not converse, leslie. cheap ecuadorian knockoffs. very different.

we picked up three hitchhikers on our way out of the Cajas national park. an image i think that will never leave my head: the province that Cuenca is in, Azuay, is where most of the illegal immigrants that go to Spain and Italy and the States to find work come from. So, these young adults go get jobs in Europe, and begin sending money home to their families, to build houses. the end result is you get these HUGE houses, scattering the countryside, with elevators and sattelite dishes and all these extravagances, but the people who inhabit them are still country bumpkins, Inca descendants, growing corn in their huge front yards and herding chickens out of their elevators. truly a land of contrasts.

we went to baños de cuenca to bathe in the thermal pools. mom lost her "love and respect" book with the $20 bill bookmark. next day, we got it back.

trip to cuenca

farewell to family unit (sans katie) as jono heads off to his summer job as translator at the building site, and uncle paul heads off to england. The ANDES

i got locked out of my house yesterday, i left the keys inside and closed one of those self-locking doors and then slapped my forehead because of the stupidity. i had to kill 8 hours before my roommate came home from the beach. at first that sounded like alot, but a friend appeared and i went on an errand with him, and we just ended up hanging out downtown all afternoon. i wanted to go to the rep cinema to pick up a schedule for the month, they didn't have any left, but the girl told us "Last Tango in Paris" was about to start, and it was a free show, hosted by some local film club. I didn't even know there was a local film club!! It was great. I love coincidences. I got home half an hour before Janna, got soaked in the warm rain, but I like rain. A neighbour lady took pity on me and invited me in to her house to wait. i might lose my keys more often.

I said goodbye to the school today...to teaching anyways. At the end of the year, the teachers are as burnt out as the students, except we have all the marking and averages to take home and work on, and the tedious meeting to look forward to. I walked into my (old) office today and was greeted by quite the sight: the schools newest students, women in their 30s and 40s, who will be coming to school three days a week during the summer holidays, to learn to read and write. It was so cute to see these women who have never read a newspaper, their own kids report card, a single bible verse, or a street sign, sitting at a table, with the strange feel of a pencil between their fingers, writing " 0 1 2 3 ..." on foolscap. It was...inspiring. As hard as it is for me to imagine the life of a person who can't read or write, it is so much harder to think of what goes through their heads when they decide, after 30 or 40 years of this life, to try and learn these skills. The courage! These women are mothers of students, or members of the church. Its amazing to me. They are amazing to me. I just want to hug them...Freddy's mom, Linder's mom, Stalin and Jorge's mom...amazing.