Richard's Back

Saturday November 1

Today is the anniversary when my father died. That was 48 years ago! I remember the day and I’ll always remember him. God Bless him.

Galo came over with two of his workers to continue work on the roof.

About 11am Richard came over. It was good seeing him as we had not seen him for about 2 months. He was away on a business trip to Argentina and New Zealand. He really like New Zealand and said it’s a beautiful place to live. It said it’s nice to be around people who are intelligent and polite.

He told us that the place is so clean that it’s unbelievable. He never heard someone beep their horn – as they have patience. Of all the towns that he visited he said that the most beautiful is Christchurch.

He really hated to come back to Ecuador. He said that the cost of living is much higher and gave some examples. For a 20 minute taxi ride it cost 50 NZ $ (about $30). The NZ dollar is worth about 60 US cents. A nice but average size flat costs about half a million dollars! For lunch it cost about $22 NZ, for dinner about $30 NZ.

Then Richard got bad news when he got home. He heard from some friends about what happened when he was away. He said one good friend he has here was robbed twice at gun point. Since then this guy got a licence to buy and carry a gun.

Another person was attacked by a knife welding bandit. After he was stabbed then made a dirty comment to them and they came back and stabbed him more – he died as a result of this.

Then his business partner was robbed while he was on the beach. He told the thug, “What are you crazy!” Meaning that when you just have on a bathing suite what could he robbed of?!

Stupid criminals!

Then there was a couple that he didn’t know but it was in the newspapers. It was a tourist couple that was at the same beach that his business partner was. The woman was raped and the guy was stabbed 26 times!! He was flown back to the US for hospitalization.

The anti-foreigner and anti-White crime has gone up!

Richard said he is considering hiring an armed guard.

This is another and perhaps the most important reason to leave Ecuador! They certainly don’t have crime like this in many other places, including Cyprus.

I introduced Galo to Richard and they talked a little. I thought that it would be good for Richard to know someone who is honest and does good work for his repairs and any future construction.

Richard fixed some programs on my computer and he also made copies of some of the films he downloaded from the internet (he brought over his external hard drive).

Jayne stayed home while Richard and I went to the mall. I suggested to her that we all stay home or we all go, but we would have to leave the workers here by themselves. Well, we would never consider this if it was any other workers, but since Galo said they are completely trustworthy he said it was ok when we left for a ride with him to the country. But Jayne said it’s ok for us to go and just bring back something to eat for her.

Richard and I went to the Waffle House and had something to eat there (it wasn’t waffles). Then I got some food for Jayne.

We talked some more when we got back. Then Richard left about 5.30pm.

In the evening Jayne started to come down with a cold.


Sunday November 2

Jayne doesn’t feel well today as she has a cold. She was feeling bad last night and it’s a bit worse today. This is the first time she got sick while in Ecuador.

Since we need food I went to the mall myself while she stayed home in bed.

In the morning I went to the mall to do some food shopping.