ecuador-ness.  As I was sitting there observing, I noticed the (very hard to miss) custom here of everyone greeting everyone upon entering a room, no matter how many people there are.  It was really impressive to see the friends make the rounds as the crowd grew larger and larger.  Not a cheek went un-air-kissed, nor a hand unshaken.  It's such a great practice, I plan on instituting it in Ohio when I get back (I'll let you know how it goes :).  The second thing I was marveling at was how eVeRyOnE dances, toddler to old man.  I was so irritated that we forgot the camera when all girls 10-and-under started twirling around in their fancy dresses in a pack on the dancefloor.  And darling newly-baptized brother Joaquin (who's probably in his late 70's) gettin' down while the ladies lined up.  Sure wish I had a picture to post right here!!!

Our Ecuadorian friend who studies with a Dutch man in English

On Friday mornings, A.J. is often invited to go on a Bible study with our friend Esteban (a.k.a. Teby).  The study is in English with a young man from Holland named Estefan (not to be confused with EsteBan).  Even though Estefan speaks 4 languages, with Dutch and Spanish being his #1 and #2, they study in English, since Teby is in the English group and I guess Estefan wants to keep up with his English.  This Friday, I got to accompany them, and I wanted to share a little of Estefan's experience.

At the end of the study I asked Estefan and Teby how long they've been studying.  They looked at each and laughed, since Teby has been calling on Estefan for over 2 1/2 years now.  Estefan said "I wanted nothing to do with it at first."  He simply took the Watchtower and Awake! magazines when Teby would stop by his shop.  However, things changed Estefan's perspective after he had some very unfortunate experiences at three different churches.  In the first church, he said the minister was having everyone come up and give their money.  He only had a few dollars to give, and after everyone had sat down, the minister said "The holy spirit is telling me that some of you are holding back and could give more.  And the holy spirit told me last night that my cousin would be paying for her new car in cash and not credit.  So please, give more money."  I could not believe what Estefan was telling me, but it only got worse.  They left that church for another, and guess what the next one wanted?  Money!  Third church; he was hoping for some help and good advice for some problems in his marriage, and what did the priest tell him?  "You should get a divorce."  Estefan explained "That was NOT what I was hoping to hear.  I love my wife, and just wanted advice from the Bible."  So very sad.  Although the ending isn't sad, because now he and his wife are studying the Bible (he with Teby, and she with Teby's sister), and he said their marriage is so much better.  They're happy and now know what the Bible teaches.  That was all Estefan was looking for all that time, and he's finally found it.  And guess what?  He doesn't have to pay for it!

Studies!

You see those yellow flags in my book?  Each one is for a different study.  I'm so happy that I now have five studies!!  You may think that's not so many in a country that had a 7% increase last year, however, for a novice Spanish speaker, I'm very happy with this amount.  It's a great deal of effort to teach (let alone teach well) in a language you're struggling with.  However, with lots of preparation, perseverance, and patience on the part of the students, it all works out!  My fifth study just came about last week when A.J. and his service partner Javier talked to a woman in a bread shop.  She had a Bible Teach book (which is quite common here for people to have our literature), and wanted to go over the part in the book about living a life that pleases God.  So me and my friend Victoria went back two days later and went over the information with her.  The last paragraph brings up how we can answer the challenge that Satan made to Jehovah.  I asked "Do you know what that challenge was?"  "No," she said.  "Would you like to learn about it?"  "¡Claro que sí!" (translation:  Of course!).  This Tuesday I'm going back for our second study, and I know she'll be there, because she's always behind that bread counter! ;)  I really enjoy my studies; it will be a bummer to leave them all when we have to go back to the States in August, but I'll turn them over to capable (fluent-Spanish-speaking :) hands.  In the meantime, we're enjoying the time we have left...

Ingapirca

On Monday we headed up to Ingapirca, the largest Incan ruin site in Ecuador.  It was a holiday for the city of Cuenca (April 12th is the day Cuenca was founded 453 years ago), so we took the bus north up to 10,000 feet above sea level and enjoyed the beautiful site along with the surrounding views.  A highlight was all of the llamas roaming freely around the ruins.  The lowlight (if I can use that as an antonym for highlight) was my body aching starting with the busride home...which turned into a nasty intestinal infection.  I think (I hope) I'll be back up and at 'em by tomorrow?...Friday?...Hopefully Saturday because that's our Special Assembly Day!!!

To see the full album, click here.

Memorial 2010

Our Memorial began at 6:30 on Tuesday night.  Our speaker was from our sister congregation, Sur, which is common here, to have brothers from other congregations give your Memorial talk.  A.J. served as the chairman (the picture to the right was taken before the Memorial, during microphone testing; I wouldn't use my flash during our most sacred evening!).  We had 235 in attendance (about 100 more than we typically have at our meetings)!

A.J.'s first public talk in Spanish!

A.J. had his first public talk yesterday in Spanish!  It was a symposium with another brother in our congregation.  Their theme was "Communication: With God and In the Family."  They both did a really excellent job.  Though I must admit that since A.J. went second, I wasn't paying the most rapt attention to Amable (the other brother), as my stomach was churning with nervousness.  I haven't been that nervous for A.J. since his first public talk in English, many years ago!  His first part in Spanish here months ago on a Thursday night didn't have me too nervous, since the way I view it, We can only do what we can do!  You do the best you can with your limited Spanish skills, pray for Jehovah's spirit, prepare well, pray some more, and just do it!  But a public talk...

In service news, our tract campaign is going very well (UPDATE:  We finished our territory! :), and I'm excited to see how many visitors are at the Memorial on Tuesday.  I'm really hoping my students attend, I tried to convey to them that it is the most important day of the year, the only commanded observance in the Bible.  So I hope for the best and will keep you posted!  Last Monday afternoon we went out with the English group to invite English-speaking people to Bellavista's Memorial.  We worked downtown in Parque Calderon and got to speak with people from all over the world!  I worked with a sweet Ecuadorian sister, Pamela, and everytime we'd see a foreigner, she's excitedly proclaim "¡Un gringito, un gringito!"  The first person we talked to was a man from the Czech Republic who strongly reacted (negatively) as soon as I pulled the invitation out of my bag.  Pamela boldly asked him why he reacted that way, which led to us talking with him for a half hour!  He ended up taking the Would You Like to Know the Truth tract.  After him, we talked to people from France, Switzerland, Germany, the United States...it was so much fun!  Our territory in Narancay has most people taking the invitations and thanking us, with some even asking questions and accepting Bible studies to learn more.  I was happy to inherit a new Bible study with a teenage girl who has been eager to learn from the start, even requesting two studies a week!  Miha had started studying with her when she was visiting August-October.  Unfortunately it seems that no one was able to catch up with her to continue her study, but I ran into her on the street a few weeks ago, and am happy to start it up again, going Monday mornings!

Otherwise, things have settled back to "normal" since our guests left, and we really appreciated their visit.  Our friends are so generous to us when they visit, and we are very grateful for their love and support!  We are also grateful to travel with them around our country here, as those breaks refresh us so much, and keep us going/spur us on in our day-to-day life here in Cuenca!  Thank you!

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Well, no trains, but planes, and plenty of other automobiles.  We were recounting all of our means of transportation since joining up with Seth, Meghan and Mike in Quito and making our way back south to Cuenca ~ aside from our plane ride to Quito and the many taxicabs in each city, we en(joyed/dured; not sure which; most likely the latter for:) long bus rides on private buses, a short ride on a shuttle bus, cable cars up and down the mountains of Quito, rides in the beds of pick-up trucks (an Ecuadorian classic), a raft on the Amazon Rainforest rivers Jatunyacu and Jondachi, a motorized canoe on the Napo River, a ferry across the Napo (while in our taxi), a chiva (an elaborately painted, open-aired, wooden-sided bus) in Baños to see the Tungurahua volcano (which didn't happen with the clouds), horses up the mountains in Baños, and a steel cage chair on a cable line to cross a river in Baños.  It was all pretty amazing!

Our friends from Cañar (actually from California; they serve in Cañar, which is about two hours outside of Cuenca), Jenny and Melody, joined us for the trip and we were so glad that they did.  We had a great time with them and were so encouraged by their examples.  They have 19 and 17 Bible studies, respectively!!  Their congregation in Cañar has one elder, who is a special pioneer with his wife.  They have such love for their congregation and their assignment ~ they are very motivating and encouraging to us!  Thank you girls!!

We've been having a wonderful time with Seth, Meghan and Mike, and the time if flying by too fast.  We're enjoying Cuenca together now and passing out our Memorial invitations for March 30th.  I worked with Meghan today and she was on fire!  Her Spanish presentation was perfect and she used it without any hesitation ~ I was so impressed!!

To see the pictures from our trip, click here.
To see the album from our white water rafting adventure, click here.

Our First Ecuadorian Wedding

We just got home from our first wedding here, and it was great.  Beautiful people, delicious food, fun dancing.  We actually left early since we're leaving tomorrow morning to meet Seth, Meghan and Mike in Quito, but we could have stayed much longer...the dancing had just begun!  If you'd like to see some of the night, click here!

Congratulations Javier and Mireya!

¿Eso fue todo?

Carnaval came and went, and I was expecting the absolute worst (like a level 10 on the get-me-the-heck-outta-here scale), but it was a most uneventful four days (like a level 1).  I think we were in the right place, here in Narancay (at least for being able to sleep; water attacks were another story [see future post from Damaris]).  It seems everyone in our apartments were away on holiday, so there were no parties, no noise, no nothin'.  Score!  Things are calm again in Cuenca with no talk of festvities, and we couldn't be happier for it. 

Seth, Meghan and Mike are coming in exactly two weeks and we are soooo excited!!  We're going to meet them in Quito about 10 hours north of us, and make our way south by bus.  Blog with adventures to follow...

Tranquil Cuenca

Let's see...What's new?

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Since the girls left, there's not as much excitement in the house, and we're settling back into our routines. We've done two big cleanings with our congregation ~ the Assembly Hall, and our Kingdom Hall. The Assembly Hall cleaning was hard work. Not to sound like a wimp (though I never claim to be otherwise), but the job we six sisters were assigned was a brothers' assignment in my mind. I was very happy to do it for my brothers and for Jehovah, but I nearly killed myself in the process. It consisted of raking a gigantic parking lot - the entire parking lot - which is covered in rocks, to make it all smooth and even. I was using a heavy, solid metal rake, digging it into the ground to loosen the rocks that were made into mini-riverbeds with rain, then spreading everything around. My partner-in-crime Katie (one half of the new gringo couple in our hall) was filling loads of rock into a wheelbarrow and dropping off loads around the lot to ensure its evenness. I surprised myself by not quitting or asking for a brother to take over ;o), however, I paid later in pain and exhaustion (wimp).

As for Kingdom Hall cleaning, one would think a congregation has "big cleaning" each week, rotating between sister congregations. However, our Kingdom Hall has big cleaning after each meeting ~ spot cleaning will not do for these hardworking people! A field service group is assigned for the week, and they go to town, no joking around. So our cleaning this weekend was big-big cleaning, like Memorial cleaning. Brothers on the roof, sisters with steel wool pads under each foot. The hall was sparkling for the meeting later in the afternoon!

Channy and Jenni's visit was awesome. They were most-welcome additions to the apartment, so laid back and fun! They both pioneer in Sign congregations in the States, and were able to spend quite a lot of time with the Sign congregation here in Cuenca, along with visiting a Sign group in a nearby city, Gualaceo. One of my favorite days with them was a visit to my favorite park, Parque Paraiso. (On a sidenote, I got a flavor of things to come here in Cuenca when, while at the park waiting for a cab to go downtown, a water balloon came flying at me out a moving car, pegging me right in the stomach.) For more pictures from their visit, click on albums 1, 2, and 3!

Onto the water balloon sidenote: Why was I targeted in such a way you ask? Is it because I'm a fair-skinned blonde girl who looks about as Ecuadorian as A.J. does? Or maybe it was a fluke prank pulled by some teenage boys? No to both. Believe it or not (actually, it's not that hard to believe), it's a part of a religious festival here in the country (and I'm sure all of South America). It's called Carnaval, and it's looming over us like a giant water balloon filled with flour (which they do, in addition to ice [nice], or cement dust [doubly nice]; thankfully, we've only experienced the water-sort...so far). Leading up to Carnaval, people go insane with water in any way they can - hoses, fountains, buckets - but mostly water balloons. Carnaval officially starts this upcoming Saturday, and culminates in the Fat Tuesday celebration. It is four days without restraint as the people here prepare to make sacrifices for their Lent season. Since things get really really crazy, service is completely canceled everywhere. It's hide-inside-the-house-and-catch-up-on-reading-and-movies time for us.

Onto service news, things have been getting a little easier with the language, and A.J. and I now have the pleasure of conducting a Bible study with a married couple each Sunday; Oswaldo and Isabel. We started in chapter 1 of the Bible Teach book two weeks ago, and are next going over God's name in the appendix. Though it's amazing how most here know that God's name is Jehovah, and their Bibles include it everywhere it was in the original languages. Catholics, Evangelicals, you name it, their Bibles accurately hold to original translation. Quite a refreshing change from flipping to Psalm 83:18 in someone's Bible, and DOH! Gone. The one place you'd think they'd keep it, but nope, 7,000 edits and replaces. But not here! And more happy news, A.J.'s study Juan just joined the Theocratic Ministry School! His first Bible reading will be in March in the book of Ruth...

Okay, we're off to Superbowl XLIV ~ our neighbors who attend the English group at Bella Vista have Direct TV!!! :-)

¿Es Dios Indiferente e Insensible?

Yesterday I gave my first talk in Spanish (title above)! I'm so happy to have it over with ~ such relief!!! It went pretty well considering my limited skills with the language.

My householder was Rosita. She is an unbaptized publisher whose family faithfully attends all the meetings, despite their son Lucas having throat cancer. He's only 6, and when he's not at Solca, the cancer clinic, for treatments, he's at the meetings with his family. They're such an encouraging example for everyone. She and her husband have two other children, and their oldest daughter is also an unbaptized publisher. Her husband is studying.

I didn't understand all of my counsel from the stage after my talk, but the first thing the School Servant said, which I clearly understood, was "I'm surprised!" And the new sister in our hall from Ohio told me that he said I sounded like a "big Ecuadorian"! Haha!! I'm not sure what that exactly means, but I think it's a good thing? ;)

If you'd like to see the talk, click here!

An Education in Cuenca Culture and Tradition

We thought Christmas was loud. We had no idea what was in store for us just six days later. Wild celebrations. Fires. Firecrackers. Fireworks. Loud parties. Revelry.

New Year's Eve is a big deal here. People dress up in costumes, mostly men dressed as old widows. They rope off traffic, begging passing cars for money, which they will use to "bury" their dead husbands. This they do at midnight with the burning. The burning of what you ask?

(This is in our parking lot at midnight)

Muñecas. Sawdust dummies. Effigies representing politicians, celebrities, cartoon characters. The dolls are made with clothes, stuffed with sawdust and firecrackers, and have papier mâché masks for heads. They parody the year's top news stories and scandals, and at midnight these dummies are beaten and burned for all the trouble they caused the previous year. An "out with old, in with the new" superstition.

Michael Scott once said "I'm not superstitious...but I am a little stitious." The average Cuecano can be said to be MAJORLY-stitious. As Jehovah's Witnesses, we are of course not even a little stitious. So it has been interesting to watch all this "old year" fervor, all the while hoping to knock on their doors this year to show them the real solution to our problems, and what the future truly holds! Photo credits: Damaris© copyright 2009

(We have a new album posted, all about Cuenca's fabulous mannequins!)