Ecuador IV - National Assembly

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Subject: The Trumble Travels - Ecuador IV - National Assembly

Ecuador is having elections at the end of September to elect representatives to an assembly where the Ecuadorian constitution will be rewritten (or something along those lines). Signs advertising on behalf of various candidates are plentiful. According to the Latin American News Agency article at this link http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B981FAAFE-F339-40C9-AB24-52477825B386%7D)&language=EN more than 600 people appear on the national ballot (and more are on provincial ballots.

Here is a sampling of some of the signs.


One evening while we were out there were folks handing out posters and flags for Dale Patria. Below is one of those flags. I do not know if Dale Patria is a great guy or a crook. He does seem to be well funded.


Sign


People promoting List 27. The woman is the ex-wife of the President (or former president).

More folks marching in support of someone

More supporters of Dale Patria.

National Candidates. Truly, there are a bunch of them.

Some Regional Candidates

More Dale Patria supporters.

Ecuador III - Food

From: Dan Trumble

Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007

Subject: The Trumble Travels - Ecuador III - Food

While it pained me to do so, I ended up sampling several different food options while in Ecuador.
_________________

Juana took care of us with coffee, water, and snacks. The inset is humita which is made with corn and cheese. Doris, the Accountant in EC is the other one in the picture.

Lunch at Spaghetti. Pictured from left to right: Fernando (Country Director of Ecuador), Rich, Dan, Luz María (Accountant from Mexico), and Rafael (Ministry Services Manager for Ecuador).

Trout & caviar. I’m not sure I’ve ever had caviar before. Caviar is indicated by the arrow.

BK Stacker Cuadruple from Burger King

Rincon La Ronda Restaurante. I had tongue.

I also had blueberry juice

Soup. The big hunk of something is green plantains.

Lots of juice options are available in Ecuador

Fritada (fried pork). Also popped corn, some other corn stuff, plantain, and avocado. In the lower left corner is cheese soup with avocado.

Hot Chocolate and Cheese. Whoever heard of such a thing…but what a great idea!

Naranja juice, El Tomate Rellano (with tuna as it turns out), a hot chocolate with cheese…AND a hunk of steak that Rich wasn’t going to eat!

Ecuador II - Old Town Quito

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007
Subject: The Trumble Travels - Ecuador II - Old Town Quito


On Friday night Rafael and his wife, Sofia, Isabel and her husband, Ronnie, Luz Maria, Rich and I went to the Old Town of Quito. This is where the Presidential house is located as well as the house for the Mayor of Quito. Also, lots of narrow, hilly streets and pretty old structures including churches and other stuff.

For more pictures and stuff, see http://www.gagme.com/greg/vacation/2004/galapagos/quito2.php

Old pretty buildings


A wedding was taking place.


Another old building.


We rode around on horse-drawn carriages. Here’s Rich and me.

The group at dinner after walking (and riding carriages) around Quito’s Old Town

Ecuador I - Quito

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007\
Subject: The Trumble Travels - Ecuador I - The City

Greetings! I’m sending this message from Bogotá, Colombia where I arrived yesterday from Quito, Ecuador. Rich, a colleague of mine, and I spent a few days in Quito before flying to Colombia yesterday. We spent time training with some of the staff and exploring a possible software solution for some of the unique accounting requirements that exist in Ecuador. Luz María, the new Accountant in Mexico, also joined us.

Quito is that capital city of Ecuador and is 2800m (9200 ft) above sea level so even though it is only a short distance south of the equator, the temperatures are moderate and the climate is very nice. Given the struggles I have with heat sometimes when I travel, this was a very welcome change. Quito is a city of approximately 1.5 million people. Quito is pronounced like key toe but the guy at the Colorado Springs airport called it kwee toe (“kwee” like the sound in “queen”). It is probably safe to assume he has never been to Quito. On the other hand, our flights went well so I guess he did his job fine.

Ecuador, like much of the rest of South America, was colonized by the Spanish and the Spanish and Catholic influence is evident. We visited El Panecillo which is about 3000m above sea level and overlooks much of the city. There is a large statue of the Virgin Mary. I guess I don’t really know whether El Panecillo is the statue or the hill or what. Anyway, kind of interesting.

On Thursday I had Chinese food for lunch. That makes 11 countries where I’ve had Chinese food:

Burkina Faso
Colombia
Ecuador
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Hong Kong
Kenya
Peru
The Philippines
Rwanda
USA

Archival TTTs are available at http://trumbletravels.blogspot.com/
Trumble family stuff, including a new post, is available at http://trumble-toast.blogspot.com/

Luz María & Dan at El Panecillo with Quito in the background


The city with a sign in the foreground for a candidate to the assembly that will be drafting a new constitution. More on that stuff in another message.


This city from the project we visited


El Panecillo (http://tour.in-quito.com/quito-tourist-attractions-panecillo.htm)


Dan (foreground). Virgin (background)

Another shot of the city with some guy (it’s me!).

Chinese Food (Sesame Chicken)

Work occurring. This is during a presentation from GrupoMAS, a vendor located in Quito.

Misc Stuff Ethiopia VIII

From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007
Subject: TTT The Trumble Travels - Misc Stuff Ethiopia VIII

Ethiopia is a very interesting place. Here are some final pictures and comments.

I bought this map on the street for 40 birr (about $4.50). The first price the guy said was 80 birr so I did pretty well…or maybe not. Someone else had this guy or some other willing to sell one of these maps for 20 birr…oh well.


Devil Soup at a Chinese Restaurant

Dan with a sweat rag

Most of the folks involved in the CIV meetings.

Rodeo Addis ---- ???

Habesha Restaurant – a traditional Ethiopian restaurant. The waitress has injera in the basket.

Hand washing, traditional seating (we sat on more typically western-style chairs, not the round ones in the second picture below), food to eat with injera, and Dr. Alemayehu and me.

Macchiato (a chocolaty coffee-ish drink)

Ethiopians work off of a different time system than most of the rest of us. What we think of as 7:00 is 1:00 to Ethiopians. Here are a couple of examples of clocks on Ethiopian time compared to my watch which is on the time system to which I’m accustomed.

Haile Sellassie I was the last emperor of Ethiopia. He was overthrown by the Communists in the early 1970s and was later executed. He is the one that is viewed as the Messiah by Rastafarians. The other guy is Dan. He is not viewed as the Messiah by anyone (which is good).

Kids in Spiderman and Batman outfits

Just like most of the rest of the world soccer is a big deal in Ethiopia. Pictured are a bunch of really good guys but I don’t know all of their names. Here are some of them. From left to right:

Mystery Good Guy -- Roberto Carlos – Another Mystery Good Guy – David Beckham – Ronaldinho – Henry – Raul – Mystery Good Argentinean Guy

We watched some of the championship game of the FA Cup between Chelsea and Manchester United. Drogba (a good guy) saved the day for Chelsea in the end. It was a typical high scoring football match: Scoreless at the end of regulation with a final of 1-0 at the end. Good grief.

Never heard of the FA Cup? 687 teams participated in the most recent quest for the FA Cup.
Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Cup

Ronaldinho is a really good guy from Brasil that plays for Barcelona in club play. Below are some Ronaldinho things from around the world.
Brasil: Texaco Ethiopia: Orange jersey on left Uganda: Minibus Burkina Faso: The other two jerseys Ethiopia: Pepsi ad

On Monday morning I left Addis Ababa to head home. On the way to London we stopped briefly in Alexandria. We didn’t even deplane so that wasn’t all that exciting but we did fly near some of the pyramids. This may be one of the worst pictures you’ve ever seen of the pyramids but it is what it is (buy a postcard or something if you want a really good picture).

The arrow on the left side of the page points to what may be pyramids but the little highlighted box is definitely at least two pyramids…pretty cool!