The guys are great to work with and eager to learn more about the game. However the practice conditions are not the best. We practice on a very small soccer under poor street lighting from 10pm to 12am. Luckily there is a Sunday morning practice which more people show up to supposedly. From what I have learned only about 10 people show up to these weekday practices. Which is also not ideal, because you need 15 people to field a team, and ideally more for practices. Hopefully in time this will change.
This past Saturday I accompanied Isabel and her sister to Nero. Nero is west of where we live by about 10 kilometers or so. The drive is very pretty but was made less enjoyable by the conditions in which we traveled. At 6am we hopped in the back of pickup truck that was already mostly full of empty steal milk containers. As we drove we collected a few more people and we were all reduced to standing. Which normally is not too bad but it was very cold with the wind and I was very underdressed. After about 40 minutes we arrived at a cross road where we got off.
We then proceeded to walk up the road and arrived at a small dairy farm. We greeted the owner and his family and then ducked under a barbed wire fence which contained several young calves and two very dirty pigs. We continued to walk and arrived at a small thicket where we followed a man made stream. All of sudden out of the bush bounding towards us came, Pelusa.
Pelusa is the dog of Isabel’s sister, who lives at their field. She is an energetic little dog who seems to love everything and anyone. It reminded me of how much I miss my dogs back home and we quickly became friends. We all headed down the hill to where several cows were attached to leashes staked in the ground. Pelusa ran towards the one calf and attempted to play. The calf, showing its age got very upset, bellowed and tripped over the legs it was still not used to.
Isabel’s sister let the calf lose for some reason and of course it ran right to its mother to feed. Coincidently, it was the same cow she was trying to milk. After I snapped a few pictures of this I helped her yank the little guy off, not an easy task. The whole process was pretty funny, Pelusa even tried to help by running in circles around us and getting underfoot.
The next few hours for me were just spent wondering around and taking pictures. Eventually it was time to start cooking lunch. We built a fire in a small little wooden shack (Smokey the Bear would not have approved of this) and started boiling potatoes. Once they were done cooking Isabel put a metal rack over the fire to barbeque the chicken, absolutely fantastic.
(The hat is not mine)
Pelusa ate all of our scraps and chicken bones. I explained to them that it is not good for dogs to eat chicken bones because they can splinter and the dog can choke to death. They laughed at this and explained that this is a
“perrito del campo.” Which basically means this dog is a hard as a coffin nail. Pelusa would chomp through the bones and swallow them with no problems. I was impressed; my wussy beagle back home would probably choke within seconds of receiving a discarded chicken bone.
No offense Molly, you know I love you but this dog is way more bad-ass than you.
After lunch we cleaned up a bit and complained about the intense sun. Isabel and I spent some time picking radishes and cleaning them up for market. After this she went back to futzing with her potatoes and I camped out with a book to read while waiting for our ride to arrive.
It was very relaxing to hang out there in the fresh air hearing no manmade noises.
A gringo is defined as “often disparaging: a foreigner in Spain or Latin America especially when English or American origen.” – Webster
A gringo more affectionately refers to the goofy bearded white kid living in the attic of Spanish or Latin American family, especially when he does something dumb or tries to explain his weird alien customs.
Gringos make for interesting and entertaining pets. They pay you to live in your house and are usually very neat. On the rare occasions a gringo might even cook some traditional meals from his country, however the meals are not very good and that is because he “couldn’t find the right ingredients and it usually tastes much better.”
While living with gringos you must keep in mind several things and gringo proof your house. Gringos have sensitive stomachs (and emotions, more on that later) and there for must choose their water sources carefully. Gringos usually refrigerate most items and can be very picky about what they eat. So if you do not refrigerate the past day’s food, try to keep it out of the direct line of site. Gringos are not all that observant for the most part.
Gringos loveeeee privacy and will require curtains for their windows.
Gringos are great pets and make a great addition to any Spanish or Latin American family.
Gringos also love self pictures
Hey Gringo, sounds as though you are still having a grand time!
ReplyDeleteMake them do fart-leks, they'll be ready to play Temple in a few weeks. Only 10 people at practice? Sounds like Drexel!
ReplyDeleteHaha great pictures. Pretty scruffy beard. Keep it but shave your head. That's a good look
ReplyDeleteHi Tristan....everyone misses you...including the guys at the Beer Store. Eric has been making some good stuff....should be ready by Christmas. His buddy makes Mead....delicious stuff, but`19% alcohol. I made the mistake of having a drink or two before the Mead....which bottle was easily 2.5 times the size of the average beer bottle......next morning I thought I was paralyzed......and I still have 2 bottles in the fridge.
ReplyDeleteOur election was one BIG wake up call to Obama.....not that he is smart enough to pay attention.....but a lot of the old thieves were thrown out of office......we may have elected some new ones, but it will take them a long time to get as greedy as the gang we just threw out.
Our friend Vick looks ready to start against the Colts on Sunday.....the Eagles are finishing up a bye week, and the Colts played last Monday night....hopefully they will be tired. Maybe we will win this one. In the interim, everyone is trying to tie a can to McNabb's tail, and it's a shame the way he has been treated. I hope he revs up his act and whips the Eagles......not that I care for Washington that much.
Nanny painted a portrait of your dad for his birthday.....she used Lawrence of Arabia as the model...you will love it when you see it....looks just like your dad...big knife in his belt, turban and robes.....desert in the background.............Nanny is a whiz.
Lots about Ecuador in the news since you got there, but maybe that's because we now pay attention. Cuenca in particular is getting a big play, and it sounds like ex pats can get a good deal there and live well on about $2,000/month.
Otherwise, Nanny and I spend most of time in church for Masses and meetings and choir, doctors offices, dentist' offices, post office, liquor store, grocery stores, bank and gas stations.......lucky if we get to bed on any given night at 9....e gads. SO, we hope you are happy and well, and we know that you are making a difference there. It might not be immediately apparent, but I am sure you will be happy with what you have done and are doing.
El amor y las oraciones...........Nanny and grandpa
A Saturday musing: At the risk of over-sharing, I'll mention that my inability to organize and prioritize stems from a lifelong anxiety disorder that could make deciding between paper and plastic feel like Sophie's Choice.You ever look at amoebas under a microscope? That's what my to-do list looks like to me.
ReplyDeleteBut now I have therapy. I considered yoga and Prozac, but Mead works far better. Not since Helen Keller moaned "wah-wah" at the water pump has anyone been more enlightened. It's like a fog has lifted.
So after reading an article in The New Yorker about procrastination, I was struck with a blinding Flash of the Obvious: there are only 24 hours in every day. That is literally all the time in the world.
More importantly, many of those hours are already spoken for by such time-eaters as sleeping, washing, eating, cooking and commuting. That's half the day right there before you've even check Facebook or other e-mail.
And since time is money, it's best to plan for it, even though money is the root of all evil.
Winston Churchill said, "He who fails to plan is planning to fail." Nowhere is that more true than in what social scientist Joe Elster calls the "planning fallacy," the phenomenon in which people forget the time "it will take them to complete a given task, partly because they fail to take into account of how long it has taken them to complete similar projects in the past and partly because they rely on smooth scenarios in which accidents or unforeseen problems never occur."
So, if you take all this into consideration, you might have as much as an hour or two a day to do something really useful. In my case, I wake up in the morning with a plan and before I finish the first cup of coffee, Nanny has thrown the first of half dozen hand grenades in my direction that makes me realize I didn't need a plan at all....she has one. So, I hope you can do better, but treasure each hour...once it is gone it is gone forever.
Your philosophical grandfather.........