House in Cuenca with furniture and artwork up, some of you asked for these. Here they are!

Ok, we are pretty well settled now and we have hung the art, which several of you wanted to see up and we have done the front yard with Ecuadorian plants.  See above.

If we owned an auto this is where it would be parked.  At the entrance of the house.

Standing in the front door looking into the living room.  Be sure to notice the ceilings.

Living room, small but very cozy looks out to the garden.  My secret garden.

Other side of the living, many of you will recognize the "big mirror" we have been schlepping around for years.

Looking from back of Living Room up the staircase.  The tryptich is on right.

Headed straight up the stairs.  The window is our bedroom, which was added after the house was built, so it was originally an outside window, now it looks into my staircase, a great setup.

Somewhat closer view of the trio.

The "Elvis Angel Choir" is singing on the staircase, daily.  So named by Stef my little SIS, so clever.  The lead angel looks like Elvis, most of the angels are Mexican in origin.

Looking us while taking the turn on the stairs.  Nana Dean and Sophie Heine masterpiece is at upper left of this group.

Upstairs landing hallway outside second bath and two guest rooms.  Check out the light coming in, we have three skylights on the second floor, floods the house with light.

Yes, Clive has adjusted as you can see him on the Aunt Jane Bench in the hallway looking into the den where we watch TV.

Second floor landing view, looking at our bedroom window, Linda remember when we bought that kimono?  One Lafayette Square House Tour poster to left of window.

Front bedroom, come on down, the mattress is great.  Purchased in Ecuador.

Bill's little studio where he spends hours, wails, sings, composes and has the time of his life.  I love being in the house and listening for him to turn into a rocker.

Guest bathroom, where the cats have been playing with the TP.

Back guest bedroom overlooking the courtyard terrace.

Other side of back guest bedroom, big window overlooks the courtyard terrace.  You can see I have a project getting organized on the bottom of the bed.

This is proof that Mr. Reggie has adjusted, he is laying on our bed.  Head board is the frame from the foyer of Kennett Place.  I painted a fantasy of the Caja Mountains (our mountains here, with St. Louis in the background.)  The yellow brick road goes to STL where a piece of my heart will always be.  The tin man is leading the way.  The bare light bulb is a testimony to the fact that this is what is found in most Ecuadorian houses.  We are slowly putting up light fixtures as we find them. Not an easy task.

Den where we watch TV.  Citicorp cartoons on wall at left.  Wooden doors reflected in mirror is Bill's closet, which he never closes as you can see.

I am at my dining room room table, quilting.  Yes, I am teaching myself to quilt after all these years.  Some of you know how much I love an excuse to buy fabric.  The various plastic chairs are testimony to the good dining room chairs that did not make it on.  Just last week we ordered new ones to be delivered in May.

Looking from the other end of the dining room into the back courtyard/terrace.

One wall of dining room, with Ella Mae Krotz Memorial buffet, yes Richard that is a reflection of the print of your painting of the St. Louis Skyline, such a treasure.

Looking from the dining room into the kitchen.  Buffet on left is being fitted with a piece of granite and built higher for me to chop and stir on.  The tall woman can't bend over to the short Ecuadorian ladies height.

One end of courtyard/terrace looking at the door of my art studio.

View of terrace outside kitchen window.

Table and umbrella just outside the back door on terrace.

Bill's work shop.

My studio with a work in progress and a big finished one waiting for a friend's new condo to be finished so it can be hung in the stairwell.

Looking out the dining room front window toward the street: Calle Valle de Catamayo.  We are settled and love our house.  We have a great landlord, a Ecuadorian businesswoman whose family has an export business, they bring fruits and vegs to the states, via San Fransisco.  We are here for the duration having the time of our lives.  Hugs to all.  Dean Keyes

 

Update on Fundraising Efforts to help 7 year old Mateo and his family

We want to keep those of you who are followers up to date on our effort to help Mateo and his family.  You will remember that Mateo is a 7 year old boy whose leg was mangled by a public bus when he was 4 years of age.  His family is poor and lives in the hills above Cuenca.  While we were working with his caregivers, doctors, hospital auxiliary volunteers to help with his care, we learned that the family's house had collapsed in a violent rain storm.  Thus, we started raising monies to assist with this worthy cause.  

We have held a bingo game, we have published this blog and a similar blog on my husband and my personal blog.  We have been very fortunate to acquire an anonymous donor in the U. S.  This donor will match dollar for dollar each dollar that we raise up to $2,000.  So at this point CEBA/Cuenca Expatriate Benevelent Association has raised $650.00 between our internet efforts and our fund raising efforts here in Cuenca.  That amount will be matched by the anonymous donor, bringing the total to today April 2, 2011 to $1300.00 so far.  Many thanks to those of you who have donated or participated in the bingo or "hat pass" here in Cuenca. 

Our primary contact with the family is a volunteer from the hospital auxiliary.  She along with an Ecuadorian architect and Bill Keyes, my husband a retired civil engineer have been out to the house last week.  The architect has compiled a list of building materials needed to complete the new house up to the second floor.  Remember this house had started being built before the old one collapsed.  Our Ecuadorian contact has gotten materials donated which include, concrete blocks, sacks of concrete and sand.  The husband of the family is in construction and has indicated that he has help to rebuild if we can provide the materials.  This is the plan at this time. In the next 7-10 days a truck will deliver materials mentioned above that have been donated or purchased with CEBA donations to the building site. Then we will document the progress of these materials as the house is built and keep you updated.  We thank you again for your kind donations.  Stay tuned to this blog for further updates.  For those of you who might like to make a contribution, you can do this at: pay pal address: ceba.ecuador@yahoo.com.




 

Cuenca Expats Benevolent Association

Along with some friends we recently formed this Foundation and this is our first blog for it.  For future updates of the Foundation you can find it at this link..

http://ceba-ecuador-2011.blogspot.com/

This blog is being posted by the Cuenca Expatriate Benevolent Association, CEBA.  This is a recently established not for profit organization formed by North Americans living in Cuenca, Ecuador.  The purpose of the organization is to be a catalyst for identifying worthwhile causes and helping out where we can,  in our newly adopted home city of Cuenca.  Cuenca is a beautiful city in the Andean Mountains of Ecuador.  

In the beautiful mountains outside Cuenca lives a family of 10 who need our help.  This mother and father (father works full time in the construction business) with 8 children live on a small plot of land they own.  Until recently they lived in a small adobe brick house that was many years old.  In a recent rain storm the house collapsed and consequently the family has had to relocate to a neighbors.  They do not want to leave their land since they need to care for their animals which include: 2 cows, sheep, goats, chickens.  They used to have a bull but they sold it to raise money to help with their son Mateo's medical costs.  

Mateo is 7, when he was 4 he was hit by a public bus and his leg was almost severed from his body.  A Cuban doctor here in Cuenca reattached the leg and is seeing Mateo, free of charge every two weeks as he adjusts the metal brace that helps Mateo's crushed leg grow at the same pace as his good leg.  At this time Mateo is not ambulatory.  But, he is working toward that and with our help we hope to be able to report that he will be after some tender loving care.  This TLC is dispensed by his  mother and father and siblings to him daily.  It is a very lovely caring family who are very happy with their life and show it daily. 

As you can see this indigenous family are hard working and have very little compared to the life of Americans and most Ecuadorians.  The Cuenca Expatriate Benevolent Association has decided  that the first project of this newly formed not for profit foundation will be to help Mateo's family get back on 

their feet and hopefully get some rehab and education for Mateo to aid his recovery from this devastating bus accident.

Cuenca Expatriate Benevolent Association has already started raising money to assist this family.  We are also working with a very generous community leader who is part of the local hospital axillary who is helping this family, also.  CEBA is donating the proceeds from our weekly Gringo Bingo game to the family of Mateo, but we are coordinating with the Doctor and the rehab efforts to be sure what is being given is going to the families needs.  

We would ask you to consider a donation on behalf of Mateo and his family.  You can send your donations via PayPal to

our Paypal account

ceba.ecuador@yahoo.com

Below are photos of the family and the house that needs attention since the rain/hail storm. 

                                    

This is a view of the valley and the house before the house collapsed.

Mateo's family keeps animals to help maintain the family as well as to sell eggs and chickens to make money.

The is the little cat that Mateo was so worried about as the house collapsed.  He did not want to leave until he knew his gato was safe.

Their are a total eight children in the family.  Only four of them live at home.  Mateo is in the red shirt with his right arm raised.  Momma has on the grey hat and her name is Francisca.

This is a close up of Mateo's injured left leg.

This is a close up of Mateo who spends lots of time in bed because he is not yet ambulatory.

This photo was taken just after his accident three years ago.

This is another photo of the family with the big brother and his child, who live elsewhere.  At left is Monica Flores who is liaison for the family with our foundation.  She is a local Cuenca business woman and member of the hospital auxillary that serves Mateo's needs.

Old house on left, new house on right. The family had started building the new house prior to the collapse of the one on the left.  

This shows the old house after it collapsed.  Mateo's father has already begun salvaging materials that can be reused. It is our focus to concentrate our help to finish the new house for the family.  Mateo's father will also finish the remains of the old house into a one story structure that the family can use, also.

Close up of collapsed house, that was a two story structure.

Francisca with youngest child.

Salvaged roof tiles from the old house.

These are Mateo's parents and his youngest sister, in front of the house where they are staying temporarily.

Any donation you can make will be helpful. Over the next few weeks we will be compiling list of Mateo's various needs and will post how much they will cost.  

CEBA is a joint venture of both concerned Expats and Cuencanos.  Our efforts will be focused on fundraising and our Cuencano friends will help getting materials and labor for projects like this one and also help in deciding which projects we will fund.