January

January begins with New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The following three photos are from last year. I didn't see any effigy burnings this year except from my apartment window. Ecuador and many Spanish speaking countries have a tradition of burning an effigy of a person to represent destroying old bad habits and making way for new beginnings in the new year. In Ecuador they sell masks and people make "straw men" or they have small figures on their car to catch all of the bad luck and former problems which they destroy with fire on New Year's Eve. In these photos the people in the office made an effigy and they are burning it in the parking lot at the end of the day. The office missionaries were eager to get in on the action.

This year I went with the senior missionaries to Amazonas Street near where we work. On New Year's Eve the street is closed off to traffic and the whole city comes to celebrate the ending of the old year and the beginning of a new one. Many people dress in costumes, children especially enjoy this. It looks a bit like Halloween. I did see one adult in a very impressive transformer costume. We went early, the street was packed with people listening to the political speeches and environmental messages at the booths, buying treats, enjoying music and spending time talking to friends. It was a fun family time. We were not out after dark. We celebrated together in our apartments, enjoying food and games and watching the fireworks all over the city. We have a great view from our tall apartment building. We could also see little bonfires here and there. The next day (and for weeks to come) black spots were visible here and there on the streets and sidewalks where the effigies were burned.

This man is handicapped without legs and he is a wonderful musician. We have several of his CD's.

January was also the month that I changed operating systems on my computer. The tech guy at the office did it for me and everything is great except that I cannot close the lid on my computer without shutting it down first. If I don't turn off the computer it crashes. Not convenient but the only real problem that remains. I am up and running again and I have upgraded my Photoshop Elements and now have Lightroom to organize my photos. It is taking lots and lots of time to import all of my photos but I am confident that I will be happy that I made the change. I want my photos to be searchable with keywords and enough information written to the files so that they will be useful not only for me but perhaps of interest to the future grandchildren of all of the members of our family. They can see how life was in "the olden days" in the early years of the twenty first century.