Life at Latitude 3

At 11pm on Feb. 5th, Pato (short for Patricio) took me to the bus station so I could catch the 11:30pm bus to Guayaquil. I expected it to be a 24 hour journey – it’s prob. a good thing that I didn’t know at that moment that it would be a 38 hour trip. Before I could reach my parents’ house, I would have to sit in Guayaquil airport for 6 hours bec. of a flight delay, which would cause me to sprint through customs in New Jersey to catch my flight to Atlanta, only to learn that I would have to spend the night in Atlanta because of a mistake the airline made. But in the end, I and my luggage, showed up safe and sound at last, in Iowa, the land of my family and childhood.

The first week and a half I was back home, it was unbelievably and bitterly cold. Everyone was talking about the weather, but it was even more shocking for me, whose senses had become somewhat delicate from living in the land of eternal spring for the last 10 months. And, despite the fact that I’ve survived 16 winters in Iowa, I always forget how the winter winds can whip wildly around on the plains, with nothing to contest or to challenge them. So I hunkered down with my parents and the cats, and while the temps dropped perilously low outside, I treated my parents to several free piano concerts (small repayment for years and years of lessons).

I also enjoyed reaquainting myself with several things that either do not exist in Ecuador, or exist in Ecuador but are not at my immediate disposal. Anderson Erickson cottage cheese and reliably hot showers that consist of more than a dribble probably topped that list. I also became reaquainted with some aspects of US culture that are not so convenient, like waiting an hour and a half when going out to dinner on a Saturday night and gas prices.

The 2nd wknd I was home was my grandpa’s 90th birthday celebration, which was the principal reason that I came home in Feb. It was a wonderful day for Grandpa – over 100 people came, including all of his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and other surviving relatives. It was such a special day for him, and I was thankful to be there to share it with him.

The day after his party, I left my parents for a week to see good friends in Madison and Chicago, and a few stops in between. It was good to catch up with old friends and colleagues, and hear about the changes in their lives, and see how their kids were growing up. A special shoutout to Mary Beth! 🙂

When I left Chicago, I was quite stressed out about the weather, and praying I wouldn’t fall victim to the blizzard storm that was raging across the midwest. Illinois was relatively clear, but literally as soon as I crossed the Mississippi into Iowa, I could see what the storm had left in its wake. A semi truck was jackknifed in the median, and that was just the beginning of the vehicular carnage that I would see strewn about in the ditches and medians of Iowa.

I got home to find my family without power. They, and the rest of our neighbors, had lost power at 1:30pm on Saturday, and I arrived home at 7pm on Sunday. My grandparents, parents, and I all went over to my uncle’s house as he has a generator. We didn’t gain power back until around 8:30pm on Tuesday night, and we were lucky. Some people were not projected to have power again for 2 wks, despite the fact that electric companies from all over the midwest were sending crews to help with the repair efforts. 250,000 Iowan homes lost their power due to over 1000 miles of damaged transmission lines. We were just recovering from that first storm, when the 2nd one hit, and hard. The snow blustered madly and the wind howled wickedly about our little house, while we thanked God that we didn’t have to be on the interstate, and prayed that we didn’t lose our power again. The news was morbidly fascinating – stories of 20 car pile ups, the interstates closed from central Iowa to both the Minnesota and Nebraska borders, etc. Yes, it had been awhile since I’d experienced winter in all its dangerous glory.

Both of my parents were worried that they hadn’t entertained me enough when I was home, but I had been perfectly content just hanging out with them, helping them babysit my brother’s kids, putting jigsaw puzzles together with them, etc. And all winter blizzards aside, it was inexplicably wonderful to be in Iowa, and around the people of Iowa, if even for just a few weeks. USians outside of Iowa love to make fun of Iowa, but we Iowans have great pride in our state, and being home for a few weeks reminded me of that.
But soon, it was time for me to leave Iowa and venture to a part of the states I’d never been to before: Arizona. I was off to visit my dad’s parents, who live with my dad´s sister and her husband.  My grandpa isn´t doing so well, and we´d all be surprised if he were still with us at the end of this year.  When he passes, I can´t imagine my grandma will stick around much longer.  She told me several times while I was in Arizona:  “I pray to God that He take Herman first (because I don´t want Herman to suffer without me), but then I pray that he take me 5 minutes later, because I don´t want to suffer without him.”  They have been married for over 65 years, and I imagine life would be inconceivable for one without the other.  Very difficult for me to imagine, as my longest relationship, short of 3 years, ended over 10 years ago.  It was of course very good to see them, my friends Phil and Dora, and my aunt and uncle, but soon enough, I was on an overnight plane heading back to Cuenca.

So now I´m back in Cuenca, which is kind´ve tough for me, as I´m still fighting off a cold I´d picked up in the midwest.  I´d almost beaten it, but the overnight flight took me down again.  But, I´m feeling much better today, and looking forward to catching up with everyone here.

ok, signing off – much carino from ecuador!