To any reader who has wondered where this blog has been for two months, we're sorry to keep you waiting.
We returned to Boston at the very end of April (as the immigration lady pointed out, we were on our 91st day, and therefore technically overstaying the visa limit, but she let us through). Nan visited her father and, unfortunately very sick step- mother in Arizona. Fortunately she has made good progress since, and is back home. Emma and Mike attended the last month of school - Emma's last before migrating to the high school next year. It was certainly an unusual end to the year, after three months of living such a (for us) radically different lifestyle.
Ecuador is stunningly beautiful. But when Emma and I (Mike) went to visit my mum in England, I was reminded of the beauty of the bluebell woods in May, just a short walk from her house, where I grew up.
For those who like picture and videos, we have added links (more are coming) to several five minute segments of film/slide show from different parts of the journey. If you can take the time, the 30 minute 'director's cut' may interest you. They try to tell the story of being there, with some cool music (mostly Ecuadorian) thrown in.
Reflections on our return are still coming thick and fast. So much of the experience had to do with adapting to unfamiliar circumstances - our regular life is mostly predictable - that is a buzz that is often, by its nature, contradictory.
Not quite sure if this blog is over yet - We are incubating the experience over the summer, and will hopefully bring forth something productive and useful for people, both in Ecuador and here in Maynard, MA.
We saw leaf cutter ants - check out this 5 minute very cool lesson about them if you are into this stuff. The colony thrives, partly by sending great armies of ants to nearby trees (up to 100 meters away (or more maybe). The ants chew the leaves into sections about 2 or 3 centimeters across, then carry them to the nest where worker ants transform the leaves into a pulp which becomes their food. It is hard to escape feeling like just one of gazillions of ants, each with a task to do, but so easily replaced when rendered useless one way or another. However, it is equally amazing and fascinating to at least understand some of what is going on in the world around us. A glimpse into the world of leaf cutter ants is a microcosm of a much larger world - one in which conflict, survival, sense of purpose, opportunity and chance co-mingle in such a way that one might suspect a sense of humor behind the origin of this world we live in.
