Hello all.

I am writing this on Ramelle's 91st birthday....congrats from all over the world...job well done, They still remember you down here.

I was informed on Friday that my "legal" clearance has not come thru the FBI labyrinth so I have to leave the country by July 15. I am flying out Tuesday, July 12...for reasons that will become apparent in future blog posts.  I guess there is a terrorist with the same last name that they have me confused with. 

Anyhoooooo, I spent most of this morning with the invaluable help of my host mother, Mariana, getting Gringo cleared through the vetarnarian process.  Now we have his record of vaccinations and his document of good health.  We have to pay a small fee on Monday and then schlepp him and his paperwork to an office of the Minister of Agriculture to get his final documents which will get him through immigration on Tuesday.  I told Peace Corps to get me a ticket on a plane that would accept a pet in the cabin sooooo I hope they were able to do so cause he is packed and ready to go. 

Peace Corps is going to continue to pay the rent for my living quarters here so that I can return to them if the clearance comes through in the magical 60 days they have allotted me.  I guess they have to put some sort of time limit on it...I really do understand and I am not too unhappy about getting a free trip home and a vacation of up to two months...so...

If my clearance does not come thru,  Peace Corps will ship the belongings that I leave behind to me in the US.  They will terminate my service as "interrupted service" which is what they give volunteers who have to be evacuated due to civil unrest or disease in their countries.  So, it does not carry any stigma which is good because I might want to do another short term as an English teacher in Europe or Asia, somewhere...like the Republic of Georgia ( where wine was first developed back in the Roman times).

Anyhow, that's my news and now some photos.  I have to say how sad I am about the incidents that have occurred in the US in this past week...Sure takes the pride out of being from there and it makes Peace Corps' work even more important;  sending people around the world to show the other side of the US...the other side from what the world sees on CNN.  The racism, hate and guns are our reality but good, generous, hardworking young people ( with a few abuelitas thrown in)  are our reality too and Peace Corps is one avenue through which that message can get around. 

OK, starting off with a cat picture....he likes my clothes hamper  and looks so innocent down there. 

Good news on this cat picture too.  This little black creature is the school cat.  She recently gave birth to 4 tiny creatures in the bottom part of one of those blue plastic school desks which were pictured in an earlier post.  Anyhow, I was teaching the class and this young man got a sort of scared look on his face and I asked him what was wrong and he told me about the mother cat and her kittens who were living in the bottom part of his desk.  He said the custodian would "botar" the kittens if he found them...botar means "throw out" to any of you unenlightened out there...  So, I ran across the street ( where everyone goes at least 60 mph in a school zone) got a cardboard box and we positioned it so she could transfer her kittens to the box.  She did.  Then....the box disappeared....I presumed the mean old janitor had "botared" it but no.......I found the mother cat in the teacher's work room a few days later, getting some love from two teachers who said she had her 4 kittens, was a good mother etc.   So, we are going to get her spayed as soon as she is old enough and her kittens too as soon as they are old enough.  The teacher in the picture, an art teacher, has a "fundacion" next door to her house who does it for free but she said she did not have a way to get the cats to the fundacion.  As it turns out, my host mother is a cat LOVER and has a cat carrier and a car soooo, the two of them are going to change lives !!!!!.  Isn't that just the best news.

Couldn't pass this up....an Obama/Biden sticker on this Ecuador car.  Love it !!!!

Not sure what this occasion was but the school band showed up and these twirlers went to work.  I took some video too but don't know how to post video on this blog.  It was very sweet.

The school decided to open up this classroom for a biology lab...it has some nice looking equipment in it....but it was very dusty and dirty so they got the 8th graders to clean it out...not sure how that fits in the national curriculum but....anyhow, to make things worse...they divided up the labor so the girls were mopping the floors and the boys, as pictured below, were making frames for the posters.  And the worst part is, a couple of women teachers appear to be in charge and made these decisions.  I swear, I did not say a word...just took these photos and smiled.

Have to tell another little story.  I work in the English class that is part of the International Bacalaureat Program at our school.  The students had to read an article as homework and then in class they were supposed to discuss the story individually with either the teacher or me.  So, this sweet girl was taking her turn, sat down with me and started to tell me about the article .  She started referring to the author as "he" and I said, "oh how do you know the person who wrote this was a man ?   She scanned the article, gave it some thought, glanced up at me and said, "he or she" a few times, giggled and then started using "they."  I think I raised her consciousness....I hope I did.

After a hard day's work.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

   My next post will be from the US....probably.