Fun Saturday on Jan 8th

We took the Ecovia (the bus with its own lane) to the park just past our office and looked at all the stalls with things for sale. Most of the sales people are from Otovala. They sell blankets, tablecloths, purses, pan flute music, jackets, hats, finger puppets, jewelry, embroidered blouses, carvings of palm nuts that look like ivory, coin purses, dolls, paintings of every size and style, carved gourds of wood or stone in the shape of birds and owls and small animals. And lots more besides. Lewis gets bored easily but the women had a great time.
The park is also full of playground equipment and paved paths. They have pedal cars to rent that are very fun. Some of them are our USA plastic riding toys placed on a cart with sturdier wheels. But most of them are original creations and some are very imaginative. It cost about a dollar to rent for 20 minutes. There were little kids on bikes and some big ones as well. I didn't see anyone on skates. They sold fruit and drinks and pink cotton candy. There were lots of families and a big swing that could hold several kids. It had a metal ring and a rope bottom laces like a spider web. They had a zip line that kids could ride. There was a long line to ride down and then pull it back up for the next person. The park is filled with big old trees and grass and was a lovely place. So nice for kids that grow up in the city with no place to run and play in their apartments.

Cool playground equipment - the child in the pink top at the left
is about to ride the zip line.

This girl takes off...

This one is in the middle of her ride.

Little kids have fun rides too.

Cotton Candy

Delicious Cotton of Sugar

The kids loved the little vehicles to ride. I watched one little girl excitedly
try out three before she chose her favorite one to rent.

Afterward we went to Espani's for lunch. Lewis and I had arepas mixtas. It wasn't what we were expecting. In Spain arepas were a sandwich. Here it was a thick flat tortilla made of corn and spread with melted cheese, with a tomato sauce on one side and guacamole on the other. They had aji sauce that was sort of like pico de gallo and it was all very good. It cost $1.90. Two others had tamales wrapped in a big purple brown leaf. It had chicken and rice with vegetables and spices. Sister Naylor had soup and bread. Sister Geldmacher had a fried fish plate with salad and rice. We all enjoyed our lunch. Ecuador is the place to eat out. It is inexpensive by our standards and the food is good.

Arepas mixtas - "tortilla like" pancake with melted cheese, then sauce and mashed avocado


Aji - one version, another kind is smooth and orange


Our friends called this a tamale but the menu said Tamal and Mexico
would never recognize this as a tamale. My guess it that inside the leaf is rice cooked
with cornmeal and vegetables and meat. Strange and sort of good.

We were able to find the stake center for the PEF fireside without trouble. The stake president turns out to be one of the coordinators at the Colon Institute so he knows everything about how PEF functions here and is fun and interesting to listen to. We were invited to speak for just a couple of minutes. He did more of an introductory class than the PEF fireside we used to do but it was perfect for his audience. There were lots of college age kids and also parents. Seems things are functioning well in this stake. A group of kids waited to walk with us down to the busy street to find a taxi. They were anxious that we get a taxi safely. Apparently it is not a good idea to be wandering around after dark. We finally found a taxi.

The wife of the taxi driver was in the car as well. Grandpa told them about what we are doing here and she promptly wanted to know all about it and how her 26 year old son could participate. Grandpa explained that the students must be members of our church for a year and she said that is no problem. She told us they are Catholic but she wants her son to go back to school. She asked for a card and said she would send her son to our office. If he comes we will take him to the Mission Office. I'm sure the missionaries would be happy to teach him the Gospel.

We got home about 8:00 and baked the bread Grandpa had mixed up early in the day. Brother Geldmacher had said during lunch, "Don't waste all of the dough on bread, make some cinnamon rolls." So Grandpa did and invited them down for a hot cinnamon roll and some to take home.