March 19, 2011

Lots of pictures on facebook from Quito should you want to see any. Beautiful country.
So this week, my immigration status changed from something to something else. Who knows what the heck is going on for real, but Wayne had to take my passport and my current temporary immigration ID card to the lawyer today for what was supposed to be a three day procedure. Anyway, the lawyer said it was now a two week procedure. The lawyer has no idea why, no law has been changed, no new rulings or anything. Just someone said it now took 2 weeks, not 3 days. Guess it has just been a frustrating week (3 weeks? 10 months???). I really don’t understand WHY things take forever down here. No one seems to want to move fast (except behind the wheel of a car). Our house phone has been out for 3 weeks. We have people call the phone company for us (language problems) and they are either “on their way”, “it has already been fixed”, “we will have to put in a new work order”, “will do it tomorrow”, or “it will take a week for a new request”. Ahhhhhh, life is easy for them. Who is in a hurry??? So anyway, there is nothing anyone can do about it. It just IS.
Anyway, how cool is this picture. We were driving to church last Sunday and this is the sight we encountered when leaving the neighborhood. We saw, as we have frequently, a cruise ship going through the canal at the locks that are close to us. Yep, I would have loved to be ON the ship heading for a cruise, but just seeing something like this is way cool as well. We have gone to the Panama Canal visitor’s center right next to the locks across the street from us, but only saw a container ship up close. It is fun to stand and wave at the people on the ships when you are that close.
Check the green bean picture. I went to the local produce store the other day (my little Chinese market) and saw what I thought were green beans??? I asked the clerk what they were and she said something or the other (which I obviously didn’t understand). I asked her if they might be green beans and she said, YES. Wonder if she really understood a word that I said or not. But they were long. I did measure one and it was 30 inches in length. Looked like green beans, tasted like them. Haven’t clues what they might be though.