16 May

Sorry. Here it is.

Ok. Let me begin by saying I had every intention of posting the “rest of the story” on Saturday, but the internet here at the Plaza was not fully functioning. So I couldn’t get to wiscostorm at all. Let me also preface this by saying that as I have related it below, I haven’t succeeded in really capturing the full effect of what this experience did to me last Thursday. It really threw me for a loop, as they say. It really took me a full day and a half before I could admit to myself that I was dealing with some real mental illness or something. Anyhow, sorry for the long wait. Here it is:

After class on Thursday, a student of mine approached me and said she needed to tell me something. She has always struck me as pretty intelligent and rational; she’s a lawyer who has worked on some pretty big cases, and she’s also somewhat envolved in left-wing activism, but she’s told me she worries about Ecuador becoming ultra-left, like Cuba or Venezuela. (The president that just got ousted was right-wing, and his replacement is proving to be right-wing also).

Anyhow, after everyone else left, she started explaining to me how there are signs. I can’t do her whiteboard-aided lecture justice, but here’s some of it. The holy trinity is represented by a triangle, the pinnacle of which is God, right? Well, look at the most dangerous leaders in Latina America. Who are they? Chavez in Venezuela, Castro in Cuba, and Lula in Brasil. You connect the dots, and it’s an upside-down triangle, the pinnacle of which is Lula, who is the most dangerous. In addition, take the first letters of each of their names and what do you get? Ch-C-L, or Chacal, which means demon in Spanish. In the Bible, prophecies of the end times talk about “soldiers of fire” and a “dragon.” Who are these soldiers of fire? Who is the dragon? It’s China. The Chinese have been slowly inundating Ecuador with their businesses. Soon, they will attempt to gain more power and when they do, Ecuador is finished. It will become a communist country with neither God nor law.

She wanted me to go to the US Embassy to explain to them that they need to help Ecuador. The only thing that will keep the communists out is a strong US presence. She explained that I shouldn’t mention her name, that she feared for her life and her children, and that she is clairvoyant. She sees the future. In fact, back in 2001, three days before 9/11, she saw the World Trade Center towers up in smoke. She called the Embassy, but they brushed her off. On the 11th, however, they came to talk to her.

She told me I needed to act fast. She sees a meeting of Chinese business men at the Swisshotel. This is how the inundation will proceed. Additionally, due to her cold, she had some foggy areas in her “sight.” But there was some vague badness near where this religious sect called “enkankar” does their stuff.

She told me I shouldn’t tell anyone, except important people. And she explained that she couldn’t talk with me about any of this stuff over the phone because she lives between the electric company and the potable water plant, thus putting her smack-dab in the middle of potential bugging. If Palacios, the current president, accepts an invitation to China, they will implant a chip in him and control him.

I took notes, and I spent most of the lecture trying to decide if she was crazy or if she was actually legit. Here, it sounds like she’s definitely nuts, maybe schizophrenia, but if you talk to her in person, you wouldn’t think that.

Anyhow, this is all recorded now, so in case Venezuela, Cuba, and Brazil all end up being a triumvirate of evil someday, or in case Ecuador falls to Chinese commies, you heard it first on wiscostorm.net.

11 May

Viewer discretion advi . . .


Bella’s handiwork
Originally uploaded by wiscostorm.

For those who don’t know, we have to throw out toilet paper. Even in the five-star SwissHotel, you can’t flush tp down the toilets in Ecuador. So, once a week or so, we fill a plastic grocery bag with used tp. Pretty gross, eh? Yeah, well, you get used to it. What you don’t get used to is seeing it just outside your front door because a dog decided it would be a fun game to open up the bag and scatter it all over the place.

I actually woke from sleep at about 6:30 last Saturday morning. I was having a pleasant dream about a grassy park when I heard a scampering sound, which in my dream was a gremlin — honest to God. I awoke with a start and immediately went to the front door to discover Bella’s handiwork.

10 May

Theft

Ok. A quick story. On Friday, my office at SECAP got broken into. When I went to SECAP for my 6:00 class, I discovered the door open, the latch that held the padlock torn from the wood. They stole my computer speakers, which I bought here and which I use for in-class music and dialogues, etc. And they stole my dry-erase markers. They didn´t steal the two jars full of coins I had collected as “speaking Spanish” penalties.

On Sunday, I went to a mall to buy new speakers and upon returning home, I discovered that they didn´t work. So I had to go back to the mall and be all pissy in Spanish. Tough to do.

09 May

Mother’s Day


attempt #1
We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Woulda posted all this yesterday, but flickr wasn’t working. Above is our first attempt to take a picture of ourselves with flowers for Mother’s Day. We couldn’t quite figure out how to use the auto-timer thingy on the camera.
It was starting to rain just as we were taking the second picture, so we were in a hurry. Nevertheless, we didn’t quite get there in time.


attempt #2
On the third attempt, though, we got it. Happy Mother’s Day, Moms.


attempt #3