Here in Ecuador, as in anywhere else in the world, one's life is made up from the small choices we make, not the big ones. How do I know that? By observing my own life as well as the lives of others.
Earlier in my life, I became acquainted with a Los Angeles Police Department officer, Jim Harpster. One of the themes he would refer to over and over as he shared from the Scriptures of the Bible to our Men's small group that met on Saturday mornings at the church where I met and married my wife was the big consequences of small choices. In the context of his dealing with criminals that needed to have law enforcement presence in their lives for whatever reason, he would listen, learn, and then speak on the topic of how these folks' small choices could - and often did - land them before a judge, and even jail. "But I was minding my own business until (fill in the blank) drove by!" they exclaimed. "I was just having a good time and then this officer came and gave me trouble!" another confided. And so it goes. . . do folks learn from one's mistakes, missteps, shortcomings, or dare we even say it: sin. Good question, and it pertains to me just as much as it does to you.
Lately in Cuenca, where we live in the southern Andes Sierra of Ecuador, my wife and I have a friend who is currently recuperating at home from a rather nasty eye infection from a social gathering associated with Carnival, a national holiday here similar in some ways to Mardi Gras in the United States, that included people spraying espuma - foam - on and about others in the crowd. You have to understand that the foam hit her eye, and has caused her pain and suffering. . . and even the possibility of becoming blind permanently. We are praying for her and in communication for this dear one, and she has to have "lights out" at her residence for the time being as light is too much for her to deal with and she cannot effectively see as she used to. Her neighbor is helping her with daily tasks for the interim, by the way.
Some thoughts I have discussed with Carolyn Anne about this episode include "How did she get involved in going to the event where the foam was sprayed?" "Why did she have to go with her friends to the event? Couldn't she respectfully have declined?" And. . . "Is the crowd always right in what they do and say?" Here in Cuenca, in a foreign city in a foreign country with folkways and customs we Norteamericanos are not as familiar with, it pays to have a healthy detached objective view of the inherent risks and rewards of such activities, fun that they may be for others involved. At our age and health condition, I have determined for at least myself that this kind of event is not appropriate for us to attend. Our friend's current condition is a very telling reminder why.
As I was walking the other day to our usual farmacia to get some medications, I was nearly hit with a water balloon - it grazed my leg - thrown from someone from an upstairs balcony in El Centro (the historic downtown area of Cuenca). Water hoses with running water were also in evidence down another El Centro street, with a restaurant family member about to hose down his little brother. I wisely watched where he aimed the hose (not at me, thankfully). I also was ready to cross the street if this young man was about to try to hose me. Great fun for lots of the natives, but they know better than to involve los extranjeros (us foreigners). At another location in town outside of El Centro, I saw another shop owner getting ready to pour a bucket of ice and use a water hose on what looked like his daughter, who was already soaking wet.
Now I like fun and a good time as much or more than anyone else, but given our age and condition it's wise for us not to be too terribly involved in crowds of natives when they are armed and ready with foam, confetti, buckets of ice, and water hoses. Best to stay away until the Carnival period ends. One more day until normalcy returns. My two cents fwiw.
Turning the page, but keeping the same theme. . .
The Gringos, or foreign typically native English speaking expats largely from North America here in Cuenca are a motley lot. It's rare for all of them to agree on anything in a discussion, and just like back home in the States, there can be personal attacks, name calling, demeaning comments, and the like. Just because they move here doesn't cause them to act any differently. . . one more proof of fallen human nature.
We're glad we have decided to not be solely involved with the Gringo expat folks exclusively. We are glad to be a part, and be social, and share and encourage where that's possible, but not every expat is like us that way.
We're here to assimilate as much as possible with the Cuencanos/as as well as enjoy the friendships of the Gringos/as amongst us. We have several friendships especially through our Verbo church with the locals, and we're thankful to God for knowing them and loving them. In that way we are able to learn the language and share our lives with them. They by and large are very open to that, and are gracious people.
Many of the expats here, on the other hand, do not get involved with the locals, or attempt to learn their language, their customs, or their ways. It's what's been termed by others who arrived here long before us as the "Expat Bubble." A world cut off from the rest of the population of Cuenca, largely located in what's been termed as "Gringolandia," the area of Cuenca on the west side that has many high rise condo buildings on or near Av. Ordon~ez Lasso. Here's a photo that exemplifies the "brick canyon" that is Ordon~ez Lasso and Gringolandia: https://quito.craigslist.org/apa/5430735629.html
In that "Expat Bubble" of living, shopping, dining, and conversing in Gringolandia, the expats largely encounter those who speak English. They see and hear little to no Spanish at all. But they also miss out on living in the rest of what makes up Cuenca, probably 98 per cent of the city. Quite a sheltered existence living one's life in Latin America with no regular connection to locals or those who know the culture and speak the local language. The locals pick up on that, too, and they are amazed these folks would keep themselves sequestered from them. Frankly the locals pity them.
There's several community forums and English language Internet sites that expats frequent, among them the Gringo Post, perhaps the oldest and certainly the most read English language forum for expats living in Cuenca and Ecuador. Sometimes the discussions can continue without end, for various and sundry reasons. Some of this could be due to a lack of assimilation within the greater Cuenca community, but some of it is surely due to strongly held beliefs that just won't budge. Here's a current one that just won't quit as of now: http://gringopost-forum.blogspot.com/2016/02/vaccinations-needed.html#disqus_thread
Rather than write my response to that incredibly long conversation, I'd prefer to give what are the enduringly wise words from the Scriptures, to wit:
"A person gives joy in giving an apt reply - and how good is a timely word!" (Proverbs 15:23)
"Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues." (Proverbs 10:19)
"Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious, but fools are consumed by their own lips." (Ecclesiastes 10:12)
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." (Ephesians 4:29)
"Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." (Matthew 7:6)
"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." (2 Timothy 2:23)
Also, read what another local Cuenca expat, Susan Burke March, wrote on this topic. Exquisitely well written piece, if I may say so myself. http://www.cuencahighlife.com/vaccines-myths-facts-foolishness/
Selah.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
My Turn at Hospital Vicente Moscosco
Today was my turn at becoming a patient at our ever ready and available Emergency Room at the free public hospital, Hospital Vicente Moscosco here in Cuenca, Ecuador. I got out of the shower as usual and dried myself off, then stepped out as usual to dry my lower extremities - lower legs and feet - and *then* it happened.
At first I thought I needed to get some object off of the top of my left foot, but then I realized I had hit a gusher of blood! I had popped a vein right at the skin's surface on the top of that foot, and it was gushing out with a great deal of force, to the point it was hitting the floor and wall area in the bathroom two feet away! Every time I changed my foot's position, it merely sprayed its red product to a new part of the floor, soiling even more of the room.
I realized then that I was going to end up in medical shock if I didn't get this thing compressed somehow. Carolyn Anne had been resting and sleeping in bed up until that moment, and I called out to her that I needed her help now. She immediately came, and saw what I saw. She ran to the wired house telephone, and called 9-1-1 (Ecuador has the ECU 911 system in place here, and has for several years). At first she got a Spanish speaking dispatcher, but then they got an English speaking dispatcher to assist in the call. Carolyn Anne animatedly but decently enough gave them the needed information on how to get here - it helped that we are located next to a major well known landmark here in town, too.
Meanwhile, the condo's security phone was ringing repeatedly for some reason. Once Carolyn Anne applied a tourniquet to my leg and wrapped a towel around my foot, I moved myself to the security phone to find out what was going on in the midst of our own medical emergency. Some female was saying mostly in Spanish but with some broken English they knew us from our church, and wanted 20 dollars. I told them we were in the midst of our own emergency, and would not be able to help. Geesh! We still don't know who that was. . . or how they knew where we were or what the name of our church was. A few crazies are here in Cuenca, and a good number of them are typically drunk, we have since learned.
The Bomberos (EMT Firefighters) were quick to come with their ambulance and came up to our floor with a stretcher and three strong men to assist me. I was ambulatory at that point, and walked myself down to the building's entrance with them, along with my ID and my water bottle. . . I knew where I was going and had seen it before. I told Carolyn Anne "I love you!" one last time before going out to the entrance. We had the good sense to supply me and her with cell phones (including our new smartphone) for this event.
Once underway to the hospital, I was asked if I was covered under IESS insurance. "We applied for coverage this month," I replied in Spanish. "When?" they asked. "The fifteenth of the month," I told them. "Oh," they sighed. They checked with dispatch to see if I was listed in the IESS computerized database yet, and no. . . I wasn't. Off to Hospital Vicente Moscosco I went. (Both the IESS hospitals are next to each other and near Hospital Moscosco, by the way).
I entered a familiar parking circle at the ER - sure enough, it was Moscosco, I soon learned - and I ended up in the same bed location Carolyn Anne had used during her last visit to Hospital Moscosco. What are the odds of that? The usual things then took place: getting patient record data, blood type, and so on. Remember here in Ecuador the patient is the repository of medical records, not the doctor or hospital (or insurance company). Not like the USA at all. My foot was cleaned up, bandaged, and once the result of my blood tests were known, I was released to go. All of that took four hours.
Carolyn Anne took a taxi a bit later than when I got loaded into the ambulance. She showered and took her meds before getting into a taxi and getting a call from me to advise her which hospital I was at. She arrived a half hour later than I did. One of her friends, a retired nurse like Carolyn Anne, also came to visit for an hour or so. It's good to have friends while in the hospital. Here in Ecuador, the nurses don't look after you as comprehensively as they do in the United States. Family members and friends do that job here, and their presence is valued all the more. The biggest task they did was refill my water bottle with water, which nurses don't do here believe it or not.
While we were here, we met two ER staffers, one a female intern in residency, the other a male student from the University of Cuenca who were bilingual in English. Though they spoke in English to me, it wasn't necessary. . . I understood them and could communicate in Spanish well enough for the occasion as it presented itself. In fact, my patient intake was done completely in Spanish. Their bilingual abilities were a comfort to Carolyn Anne, of course, who doesn't yet have the capabilities in the language I have.
During our visit, we saw a man that tried to get up out of his bed, and he almost fell down in the process. As it turned out, he was drunk according to the male medical student, and it was a good thing I was observant enough to see what was going on while the student and I were making a bit of small talk. I alerted the student to the fact this man had gotten out of bed, which probably helped save him from cracking his skull or something as bad. He thanked me later, of course. Here in Ecuador, there are no detox centers for alcoholics. There are a very few rehabilitation facilities for alcoholics - even to the point of using a friend's house for the rehab services rendered - but not a single detox facility exists here. May God help that unnamed man who almost fell down out of his bed! I'd never seen that before at Hospital Moscosco, and this was our third visit there in the last two years.
Currently I am resting comfortably in recovery and will be seeing the cardiologist doc I have been seeing before here in Cuenca to evaluate my foot on Tuesday. If everything goes well, I will be on my feet and back to a normal schedule - knock on wood - in two week's time give or take. I'm getting older, and my body's just not as together as it used to be.
We're making progress though. We enrolled in the Ecuadorian government's IESS health insurance program, which seems to be well regarded by the indigeneous Ecuadorians as well as expats, and now have a working smartphone (still working on the Skype Voice and Whatsapp apps, though. Takes time to learn how to use them and so forth). Two steps forward, and I suppose a step backward for the moment. Your prayers for my healing and strength for all that needs to be done by Carolyn Anne will be appreciated!
At first I thought I needed to get some object off of the top of my left foot, but then I realized I had hit a gusher of blood! I had popped a vein right at the skin's surface on the top of that foot, and it was gushing out with a great deal of force, to the point it was hitting the floor and wall area in the bathroom two feet away! Every time I changed my foot's position, it merely sprayed its red product to a new part of the floor, soiling even more of the room.
I realized then that I was going to end up in medical shock if I didn't get this thing compressed somehow. Carolyn Anne had been resting and sleeping in bed up until that moment, and I called out to her that I needed her help now. She immediately came, and saw what I saw. She ran to the wired house telephone, and called 9-1-1 (Ecuador has the ECU 911 system in place here, and has for several years). At first she got a Spanish speaking dispatcher, but then they got an English speaking dispatcher to assist in the call. Carolyn Anne animatedly but decently enough gave them the needed information on how to get here - it helped that we are located next to a major well known landmark here in town, too.
Meanwhile, the condo's security phone was ringing repeatedly for some reason. Once Carolyn Anne applied a tourniquet to my leg and wrapped a towel around my foot, I moved myself to the security phone to find out what was going on in the midst of our own medical emergency. Some female was saying mostly in Spanish but with some broken English they knew us from our church, and wanted 20 dollars. I told them we were in the midst of our own emergency, and would not be able to help. Geesh! We still don't know who that was. . . or how they knew where we were or what the name of our church was. A few crazies are here in Cuenca, and a good number of them are typically drunk, we have since learned.
The Bomberos (EMT Firefighters) were quick to come with their ambulance and came up to our floor with a stretcher and three strong men to assist me. I was ambulatory at that point, and walked myself down to the building's entrance with them, along with my ID and my water bottle. . . I knew where I was going and had seen it before. I told Carolyn Anne "I love you!" one last time before going out to the entrance. We had the good sense to supply me and her with cell phones (including our new smartphone) for this event.
Once underway to the hospital, I was asked if I was covered under IESS insurance. "We applied for coverage this month," I replied in Spanish. "When?" they asked. "The fifteenth of the month," I told them. "Oh," they sighed. They checked with dispatch to see if I was listed in the IESS computerized database yet, and no. . . I wasn't. Off to Hospital Vicente Moscosco I went. (Both the IESS hospitals are next to each other and near Hospital Moscosco, by the way).
I entered a familiar parking circle at the ER - sure enough, it was Moscosco, I soon learned - and I ended up in the same bed location Carolyn Anne had used during her last visit to Hospital Moscosco. What are the odds of that? The usual things then took place: getting patient record data, blood type, and so on. Remember here in Ecuador the patient is the repository of medical records, not the doctor or hospital (or insurance company). Not like the USA at all. My foot was cleaned up, bandaged, and once the result of my blood tests were known, I was released to go. All of that took four hours.
Carolyn Anne took a taxi a bit later than when I got loaded into the ambulance. She showered and took her meds before getting into a taxi and getting a call from me to advise her which hospital I was at. She arrived a half hour later than I did. One of her friends, a retired nurse like Carolyn Anne, also came to visit for an hour or so. It's good to have friends while in the hospital. Here in Ecuador, the nurses don't look after you as comprehensively as they do in the United States. Family members and friends do that job here, and their presence is valued all the more. The biggest task they did was refill my water bottle with water, which nurses don't do here believe it or not.
While we were here, we met two ER staffers, one a female intern in residency, the other a male student from the University of Cuenca who were bilingual in English. Though they spoke in English to me, it wasn't necessary. . . I understood them and could communicate in Spanish well enough for the occasion as it presented itself. In fact, my patient intake was done completely in Spanish. Their bilingual abilities were a comfort to Carolyn Anne, of course, who doesn't yet have the capabilities in the language I have.
During our visit, we saw a man that tried to get up out of his bed, and he almost fell down in the process. As it turned out, he was drunk according to the male medical student, and it was a good thing I was observant enough to see what was going on while the student and I were making a bit of small talk. I alerted the student to the fact this man had gotten out of bed, which probably helped save him from cracking his skull or something as bad. He thanked me later, of course. Here in Ecuador, there are no detox centers for alcoholics. There are a very few rehabilitation facilities for alcoholics - even to the point of using a friend's house for the rehab services rendered - but not a single detox facility exists here. May God help that unnamed man who almost fell down out of his bed! I'd never seen that before at Hospital Moscosco, and this was our third visit there in the last two years.
Currently I am resting comfortably in recovery and will be seeing the cardiologist doc I have been seeing before here in Cuenca to evaluate my foot on Tuesday. If everything goes well, I will be on my feet and back to a normal schedule - knock on wood - in two week's time give or take. I'm getting older, and my body's just not as together as it used to be.
We're making progress though. We enrolled in the Ecuadorian government's IESS health insurance program, which seems to be well regarded by the indigeneous Ecuadorians as well as expats, and now have a working smartphone (still working on the Skype Voice and Whatsapp apps, though. Takes time to learn how to use them and so forth). Two steps forward, and I suppose a step backward for the moment. Your prayers for my healing and strength for all that needs to be done by Carolyn Anne will be appreciated!
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
A Short Recounting of Iglesia Verbo's Story in Cuenca
Carolyn Anne and I attended our first ever "Iglesia en Hogar" or "Home Church" small group meeting for those of us who speak English as our home language here in Cuenca, Ecuador. It met at our church here, Iglesia Verbo Cristiana in Cuenca, in the cafeteria in order to provide a familiar and reasonably central location, as well as allow enough space and time saving access by the pastors who are involved with this new group.
Verbo, which means "Word" in the action (verb) sense versus "Palabra," which means "Word" in the subject (noun) sense (and is analogous to the Greek word Logos), was named from its first bookstore in Guatamala decades ago. The bookstore was called Verbo, ergo the people who met next to the bookstore were referred to by the local people by the same name. A name was born.
Verbo actually got started in Ukiah, California according to my own research on the Internet in the mid to late 1970's. . . contemporary with what was going on in Southern California and the "Jesus People" and beach/hippie culture with the Calvary Chapel movement. By the 1980's Verbo was in Central America, Guatamala in particular.
Verbo's entry into Ecuador was in Quito at first, where difficulty in establishing the church was encountered. Several trying years were spent getting the congregation started there, but they are still there in Quito, and today in fact have several congregations in that city. Cuenca came later, 27 years ago according to one of the founders, and began as a home church of just a few families. . . nothing big. For years certain founding members, originally from the United States, learned to adapt to a new culture, a new language, and a new country. Things stayed small and the church stayed within home churches meeting in various locations in Cuenca. There was no central "church" facility or meeting place in those early years in the late 1980's.
Later on, as Verbo got to about 350 members give or take, a couple of leaders attended a theater showing of "Titanic" (which dates the event to circa 1997) in the downtown El Centro area and said to themselves, "I think this place would be a good place to have a church!" They investigated, and procured the venue for a meeting place for Verbo. That rather dated theater is still in existence today, though not well used as far as I know. I walk by it on a regular basis still.
Without realizing the future consequences for ministry in a strategic way, falling into the opportunity as it presented itself, Verbo performed probably a stroke of genius: the highly Roman Catholic culture of Ecuador and Cuenca looks down on its members attending a church other than the Roman Catholic church. By renting a theater, one could say they were not "in church" while attending Verbo. They would say they were visiting friends at a well known theater. And they were! Verbo grew in an exponential way at this point, and though the set up and tear down of sound systems, etc. took a toll on the volunteer members, it was all well worth it. The populace could hear the worship going on inside the theater, and the curious could come on in and experience what was going on. More people told more people about what this Verbo was doing in this rented theater space. And the attendance grew, to the Glory of God.
It took two years to build just the sanctuary (established circa 2002) on the land Verbo now uses as its church campus at 10 de Agosto y Loja. The rest of the building - cafeteria, offices, classroom meeting space upstairs - was built as funds were raised over the years. Nothing ever given to the congregation from outsiders or the city or any other source, everything came from the resources of the congregation's giving.
A couple of events has helped Verbo become better known to the Cuenca community over the years. The previous Roman Catholic archbishop would get on the radio in Cuenca on a regular basis and denounce Verbo and what they were doing. He had a real antipathy towards any religious group that wasn't Roman Catholic, apparently. The net effect was that Verbo's name was on everybody's mind, and the brave and curious would inquire of Verbo.
The second development was really so very complementary and humble. The current archbishop, which is in Guayaquil currently, but started out in Cuenca back then, would refer people in the Roman Catholic church to Verbo for counseling and/or instruction on marriage issues, for example. "We don't have what you need. . . Verbo does. Go there!" he would say. Truly humble and amazing. These referrals would come from the reputation Verbo was getting in terms of restoring the family, and providing real answers from God's Word in ministering to them.
Once, the Roman Catholics came to Verbo and asked for help in observing a particular event in the life of the community. "What would you like us to do for you?" Verbo's leaders asked. "Preach the sermon, lead the worship of God in song," they replied. "What will you be doing?" the Verbo leaders inquired. "We'll give the closing prayer," they allowed. Talk about open doors in a Roman Catholic venue. . . and there it was! This story in my mind exemplifies Verbo's attitude towards others who claim a faith. Work with what you have and seek common ground, versus finding ways to not work together and stay separate. . . and have no open doors to do ministry that could bring Glory to God and truly be a blessing to people. In a country such as Ecuador in a region such as Latin America, I find that this approach has much merit.
All the while as Verbo was growing in its former downtown theater location, as well as its current one, all kinds of people were drawn to what God was doing in Verbo. It had a kind of "rock star" quality to the community for a time as people would hear the church's name and remark, "Oh, my doctor goes to that church!" Or, "Isn't that the church that my neighbors go to?" To this day the name of Verbo is well known in the community, especially for the outreach ministries it continues to do, such as Clinica Hogar which ministers to the poor providing needed medical treatments and services.
I don't know that this information is out there on the Internet in one place, so as a courtesy I thought I'd provide it here. Soli Deo Gloria!
Verbo, which means "Word" in the action (verb) sense versus "Palabra," which means "Word" in the subject (noun) sense (and is analogous to the Greek word Logos), was named from its first bookstore in Guatamala decades ago. The bookstore was called Verbo, ergo the people who met next to the bookstore were referred to by the local people by the same name. A name was born.
Verbo actually got started in Ukiah, California according to my own research on the Internet in the mid to late 1970's. . . contemporary with what was going on in Southern California and the "Jesus People" and beach/hippie culture with the Calvary Chapel movement. By the 1980's Verbo was in Central America, Guatamala in particular.
Verbo's entry into Ecuador was in Quito at first, where difficulty in establishing the church was encountered. Several trying years were spent getting the congregation started there, but they are still there in Quito, and today in fact have several congregations in that city. Cuenca came later, 27 years ago according to one of the founders, and began as a home church of just a few families. . . nothing big. For years certain founding members, originally from the United States, learned to adapt to a new culture, a new language, and a new country. Things stayed small and the church stayed within home churches meeting in various locations in Cuenca. There was no central "church" facility or meeting place in those early years in the late 1980's.
Later on, as Verbo got to about 350 members give or take, a couple of leaders attended a theater showing of "Titanic" (which dates the event to circa 1997) in the downtown El Centro area and said to themselves, "I think this place would be a good place to have a church!" They investigated, and procured the venue for a meeting place for Verbo. That rather dated theater is still in existence today, though not well used as far as I know. I walk by it on a regular basis still.
Without realizing the future consequences for ministry in a strategic way, falling into the opportunity as it presented itself, Verbo performed probably a stroke of genius: the highly Roman Catholic culture of Ecuador and Cuenca looks down on its members attending a church other than the Roman Catholic church. By renting a theater, one could say they were not "in church" while attending Verbo. They would say they were visiting friends at a well known theater. And they were! Verbo grew in an exponential way at this point, and though the set up and tear down of sound systems, etc. took a toll on the volunteer members, it was all well worth it. The populace could hear the worship going on inside the theater, and the curious could come on in and experience what was going on. More people told more people about what this Verbo was doing in this rented theater space. And the attendance grew, to the Glory of God.
It took two years to build just the sanctuary (established circa 2002) on the land Verbo now uses as its church campus at 10 de Agosto y Loja. The rest of the building - cafeteria, offices, classroom meeting space upstairs - was built as funds were raised over the years. Nothing ever given to the congregation from outsiders or the city or any other source, everything came from the resources of the congregation's giving.
A couple of events has helped Verbo become better known to the Cuenca community over the years. The previous Roman Catholic archbishop would get on the radio in Cuenca on a regular basis and denounce Verbo and what they were doing. He had a real antipathy towards any religious group that wasn't Roman Catholic, apparently. The net effect was that Verbo's name was on everybody's mind, and the brave and curious would inquire of Verbo.
The second development was really so very complementary and humble. The current archbishop, which is in Guayaquil currently, but started out in Cuenca back then, would refer people in the Roman Catholic church to Verbo for counseling and/or instruction on marriage issues, for example. "We don't have what you need. . . Verbo does. Go there!" he would say. Truly humble and amazing. These referrals would come from the reputation Verbo was getting in terms of restoring the family, and providing real answers from God's Word in ministering to them.
Once, the Roman Catholics came to Verbo and asked for help in observing a particular event in the life of the community. "What would you like us to do for you?" Verbo's leaders asked. "Preach the sermon, lead the worship of God in song," they replied. "What will you be doing?" the Verbo leaders inquired. "We'll give the closing prayer," they allowed. Talk about open doors in a Roman Catholic venue. . . and there it was! This story in my mind exemplifies Verbo's attitude towards others who claim a faith. Work with what you have and seek common ground, versus finding ways to not work together and stay separate. . . and have no open doors to do ministry that could bring Glory to God and truly be a blessing to people. In a country such as Ecuador in a region such as Latin America, I find that this approach has much merit.
All the while as Verbo was growing in its former downtown theater location, as well as its current one, all kinds of people were drawn to what God was doing in Verbo. It had a kind of "rock star" quality to the community for a time as people would hear the church's name and remark, "Oh, my doctor goes to that church!" Or, "Isn't that the church that my neighbors go to?" To this day the name of Verbo is well known in the community, especially for the outreach ministries it continues to do, such as Clinica Hogar which ministers to the poor providing needed medical treatments and services.
I don't know that this information is out there on the Internet in one place, so as a courtesy I thought I'd provide it here. Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Taking Heed. . . Lest You Fall
While taking care of a couple of errands Thursday, and doing them *together,* Carolyn Anne had yet another fall to the ground. She was walking right behind me - two steps back, in fact - as she took yet another tumble. This time, we were in front of Hospital Monte Sinai here in Cuenca in the very modern and up to date Ave. Solano neighborhood, with its wide boulevard, flat streets and sidewalks, and modern buildings all around.
There are a number of curb cuts to access points by car to the hospital, including a parking garage, as one walks the sidewalk in front of the medical complex on the other side of the street from the hospital that houses medical offices and the farmacia. The curb cut closest to the street for the parking garage might be two inches deep as one is closest to the street walking along the sidewalk. One inch deep as one is further away, and the same depth as one gets the furthest away from the street along the sidewalk walking past the parking garage driveway entrance. Well, Carolyn Anne didn't judge the depth of the sidewalk ahead to be any kind of a depression at all, apparently and took a tumble, causing a deep cut to the left eyebrow area at the edge of her eyebrow (which ended up getting four stitches). She was walking where the change in depth to the sidewalk was about one inch difference.
Three to four Cuencano/as came to immediately assist her before I could even turn around and see what had happened. There's that many people using the sidewalk in front of this hospital here in Cuenca, and in Cuenca generally this is the case. Sidewalks are full of people walking as it is customary and expected. Many don't even own cars. Blood was spurting out of her face above her eye, and Carolyn Anne was furiously trying to wipe it up with her brown hankerchief to no avail. . . the blood kept on pumping out, and the ensuing mess on her Grace Chapel light green 2015 Community Day of Service tee shirt and pants was spread all over her clothes, drying eventually.
I raised her up as a fellow Cuencano rushed to obtain a wheelchair located in the parking garage. Now seated on the wheelchair, we wheeled her across the street to the Emergency Room, and took care of business. . . again. This was all too familiar, but at a different hospital this time. No X Rays or anything this time, though thank God! Just clean up of the wound and four stitches.
Since Monte Sinai is a private hospital, we had to pay upon leaving - and we had a guard escort to ensure we did so (that's the system here in Ecuador for private hospitals, btw). The damages were $68.36 in total, and we were able to pay the cashier in the business office immediately upon discharge.
The lesson here? Certainly was one. Obviously, when we are walking together, hold hands (which we have not been doing. . . long story there - but not a bad one. Don't read anything into it that isn't there, folks). Be very diligent to know about every step that you take. Lessee. . . I remember a song lyric from "Every Breath You Take" by The Police which states "Every move you make/every step you take/I'll be watching you." Those particular words fit.
Spiritually speaking too we are reminded of the words from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:12 which say "take heed where you stand lest you fall." Actually, the ESV text reads "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." And that's the problem and challenge in a nutshell: thinking that one stands when actually. . . one is on the precipice of falling. We must constantly take heed! Especially in places that might seem familiar. Checking things out, testing, proving. . . all that wonderful counsel from God's Word through the writings of the Apostle Paul, among others, is the key in a world where things appear to be, seem, are one thing on the surface when, in fact. . . danger is lurking just around the corner.
We have been warned once again, haven't we?
As Carolyn Anne heals up, her left eye area has turned violet due to bruising, as has an area past her hip - both these places got bruised, obviously. Ribs are sore and likely bruised on one side, too. Her glass frames got bent on one side, and have been fashioned back into place good as new! Her stitches come out Monday. We really need your continued prayers for her (and me as well) as both of our coordination and balance functions are not exactly normal, nor strong at our age. Falling down here in Cuenca or in Ecuador by foreign expatriates is not uncommon, but we all need to be aware of the dangers and take appropriate heed to how we all move through space here while walking.
Turning a page. . .
The new teaching schedule for Arco Language Institute is out, and we teachers have six month terms, new terms starting every three months. As a smaller language school, we can offer the beginning and intermediate levels of conversational English language classes, but doing a pre TOEFL or TOEFL preparation class isn't doable given the level of classroom space Iglesia Verbo Cristiana makes available to us. So Arco's focus is on beginning to intermediate level of English conversation skills, which allow for local nationals to converse with the foreigners amongst them in jobs in hotels, restaurants, travel, hospitals, phamacies, retail, and the like.
My contribution at present is to teach when the regular teachers aren't available to be there. There looks to be definite need in March when a couple of teachers plan to be away, and I hope to be able to contribute that way at that time. Thanks for praying for my preparations in advance!
We've ordered a Smartphone from amazon.com that should allow us to make international calls to the States once we get an Ecuador SIM card for it and get service on it. It will have portals to Skype Voice and Whatsapp, which I understand is both voice and text communication. We aren't texters, btw and will be sticking to voice calling. The Whatsapp app will be very helpful in circumventing the excessively high prices the Ecuadorian telecoms want to charge for voice calls, and we look forward to getting used to using these ways of calling.
Our landlady happens to be on a trip to the States at the moment and has agreed to "mule" the phone to us in her luggage. Ecuador protects its telecom industry by confisticating internationally supplied new cell phones via the Aduanas - Customs enforcement. Commercial shipment isn't allowed, but bringing in a personal amount on a commercial flight is. New smartphones here in Ecuador will run you in the high $500 range at minimum, and can go to over $700 or even more. Not paying those prices if we can help it! We are grateful to God for our landlady and her helpfulness to us.
I am at my lowest weight since my mid forties. I'm now about ten pounds less than I was when last visiting the United States a few months ago. Walking daily - sometimes for up to two kilometers or more - and not eating a whole lot compared to how it's done in the States are two good reasons why. The more healthful food here in Ecuador is another. Very grateful to God for the lost weight and for looking more normal sized day by day.
Meanwhile on the health insurance front, we are working with friends at Iglesia Verbo to assist us in enrolling in the IESS health insurance program Ecuador offers its citizens - and since the start of 2015, foreign resident nationals (expats) like us. I had to obtain earlier last month a RUC tax account number due to my teaching employment at the SRI (Ecuador's IRS) office here in Cuenca, and I could do so using my Spanish skills. I am less certain of those communicational abilities when it comes to enrolling for a government health insurance program. I could be wrong, and can do it myself, but I'd rather not make mistakes or get ourselves into needless complications due to communicational errors. So just to be sure, we'll go with a friend from our Verbo church to the IESS office. We hear we can enroll on the Internet, but given our status as foreign resident nationals, I believe seeing the official eye to eye is the best means of communication. Looking forward to seeing how that goes, and having the insurance coverages allowed which will reduce our health care expenditures in a significant way.
I keep reading in sources such as Gringo Post on the Internet of fellow expats who charge for this sort of assistance - actually, it's more common to see notices from Ecuadorian nationals to offer these services for a charge. That's the whole "Facilitator" gambit going on here in Ecuador among the expats. Hire someone for a communicational task that you are not familiar or comfortable with. I can understand some doing this, but probably the majority of expats with some Spanish speaking ability can do a lot for themselves without having to hire out for this sort of thing. . . and all the other tasks one might want to do living here. It's part of the adventure of living in Ecuador if you ask me!
As an example of Gringos feeding off of Gringos, in today's Gringo Post there's an individual charging $40 a person (limit six individuals for this class) to learn how to use their smartphone or tablet to take photographs/videos. Doing some quick arithmetic, that's a likely $240 going to the poster/teacher. Easy money if you ask me, and while it may be the going rate in Ecuador, strikes me as something that could be offered for free, if the person really wanted to share the knowledge they have with the expat community. Your mileage may vary.
Another example from Gringo Post: a Samsung Galaxy 6 smartphone 32 gigabyte is advertised for sale for $400. Two of 'em, in fact. Memory is cheap, even in Ecuador and this phone likely in the States went for $200 give or take. Easy profit to the poster. . . if PT Barnum's famous adage of "there's a sucker born every minute" holds.
And here's another from an EC national: Ecuadorian cooking classes offered to unsuspecting Gringos for $20 a (two hour) lesson or $150 for the 16 hours of courses. Limit eight students per class. Again, doing the math, this works out to be $1200 for the teacher for the four week period involved. From an expat perspective, that $20 or $150 sounds reasonable coming from a place like the United States. . . but this is Ecuador, where the average family monthly income is a bit more than $600 a month. That $1200 is double that, of course. Ka-ching!
As you can see, here in Ecuador, land of the Wild Wild West, anything can and does go. Regulation and "fairness?" Out the window. Caveat Emptor - buyer beware. And that was for items with stated prices. All manner of classes, workshops, and such are offered on English language Internet sites here in Ecuador all the time. . . some of them having to do with frankly Gnostic religious "knowledge" that claims to be what everybody's looking for. All for a price, of course.
There are those in the expat community that are willing to assist for free, like us, or at a nominal cost that is appropriate to the situation. You can see both kinds of expats out in the Cuenca community everyday, as well as on the Gringo Post notices.
There are a number of curb cuts to access points by car to the hospital, including a parking garage, as one walks the sidewalk in front of the medical complex on the other side of the street from the hospital that houses medical offices and the farmacia. The curb cut closest to the street for the parking garage might be two inches deep as one is closest to the street walking along the sidewalk. One inch deep as one is further away, and the same depth as one gets the furthest away from the street along the sidewalk walking past the parking garage driveway entrance. Well, Carolyn Anne didn't judge the depth of the sidewalk ahead to be any kind of a depression at all, apparently and took a tumble, causing a deep cut to the left eyebrow area at the edge of her eyebrow (which ended up getting four stitches). She was walking where the change in depth to the sidewalk was about one inch difference.
Three to four Cuencano/as came to immediately assist her before I could even turn around and see what had happened. There's that many people using the sidewalk in front of this hospital here in Cuenca, and in Cuenca generally this is the case. Sidewalks are full of people walking as it is customary and expected. Many don't even own cars. Blood was spurting out of her face above her eye, and Carolyn Anne was furiously trying to wipe it up with her brown hankerchief to no avail. . . the blood kept on pumping out, and the ensuing mess on her Grace Chapel light green 2015 Community Day of Service tee shirt and pants was spread all over her clothes, drying eventually.
I raised her up as a fellow Cuencano rushed to obtain a wheelchair located in the parking garage. Now seated on the wheelchair, we wheeled her across the street to the Emergency Room, and took care of business. . . again. This was all too familiar, but at a different hospital this time. No X Rays or anything this time, though thank God! Just clean up of the wound and four stitches.
Since Monte Sinai is a private hospital, we had to pay upon leaving - and we had a guard escort to ensure we did so (that's the system here in Ecuador for private hospitals, btw). The damages were $68.36 in total, and we were able to pay the cashier in the business office immediately upon discharge.
The lesson here? Certainly was one. Obviously, when we are walking together, hold hands (which we have not been doing. . . long story there - but not a bad one. Don't read anything into it that isn't there, folks). Be very diligent to know about every step that you take. Lessee. . . I remember a song lyric from "Every Breath You Take" by The Police which states "Every move you make/every step you take/I'll be watching you." Those particular words fit.
Spiritually speaking too we are reminded of the words from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:12 which say "take heed where you stand lest you fall." Actually, the ESV text reads "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." And that's the problem and challenge in a nutshell: thinking that one stands when actually. . . one is on the precipice of falling. We must constantly take heed! Especially in places that might seem familiar. Checking things out, testing, proving. . . all that wonderful counsel from God's Word through the writings of the Apostle Paul, among others, is the key in a world where things appear to be, seem, are one thing on the surface when, in fact. . . danger is lurking just around the corner.
We have been warned once again, haven't we?
As Carolyn Anne heals up, her left eye area has turned violet due to bruising, as has an area past her hip - both these places got bruised, obviously. Ribs are sore and likely bruised on one side, too. Her glass frames got bent on one side, and have been fashioned back into place good as new! Her stitches come out Monday. We really need your continued prayers for her (and me as well) as both of our coordination and balance functions are not exactly normal, nor strong at our age. Falling down here in Cuenca or in Ecuador by foreign expatriates is not uncommon, but we all need to be aware of the dangers and take appropriate heed to how we all move through space here while walking.
Turning a page. . .
The new teaching schedule for Arco Language Institute is out, and we teachers have six month terms, new terms starting every three months. As a smaller language school, we can offer the beginning and intermediate levels of conversational English language classes, but doing a pre TOEFL or TOEFL preparation class isn't doable given the level of classroom space Iglesia Verbo Cristiana makes available to us. So Arco's focus is on beginning to intermediate level of English conversation skills, which allow for local nationals to converse with the foreigners amongst them in jobs in hotels, restaurants, travel, hospitals, phamacies, retail, and the like.
My contribution at present is to teach when the regular teachers aren't available to be there. There looks to be definite need in March when a couple of teachers plan to be away, and I hope to be able to contribute that way at that time. Thanks for praying for my preparations in advance!
We've ordered a Smartphone from amazon.com that should allow us to make international calls to the States once we get an Ecuador SIM card for it and get service on it. It will have portals to Skype Voice and Whatsapp, which I understand is both voice and text communication. We aren't texters, btw and will be sticking to voice calling. The Whatsapp app will be very helpful in circumventing the excessively high prices the Ecuadorian telecoms want to charge for voice calls, and we look forward to getting used to using these ways of calling.
Our landlady happens to be on a trip to the States at the moment and has agreed to "mule" the phone to us in her luggage. Ecuador protects its telecom industry by confisticating internationally supplied new cell phones via the Aduanas - Customs enforcement. Commercial shipment isn't allowed, but bringing in a personal amount on a commercial flight is. New smartphones here in Ecuador will run you in the high $500 range at minimum, and can go to over $700 or even more. Not paying those prices if we can help it! We are grateful to God for our landlady and her helpfulness to us.
I am at my lowest weight since my mid forties. I'm now about ten pounds less than I was when last visiting the United States a few months ago. Walking daily - sometimes for up to two kilometers or more - and not eating a whole lot compared to how it's done in the States are two good reasons why. The more healthful food here in Ecuador is another. Very grateful to God for the lost weight and for looking more normal sized day by day.
Meanwhile on the health insurance front, we are working with friends at Iglesia Verbo to assist us in enrolling in the IESS health insurance program Ecuador offers its citizens - and since the start of 2015, foreign resident nationals (expats) like us. I had to obtain earlier last month a RUC tax account number due to my teaching employment at the SRI (Ecuador's IRS) office here in Cuenca, and I could do so using my Spanish skills. I am less certain of those communicational abilities when it comes to enrolling for a government health insurance program. I could be wrong, and can do it myself, but I'd rather not make mistakes or get ourselves into needless complications due to communicational errors. So just to be sure, we'll go with a friend from our Verbo church to the IESS office. We hear we can enroll on the Internet, but given our status as foreign resident nationals, I believe seeing the official eye to eye is the best means of communication. Looking forward to seeing how that goes, and having the insurance coverages allowed which will reduce our health care expenditures in a significant way.
I keep reading in sources such as Gringo Post on the Internet of fellow expats who charge for this sort of assistance - actually, it's more common to see notices from Ecuadorian nationals to offer these services for a charge. That's the whole "Facilitator" gambit going on here in Ecuador among the expats. Hire someone for a communicational task that you are not familiar or comfortable with. I can understand some doing this, but probably the majority of expats with some Spanish speaking ability can do a lot for themselves without having to hire out for this sort of thing. . . and all the other tasks one might want to do living here. It's part of the adventure of living in Ecuador if you ask me!
As an example of Gringos feeding off of Gringos, in today's Gringo Post there's an individual charging $40 a person (limit six individuals for this class) to learn how to use their smartphone or tablet to take photographs/videos. Doing some quick arithmetic, that's a likely $240 going to the poster/teacher. Easy money if you ask me, and while it may be the going rate in Ecuador, strikes me as something that could be offered for free, if the person really wanted to share the knowledge they have with the expat community. Your mileage may vary.
Another example from Gringo Post: a Samsung Galaxy 6 smartphone 32 gigabyte is advertised for sale for $400. Two of 'em, in fact. Memory is cheap, even in Ecuador and this phone likely in the States went for $200 give or take. Easy profit to the poster. . . if PT Barnum's famous adage of "there's a sucker born every minute" holds.
And here's another from an EC national: Ecuadorian cooking classes offered to unsuspecting Gringos for $20 a (two hour) lesson or $150 for the 16 hours of courses. Limit eight students per class. Again, doing the math, this works out to be $1200 for the teacher for the four week period involved. From an expat perspective, that $20 or $150 sounds reasonable coming from a place like the United States. . . but this is Ecuador, where the average family monthly income is a bit more than $600 a month. That $1200 is double that, of course. Ka-ching!
As you can see, here in Ecuador, land of the Wild Wild West, anything can and does go. Regulation and "fairness?" Out the window. Caveat Emptor - buyer beware. And that was for items with stated prices. All manner of classes, workshops, and such are offered on English language Internet sites here in Ecuador all the time. . . some of them having to do with frankly Gnostic religious "knowledge" that claims to be what everybody's looking for. All for a price, of course.
There are those in the expat community that are willing to assist for free, like us, or at a nominal cost that is appropriate to the situation. You can see both kinds of expats out in the Cuenca community everyday, as well as on the Gringo Post notices.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Christmas Season's Greetings
"I am a sojourner and foreigner among you. . . " (Genesis 23:4 ESV)
Greetings from our land of sojourn, Ecuador! It has now been almost a year since we first came here to Cuenca, Ecuador to live. We thank God for this place and the many blessings Cuenca has bestowed upon us, including lost weight, better health, a better financial outlook, and the opportunity to get to know and minister to the needs of the Cuencanos and Cuencanas here, as well as a number of expats from our country of origin, the United States.
Rather than give once again a recap of what we've done in the past year - which many of you already know by reading the weblog here - I'd rather give you a view of what's happening with us now. Carolyn Anne continues with her Spanish learning (in this holiday and vacation period without the tutoring of her twice a week Spanish teacher) via Duolingo on the Internet where she is beginning to internalize more vocabulary for spoken use, including the use of verbs, which are so vitally important to communicate with. The repetition inherent in the Duolingo algorithim and programming is helping her to solidify her knowledge of different words as she refreshes skills, and she feels better about learning verbs than she did a week or so ago. Conversing with me helps, I think (I hope). As the language teacher in the house, I try to help her make connections from what she knows to what she needs to know so that she can make sense of the words and get the spelling right (Spanish is by and large easy to spell words in due to the phonetic makeup of the language).
She uses Spanish in conversations with certain native friends she sees on a regular basis, too, which is good practice. I happened to see her with a married couple at their vendor stand cart at a well known transit bus stop in the downtown area (El Centro) yesterday and she was pleased to see me while she was with her native friends. Conversation and practice is key in learning a new language, and she is doing well. We speak more and more Spanish at home, and I revert to English when Carolyn Anne doesn't understand me and she requests it.
As far as the Duolingo program goes, she is at Level 12, which is fairly high (shows months of practice), and has 1500+ words in her vocabulary (~2500 is the complete set of vocabulary words). She has passed all three checkpoints in the Spanish skills tree and now in the process of finishing the last, and largest, skill set before completion of the tree. 35 skills completed and 29 more to go. She is considered 53 per cent fluent in Spanish, which actually means she is at the highest range of language knowledge given her lessons/skills learned to date. Duolingo states that the highest fluency rate one may achieve is between 50 to 60 per cent, so as you can see, she is doing rather well considering where she started from a year ago.
Her Spanish teacher who has been concentrating on verbs and their usage in conversations and sentences will continue with her in that general path. Carolyn Anne's is now understanding longer sentences in conversation, and will in time speak them as well.
I too have been progressing in my knowledge and usage of Spanish. I completed my Duolingo Spanish skills tree just before Christmas (early Christmas present, eh?) and now I am working a little bit each day on completing what's known as a "reverse tree" where you learn English starting from the Spanish language. The English to Spanish skills tree teaches you to hear and understand Spanish, but the Spanish to English skills tree teaches you to write, and therefore speak Spanish. Being able to initiate conversations with minimal to no effort using Spanish is a worthwhile goal, and one that I am already in the process of doing.
My Duolingo stats: 56 per cent fluency, Level 14 reached, ~2500 vocabulary words learned, and virtual completion certificate awarded (pretty snazzy item, if I may say so myself!). I still need to practice and refresh daily, and the newer lessons, such as subjunctive mood (which has to do with opinions and emotions, for instance) are still somewhat fuzzy in my mind at present. !Si se puede! I've gotten this far, haven't I? The subjunctive is usually taught in high school Spanish 2 and 3 courses, which shows you what level you have to attain to get to that point in learning.
Speaking of which, when I test myself on my Spanish abilities, I test out as Advanced Proficient (level 4 of 6 levels, 6 being the highest). Cambridge English calls this B2 (Vantage). Only two other levels higher, C1/Effective Proficiency and C2/Mastery. Much thanks and praise to Almighty God for helping me in this foreign language journey!
With communicative bilingual abilities comes more opportunities to teach a foreign language, English in my case, to the natives. You don't have to know Spanish to teach English, but it can be useful as you teach words and phrases as well as concepts to students. Out in the real world of living in Latin America, knowing Spanish is a life skill, and the more you know, the more you can learn from and get to know the native population.
Our good friend Joan has let me know of a missionary here in Ecuador who is in the process of assembling a team to teach English to prospective missionaries who will be traveling to lands and continents that have populations that use English as perhaps a secondary or tertiary language. In that way the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ - may be shared with others. The three most used languages in the world presently are Mandarin, English, and Spanish. I'm using two out of these three (not touching Mandarin, perhaps ever!) and those bilingual and fluent in Spanish and English can hold a definite advantage in communicating the Gospel to others around the world. The English teaching team would concentrate their efforts on pronounciation and vocabulary development, especially as it relates to having spiritual conversations about the Gospel. These students would then be placed where needed worldwide. That is exciting to me, and the teaching team looks to be put together in the first part of 2016. I aim to be a part of it.
Our missionary friend is working under the auspices of OM, which is Operation Mobilisation. They may be found at http://www.om.org/ Perusing their site, it becomes quite evident that OM is very interested in furthering the Kingdom of God by loving the people in the world in relational, tangible, sacrificial, caring ways. Never heard of OM before, but they sound like an organization worthy of support.
My wife Carolyn Anne continues to offer her time and efforts in arranging medical supplies for the upcoming year's Medical Brigades that Clinica Hogar will be putting on in 2016. Clinica Hogar is the ministry under Fundacion Hogar which is under the purview of our church here in Cuenca, Iglesia Verbo Cristiana. She spends a couple days a week with other volunteers in the church's third story attic sorting out the supplies. The Medical Brigades are conducted as an outreach to the Cuenca community around three times a year, reaching the poorer residents' medical needs through offering medical procedures and operations that aren't done the rest of the year at Clinica Hogar. They do dental work, physical therapy - Carolyn Anne herself received PT and a dental checkup through Clinica Hogar this year - and much more. The reputation of Clinica Hogar is so well known amongst the residents, they know about it and its location even more than they know about the church that sponsors and supports it! Not your regular run of the mill clinic. . . smiles, hugs and prayers gladly offered and accepted there between staff, volunteers and patients.
We are continuing to work through how we reach out and communicate by telephone, especially internationally. We are coming to the conclusion that we need a Smartphone in order to 1) use a service such as Skype Voice to make very low cost international calls back to the US, for example and 2) use the Whatsapp app to make local calls in and around Cuenca. Believe it or not, local calls placed on our Claro cell phone can cost up to $8 or more for just 20 minutes or so for outbound calls to a non Claro cell phone (inbound calls from others are free - that's how the system here in Ecuador works). Carolyn Anne has a phone list of friends and they with a couple of exceptions all have cell phones (wired phone calls are free from what we know both inbound and outbound locally). So it's time to reevaluate the phone usage situation and avoid those incredibly insane $8 local phone calls by getting something better in the long run.
The other big project is figuring out what to do about health insurance. We as legal indefinite residents (Visas and Cedula cards in hand) are eligible for the Ecuador government's Social Security system health plan called IESS, and we'll sign up for it in January. That will in the long run save us around $300 a month in prescription drug costs - quite a relief! It will also allow the use of primary care doctors and specialists within the IESS hospital system. The Ecuadorian government only at the start of 2015 made the IESS system available to non citizen legal residents (expats), and the cost for a married couple is around $86 a month from what I've been able to find. Very inexpensive and with modern facilities and well trained doctors, some of whom speak English. IESS could be compared to Medicare in the US, but you go to the government doctor in the government hospital, which is a bit different procedure than in the US. The IESS system does allow you to use any hospital, public or private in the case of emergency.
There's the free "safety net" healthcare system which never turns away patients in Ecuador for any reason, which is Hospital Vincente Moscosco here in Cuenca. We know them well after going through Carolyn Anne's two previous falls to the ground. They do procedures and operations too, I found out. Even open heart surgeries that expats have had done there. So that's one option to consider as needed - though primarily for emergencies.
Lastly, there's the private hospitals and clinics that one can self insure and pay as needed for services (likely the choice we will be making). I have read and researched and read again until my mind has been worn down to nothing, and I am coming to the conclusion that in Ecuador and Latin America, health insurance isn't what a North American is used to in terms of paying claims when needed. These insurance companies seem to not pay the majority of the time, sometimes never, and thus are in effect what one expat calls "premium collection agencies." We are concluding that private insurance in Ecuador is not a wise use of limited funds and so we'll self insure and pay as we go. For more serious events, traveling back to the States and using our Medicare (Carolyn Anne needs to get enrolled in Medicare ASAP. . . a reminder to self) is very likely the path we'll take. There's talk of medical evacuation planes that fly from Ecuador to the United States. Need to check into that more. So much to study and research on regarding this subject, and so little answers from those who have experience to share. But we are making some headway.
There's a Senior Health Care decisions seminar we have been going to that has been held a few times last year, and it will be held again in January and will present more information. They also discuss end of life situations as it relates to expats in a different language, culture and country than what they are used to. Very eye opening. We are in these folks' debt for them putting all this information together and presenting it (and likely getting it into a printed booklet of some kind in the near future). Wendy Jane Carrel spearheaded this effort earlier in 2015, but there's some other fine ladies that are assisting nowadays.
We love and miss so many of our friends from the States, and hope and pray you will have a joyous and fruitful 2016 ahead. And we thank God for each one of you. As you can see, God is not done with us yet. Our work here in Ecuador is just beginning! Your continued prayers are coveted and much appreciated. Please let us hear from you, either by the usual ways - email, Facebook, or even Skype (the few of you who do that with us) or you may leave a reply here at the end of this post.
Greetings from our land of sojourn, Ecuador! It has now been almost a year since we first came here to Cuenca, Ecuador to live. We thank God for this place and the many blessings Cuenca has bestowed upon us, including lost weight, better health, a better financial outlook, and the opportunity to get to know and minister to the needs of the Cuencanos and Cuencanas here, as well as a number of expats from our country of origin, the United States.
Rather than give once again a recap of what we've done in the past year - which many of you already know by reading the weblog here - I'd rather give you a view of what's happening with us now. Carolyn Anne continues with her Spanish learning (in this holiday and vacation period without the tutoring of her twice a week Spanish teacher) via Duolingo on the Internet where she is beginning to internalize more vocabulary for spoken use, including the use of verbs, which are so vitally important to communicate with. The repetition inherent in the Duolingo algorithim and programming is helping her to solidify her knowledge of different words as she refreshes skills, and she feels better about learning verbs than she did a week or so ago. Conversing with me helps, I think (I hope). As the language teacher in the house, I try to help her make connections from what she knows to what she needs to know so that she can make sense of the words and get the spelling right (Spanish is by and large easy to spell words in due to the phonetic makeup of the language).
She uses Spanish in conversations with certain native friends she sees on a regular basis, too, which is good practice. I happened to see her with a married couple at their vendor stand cart at a well known transit bus stop in the downtown area (El Centro) yesterday and she was pleased to see me while she was with her native friends. Conversation and practice is key in learning a new language, and she is doing well. We speak more and more Spanish at home, and I revert to English when Carolyn Anne doesn't understand me and she requests it.
As far as the Duolingo program goes, she is at Level 12, which is fairly high (shows months of practice), and has 1500+ words in her vocabulary (~2500 is the complete set of vocabulary words). She has passed all three checkpoints in the Spanish skills tree and now in the process of finishing the last, and largest, skill set before completion of the tree. 35 skills completed and 29 more to go. She is considered 53 per cent fluent in Spanish, which actually means she is at the highest range of language knowledge given her lessons/skills learned to date. Duolingo states that the highest fluency rate one may achieve is between 50 to 60 per cent, so as you can see, she is doing rather well considering where she started from a year ago.
Her Spanish teacher who has been concentrating on verbs and their usage in conversations and sentences will continue with her in that general path. Carolyn Anne's is now understanding longer sentences in conversation, and will in time speak them as well.
I too have been progressing in my knowledge and usage of Spanish. I completed my Duolingo Spanish skills tree just before Christmas (early Christmas present, eh?) and now I am working a little bit each day on completing what's known as a "reverse tree" where you learn English starting from the Spanish language. The English to Spanish skills tree teaches you to hear and understand Spanish, but the Spanish to English skills tree teaches you to write, and therefore speak Spanish. Being able to initiate conversations with minimal to no effort using Spanish is a worthwhile goal, and one that I am already in the process of doing.
My Duolingo stats: 56 per cent fluency, Level 14 reached, ~2500 vocabulary words learned, and virtual completion certificate awarded (pretty snazzy item, if I may say so myself!). I still need to practice and refresh daily, and the newer lessons, such as subjunctive mood (which has to do with opinions and emotions, for instance) are still somewhat fuzzy in my mind at present. !Si se puede! I've gotten this far, haven't I? The subjunctive is usually taught in high school Spanish 2 and 3 courses, which shows you what level you have to attain to get to that point in learning.
Speaking of which, when I test myself on my Spanish abilities, I test out as Advanced Proficient (level 4 of 6 levels, 6 being the highest). Cambridge English calls this B2 (Vantage). Only two other levels higher, C1/Effective Proficiency and C2/Mastery. Much thanks and praise to Almighty God for helping me in this foreign language journey!
With communicative bilingual abilities comes more opportunities to teach a foreign language, English in my case, to the natives. You don't have to know Spanish to teach English, but it can be useful as you teach words and phrases as well as concepts to students. Out in the real world of living in Latin America, knowing Spanish is a life skill, and the more you know, the more you can learn from and get to know the native population.
Our good friend Joan has let me know of a missionary here in Ecuador who is in the process of assembling a team to teach English to prospective missionaries who will be traveling to lands and continents that have populations that use English as perhaps a secondary or tertiary language. In that way the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ - may be shared with others. The three most used languages in the world presently are Mandarin, English, and Spanish. I'm using two out of these three (not touching Mandarin, perhaps ever!) and those bilingual and fluent in Spanish and English can hold a definite advantage in communicating the Gospel to others around the world. The English teaching team would concentrate their efforts on pronounciation and vocabulary development, especially as it relates to having spiritual conversations about the Gospel. These students would then be placed where needed worldwide. That is exciting to me, and the teaching team looks to be put together in the first part of 2016. I aim to be a part of it.
Our missionary friend is working under the auspices of OM, which is Operation Mobilisation. They may be found at http://www.om.org/ Perusing their site, it becomes quite evident that OM is very interested in furthering the Kingdom of God by loving the people in the world in relational, tangible, sacrificial, caring ways. Never heard of OM before, but they sound like an organization worthy of support.
My wife Carolyn Anne continues to offer her time and efforts in arranging medical supplies for the upcoming year's Medical Brigades that Clinica Hogar will be putting on in 2016. Clinica Hogar is the ministry under Fundacion Hogar which is under the purview of our church here in Cuenca, Iglesia Verbo Cristiana. She spends a couple days a week with other volunteers in the church's third story attic sorting out the supplies. The Medical Brigades are conducted as an outreach to the Cuenca community around three times a year, reaching the poorer residents' medical needs through offering medical procedures and operations that aren't done the rest of the year at Clinica Hogar. They do dental work, physical therapy - Carolyn Anne herself received PT and a dental checkup through Clinica Hogar this year - and much more. The reputation of Clinica Hogar is so well known amongst the residents, they know about it and its location even more than they know about the church that sponsors and supports it! Not your regular run of the mill clinic. . . smiles, hugs and prayers gladly offered and accepted there between staff, volunteers and patients.
We are continuing to work through how we reach out and communicate by telephone, especially internationally. We are coming to the conclusion that we need a Smartphone in order to 1) use a service such as Skype Voice to make very low cost international calls back to the US, for example and 2) use the Whatsapp app to make local calls in and around Cuenca. Believe it or not, local calls placed on our Claro cell phone can cost up to $8 or more for just 20 minutes or so for outbound calls to a non Claro cell phone (inbound calls from others are free - that's how the system here in Ecuador works). Carolyn Anne has a phone list of friends and they with a couple of exceptions all have cell phones (wired phone calls are free from what we know both inbound and outbound locally). So it's time to reevaluate the phone usage situation and avoid those incredibly insane $8 local phone calls by getting something better in the long run.
The other big project is figuring out what to do about health insurance. We as legal indefinite residents (Visas and Cedula cards in hand) are eligible for the Ecuador government's Social Security system health plan called IESS, and we'll sign up for it in January. That will in the long run save us around $300 a month in prescription drug costs - quite a relief! It will also allow the use of primary care doctors and specialists within the IESS hospital system. The Ecuadorian government only at the start of 2015 made the IESS system available to non citizen legal residents (expats), and the cost for a married couple is around $86 a month from what I've been able to find. Very inexpensive and with modern facilities and well trained doctors, some of whom speak English. IESS could be compared to Medicare in the US, but you go to the government doctor in the government hospital, which is a bit different procedure than in the US. The IESS system does allow you to use any hospital, public or private in the case of emergency.
There's the free "safety net" healthcare system which never turns away patients in Ecuador for any reason, which is Hospital Vincente Moscosco here in Cuenca. We know them well after going through Carolyn Anne's two previous falls to the ground. They do procedures and operations too, I found out. Even open heart surgeries that expats have had done there. So that's one option to consider as needed - though primarily for emergencies.
Lastly, there's the private hospitals and clinics that one can self insure and pay as needed for services (likely the choice we will be making). I have read and researched and read again until my mind has been worn down to nothing, and I am coming to the conclusion that in Ecuador and Latin America, health insurance isn't what a North American is used to in terms of paying claims when needed. These insurance companies seem to not pay the majority of the time, sometimes never, and thus are in effect what one expat calls "premium collection agencies." We are concluding that private insurance in Ecuador is not a wise use of limited funds and so we'll self insure and pay as we go. For more serious events, traveling back to the States and using our Medicare (Carolyn Anne needs to get enrolled in Medicare ASAP. . . a reminder to self) is very likely the path we'll take. There's talk of medical evacuation planes that fly from Ecuador to the United States. Need to check into that more. So much to study and research on regarding this subject, and so little answers from those who have experience to share. But we are making some headway.
There's a Senior Health Care decisions seminar we have been going to that has been held a few times last year, and it will be held again in January and will present more information. They also discuss end of life situations as it relates to expats in a different language, culture and country than what they are used to. Very eye opening. We are in these folks' debt for them putting all this information together and presenting it (and likely getting it into a printed booklet of some kind in the near future). Wendy Jane Carrel spearheaded this effort earlier in 2015, but there's some other fine ladies that are assisting nowadays.
We love and miss so many of our friends from the States, and hope and pray you will have a joyous and fruitful 2016 ahead. And we thank God for each one of you. As you can see, God is not done with us yet. Our work here in Ecuador is just beginning! Your continued prayers are coveted and much appreciated. Please let us hear from you, either by the usual ways - email, Facebook, or even Skype (the few of you who do that with us) or you may leave a reply here at the end of this post.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
The English Teacher
It came to pass in November. I had finally been accepted as a profesor de Ingle's - English teacher - at Arco Language Institute, a ministry of Iglesia Verbo Cristiana here in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Cate Messenger, the newly appointed coordinator for Arco, and herself an English teacher on Arco's staff, had let me know she needed to hire me due to a request by an Ecuadorian national to get tutored in English in order to prepare for English language tests for his Ecuadorian pilot's license. Ecuador, of course, doesn't use English at its airport towers to the best of my knowledge, but internationally, English is used by Air Traffic Control towers all over the world. We figured the man would show up for a meeting with us to discuss how his tutoring would be done, but after two attempts he never showed up. That would have been two months worth of work for me, around 80 hours of instruction.
Nevertheless, I was hired on as an English teacher, and there was an upcoming substitute (how I have hated the word when spoken in disrepute by my previous students and even staff Stateside) assignment coming up for Saturday December 12th. I would take the place of Cate and another teacher who both taught a Basic English level class Saturday mornings.
But first, before all that, there was an Arco Language Institute student cultural event which was planned for the Wednesday before (US) Thanksgiving, which of course is not a holiday in Ecuador. Time to thank God for everything he has provided during the past year. And what a year it has been for Carolyn Anne and I! Looking back, we were living that past November in a motel in the Antelope Valley in California, waiting after the sale of our house to get permission from our airline, Delta, to move our 17 suitcases and dog crate to Ecuador. We moved that following January of 2015, of course. After several months of going through the Visa application process, we finally obtained our Pensionado Visas this past October, and have our Cedula national identification cards in hand as well. We've survived falls - and a hospital visit, getting lost (yet again, taking the transit bus the wrong direction in town), pain from Carolyn Anne's ongoing osteoarthritis, computer and Internet problems (see our previous post) and taken a trip back to the States to see friends and family, which we were glad to be able to do. Now was the time to give Thanks to Almighty God in the presence of our new friends in Ecuador whom we've made acquaintance with over the last year. We sang - in English - "Give Thanks" as well as some other worship songs in both English and Spanish. The Thanksgiving style supper event was largely conducted in English, and different groups of students from the different English classes would sing a song, say a poem out loud in unison, or even put on a puppet show! All in English, of course. Much rejoicing and enjoyment in what the students have learned thus far. Turkey and Ecuadorian accountrements were served to all on paper plates. Desserts abounded, too. (The Ecuadorians don't know how to make a North American pie, so cakes were abundantly available, as were fruit concoctions.)
Next up was Arco's annual student Graduation Night, which was in December. Here, students, parents, friends, faculty (I was now part of the teaching staff and invited to attend) and staff were all present to congratulate the students graduating from their programs for the year. Students had to pass their exams first, of course, to attend graduation. Maybe 15 or so school aged students and adult students were called up to the stage and awarded their paper diplomas of recognition. One student gave a short speech -in English - on how her learning English opened doors to her and allowed her to know more about the world around her, especially involving foreigners outside of Ecuador.
Besides these student convocations, we teachers had an inservice meeting with the author of our Arco Language Institute textbook, Steve Nine. Four new teachers and the teachers already on staff attended for a couple of hours. I learned a lot from this meeting, and found out - confirmed, actually - that the program was sound and vocally based, centered around phonemes, or sounds of words that make up words. We went through a lesson (truncated due to time limitations, though) and played the part of students doing the work as instructed in the classroom. Gives one a different perspective, and lets the teacher understand just how important proper enunciation and sounds are to the writing of the letters that make up the words that make up. . . the language known as English.
Finally the week came where I needed to put everything together that I had learned to date. I was going to take the place of two teachers and teach one lesson jointly to both classes! I had shadowed the teachers involved, as well as the other teachers of English at Arco, and gone over with Cate the lesson plan devised by her, which was quite well put together with sounds - phonemes - that were repeated in more than one exercise and activities that reinforced the learning of the day. All that was left was reviewing the lesson, and preparing for the big day Saturday the 12th.
I wisely decided to rest the afternoon of Friday the 11th. Good thing I did, because I was on my feet for over four hours of teaching the next morning.
Some of the items were not available to me until the morning of class. The textbook, flashcards, and attendance sheet were not in my possession until that morning. This wasn't a big problem, as Cate had emailed me a lesson plan previously, but the flashcards with the sounds on the back had to be put into order for this class, covering what had been already taught to date, omitting what had not. That took a bit of time in front of the students. . . unavoidable.
My sense of humor was intact and working, my life vignettes popped up at opportune times, too. Thank you Lord! I could communicate with my students by and large - although there were a couple of times with the younger students where I had to ask them to repeat likely due to the large room we were in that had not the best acoustics. We had fun, too! I read a poem to my advanced students in the earlier hour, and played a song on my laptop to my basic students towards the end of my time with them at the end. I even sang the last stanza of it. . . "Do You Hear What I Hear?" as famously performed by Andy Williams. The students really enjoyed my on key tenor vocalization as I hit the high notes. . . thank you, Lord for moments like these where we can worship you and give you all the Honor and Glory due your Wonderful Name.
Several students thanked me for being there to teach them. I haven't had that happen in ages. . . decades. I had been so used to teaching the incarcerated kids in the juvenile hall and county camp system in Los Angeles County, who were never grateful in public if they could help it. What a nice end of the day that was!
Yo soy un profesor de Ingle's en Instituto Arco y yo lo disfrute muy mucho. !Gracias adios por este regalo de eso posicio'n!
The Long and Winding Road Towards Computer Functionality
Pardon the extended time away from updating our doings here in the ever lovely city of Cuenca, Ecuador. We have been experiencing (ahem) technical difficulties of a repeating nature that are hopefully on the way towards staying resolved and being resolved. Life's no fun when you cannot communicate with those you love, and for that we largely rely on the Internet and our home computers. When those fail. . . well, it gets tough and takes time away from the tasks we really would rather do, like say "hello" to friends overseas in the States, for instance.
How it all began: Windows 10 - the self installs on both our computers. At first I thought I was saving some money by doing it myself - after all, I am self taught at home computers and have been doing several regular maintenance tasks for years without any serious negative consequences. I did both installs of Windows 10 at different times and even different weeks, and both were quite a snap. Easy to do from all appearances, and the computers seemed to work well after the new install of the new operating system.
But then I noticed that one Internet site I frequented was with what turned out to be a bug of some sort: when I wanted to return to the previous page, it took several clicks of the mouse to get to where I wanted to go. Actually, I overshot my goal, and ended up on the search engine page instead. I did that for weeks, saying it's just peculiar to that one website.
I had after the Windows 10 self install also installed Apache Open Office document software. It appeared on screen, and I had used Open Office previously without any bad effects. I said "yes" to the install, and away it uploaded effortlessly on my part. Little did I know that this new version somehow would not let me edit my documents, which previous to Open Office were Windows document software. I should have considered what the free "gift" of Open Office might mean in terms of consequences that would cause me more problems. Shareware - free software - often isn't as good as it is made out to be, I have learned. I couldn't even open and start a new office document with Open Office. Not good!
Then I couldn't use my mouse on my desktop computer. It wouldn't function any longer. That did it. . . I had to get a computer tech to look at my 'puter and get it working again. First I had already purchased a new mouse, which didn't fix the problem. Off I went with the computer to the computer shop, which I found out about using the laptop computer that still worked.
The technician found out that I had some loose connections inside the computer that prevented communication via the mouse. Once those were resolved, the computer worked fine. We talked some more and he recommended getting a "clean install" of Windows 10 that would allow my computer to have the speed and functionality it was supposed to have, but didn't. So I let him have it for more time. Clean Windows 10 install completed, things looked good at that point. Still didn't have my document software working correctly, but he had run out of time for the day to look at my problems. So it was put off for another day.
In the meantime, the Internet service here from TVCable was going on the fritz. Later on, I found out it was not the fault of the Internet Service Provider - TVCable in this case - but an issue of how to properly disconnect and reconnect the wires from the router (a white box here from TVCable with two small antennas) and the modem (which is a black box affair similar to what I was previously used to from TimeWarner Cable in the USA). After several false tries, reboots of the computer(s) involved, and - prayer - which needed to be foremost in mind, not something done approaching desperation - forgive me, Lord - I had connection again with the Internet. Sometimes I had to get a computer technician (second supplier, different from my first supplier) here at the residence to fix the Internet connectivity problem, sometimes it was resolved on my own. But it has proved vexing for several weeks continuously. Several times we have had only one computer up and running with Internet working, and sometimes it's been both computers not able to connect to the Internet. Frustrating to say the least!
In the midst of dealing with the ever vexing Internet connectivity issue, I found I could not contact via telephone my second computer technician shop. Movistar , their cell phone provider, said in perfectly good Spanish that their account was suspended. Suspended? For cryin' out loud! So I contacted a third computer tech guy, and got him to take a looksee.
His advice was good, especially on how to use the Internet router and modem and do the connections and disconnections to ensure the computer(s) were connected to the Internet. However, he mentioned that my laptop seemed slow. Had I done a self install on Windows 10 lately, he asked? Of course. I answered in the affirmative, of course. . . and so away the laptop computer went with this third tech to his residence for a clean install of Windows 10. So back to only one computer available for the next three days.
All this time, we were harder pressed to keep up on new emails, Facebook - if we really had the time, which depended on the person on the other end and the message they left - and most importantly on our Duolingo Spanish lessons on their Internet site. With only one computer working for weeks at a time, and sometimes not any of them working at all or with no Internet service for any of them, life got tough. We somehow managed to keep our Duolingo daily practice streaks alive. Mine's at over 150 days currently and Carolyn Anne's at about 80 days now - I sometimes sign in for her and do an easy refresher lesson to keep her streak alive, taking maybe 3 to 5 minutes to do so. She appreciates that, of course.
After tech guy number three comes back with the laptop computer, I notice he did a number of significant and unasked for changes. He set up the computer so that one no longer has to type in a password - if you ask me, that's a safeguard for our laptop that we once lost in a rental car in California last year. The way the new rental car customer found out how to contact us was by the email address on the beginning start up page, right above the password entry slot location. It turned out to be a film studio in the Los Angeles area that emailed us. Thank God for honest people like that studio, which was a smaller one run out of someone's house in the El Sereno neighborhood of LA. The way it was set up by tech guy #3 was to press a button, and whoever had it - friend or foe, rightful owner or not - could use the laptop to their hearts content, not to mention possibly find out personal info about us. Not good. That has to change immediately.
Tech guy #3 also got rid of a lot of the Lenovo icons and such that were never used and actually "fluff" that wasn't ever used, or wanted. Not a bad idea, but again, he never asked me first. He also disconnected our AVG antivirus software, saying to me that AVG was known to be inferior in Ecuador (that will come as a shock to my computer tech shop guy in Lancaster, California who installed the AVG antivirus software *and* charged me for doing so!) and he had installed a free antivirus software instead. Again, I let him know of my displeasure.
Icing on the cake for tech guy #3: he had also not reinstalled and uploaded the Skype software for the laptop. We bought the laptop expressly for that very purpose - to use and communicate via Skype. The reinstall was taking too long on the laptop for the Skype reinstall, and likewise an install of a Windows Suite for Office on the desktop computer was not installing at a fast enough rate - it hadn't finished downloading just yet. So tech guy #3 told me that he had an appointment with another client to fix their computer, and that I could do the work from here.
Nice try. I later found out from getting ahold of computer tech guys #2 that he possibly was installing a $300 version of Windows Office 2016. . . or I had not known which version (true, that) he was trying to install, likely a free version that *still* needed a competent tech to supervise the complete installation. Either way, he was going to get me for an extra $300 for the Microsoft officially licensed software suite for Office (which I doubt since he never mentioned the extra cost to me) or do half the job needed to be done by cutting short the time spend supervising the install of the Microsoft "pirate" software, which was free to me. Computer shop guys #2 did the MS "pirate" Office Suite software installation and ensured that I could edit my existing document pages.
By the way, the reason why I had to contact computer shop guys #3 *again* was due to computer tech guy #2 taking out my RAM in my desktop computer, and putting it in again. . . in a different slot, apparently. After a day, the computer ran, but nothing appeared on the screen from the data from the computer. Computer tech guys #3 took out the RAM and reinstalled it properly. The desktop computer has been running fine ever since.
Lessons learned through all of this: *don't* install Windows 10 yourself. Get a competent computer tech to do the job instead. Be willing to admit what you don't know, and get help where and when needed. Be very specific and upfront in telling specifically what you want done, as well as what you don't want done in terms of changes to how the computer operates. Don't use computer technicians who also advertise on their business card that they drive customers around and are Facilitators (personal assistants). "And more. . . " is a dead giveaway phrase on a business card that the provider doesn't care what kind of job they do, they just want to work. . . and most of all, get paid. Once you find a competent computer technician, keep using them.
The reason why computer tech guy #1 didn't get further work from me was that he was out of town the next time I needed him. Besides that, he almost always wanted the work to be done at his shop. With the Internet issues at hand, it was important to check things out where I was using the computer(s), not where it was convenient for the technician. He only came one time to my residence, due to there being an issue connecting to the Internet and him being available that time and day to check it out. So off to computer tech guys #2 I went. I think I have found a reliable shop in #2, and have confidence in them that they will continue to diagnose and correct the issues at hand correctly.
As you can see, we have several backlogged issues relating to computer operation that needs to be dealt with ASAP, no thanks to computer tech guy #3, who actually through all of this ended up costing us more money that what we paid him. Expensive lessons, to be sure. Not to mention at the very beginning of all of this trouble, we had to get the laptop cleaned up inside and get some loose wires reconnected due to - you guessed it - the inability to use the internal touchpad mouse. Tech guy #1 did that job, and quite well at that. Total costs currently for computer service calls and repairs are around $200 of late. That would be $600 or more if the same work was done in the United States.
Here in Ecuador, quality of work isn't always reliable or uniform, and there are people who don't perform the way you want them to. It *is* the Wild Wild West here in Ecuador, and you really have to practice the saying Caveat Emptor (buyer beware). We're living proof of that! Learn from our experience if you choose. . . but only if you choose.
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