Author: Hazel Frost

“Tiene un carácter muy lindo.  No hace caso para nada, pero tiene carácter muy lindo…” 

“He has a lovely personality.  He doesn’t do as he is told in the slightest, but he has a lovely personality…”  So Danny’s nursery director told me the other day.  She loves him because she’s a semi-professional singer and he has been able to sing in tune since he was old enough to make sounds, so they keep each other happily entertained at the nursery during weekday mornings. 

It has taken a while but Danny is now busily gathering himself a verbal vocabulary.  We did wonder when he would get round to it, although in fairness he does have a few things stacked against him being a boy, with an older sibling to speak for him, and trying to learn two languages at once.  At the moment he is fascinated by the concept of “not” and how two things aren’t the same.  He has a little routine which goes “That’s not a truck, it’s a motorbike.  Yes, motorbike”, or  “That’s not a penguin it’s a rabbit.  Yes, rabbit”, or my favourite so far: “That’s not a llama, it’s Daddy.  Yes, Daddy”

Despite the rattling of sabres and threats of handbags, the academic year did eventually start as scheduled on Wednesday for Joni.  Teachers’ salaries are negotiated at provincial level, and Cordoba was top of the provinces for the highest rise this year.  However, since Buenos Aires was unable to come to an agreement, several other provinces including Cordoba declared a strike in solidarity with their counterparts in the capital.  But, when the moment actually came, many teachers outside Buenos Aires didn’t adhere to the strike so here there was chaos in the city with some schools fully open, other schools fully shut, and some schools operating piecemeal according to whoever did or didn’t turn up, and no-body knowing which camp their own offspring´s establishment was going to fall into until we arrived at the start of the day.  Luckily for us, the “Rio Negro” had come to an internal agreement to open on time with a full contingent of staff.  Wednesday was the flag-waving ceremony “the acto” for the start of the year.  They lined up all the first graders, partnered each one with a sixth grader and paraded them into the front of the assembly, while parents wept and cameras flashed.  It was quite sweet, and I’m sure it does us Brits good to unbend a bit from time to time. 

Joni looks mightily grown up in his new primary school uniform, and he is the tallest in his first grade class having shot up over the summer.  I’m going to need a separate budget for trainers and trousers.  Either that or stop feeding him.  The long white lab-coat used to be standard primary school attire throughout the country.  The idea is that it provides a social leveller for significantly cheaper than the cost of a uniform.  These days even many state schools have adopted a uniform as well or instead.  The Rio Negro is a state school, and they use the white coat as compulsory for special occasions, so on Wednesday the place resembled a trainee establishment for miniature medics.  The rest of the year they look fairly normal in blue shorts/trousers and white polo shirts with the school badge. 

 

Centre of the world!  Erupting volcanoes are an unusual local hazard. 

Ecuador appears to have undergone some rapid modernisation in recent years, while still managing to retain much of its Andean charm.  From a purely superficial tourist’s-eye perspective the impression is of somewhere with a healthy national pride; valuing its past, and growing into its future.  Things that struck me early on were the lack of litter in the streets, and even in the more down to earth areas of Quito everyone had shoes, and the community comprised of street sellers rather than beggars.  Six years ago when I was in Ecuador, prices were expensive compared to Argentina, but the policy of dollarization in Ecuador, combined with accelerating inflation in Argentina meant that today the reverse is the case, and we made the most of the opportunity to stock up on shoes.  I’m now crying because I didn’t buy school bags at the same time (which inexplicably doubled in price during the two weeks we were away from Argentina, just in time for the start of the school year.)

The Latin Link conference went well.  It was good to see people, old friends and new faces.  The most interesting developments aren’t really appropriate for public sharing, but we came away feeling positive about how things are panning out.  In fact it’s the first assembly where we haven’t gone home talking about resigning, which I think is good news, (although it might just mean that we are becoming part of the problem in our old age).  I managed to get myself elected onto the “International Forum” which is an overseeing body of sorts.  The job description isn’t exactly a “voice of the people” role, but since it is the only democratically elected body in the mission, it is as much of a voice as the people are going to get, as such carries a weight of responsibility to represent the interests of the majority who don’t get to speak.

Then we went on holiday. 

  Cable car up to the 4100 plateau overlooking the city of Quito.  Views of rugged moorland stretching for miles behind us, and the capital city stretching for miles down in the valley. 

Botanical gardens, monkey gym and horse-riding all courtesy of the Parque Carolina (the central park in Quito).  Joni was well made up that the guy showed him how to control the horse by himself.  Now he’s desperate to make friends with someone who will lend him a horse back here. 

          

We spent three days in Mindo, a little town a couple of hours north-west of Quito, and a unique cloud-forest environment.  Apparently this means that many plant species take their water directly from the clouds which reach down to the canopy of the trees.  This is probably useful in the dry season.  It rained for around twelve hours a day anyway while we were there, but we’re English so we didn’t let a few inches of water put us off our stride.  Everyone in Mindo works in tourism, and being in easy reach of Quito it has become a magnet for off-beat, off the beaten track, lonely planet guide-clutching  European students and young-retired north Americans.  Several people commented on how we were the only ones travelling with kids, and I don’t think many of the local people had ever seen a blonde child before.  We explored town and forest;

  Stuff grows big out there! 

We watched the whole process of making chocolate, from harvesting the beans right through to eating chocolate brownies;

 

Saw more species of hummingbirds than I would have thought could possibly exist;

 

And enticed butterflies to feed from our fingers with sticky juice from over-ripe bananas;

 

Then we took a bus back to Quito to dry out.  For our last day in Ecuador we booked a train ride.  The “real” train looks like this;

but it was booked solid for a couple of months ahead.  So we managed to get tickets for this one;

  

which might not have been so picturesque, but it did the same route as the tourist train and for half the price, so we think we came out well. 

    

Coca Cola and Panpipes; Danny getting to grips with local traditions. 

View over the distant 5200 metre peak of Cotopaxi, imagine seeing snow on the Equator!  Llamas on the line.  And someone give that man a parking ticket.  The train took us on a four hour ride through the volcanoes and valleys to a smallish city of Latacunga, where we had a couple of hours for lunch, exploring and souvenir-shopping.  And then it was back to Quito, then back to Argentina, and practical geography concluded for the summer because real school goes back this week. 

The Economy…  Our corner-shop grocer this morning: “Every day I have to write out a new price list.  When my father looks after the shop he has to have the prices written down, and every time anyone comes to deliver me anything all the prices have gone up.  Yesterday I took a delivery of cold meats and the new wholesale price to me was more than I was charging for retail yesterday.  So now I´m writing the list out again.  And later on today someone else will come by with the dairy products and then I’ll probably have to write it out all over again again…”. 

Inflation is officially 8% here.  In reality it is estimated to be around 30% and rising.  As The Economist columnist observes, better to use an accurate unofficial source than condone the fiction of the official version. 

Fledgling Faith… Joni was delighted by the notion of a God who answers prayers:  “Remember the other night when we were sick and we asked God to make us better so that we would be OK to take our trip to Ecuador, and then no-one got sick anymore…?”  Big grin.

My resolve… It took an hour to set the sewing machine up, followed by twenty minutes to do the sewing.  If I used it more often I would probably figure out how to set it up in five minutes.  But the experience of doing battle is what causes me to hide it in a corner of the office and avoid it for months on end.  I could sell it, but I’m blowed if I’m going to be beaten by a stupid sewing machine.  Although I’m pretty sure it won that round. 

Race against time…  We’re going to Ecuador tonight.  We didn’t start packing yet.  It’ll be fine… 

Here are a few moments from Scout camp:-

   

   

   

It was a good camp as ever, it even went cold for a couple of days so of course no-one had enough clothes, everyone having packed for the forty-plus which has been standard weather for this summer.  Still everyone seems to have survived and all the feedback has been positive so far.  I’ve spent most of this week trying to get used to the idea of being back, catching up with the washing slightly compounded by the washing machine breaking down and having to go away for 24 hours to be fixed, fending off marauding landlords (that wasn’t pretty, but we do at least have a contract agreed for the next two years), and preparing for the turnaround where we set off for Ecuador on Wednesday.  We have just five minutes ago booked the bus tickets for the Buenos Aires leg of that journey in fact. 

Next week in Ecuador is the Latin Link international knees up jamboree assembly which happens every four years.  Previous experience of these things hasn’t been fully positive, but our Southern Cone team meeting last year was an unprecedented success, so I have higher-than-usual hopes for the assembly on the back of that.  And there are people who it will be good to catch up with whatever else happens.  Then we are staying on in Ecuador for an extra week as a family to have some holiday.  We won’t venture as far as the Galapagos (too far, too expensive, kids aren’t old enough to appreciate it anyway), but hopefully we’ll find some fun things to do as a family although at this stage we don’t have anything as radical as an action plan. 

Bags packed

Sleeping bags rolled

Packed lunch ready in the fridge

Programme planned

Resources prepared

Paperwork in order

Kids in bed and asleep

All pigs loaded and ready to fly

We’re off to Scout camp in the morning

Catch you next week 

Have fun.

This week’s fun fact from our local paper: of the 242 working days last year, there were merely 50 where there wasn’t at least one municipal department on strike. 

There is a local quip which goes “What does a United-Statesian do when he’s made a million? Starts making the next million.  What does an Argentinean do when he’s made a million? Stops work until he’s run out of money.”

Your perspective on these phenomena will vary according to context, e.g. depending on whether you are in the USA preparing a seminar on work/life balance, or whether you are in Argentina trying to track down a competent plumber willing to put in a decent day’s work. 

Danny has taught himself to swim in our garden paddling pool this week.  I wouldn’t yet go off for a coffee and leave him unattended, but he has an unmistakeable doggy paddle with all legs and arms off the bottom.  Most importantly that crucial metre or two would probably be enough for him to save himself when he falls into someone else’s paddling pool, garden pond, horse trough, sheep dip… given his propensity to go exploring where he wasn’t invited.

Martin also caught him eating the fish-food this morning. 

Is he about to metamorphose into Nemo (or possibly a shark)?

If you give the fourteen year old a computer and a pair of large speakers to plug into it she will entertain herself for as many hours as you like (we’ll apologise to the neighbours afterwards).

If you give the two year old more or less anything; tricycle, bucket of water, parent’s phone, he will entertain himself for as long as it takes till someone notices and confiscates the phone (oops).

If you give the fifty-something year old a computer and a coffee machine he will entertain himself for as many hours as you care to allow him. 

If you give the forty-something year old a collection of ingredients and a peaceful kitchen she will entertain herself until the hungry hoards arrive to shatter the tranquillity, and that was one fantastic moussaka if I do say so myself.

So that just leaves the six year old.  “Mum I’m bored what can I do?  But I don’t want to do that, what else can I do instead?  But mu-um.  Ooohhhhhh….”  There’s always one. 

Happy new year.  Hope you had a good one.  We had a quiet evening, invited a couple of friends in, Martin did the barbecue and I made chocolate brownies to go with the ice cream. 

It’s ridiculously hot beyond amusing here.  Praise the Lord for that paddling pool otherwise I’d be taking up residence in the fridge.  At least we’ve had electricity all day today though, unlike two days ago when we lost it for six hours which was even less amusing than it sounds.

I harvested my first crop of sweet corn (we are in the Americas after all) the other day, and made humitas, which is a traditional Andean food involving lots of corn.  I borrowed this recipe which you can read in English or Spanish, and the cultural article before you actually get to the recipe is quite interesting too.  They were pretty fiddly with all the messing around with corn leaves and the like, but they turned out OK, and I’m not sure what else I’d have done with that many sweet corns, given that they don’t keep for months on end, unlike my trusty butternut squashes. 

Today’s theological conundrum… “Mummy…?”  “Yes?”  “Listen… if you have a daddy, like our Daddy, and then you have a baby, like Danny, then you have one daddy and one baby.”  “Yes…”  “So how can God be the Daddy and the baby?”  Well, (I didn’t say)  Rutherford decided it wasn’t possible so he wrote a different story, but most people don’t agree with him, but if we’re honest even most of us who don’t agree with him are still trying to get our heads round it even though we think it’s true, and if you can come up with a concise answer which can be equally understood by a six year old and a theologian, publish! 

Now I’m off to climb into the fridge see if I can find something to eat.  Have fun, hope 2014 turns out well for you.