The Blackout

While the temperature here in Puyo is fairly constant, the weather is not necessarily. Granted that we have not been here a year yet, and that we are still learning about the "seasons", I was still compelled to tell my brother-in-law recently that, while we have some big rains, nothing here compares to a West Texas storm*.

Last night, Alesha and I were sitting downstairs in the hammocks talking and I mentioned that I heard the rain. After listening for several seconds we realized that the rain that we heard was not hitting the house yet, so it must be still on its way. Even so, it already sounded "torrential". Then with one big crack of lightning that must have come right over our heads, for the sound caused us both to jump, the rain came down on the house, and it came down hard. Since the children had only recently been put to bed, we decided to go upstairs and check on them. They were fine. The metal roof over our heads, though secure and protecting, was very loud. We closed our west-facing windows since the wind was driving the rain inside and listened to the rain.

Then, with another crack of thunder the power went out. I went to the window. It was not just our house, but the whole block. And then I saw that even downtown Puyo was out of power and more. As I scanned the horizon, I realized that the whole town lost power (this was a first for us to see). It was not pitch black since there were still several cars on the road and I could see the faint lights of Shell and other neighboring communities rising over the hills. By the time that I found Alesha, she was in the process of lighting a candle. We left the candle in the bathroom and watched the blackness and listened to the rain.

After about 15 minutes, the power came back on and the street was full of lights again, and with a start I woke out of my semi-hypnotic state. At the time, I had not realized what drew me to gaze out the window with such interest. Later recollecting my thoughts and feelings, I understood how the darkness reminded me of living out of town, in the country, back in Texas. It seemed so much more natural for there to be dark at nighttime and not bright. *sigh* On a more humorous note, during the power outage, I recall seeing my neighbors wandering through their house with a flashlight; I found this humorous only because he and our reactions to the complete loss of power were such opposites.

While Alesha and I still much prefer living outside of the city (and perhaps one day we will do it again), "the city is where the people are" (-J.F.).
Enjoy!
TaylorH


*Nothing that I have experienced in Houston, compares to a big West Texas storm either. Of course, I was too young to recall some of the really big hurricanes that hit Houston when I was young.

October's Progress

A lot has been happening around our house the last several weeks, so much so that we have forgotten about posting to our blog, so here is a quick month-in-review:

Levi's Birthday
Levi turned 6 at the end of September. Highlights from his birthday party were playing Pin-the-Tail-On-the-Donkey (see pics below), and getting a "birthday spanking".

Levi found it funny the his "tail" wasn't even on the board...can you find it?

Jungle Eggs
I took a short day-trip to the jungle this month. A group of people were headed to the jungle, but needed an extra vehicle to get them from Puyo to the river "insertion point".

While stopping at the little Waoroni community of Menepare, some of the locals gave me some turtle eggs to bring back. They were very different than chicken eggs; they had a lot more flavor!

Painting - Phase 1
Glory's room got a face lift. Perhaps it is because she is the only girl. Perhaps it was because the "burnt orange" walls did not look very girly (sorry, Longhorn fans). Now we just need her matching curtains from Texas!

Settling Down
We have made several trips to Quito in hopes of finishing our visa process, but there always seems to be something new. Since our visa process is still on hold, we are no longer planning on coming to Texas in October. Thanks to my mom and some friends, we should have the remaining paperwork by the end of the month! Instead we have been settling in more here in Puyo: painting, some minor electrical rewiring, building new beds for the boys, installing a fence around part of the property so that we feel safer letting our kids "roam", attending a Bible conference, etc
.

Levi really enjoys spending time with his baby brother, Noah.

Sorry about the lack of pictures of the others, I suppose that they were not very photogenic this month.
Enjoy!
Taylor