Throwdown Results

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a while since we've posted. We've been busy, busy bees lately.

Many have asked recently (thanks for the e-mails) what our plans are in the near future and also how things have been since the riots.

Quick answer: We are staying here in Cuenca without plans of changing back to Spanish or to another place for a while. We will most likely be going home for a visit around April of next year, staying for either 2 or 6 months. It all depends on work situation, finances, etc. It's a little early to be sure how long we'll be home for, but we hope to see you in the Spring. Just in time for the tulips!!!

As for the political status, things are great. The President regained control and within two weeks things were back to normal. It was a scare, but in the end, things were normalized without too much hassle to us.

After the "feriado" (holiday) of 2 weeks ago, we've been bust catching up on service and school work. As some of you may know, we are studying to become Medical Transcriptionists. The goal is to find online work as soon as we graduate in around 7/8 months and be able to work from anywhere in the world (namely, Ecuador). The course is intense and requires very long, brain-cracking days of studying anatomy, physiology, pharmaceutics, medical terminology roots, and grammar. So that has kept us very busy lately.

In addition to that, we've been wrapped up in service as the good expereriences keep rolling in. What a blessing it has been to NOT regret our decision to move to English! I was wary, but we're having a great time. And it's such a specialized field here (there are only 3 English congregations in the whole country), that it is never boring or dull. We make opportunities to witness no matter where we are when we see foreigners.

Quick experience from last week. We went out in the afternoon with very dark clouds above us. Sure enough, a half hour into the territory, it poured cats and dogs. We were trapped under a terrace unable to make it back to the cars. After waiting for 20 minutes, it still didn't let up, so the boys braved the down pour and brought the cars, after which we headed straight for coffee break. Now, coffee break is not really a thing we do here because there arent' great places, no one has money to spare and it's just not part of the social culture like back home. However, we are slowly getting the young ones to jump on the wagon with us and our friend Mateo knew a good place. So we went to the old downtown area to a ridiculously lovely cafe. It was so cozy; even had a fire place! We were the only ones there even though it was a big place. The guy working there immediately spoke English to us since we were half foreigners. The first time he said the word "coffee" we knew he must have spent some time in NY. So we thought we'd use that as an "in" to strike up a rivetting convo and invite him to the meetings.

After we were finished with our coffee, we started chatting with him and found out that he had spent the greater part of his life in NY, but was recently deported back to Ecuador with his family. He was very upset about it, but when he found out we were Witnesses, he got really happy and excited. It turns out just the week before, Matoe's dad, German (pronounced Hare-mon), met him and they arranged to study. But because German had left town without telling him and missed the study, he thought the study was off. He was thrilled to see us there at the cafe and said from the moment we came in, laughing and having a good time, his mood changed from bad to good. He is much more comfortable studying in English than Spanish and was looking for wholesome association for him and his family in English. He told us that Jehovah had sent us there to that cafe to reestablish contact with the Witnesses and of course make arrangements to come to the meeting Sunday. (which he did) His wife and son didn't come because the wife is too embarrassed to come without a skirt, but said she'd come next week. Hopefully she will want to study as well.

Lasse (Dane) from Denmark

I've got another great call going with a young guy who spent 8 years in Chicago, but is from here. We've had 2 hour-long conversations and tomorrow I go back for another one. A friend here named Lasse (I call him Dane. His name is strangley hard to pronounce) from Denmark is going to help me with it. Lasse comes to Ecuador every so often from Denmark to help out and enjoy the sun. It's been nice having another English speaker around to help out with calls. And another small world moment. My good friends from Denmark who were serving in Namibia in my same congregation and who lived down the street from me are Lasse's best friends. They have recently moved back to Denmark because they are going to have a  baby. Never ceases to amaze me the people you meet while serving where the need is great and how they interconnect with your own life...

Our service group this morning. Lasse is to my left and the couple on the right are visting just for a few days from London.

Another great service experience was seeing this on the street today. drool, drool...



Playing some good old spoons at Salazar's house with Lasse and the gang.



OK, now on to some fun stuff. Who has seen Throwdown with Bobby Flay? It's an awesome show where Chef Flay challenges other chefs who have dedicated their lives to making that one special dish. Anyway, our spaghetti is pretty famous here and we were challenged to a throw down of sorts from our friends Mateo and Gaby. Supposedly everyone here loves their spaghetti. So it was on! We had our throwdown this weekend. It was a blast; we invited a family in the congregation who are currently studying from Florida. Cheralynne and her boys Marlon, Anthony and Sean.

Commencing the challenge

Sous Chefs agreeing to play dirty

Team Suess got a wopping head start, finishing 20 minutes ahead of schedule.

It was all about presentation

One of the hazards of Throwdown...is he chopping onions or crying from the intense stress of competition?

Team Salazar didn't start the battle off well when they burned my pot, left it on the window seal and burned the plastic molding.



Hot spaghetti was flying everywhere at one point.



The judges/creative artists of the throwdown were asked to make a poster, which they had WAY too much fun with.

Only a tiny fraction of the photo shoot they made me take of them and their poster.

The judging took place as you see, with points awarded for presentation, taste and originality. The boys took the whole thing very seriously and we had so much fun with their reviews. We have a video of it, but as on now, I've been unable to load it here.

and the final score was...

Team Suess 106.3 points

Team Salazar 108 points

The winner is Team Salazar!!!! It was a bummer not to win, but with a score that close, a rematch was intantly called.  Our spaghetti is for a more mature audience I think. Team Salazar got higher points in presentation for cutting out the judges names with tomatos and putting them on the plate. (cheaters!) Of course, 3 of the 4 judges were kids so they loved that.

Mom, you know our sauce is the best in the country. We will regain the title in the rematch, don't worry!

Thanks for the votes of confidence all! Toodles.