New Year’s Day 2009

Thursday January 1

Some people got up about 6am while others got up around 6.30am. There is a lot of work to do for the guests. The first thing that was done was to kill the pig. I wasn’t outside at the time but was awake. Then I got up and saw them gut the pig. Matt had bought the pig about a month ago for the purpose of eating it on New Year’s Day.

We had breakfast, but again it wasn’t much as each person got one egg. So, Jayne and I were still a bit hungry.

The first guests arrived about 11.30am. in total there were about 23 of us including the children.

I knew about half the people there, as there was Judith’s family and the family of the godmother of Amparo’s new son.

With more children there they were riding the horse and mule constantly. Jayne and I felt sorry for the animals. What I should have done was as soon as two kids came back to say it’s our turn. I told Matt that the animals are being ridden too often and he said they didn’t look tired to him. Imagine!

If this was my place I would have organized it and say something like this, “The animals need a rest so wait 30 minutes. Then have ridden it enough it’s time for the adults to ride if they want to.” This is my character and by doing this it will give the animals rest and show discipline to the children – which the parents should have done. When kids act badly it’s a reflection on the parents.

About 6pm I got a ride on the horse. Jayne didn’t want to ride either animal at that time. I just took it for a short walk and did not make it run. Then there were two stops of about 5 minutes each. Probably the horse sensed that I was thinking of its health.

When I got on the horse, I had my ‘cowboy hat’ that I wore all day and my dress boots. Matt wanted to take a picture of me and said I looked like John Wayne. Then the worker that lives there got his old shot gun out and gave it to me. Matt said go get those Indians.

Anyhow, I took a lot of pictures while we were there. I’ll post them on this website.

I had fish, as some were saved from yesterday and yucca and some kind of corn. I didn’t want to spend all day picking the bones so some meat was left on it when I finished. There as a dog and cat sitting by me and I gave the fish to them. Jayne had the pig. She said it didn’t have flavor and it was tough.

Matt has chickens, too, but not enough eggs to feed even 6 people. He should have bought eggs at the market.

In the evening we talked on the cabana and drank wine. (They also had beer there but it was finished when all the guests went home. So there was just wine left.)

We all went to bed about 7.45am. We did sleep well there and the bunk beds were comfortable.

Matt had asked me to give the workers about $5 before I leave and he’ll ask the others to do the same. He said that they had to work hard as they never had to cook for guests before (I could tell by the lack of food for breakfast and lunch).

This is some nerve asking the people for money! Especially me, as Jayne and I were the only playing guests. I had given him $30 the week before to contribute to the food and drinks. Plus I bought a bottle of champagne, to be sure that we had this for midnight. Then when we were at a store the sold fireworks, I contributed $10 (half of what he spent). Then there was the restaurant that I paid for his meal, which must have come up to $10 for his share. Then we stopped at a store where he needed small change, and I forked over $2. The champagne cost about $3.

In total I spent over $50 and we did not get $50 worth of food and drinks there.

The other wrong this is, that this was a party and people understand that it’s free. I doubt if he asked them to contribute money to the workers. I don’t think Ecuadorians would like that. I know that Jayne and I didn’t like it. He should pay the workers extra money and not guests.

When we left (Friday) the workers waved and we waved back – but I did not pay them anything. They should get paid extra but that should have come out of Matt’s pocket!