Election Day

Today (Sunday, September 30) is election day here in Ecuador. There are national and provincial assembly elections, no presidential election this year. I don't know much about the issues or the politics involved. But I do have some interesting campaign notes and stories.

- There are a ton of political parties here in Ecuador. And they all have a number associated with them- 3, 7, 11, 15, 29, 35, 60, etc. A lot of campaign signs don't even mention the name of a party or a candidate, just the number.

- We've observed several campaign "parades". Luke and I stood at the end of our driveway last weekend and watched as cars went past for probably close to 5 minutes with horns honking and political signs waving (I think that one was for party #s 35 and 15 supporters). It was cool and getting toward dusk and I was getting sentimental for the Solanco fair parade.

- At church last Sunday, the power went off during the service. So the pastor was speaking without a microphone. We were sitting in the back pew. The door to the back of the sanctuary is probably only about 10-15 feet from the main road in town. Another campaign "parade" went buy during the middle of the sermon. We couldn't hear anything but the "parade". The pastor even stopped talking for 30 seconds.

- One candidate's (for provincial assembly I think) name is Eduardo Escobar. I don't know anything about his politics or issues (other than he's with party # 29), but his name just sounds so "Ecuadorian".

Some other highlights of the past week:

Jadyn, Luke, and I took our first taxi ride since we were running late for preschool. It cost a dollar to get a taxi ride across town. Fortunately, most taxis in Shell are extended cab pickup trucks. So I just threw the stroller in the back and Luke and I walked back home.

Luke and Jadyn also had their first doctors appts this week. Having worked in the healthcare "administrative" field for so long, I was interested in some of the differences betweeen how things are done here vs. the U.S. That may be a topic for a different post. They're both doing well, but Jads is a little apprehensive about her upcoming shots.

We had a "guest" at our house this weekend. Sandy, our neighbors dog, stayed with us while they went to Quito. The kids seemed to enjoy having her around. We'll continue to gauge if we want to take her on as an extended houseguest when the Whiteheads go on furlough in January.

We had a tarantula crawling up the outside wall of our house yesterday. Jodie just grabbed it barehanded and gently put it back in the jungle. (the first sentence is true, the second is not- the real resolution involved a toy light sabre and a big rock.)

School continues to go pretty well for all of us. Jodie's working really hard and doing a great job. She's remembering how much she enjoys being in the classroom again, and also remembering how exhausted she feels on Friday nights. The boys are doing great too. They're reading lots, memorizing Bible verses, and getting to learn lots of fun, hands-on things for science.

Time for bed. Wake me up when September ends- or about 6 hours after September ends.