Carnaval Weekend

Since Ecuador celebrates Carnaval with a four-day weekend, we had hoped to take a trip out of town to take advantage...but unfortunately 86% of Quito had the same idea, so we chose to forgo the crowds and traffic and stay close to home, since there was still plenty that we hadn't done in the city.

On Friday night some of the volunteers kicked off the weekend with a bonfire near the orphanage--the kids roasted hot dogs and smores...we're still amazed that the chaos of 20 kids and 1 large dog running around the bonfire didn't conclude with one of the them landing in the fire, but the Tias and volunteers worked their magic to keep everyone under control.

Saturday during the day involved Mami's day out with Jairo--they went to a water museum (Yacu) and reptile "zoo" (the Vivarium...a small reptile house at Parque de Carolina). Both were interactive for kids and were a lot of fun. The afternoon was capped off with ice cream. Papi relished the quiet time by taking advantage of the fact that The Simpsons and Friends are always on some channel...in English! Four straight hours of these old favorites made for a great, lazy Saturday afternoon.

That evening we invited some of Jairo's friends from the orphanage over to play with Suki, eat dinner with us, and watch a movie. Carlita, Fabian, Jessica and Wilma all came over. We had a lot of fun with them--they are all such great kids and get along so well. We are also grateful that we don't have five kids of our own...they wore us out before we even ate dinner...not sure how my parents survived with the 5 of us!





Our downstairs neighbors, Judd and Peggy, then invited all of us to eat our pizza and watch the movie at their place since they have a little more space for the kids...and they have a much larger TV and seating area for the kids. We watched Ratatouille. The kids sprawled out on the couches--we were touched with how close/affectionate they are with each other...at different times during the movie, they'd be holding hands, putting their arms around each other, or resting their heads on each others' shoulders or chests. While sweet to witness, it also gives us that twinge of sadness and guilt that we are taking Jairo away from them next month.

Sunday was Valentine's Day...another memorable day for us (see previous post)!

We ventured out to the Quito Zoo on Monday, which is about 30 minutes from our house. So we took Jairo on his first adventure on the local bus. None of us were excited about how crowded and hot it was, but it got us to where we needed to go. Well...almost. The bus dropped us off on the side of the road, where a line of pick-up trucks awaited the zoo crowd...so we hopped in the back of the pick-up (a first for all of us) and rode the final couple miles to the zoo.

Jairo was fascinated with all of the animals, especially the monkeys (just another thing he "inherited" from his Papi)...so much so that he thinks that he himself is a monkey--Jairo told us on the first day that we met him that he was "Mono Curioso" (what the Ecuadorians call "Curious George"). We think he might be on to something with his climbing prowess and his never-ending curiosity.

He loved feeding the animals as well--we bought a little canister of carrots so he could feed the goats, cows and rabbits:



He also took a break to get his face painted...



The little gatito (kitten) then started answering all of our questions with a "meow." It's a fascinating game!...for about 4 minutes.

We finished our zoo adventure with Jairo taking a ride on a llama. While we were waiting in line, Jairo decided to take a 50-cent piece out of my pocket and throw it into the woods. While I was very impressed with his throwing motion and the distance of the throw, we were not impressed with his actions. Unfortunately, in trying to reprimand him, I was a step off in my Spanish--so I asked him why he kicked himself with the coin, rather than why he threw the coin in the woods. Rebecca, in trying to support my reprimanding, unfortunately followed my lead with the incorrect vocab. So in response we got a shoulder shrug and blank stare from Jairo (with him probably wondering if we ate paint chips as kids). Unfortunately it took me 2 days to realize that I used the wrong verb.



We were all pooped at the end of a long day walking around the zoo, so Rebecca and I took a siesta when we got home with our new cat.



We ended our day with the 3 of us watching Toy Story, one of the "highly discounted / may-or-may-not-be the original copy" movies that they sell all around Ecuador for a dollar...we'll eventually add this and all of the other movies we bought to the orphanage's collection.

On Tuesday we went to the bowling alley...another "first" for Jairo. He seemed to enjoy himself...but, like all 6-year-old boys, he likes (needs?) to win...so not being able to keep up with the bowling professionals that are his parents, he seemed to lose interest toward the end. That being said, even though the ball was about the same size as him, he bowled a 98 and didn't really need the bumpers for the last couple frames...so another positive "check" in Papi's mental list of whether Jairo has the genetic make-up of athleticism and eye-hand coordination to play for the Yankees in 15 years.

We partook of the video games that the bowling alley had as well--Jairo loved playing the car- and motorcycle-racing games...and Papi loved jamming with his son on Guitar Hero.



There's a good chance we'll head back to the bowling alley on the 28th to celebrate my 40th birthday. I celebrated many a birthday as a kid with bowling and pizza...so might as well resurrect this timeless tradition!

We capped off Carnaval weekend with the Ecuadorian tradition of spraying colorful "espuma" on one another...it's sorta like silly string but with the consistency of bubbles/soap. Again, we invited Jairo's friends from the orphanage over to play with us. We're sure the Tias loved the fact that we borrowed the kids so they could spray themselves with the espuma, only to bring them back an hour later, leaving the Tias to shower the kids and and clean their clothes. They must cringe every time we come over.







Such a great weekend!!! But needless to say we were worn out by the end of it. It gave us a very teeny tiny glimpse into why parents are always so excited for summer vacation to be over and to have their kids back in school!