An Ecuadorian cookout…

Will was afraid he was going to eat beans and rice for 2 months.  

I was afraid the kids would starve.  

We had no idea what bountiful garden would be here as well as the grocery stores having all that we need( although they are all 45 minutes away).  

Although it is slightly different

 (buying a live chicken for our weekly meat) it is the same taste and much fresher.  

This Hacienda is completely organic.  We don't have trash, we have a plastic and paper recycle bin, a compost bin and a tiny garbage bag for diapers, that is it.  So different from home where we have 5 bags of garbage a week.  I love learning how to not be so wasteful and Erma, the woman who takes care of the house has taught me so much.  

It has opened my eyes to how much I take for granted in the states and how wasteful we are. 

Here is a photo from Saturday's cookout.  These are our new friends that have been so welcoming.  Janine and David are the owners of the Hacienda and the other family are their friends in from Quito for a day of tranquility on the Hacienda.  Their little girl Emma, and Zeb had a blast together, when they weren't fighting over toys.  It was fun to watch them both speak spanish to each other.  Zeb learned the word Mio(mine) very quickly.  

Zeb and Emma are both 2.

Waiting for the cooks to serve them.

Janine teaching Bleu to make naranjito juice in our kitchen.

Janine and David with us.  

We ate beef and salad and potatoes and we all cooked together.  David is a master chef and they taught us much and Bleu learned to make a wonderful juice from the garden.  The fruit is called naranjito- it is not an orange, and it is very thorny, you have to boil it then juice it.  Muy Rico!

We sat and visited for hours about the Ecuadorian/USA politics, lifestyle and compared our advantages and disadvantages of both cultures.  So eyeopening and expands our understanding of international politics.