Los Jordan Polings Vamos al Ecuador

A few weeks ago, upon returning to our casita after more than two weeks of traveling, we discovered we had our first rat. Sigh . The rodent had moved in, found himself a delicious bag of feed corn high up on a shelf, pulled insulation material from our oven to make a nest, and left droppings everywhere. Yuck . We immediately went to work to clean up the mess, grumbling unhappily as we swept and scrubbed and threw things out. Paul was able to locate and purchase some traps, which we then realized were a terrible idea with a free range pet bunny also living in the house. We just had one sighting of the uninvited vermin on our second day back; after that he simply and miraculously disappeared. I guess he realized that it was not as fun to live with us as it had been to housesit. A few days later, as we were preparing dinner for ourselves and guests, the kitchen stovetop mysteriously caught fire. It was a little surreal --  as fires can be -- with black smoke billowing out of the top ...

When we arrived in La Josefina in early July, we found ourselves in a magical land of mossy trees laden with delicious, ripe, green oranges, which we gorged on for weeks. I am not kidding; some days, we ate five or six apiece. They were Brynna's first favorite Ecuadorian fruit and Dillon's first knife/machete challenge. I first wrote about them  here .  When the seemingly endless orange supply petered out in late August, we were assured that a second harvest would occur in November. We anticipated the next batch with baited breath and were all disappointed when there were just a few fruits on the trees by Thanksgiving. But . . . while we have been gallivanting and adventuring, cheating on our oranges with other tropical fruits like  cacao,   naranjilla,  and  maracuyá , our sweet orange trees have been busy. I am happy to announce that it is officially orange season in La Josefina again! The trees are literally dripping with oranges -- delectable,...

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” ~Maya Angelou It's been six months since I sang the praises of the library. I am overdue for a sequel. I am 100% certain that we would not have made it through the last ten months without access to the library -- albeit the electronic branches of our own Sonoma County Library and the Phoenix Public Library. The latter is thanks to my mother-in-law, Jackie, whose surname I will not use for fear she might be jailed for inappropriate sharing of her card.  We miss the library. We are a family of bookworms. You might reasonably call us obsessed. Our bikes practically ride us there without instructions; we know the children's librarian by first name. We visit biweekly, if not weekly, and check out enough books to make other patrons stare. Dillon's ...

Two decades ago, Jessica, my nearest Peace Corps neighbor, made a significant discovery in the city of Quevedo: semi-hard cheese. At the time, Quevedo was over two hours away via bus and the closest place to access dial-up internet. That day, I received a special delivery via the bus driver as he passed through La Josefina: a chunk of cheese wrapped in an ecstatic hand-written note, " Try this! It is amazing!!! -JLH " Ecuadorians love cheese, but almost all of the cheese produced and consumed here is queso fresco , a mild, soft fresh cheese, often salted, made from local cow's milk. It is eaten fresh and served in many typical dishes including empanadas and bolón .  Queso fresco is tasty, but it does not really melt and bears little resemblance to the cheddar, gouda, and Havarti of our homeland. Even today, mozzarella is the only other readily available cheese in Ecuador, except in specialty stores and supermarkets in large cities. I sampled the semi-hard cheese from ...

from L to R: Joan, Aitana, Brynna, Alice, Vale, Sandy Once upon a time (a few short weeks ago) Brynna turned to me and said, "Mommy, it is not fair. I have two big brothers, and every time we have to vote on a movie night, I get outvoted. I am never going to to get to watch a princess movie unless I have my own movie night." And so it was, that princess Brynna, and her fellow neighborhood princesses -- Aitana, Alice, Sandy, Vale -- and special-guest prince Joan were invited to our little casita for a Princess Movie Night. There were carefully created invitations, tiaras, jewels, popcorn, homemade brownies and rice crispy treats, passion fruit juice, glittery tattoos, a castle art project, and, of course, a princess movie. While the internet did not behave perfectly, we managed to get through the whole movie -- Cinderella, live action (Thanks M&E for the use of your Disney Plus) -- and princess Brynna's two disinterested brothers, as well as a few neighbor boys found i...

In July 1999, barely a month after graduating from UCLA, I said a tearful goodbye to my college boyfriend and my ambivalent mother and boarded a plane that would take me first to Miami, Florida and ultimately to Quito, Ecuador to begin my Peace Corps training. I was not quite 22 years old. Peace Corps was something I had planned to do since age 12, when I saw an exhibit on the 30th anniversary of Peace Corps at the JFK Library in Boston.  After three months of language and cross-cultural training, I was assigned to a hot, dry little town called Los Bajos de Pechiche along the coast of Ecuador in Manabí Province. The saving grace of my assignment was that my nearest neighbor, less than nine miles away, would be a woman named Kristen, a fellow PCV whom I had already identified as a kindred spirit. She and I had been the most "flexible" -- for lack of a better word-- when it came to choosing sites and, as such, we were granted the two least desirable assignments. We each did ou...

                      I have been taught my entire life that the Pacific Ocean is  brava --  an adjective used in Ecuadorian Spanish to mean any combination of angry, mean, rough, fierce, and unpredictable. " Cuidado ,  that dog is brava ," the kids warn as we pass a barking canine. " Cuidado, mi mamí es brava ," they are just as likely to say before asking permission to accompany us on an adventure. Interestingly in other Spanish-speaking countries,  brava  may also be used to mean brave or courageous. Not here. Anyhow, back to the Pacific Ocean. . . In Northern California, the Pacific is  brava.  Huge waves crash menacingly onto rocky shores, the mighty undertow is famous for pulling even strong swimmers out to sea, unexpected sneaker waves are not uncommon, and perhaps, most notably the water temperature rarely tops a frigid 55 degrees. There are signposts up and down the Northern California Coa...

I have started posts on Ecuadorian immigration and emigration too many times to count. Several drafts sit in my queue, unfinished. They include anecdotes from taxi drivers, stories about friends who I advised not to go (and have since left), musings on the world of American ex-pats in Ecuador. The topic is so complicated that I found myself paralyzed, caught between facts and feelings. I finally decided to start over. And to try to keep it simple.   I'll start with the facts: More Ecuadorians are leaving their families to immigrate to the US than ever before.  It is hard to get reliable numbers, but US Border Patrol reported detaining 12,000 Ecuadorians at the southern border in November 2022; this is triple the number from August of 2022 and twenty times the number from one year ago. Ecuadorians cite rising economic hardships since the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing crime and violence related to cocaine trade, and recent national strikes. My friends point to overwhelming ...

We stumble across the coolest creatures here: giant stick bugs, millipedes and centipedes (I love the Spanish word for centipede --  ciempies --   a direct translation with an interesting modification in consonants), butterflies, frogs, flowers, and birds. Unfortunately, the Seek App requires steadier hands and more obedient creatures than we are oft able to detain, but even if we cannot name their genus or family, these natural wonders are still cool to observe. Check out a few photos. Yup, that is a stick bug on Dillon's face! These are the most interesting creatures, stick bugs (phasmids), the biggest insects in the world. They can grow up to 2-feet long. This guy was particularly friendly. Frog and Toad: this little toad found his way into a tub of rainwater we had been collecting out front for times when our water runs out. Frog and Toad: a loud frog. One of Brynna's goals for the year: to catch a butterfly herself. It's not an easy goal to accomplish, but the butter...