it's been awhile

well, i really don't like switching back and forth all the time - where's the sense of consistency? but given the state of affairs on the other site i have little recourse. so i'll be back at this place for the foreseeable future - the statement posted on the ebloggy site - that "we'll be back online by tomorrow, the day after at the least" is pleasantly optomistic but was posted more than 5 days ago.

not that i've been super busy. i have managed to go to a few places - over a week ago i headed over to the porto hondo mangroves (not intending to really, i was going to the cerro blanco reserve about a kilometre closer to guayaquil but the bus driver forgot and drove me past). it's nice. a woman named jackie (i was told to write her name on the receipt and asked how and she replied "you know, like jackie" which obviously wasn't the case because she made an "err" noise when i did write it, as it is in english, and said that it didn't matter) took me out on an hour's tour of the extensive mangrove forests they have in porto hondo (deep harbour). we paddled around in a canoe, skirting the banks and watching out for birds and marine life. saw some iguanas too, leaning out over the water from their branch perches which prompted her to saw that at times they stressed small tree-limbs too much and plummeted to their death on the water below with a great smack as they struck the surface. a lot of crabs scurried about climbing the labyrinth mangrove roots, scurrying away from us. the birds were pretty pedestrian but nice just the same although the real star are the mangroves. the roots are wonderful, a nest of dreadlocks spilling from the trees or seemingly being born by the water and clawing skyward. jackie showed me some of the seeds of one of the varieties - it's shaped like an elongated drop of water, about 6 inches long by only 1 in width. this allows it to pierce the water and drop like a stone till it lodges itself in the murk below.

i snapped a pic of jackie before i left so i'll have that up soon. she's only about 5 foot 2 - didn't realize until she finally stepped out of the canoe and i immediately felt stupid for my earlier suggestion that the oars were really heavy (which they were...) given that her reply was the curt question "they are?"

that was the one adventure. short, sweet, no problems although waiting for a bus back into town was another story. i waited along the side of the road for half an hour waving at bus after bus as it hurtled into the city. one guy honked his horn at me, i got excited thinking he was gonna stop for me, then laughed as he put the thing in gear and accelerated past (i waved back in a less gentlemanly manner).

i'll fill ya in on the other adventure - our trip to dos mangas - a little later.

life at work continues although slowly. our visits to santistevan have come to a halt. the kids had settled into a funk - it's the middle of vacations for them and even the president was acting scarce during our visits. the last three times we managed to go we were met with 1, 3, and 0 students respectively. the time with the three we were promised that it would be different the next time (the time when 0 came), that everyone would be there. phone calls would be made, people who had missed earlier meetings because they were sick would be jostled from their illness, the earth and sky would move to make sure we were met with a full house.

um, no.

so we've compiled a bunch of activities and talks for no one in particular, but are adding the material to our big-book-o-internship-stuff (and taking publication offers). apart from that work remains locked on logos and websites which have changed, although just slightly...

here are the two logos now...

http://ca.geocities.com/ecuadordave/website/inicio.html

later kids