Tag: Guayaquil

Landlines Before Cell Phones; Life in Banana Republics

In 1989 Guayaquil, Ecuador telephones were always problematic. During the rainy season they were so problematic that they would just stop working for weeks at a time. You got used to it. No, really, you got used to it. At least, I did. And it did prepare me for a handful of years later in... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
July 20, 2020 at 3:23 pm • 

The Cult of El Senor

Wherever we lived in Latin America, the power always centered around El Señor. Whoever he was, whatever he did, it always was the same, the culture believed that El Señor magically always knew best. Very “Father Knows Best” of the 1950s, but then the Latin America of my time was just like that.  So it... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
June 26, 2020 at 9:17 am • 

The Coronavirus Cheesecake

When the coronavirus seeped into life cloistering both friends and family, my original plan for my husband’s very special 70th birthday broke like a fresh merengue dropped on the floor. No longer would his sister roll over from the neighboring Berkshires for dinner and a dessert from her favorite bakery’s very special cheesecake of various... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
May 13, 2020 at 1:02 pm • 
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Water Water Everywhere

Anyone who has ever dealt with water knows, the water always always beats the house. Outside of Phoenix AZ, our rental was cooled by a swamp cooler, a garden hose affixed to a fan at the top of the double garage sized home. We were young, necessarily frugal, so learned to live with this gerry-rigged cooling... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
August 23, 2019 at 9:43 am • 

Raining Cockroaches in Texas

In the wild kingdom of my life overseas, I’ve experienced the company of bedbugs, cockroaches, centipede, scorpions, fleas, head lice, iguanas, jelly fish, lizards, frogs, mice, rats, pin-worms, ringworms, ticks, termites, goats and more. Some of these critters also made appearances in my so-called civilized homeland in America, like the centipede who scurried out of... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
June 21, 2019 at 9:58 am • 

Where in the world we didn't move and why?

In the early days when it was just the two of us, we moved without much thought. Would we move to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for my husband’s first job out of graduate school? Sure, why not? When the job quickly proved to be a square hole for my round peg of a husband, he quit... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
May 24, 2019 at 9:46 am • 
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A Question of Tolerance

It was just a question. The kids always listened to the adults. They’d heard, then wondered. What did the adults mean when they said that one of the Smith girls was adopted? Which one? Seven-year-old Mary Ann knew what adopted meant since she’d adopted her cat Socks from the British family who left town and couldn’t take... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
May 17, 2019 at 9:57 am • 

An Expatriate's Guide to Vermin, or How the Hell to get a Bat out of the Refrigerator

Guayaquil, Ecuador 1989 After three years in Ecuador, I thought I’d seen it all. Hadn’t the mice gotten into the closed pantry to nibble on the imported Kraft Macaroni & Cheese on July the Fourth? I’d brought back piles of the treasured treat from the USA, all at my pre-teen’s request. Hadn’t six-foot plus iguanas... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
March 29, 2019 at 9:41 am • 

Immaculate Infection

Living in Guayaquil, Ecuador in the mid-1980s, I viewed my main job as keeping all four of us healthy. It wasn’t easy. Though I knew my way around a mercury thermometer, without today’s access to the internet or a first world healthcare system, we were on our own. I started with ensuring our water was... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
March 8, 2019 at 9:44 am • 
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Thankful for the Small Expatriate World

Within months of arriving in Lima, Peru in 1972, my boyfriend Gary and I were on a street downtown. Greeted by someone who knew him, I asked, “Who was that?” “Oh, one of the Peace Corps volunteers who came to my parents house to take a bath.” Now why hadn’t I thought of that? As... Read more »
By Candace Drimmer,
November 23, 2018 at 8:49 am • 
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    Candace Drimmer

    TIMELINE June 1972 to June 1973---Candace moves to Lima (Peru)----- June 1973 to May 1974---Candace and The Husband live in Glendale AZ----- May 1974 to August 1974---Living in Toronto, Ontario (Canada)----- September 1974 to May 1975---Living in Aberdeen SD----- May 1975 to July 1979---Living in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)----- July 1979 to June 1980---Living in Asuncion (Paraguay)----- June 1980 to September 1980---Living in NYC----- September 1980 to November 1982---Living in Connecticut----- November 1982 to January 1983---Living in Ponce, Puerto Rico (USA)----- February 1983 to July 1986---Living in Willemstad, Curacao (Netherlands Antilles)----- July 1986 to July 1989---Living in Guayaquil (Ecuador)----- July 1989 to July 1995---Living in Connecticut (yes, again)----- July 1995 to August 2001---Living in Mexico City (Mexico)----- August 2001---Return to Gringolandia (a.k.a. United States of America)----- I was an accidental expatriate; love and marriage led me to it. One day I was a bandy-legged kid sitting atop my dogwood tree looking out of my small backyard world in 1950s New Jersey, wanting to move somewhere--anywhere, different. Next thing I knew I met a young hirsute anti-war, soon-to-be-Peace Corps volunteer, fell in love and moved to Peru in the 1970s. WHAT an adventure it's been!! NOTE: I gave up Facebook, so apologies that I cannot answer any comments since it is only set up via FB.

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