Christmas Eve

     Merry Christmas Eve! Today we rode the chicken bus up to the local orphanage for their Christmas Program. Lumia pointed out some of the similarities with The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever, which we have been reading. Every Ecuadorian knew the words to the Spanish Christmas songs that they sang. There was a nativity, folk dancers and Santa. The expats had given a decent amount so that every one of the kids got a new back pack full of fun things and one wrapped present. The orphanage is on top of the hill immediately south of town and has a great view. Things learned, little boys everywhere cannot keep still and little girls everywhere like to dance a program for an audience. 

Lumia is cutting out ornaments for our construction paper Christmas Tree. She said, “this is the greatest Christmas tree ever.”

     New unintended adventure for today is a dead Fridge. Hopefully we will get a new one today but most likely Friday or Saturday. We will eat out a lot and keep a few things in our neighbor’s fridge. Yesterday the local construction gang came and installed accordion doors on the inside of every easy access window. Their idea of clean up is to push the dust into the corner so we had a clean the house day. The kids were very helpful.

     Last night we rode the chicken bus into Montanita for dinner and a moment on WiFi to down load books and check the Book of Faces. The town matches every description of a hippy surf town but there are a lot more places to eat with some more familiar menu items. There was a bakery at the bus stop where we stocked up for a few breakfasts. The local behind the counter was super nice when she picked up our forgotten wallet and held it for us till we got back. “Rookie mistake,” said an abashed Steph.

     Anyway, have a Merry Christmas everyone. I hope to get back to WiFi soon and post more pictures.