Censo Sunday

And then right after Ruth's birthday, we had "Censo Sunday" - a once in every 10 years day here in Ecuador. This year, the unique thing was that everyone in the whole country (yes, everyone!) had to stay put from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wherever you were at 7 a.m. (hopefully at home), you had to stay there until the census was over at 5 p.m. So churches didn't have services, stores were closed, buses weren't run, there weren't any taxes.

Only those employed in places like hospitals were able to move about. And the census takers were thousands of young people from all over the country who were required to go to several homes and do a long survey!

So what does one do on a census Sunday? Well, first of all, our three guests (Ana, Julie and Nanette - see previous post) were actually glad to have a "down day" to just hang out and do basically nothing - but oh yes, we did have a few things on our list:

1) sleep in

2) eat "locro de papas" - an ecuadorian dish - potato soup

3) watch movies and eat popcorn

4) somehow keep the kids entertained

5) make 4 batches of sugar cookies for the ER Christmas Outreach at the Hogar Betania on the following Wednesday

6) make chili for other guests arriving the next day

7) play games

8) have a fire in the fireplace

9) talk and chat and catch up as only us women know to do

10) and wait for the census taker to show up (which he finally did right around 4:45 p.m.)!

And the picture above is of Santi with the census taker, answering a bunch of questions (and apparently Isa thought it was pretty funny - can you see her big smile!?). I'm so glad my husband was here to take care of it! I probably wouldn't have had the patience for all the questions!