(Apologies to Harper’s Index, from which I shamelessly stole this idea)
Number of times I am called Mi Reina (my queen) in a typical day: 5
Number of times it will take for one more person to call me Mi Reina before I clock them: 1
Number of times I hear “Pssst, pssst” in a typical day: 6
Number of times I turn to look at the person who says “Pssst, pssst”: 0
Mean age of person saying “Pssst, pssst”: 16
Number of Ecuadorian friends who find my utter annoyance at Latin machismo hilarious: 2
Number of times someone calls me China or Chinita in a typical day: 7
Percentage of Ecuadorians who consider this offensive: 0
Number of children who come up and stare at me in a typical day: 10
Number of random children who have touched my feet (to see if I am real?): 1
Number of times the electricity has gone out recently: 2
Number of times I have had to take a cold shower upon arrival in-site: 2
Percent likelihood that one ever gets used to cold showers: 0
Number of days recently that the town had no water: 1.5
Ecuador’s ranking out of 178 countries in a recent worldwide survey on corruption: 156
Number of Presidents that Ecuador has had in the past 10 years: 8
Rank, in the Ecuadorian economy, of funds sent home by Ecuadorians overseas: 2
Number of Ecuadorian immigrants currently living in Spain, legally: 500,000
Percentage of the voting public that supported an April referendum to rewrite the Ecuadorian Constitution: 82
Number of Constituents in the new Constitutional Assembly voted upon 9/30/2007: 130
Number of candidates: 3,200
Length of ballot, in feet: 5
Average temperature in my site: 22° C
My preferred temperature: 16° C
Average days of sunshine in my site per year: 300
Days of sunshine that I would prefer per year: 150
Number of friends that have called me crazy because I love cold, rainy weather: 2
Ratio of carbohydrates to protein in an average Ecuadorian meal: 3:0
Number of potatoes I have consumed in the past week: 1.5
Number of green salads that I have consumed in the past week: 3
Number of times I have exercised in the past 7 days: 5
Average time in minutes to run around the hilly perimeter of town: 45
Percentage by which I feel physically healthier now, compared to PC training: 100
Number of good friends who recently got married on October 7, 2007: 2
Percentage by which I regret missing their wedding: 100
Score at the bottom of the 9th of the Red Sox-Angels series, two days before the wedding: 3:3
Number of home runs hit by Manny Ramirez to win the game: 1
Final score, Red Sox: Angels: 6:3
Congratulations Mary & Dave!
