Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Movin´ on down... into the Valley!

This week we finally realized a change that´s been in the works for many months down here in Ecuador: we MOVED! The extra burden of packing, cleaning, painting, and repairing during the months of August and September paid off when we saw the beautiful, spacious house and yard we were to live in from now on in Sangolqui, further down in the Valle de los Chillos from Conocoto. What follows is a photo essay of your PDs in the process:

The house spent a couple of weeks in chaos as we cleared out of corners and packed three years of Manna history.






Our last dinner in the house in Conocoto was a bittersweet occasion...


But the next day as we hustled to move furniture out for good...



...filled up the moving truck...





...waved goodbye to the city we´d come to call home in two short months...





...we couldn´t help but feel excited...


...as we looked forward to seeing our new house for the first time!







All that moving made us hungry. Solution while we were still between functional kitchens? Almuerzos to go!


But our work wasn´t done yet. Before turning over the keys to our old landlord, there was some serious cleaning and fixing up to do. Accordingly, we spent several more days making the half-hour journey by bus back to Conocoto to get our hands dirty.






Koukah, Bibi´s dog, was more than a little confused by the transformation of the house.



We celebrated the end of the moving process with almuerzos on the roof of our old house: one last tribute to Manna´s life in Conocoto.


To inaugurate our new house, on October 10 we held a housewarming barbeque (or wasi pichai, the Kichwa word used here).





Despite the threat of the usual afternoon rain that's been plaguing us this October, the sun stayed out all afternoon for our Sunday barbeque, and with a great turnout consisting of friends, neighbors, and our beloved Dr. Lance (our trusted doctor here who takes care of all our ailments and injuries, no matter what the time of day or night), it was a very successful initiation of Manna's new home.

We are so happy to be here!!

6 comments:

Craig Smith said...

i'm so sad

Unknown said...

The photo of the Conocoto kitchen honestly looks like it could have been taken in the bathroom of a bad gas station along the Panamerican highway. Easily the most disgusting kitchen I've ever cooked/eaten in.

Enjoy the new house PDs! Is that a mounted dear head I spy above the fireplace?

Noel said...

Shawn: You spy right! We have a deer head mounted in our living room. It was left to us by old tenants, and we (clearly) decided to leave it.

Craig: It was sad for us to leave the old house, too; though it was cool to go through all of the old papers and find clues to Manna´s past and to all the PDs who preceded us. We hope to build upon, and not forget, your legacy with our relocation to Sangolqui!

Mike said...

A "man den"? I hope it has the projector...

Jocelyn said...

tristeeee...

ps- is that Nolo at the wasi pichai?!??

Noel said...

that IS nolo! we've changed Manna's houses but not Manna's friends :)