TWO YEARS ON!!!!

Time passes!!

When I set up this blog, two years ago in 2009, I wrote that it would be intermittent. And so it has proved. After a gap of two years, here we go again. This blog is put to shame by good friend Pippa Heylings, who often manages to get her photos and stories published before they have even happened. I clicked on to her blog a few minutes ago and was so chastened that I have little option but to get some postings up on our blog.


It is not that the missing two years have been empty and not worthy of postings. On the contrary those years have been filled. It is just that this blog writer has little time to himself. Where John is, so are the children! By the time the children are in bed at 8:00 pm, John has no energy left for anything except to get himself to bed as well. So those late night postings don't happen. 


I guess the biggest event of the missing years has been the forced change of house in Lumbisi. Our beautiful and peaceful half hectare beside the quebrada was sold from beneath our feet and we were given short notice to leave. Fortunately a British School Quito family have a weekend cottage very nearby and we could move in. I now pay rent to one of my students! The plot of land is surrounded by orchid greenhouses and this has made the move all the more worthwhile. The orchids are collected and cultivated - even hybridized - in labs in Tumbaco, and then planted out in the greenhouses. The project is both scientific and commercial, and is trying to develop an export market for the miniature orchid cultivos. It is fascinating to help in this project.

Toby, with Robbie and Maia on the beach near Tasaste
August 2011

Our lives have been joined by a snow-white dog, bizarrely named Toby Thomas. Toby was found abandoned around John's school and we offered to take him on. He was probably born on about April 1st 2010. The PAE vet cleaned him up, gave him all the necessary shots, sterilised him and returned him to us. About 80% Samoyed, we guess. Toby is a super, super addition to the family - very loyal, great fun, and high octane.

Mónica, with Robbie, Maia and Julie

After our wonderful Rosa, who helped when we lived in Arenal, we took on Cecilia when we first moved to Lumbisi. Cecilia found it very hard to travel to and from her home near Otovalo, so sadly left us. She now has a baby girl in Otovalo. In her place arrived the wonderful, wonderful Mónica, with her baby Julie. They lived in with us and we all grew very fond of them both. Moni - she will not mind me saying this - was not finding life easy with the father of Julie and was happy to have a refuge where to live and work. Eventually she got back together with Julie's dad and could no longer work puertos adentro (live-in), so she and Julie left us. We still see a lot of them both, most especially Julie, who stays over. In Mónica's place came her aunt, Leticia. How lucky we are! Blessed, I think. Leti, or Tia (aunt) as Robbie and Maia call her, is the wife of the caretaker of this urbanización, so lives just a few metres away from us. She is the most wonderful person - a great nanny to the children, as well as the very best house-keeper I could have hoped    

Leticia, Robbie, Maia and Julie, and here with her
daughter-in-law, Viviana (from Cali) and her new baby

to have found, always available when I need her.


So, one way and another, we are pretty well set up in our Lumbisi home now. It isn't huge but gives us the peace and space we need, as well as the added interest of the orchids. Like all of Lumbisi, which just two years ago was not much more than a village perched on the side of a mountain, but is now a big town, this urbanización, called Huertos Ilalo (Ilalo Orchard) has gone from  a few houses to 20 now, and more are on the way. That is life on this eastern side of Quito, where the new airport has turned Tumbaco/Cumbaya into one HUGE construction site.


Robbie and Maia continue in Pachamama. They are now both in Primary - Robbie in his second year and Maia in her first. I will try to post some blogs about Pachamama and what the children do there. It is a lovely place, high up on Ilalo, with a good international community. Of course its main strength is its Montessori style of education. Robbie and Maia both love their school. So does John!


John took several steps down at The British School Quito and is now a classroom teacher (of Biology, of course), with just a few other responsibilities such as Head of Sciences, the Year Book, and some administrative functions in Secondary. It is nice to be able to breathe again! BSQ is growing fast and there is great pressure on space, which means there is an in-house review going on, evaluating all the possible scenarios for the future, to enable the growth to continue successfully. Who knows how BSQ will be in a few years time?


As a family we have been visiting our usual haunts. We go to the jungle often, staying either in Hakuna Matata or Establo de Tomás in Tena, or with Tom Larson at Arajuno Jungle Lodge (see link). We have been up on Cotopaxi, sometimes camping or more recently staying at a high altitude refugio on the South side, Cotopaxi cara sur (see link) - highly recommended. And we get to the coast as often as possible, always in the northern parts of Manabí. We have been lucky to be able to stay in a little, remote beach house, owned by a BSQ family, near Tasaste. Three Christmases in a row have now been spent in Samvara Eco-lodge (see link), not far from Tasaste. Between Tasaste and Samvara, we have also stayed at Punta Prieta (see link). These days, when we travel, we try to take Toby Thomas with us. He absolutely loves both the high sierra and the beach. We managed to get to England in 2010 and it was so lovely to be able to spend good time with Grannie (now in her 102nd year!!!) and the family.

Robbie and Maia in the Chilterns
July 2010

Up on Cotopaxi, with friend Phil and his
daughter, Hannah

Asha - always full of life. Here in Establo de Tomás, Tena

Pippa, Rob, Asha and Billy play a big part in our lives. Robbie and Maia spend many weekends with them. If you follow their blog (link below) you will find out what they get up to. We have been on holidays together as well. They are an immense support to us. We also spend time with John's colleague Paul Tonkinson and his wife, Ximena and their little daughter (just a year behind Maia) Sisa. it is with Paul's family we Christmas at Samvara. Other BSQ and Pacha families all play a part in our lives.


You will guess from all this that we are quite well settled here in Ecuador. That is right! No need to think about moving on. Kenya calls, most especially because a part of the children's family and genes are there. Fun though that might be, it is not really an option for us.