A Little Bit of Texas Goes Everywhere

The local InterAmerican Academy held a fund raiser – Texas Days! There were Ecuadorian bands doing their best Country Rock, greased pig chases, petting zoos and a Texas Barbeque competition.

Normally, Saturday is a day for me – a time for writing, relaxing or whatever I want to let the stress of the week ease away. This Saturday was a different take – Texas Barbeque! Our school – Colegio Americano, cobbled a barbeque team together to compete. At the competition we gave out samples, and sold our homemade pulled pork and ribs along with hamburgers, all with a side of cole slaw. For competition we competed in one category of chicken and another for pork ribs. It made for a very long day. Aside from six weeks of meetings and several practice sessions, we sat up on Friday night, arrived at 7 a.m. to start Saturday morning and were working through 6 p.m. followed by cleanup. Tired puppies were we.

While we were cooking we thought we did well, and were especially confident in our chicken. We thought we had done a good job on the ribs, too, but we also knew there was going to be a lot of good competition in that category. Still, we thought another team would need to come up with some very good ribs to beat us.

In the end Miller’s Grillers (that’s us) took 1^st Place in Chicken and 2^nd Place in Ribs. We were delighted, but the one irksome fact was that the winners of the Rib competition were a team from the English Consulate. A squad of Limey’s won the Texas Barbeque Rib competition in Ecuador? Sacrilege on so many levels!

All had a good time, some important money was raised for InterAmerican Academy, and we managed to bring some trophies home. Of course, in typical Ecuadorian tradition, something had to be a fly in the ointment. Our 1^st Place trophy said we won the award in the “Chiken” category.

Ecuador journalist convicted of insulting official | jacksonsun.com | The Jackson Sun

The politics of journalistic freedom. Click below to see details.

Ecuador journalist convicted of insulting official | jacksonsun.com | The Jackson Sun

Air travelers to see tougher security before beach

One of the important things about an expats life is traveling. As an international teacher, there are always trips to home, but what is living and working overseas if you can't use it as an excuse to explore the world?

Having even more security measures come into play while traveling just keeps making it tougher. Click the link below to see the latest news.

Air travelers to see tougher security before beach

South America - Back to School!

am a teacher at an Ecuadorian high school. My wife is also a teacher, but works at an international school that follows the typical North american schedule. For the last two months I have done a lot of travel, some writing, started a weight loss program and played some poker. I haven't had to worry about fitting my diet around work, or figuring out the best time to do my workouts.

That changed today. Mar 22 is back to school or for teachers so here I am back into a work routine. We are up early enough to get our animals taken care of and lunches packed. Then my wife gets on her bus and I get on mine. First day for teachers, of course is fairly simple. We get a couple of meetings, spend some time networking with the other teachers and seeing what everybody did on their vacations. Then we check out our rooms - I got a new desk!Next it is checking out the schedule for the next week - filled with meetings, and deadlines for turning in curriculum plans, diagnostic tests as well as signing up for after-school activities.

After school was over I changed and did a cardio session on the school track. While doing that I heard a yell. Some of my oncoming seniors were at basketball practice. While the ladies had a water break we talked a bit and briefly got caught up. Fun!

Ecuador will not forget China's "mistreatment": president - Yahoo! News

Gotta love Ecuadorian politics. Ecuador is extremely limited in getting financing, because it has defaulted on their bonds several times over the last two decades, including in 2008/2009. it is thus dependent on the good will of other countries, like Cuba, Venezuela, China and Iran, to get financing for it's budget deficit.

Now it is facing a growing problem for its electrical infrastructure. This last December-January there were widespread, mandatory blackouts because of electrical shortages. Ecuador desperately needs a new dam, but doesn't want to pay the price to get the money.

See the details by clicking on the link below.

Ecuador will not forget China's "mistreatment": president - Yahoo! News

Expat Britons lose pensions appeal | Money | guardian.co.uk

Expats - people who live overseas from their home country, may be looking at some problems, at least if you are British and counting on pension monies to keep you solvent. A recent EU court case says it is legal for the British government to not pay pensions to retired citizens living overseas.

A lot of people go overseas because it is much cheaper to live, and you can often make a slim pension check go farther. Even I, who work overseas, depend in part on a partial pension the US Veteran's Administration pays me. While this is not a problem for US citizens now, I hate to think that politicians in Washington might hit on a (to them) brilliant idea of helping pay for the mounting deficits by taking away from a mostly powerless and voiceless constituency.

You can read details about the British case by clicking the link below:


Expat Britons lose pensions appeal |
Money |
guardian.co.uk

Racist announcement at Walmart store spurs probe

There are just some things that are just too stupid to contemplate. Someone got on a Walmart Store intercom to make a racist statement. Who made the statement - a Walmart employee?

Racist announcement at Walmart store spurs probe