Mora

In Nova Scotia, mora (black berries) grow wild, all over the place. We have started gathering them. We will make jelly, and syrup. The syrup can be used as a concentrate to make juice. The blackberry here has a slightly different taste than in Ecuador. I prefer the mora of Ecuador, but the blackberry is good and the price is right, and it is nice to have a taste of the summer in the winter.

The last picture shows our first picking. Since then we have picked many liters.

Amor, Pedro

La Gardin 2

Here is more from the garden. The corn is doing well. I am using a trick that I learned in Ecuador, where I saw choklo being grow. I hill up the dirt around the stalks after they are up. They develop secondary roots and give the plant more stability. I am also letting pole beans grow up the corn.

In the second picture we are getting ready to try our first corn of the season. As you can see it is different than choklo. It is good, but I like choklo better.

We have mucho tomatoes.

Love, Pete

Aquí es más desde el jardín. El maíz está bien. Estoy usando un truco que aprendí en Ecuador, donde vi choklo siendo crecer. Me cuesta arriba la suciedad alrededor de los tallos después de que se arriba. Se desarrollan las raíces secundarias y dar a la planta una mayor estabilidad. También estoy dejando crecer el frijol el maíz.

En la segunda foto nos estamos preparando para probar nuestro primer maíz de la temporada. Como se puede ver que es diferente a choklo. Es bueno, pero me gusta choklo mejor.

Tenemos Mucho tomate.

Amor, Pete

La Gardin 1

I just wanted you to see that up in the frozen North, we can still grow some stuff. The first picture is of high bush blueberries. We got many quarts of berries this year. The next picture is of beans. The last shows green peppers. We also have several jalapeno peppers. It has been a good year for the garden.

Love, Pete

Camping 2

Mas picturas.

Camping 1

Amigos: Recientemente Debbie y yo tuvimos la oportunidad de alejarse por un viaje de campamento poco. Fuimos a un lugar que nos gusta en un pequeño lago. No hay otras personas alrededor, porque no es un camping público. Es sólo un lugar en el bosque con un gran lugar para nadar. La mesita es una que hice hace años y se esconden en el bosque.

En la imagen primera que ha cargado la canoa y está listo para salir. En la segunda, hemos llegado al lugar nos vamos a quedar.

Con Amor, Pedro

Friends: Recently Debbie and I had a chance to get away for a little camping trip. We went to a place that we like on a small lake. There are no other people around, because it is not a public campground. It is just a place in the woods with a great place to swim. The little table is one I made years ago and hide in the woods.

In the 1st picture we have loaded the canoe and are ready to leave. In the 2nd, we have arrived at the place we will stay.

With Love, Peter

Cabin

Ralph, Mitchell and Doug:
The little cabin on 3rd Christopher is in great shape. Davey White has been looking after it. New brooms. New ax handle. It is clean. Debbie and I checked it out on our way past to go to 4th Christopher. There is a log book there now and a few people have been using it and replacing fire wood. According to the log, it sounds like quite a few trout have been caught in the area this past spring.

The inuk shuks on the little island are still there welcoming to the camp on 2nd Christopher at the end of the brook from Laurel run. That is where we stayed. Great spot, nice swimming hole.

If we can't go on that long trip, maybe we should just get in to one of those places on a friday night and come out Saturday.

Pete

Flowers 2

Flowers 1

Character Sketch - Jimmy

Mary: This is a picture of Jimmy Olvera standing by his 20 year old BMW. He bought it several months ago and has been saving to pay the back taxes so he can put it on the road. Also he has been replacing parts and making it roadworthy. With his small salary it is a struggle. Yearly taxes must be paid on a vehicle, and this one was off the road for several years. He got it cheap but knowing he had to pay back taxes. Since there are more people than road in Guayaquil the government seems to to what it can to make vehicle ownership difficult (expensive). Taxes on a new car are 300%. Thus, a new $10,000 small Chevy would be $40,000. The government heavily subsidises public transport. Buses are cheap and plentiful, as are taxies, which the government pays for and lets out to drivers for a very minimal fee. This fact no doubt contribute to the reason why there are so many 20-30 and 40 year old vehicles on the road and looking good and working well. Also the simplicity of the old ones are ideal for all the backyard mechanics who are masters at keeping the old cars and trucks on the road. If cars were cheaper nobody would be going anywhere, the roads would be clogged with them. Traffic is very heavy as it is now in the city of 3 million.

Do you recognise the suit? It is the one you gave me that used to belong to your dad. It was like new when you gave it to me and was still like new when I gave it to him. Jimmy had a tailor take 4" off the legs, otherwise it was a perfect fit. It is standing taller on Jimmy than it ever did on me, and he loves it. The Wed. morning temple coordinator is a tailor and I had him make me a suit.

Jimmy is head of security at the Guayaquil temple. He took an interest in teaching me Spanish. We used the scriptures, as we had both English and Spanish at the guard station. I could not get out the gate without a lesson when Jimmy was on duty. I would usually allow an hour or so when leaving the grounds. He was invaluable in teaching me pronunciation and a few phrases. He pushed me to learn, and I am sure I learned more than I would have had he not pushed me along. Spanish grammer is very complicated, with many verb forms. Jimmy is one of the few locals who actually uses proper grammar. Most people don't really know proper Spanish. I decided soon in the game that if the locals could get by without knowing proper Spanish so could I. Jimmy figured out that teaching me proper was a waste of our time and we focused on pronunciation. Locals told me I sounded like a local, so I was happy with my limited vocabulary and zero grammar, speaking baby talk. I also helped him with English. This is the first email I have ever received from him in English.

Jimmy has been 4 times a bishop and twice a stake president. He is currently a sealer in the temple and a stake patriarch. He was present with President Hinckley for the ground breaking for the temple and turned a sod with the shovel as well. He has completely memorized the Book of Mormon in Spanish and is using that ability to help him learn English. Since he knows every word in Spanish, when he reads in English he knows what it is supposed to say. He had completed 5 readings in English before I left and has no doubt completed his sixth or more by now. On the side, he is taking a college level course in marketing. This year he is taking his two week vacation one day at a time so that he and his wife can come to the temple. He lives in a poor part of Guayaquil and it takes him an hour to get to the temple by taking two buses. In spite of his accompishments he is one of the most humble people I have ever met, and very well liked by all. He has a great sense of humor. I am pleased that he wanted to befriend me.

I am so impressed with Jimmy that I sent a letter to President Monson, extolling his virtues. I told him that the reason I was writing was not to counsel him but only to make him aware of Jimmy in the event that he might have need a person of high calibre with knowledge of Spanish and English to serve someplace.

Just thought you might want to know where your suit is since you won't see me in it anymore.

Love, Pete

Homecoming!

The End is Near

Wow, what an adventure!This mission has been tailor made to the both of us. I wanted to serve a mission to show my gratitude for all the wonderful blessings in my life and that of my children. I feel more indebted than ever. Does it mean I now need to serve another mission?

My soul has been filled with joy at the sight of throngs of families strolling the Temple grounds, having travelled many long hours on buses, sometimes as many as 13 hours on one of the 13 buses, now parked in the parking area. I could see my grandchildrens faces in the faces of the little girls dressed in their prettiest dresses, the little boys in white shirts and ties. I have been filled with joy at the sight of teenagers dressed in traditional clothes sitting shoulder to shoulder on the benches in the Baptistry, beautiful warm brown faces,dark hair tied back in long braids, and at the sight of young adults, parents and grandparents excitedly entering the Temple doors at 5:30 am. We could not have lived among these faithful saints for a year and a half and not been deeply affected by their faith and devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Debbie

Winding Down

In summary, I would like to say that this has been the experience of a lifetime. In what way you ask? The country is beautiful and varied. From ocean, to rice fields then rising toward banana plantations, jungle and then high in the Andes where the air is delightfully cool and the vistas spectacular. Village life is fascinating. Everywhere we find humble, gentle, friendly, hard working people, both in and out of the Church. We also love the variety and availability of tropical fruits, and the markets where they are sold.

We came for the temple and the rest has been frosting on the cake. The temple is beautiful and peaceful, and it is impossible to spend 5 days a week for a year and a half in the temple and not be affected by it. I believe I have grown spiritually as a result. We have had the opportunity to work with some altogether wonderful and dedicated people in the temple and in social gatherings outside the temple, including the other missionaries, temple workers, and members who frequent the temple. We have had the additional blessing of becoming very good friends with the Valero family, and to a lesser extent with the Tituana family, and as a result have had a deeper glimpse into life in Ecuador. The land is beautiful and interesting, but it is all about the people. They are easy to love. Though my command of Spanish is rudimentary, it seems that love is a language, and it is possible to communicate love, when words fail.

Pete

The wall goes up

Friends:

After the stairs were done, we began the security wall. It encloses what will be a small garden and concrete patio.

The first picture is looking through the fence at a celebration of the near completion of the project. A charcoal grill is set up and the Valero's are grilling Choclo (corn on the cob) , pork chops, sausages, and bananas. Also served was rice and lentils, and a home made cheese sauce to slather on the choklo. Alfonso's sister and a niece are with us as well. We had spent Christmas eve with them at their house.

Picture two shows the whole front of the fence and house, with steel gate. For the fence we bought steel in 20 foot lengths and had it delivered to the house. I cut it up with a minigrinder with steel cutting blade, and imbeded the horizotal pieces in the concret pillars. The upright pickets fit into a series of holes in the concrete. We tied everything together with tie wire and hired a welder to come and weld it up. The steel was $110 delivered and the welder $20. That is a cheap fence even by Ecuadorian standards.

Picture three is the fiesta looking down the stairs. Picture 4 was actually taken a month or more previosly. I am standing where the steel door through the fence is now. The project is not done yet. I have been learning how to apply stucco. The inside of the stairs and the bodega have been done, and the inside of the fence.

Pete

Stairs

Friends:

About 6 months ago, when I finished the bathroom at the Valero house and the interior work on the rest of the house, I asked, "what's next?" They told me they have always wanted a front door. Their only access to the house is though a small back door into a very rough alley. The door that used to give them access to the street in front was a side door that got blocked when a neighboor built next to them
These pictures show the beginnings of the outside work.
Pete

Buses

Friends:
We love the buses in Ecuador. They are colorful, comfortable and in good condition. Seats are roomy with lots of leg room. Seats recline way back if you want to snooze but the scenery is too good to miss. Windows open. There are TVs on the buses and usually a movie will be played. Buses leave on time, and frequently. If you miss one, chances are the next one will leave in 15 minutes. The bus terminal in Quito looks like a major North American airport. It is enormous, with shops and food courts, the works. Buses are cheap to ride. It seems to be about a dollar an hour. A 10 hour ride from Otavalo to Guayaquil will cost $10. The short ride from Otavalo to Cotacachi will cost 25 cents.

Every here and there buses stop and pick up vendors that will ride to the next town trying to sell all sorts of food items. They get off at the next town and catch another bus the other way. Buses are the way to see Ecuador. If you want an exotic, interesting and low cost vacation, get to Ecuador, and get a bus.

For a small country it has all kinds of variety. It has beautiful ocean beaches, including Galopagos, (which is not at all cheap), the high sierra and jungle. It has the largest variety of birds of any country in the world, (over 1,500 varieties)

Food is cheap. I had lunch yesterday at a restaurant on the street for $1.50 That included rice, vegetables, a piece of beef, bowl of soup and glass of juice. Excellent food. If you go where the Ecuadorians go, you can live cheap. If you go where the gringos go, figure on quadrupling the cost.

Hotels are also very inexpensive. In most towns a respectable hotel can be had for $6 per person per night. For that price the room will be small, have cable and may or may not have a bathroom in the room. For 20 -30 dollars you can get very nice accomodations

Speaking of getting ripped off, do you think you pay a lot for a cell phone? In Ecuador everybody has one. A basic cell phone costs $30 and a service with unlimimited calls in Ecuador costs three dollars a month.

When you go through customs, be sure to mention my name to the customs agent so I will get my kickback from the Department of Tourism.

Thanks, Pedro

Mountain Scenes

Friends: the Bishop of the Cotacachi ward seemed reluctant to find us much work to do for the members of his ward, us being old and decrepit and all. We decided after a week to move on to Banos. We have been there before and love the town and thermal baths. We also like hiking in the mountains that surround banos. (the N in Banos has a squiggle over that means it is pronounced Banyos).

While heading for a mountain path we encountered some people coming to town driving a mule loaded with tomatoes. It had just left the path which is an access trail to some houses, green houses gardens and orchards that are on the mountain side.

The next couple pictures are of houses on the mountain side. Every here and there water gushes out of the mountain. People try to build near these springs, but some run plastic pipe for long distances from them and most all have running water in thir homes and most also have electricity. Here and there are houses of cement and brick where every bit arrived on the back of a mule. No sense bringing an empty mule back from market.

The last picture shows a black cloud rising up from Tungurahua volcano. The actual top of the mountain is hidden in cloud. We watched 5 eruptions from the next mountain. It mostly spews smoke and ash, and if you can get a glimpse at night, some molten lava. It rumbles and booms and reminds the people of Banos that it is there. In 2006 it produced enough lava that it blocked the road to Ambato and the town was evacuated for 6 months till things settled down.

Pete

Harvesting Oka

Friends: One day we spent helping some Otavalans harvest choklo and oka. Choklo is their eqivalent of our sweet corn.. It is coarse, like field corn or sweet corn that has gotten old. Actually I prefer it to the sweet and tender kind. I especially like it grilled on a charcoal grill with melted cheese on it. I have a hard time going past a street vendor grilling choklo. The stalks were 7-8 feet tall, planted in clusters of 3-4 and hilled up to keep the wind from blowing them over. There is plenty of wind high in the andes. Secondary roots form in the hill that give the plants stability. Pole beans are planted at the base that use the choklo for support and run up them. I plan to begin using the same methods in the future, as corn getting blown over has been a problem for me most every fall. Actually the insides of the choklo stalks can be eaten. There is a sweet pith that you chew up and then spit out and keep the sweet juice. The cattle like to chew it up too except they don't spit anything out.

Oka is a tuber about the size and similar in looks to a large iris bulb (large thumb). It is used in soups. Ecuadorians usually have a bowl of soup with every mid day meal (almuerzo). Soups are usually lumpy, with chunks of broken choklo, potatoes, oka and pieces of meat in them. The plants are dug from the ground with a large mattox, about 3 times the size of any I have seen in North America. The mattox is the tool that has tamed the andes. The patchwork quilt of gardens high up in the mountains is all dug with a mattox, and on hills that are 45% and steeper. Where we worked was on a bench, no slope. The rest of the people come along and take the tubers off the plants, while Luis and I went ahead with mattocks. The oka is a low plant. The tall ones in the picture are quinoa. It is a very small seed grain about the size of sesame that grows well in the mountains, is very nutricious and is used largely in that area. It lends itself well to hand harvesting. It is used the same as we use millet.

We harvested about 500 lbs of oka. A little old lady about 4'-6" was getting ready to lift a bag that weighed about 100 lbs and carry it home. I offered to help but she flatly refused. Somebody helped her get it up on her back and picture 3 shows her trekking off the quarter of a mile to her home. It is well she refused my help. I couldn't have done it. It seems that the people who could most benefit from a wheelbarrow can't afford on. We see a lot of stuff getting carried on backs.

The last picture shows Luis, Rasa and Debbie breaking choklo kernels off the older ears, to be used in soup etc. The younger ears will be used like corn on the cob after boiling for two hours.

Cotacahi Ward

Friends: On Sunday we went to church in Otavalo. Cotacachi does not yet have its own Chapel. There are 8 chapels in Otavalo with three wards meeting in each one.

I thought these little kids in the nursery were too cute to pass by, in their miniature traditional dress. The women almost all wear traditional dress. What is traditional seems to loosen up a bit with the men.

The second picture is of a family we got to know a bit. The tallest fellow in the back speaks very good English and a bit of Korean. He had just returned home from Korea where he was with a group playing traditional music of Ecuador for eight months. He was to be home briefly then return to Korea for another tour. He plays several instruments including pipes of pan.

Debbie found a couple of friends in the primary. It isn't hard to find friends in Ecuador. The Otavalans, and Ecuadorians in general are very warm and friendly.

Pete PS what Pete forgot tell you about the little girls in the third picture is that those kids live in a house way up in the mountains-- dirt floor, chickens free to run in and out, smoke wafting out under the eves from their cooking fire. A 45 minute walk down the mountain to catch the bus for the 30 minute ride to Otavalo. Their parents have been members just one year, and were sealed in the Temple the end of December. The bus trip to the temple, a 10 hour drive one way cost 12 dollars return per person.Many cannot afford that very often in their lives. Debbie