Feliz Ano Nuevo ( and MLK day, Presidents' Day, Groundhog Day, St. Valentine's Day, etc.)

GreetingMen at equator site at Cayambe, Ecuador

I wish each and every one an exciting, interesting, healthy, and safe New Years.  ( a few months late) The picture above is is of a set of statues that I saw on my holiday travels and they really touched me.   I had never heard of this art project, and now I am enthralled by it.  While it is no longer New Years ( in fact it is PAST my 65th birthday in the depths of winter and I am sad to be old, happy to be alive, and grateful for Medicare!)  I still want to blog about this artist and his works.

These statues are part of the Greeting Man art project.  (http://www.greetingman.com/)The artist is  Yoo Young-ho from South Korea   The Greetingman project is placing these statues in strategic places around the world.  Each statue is blue - to represent lack of prejudice and is 6 m high and bowing in greeting.  Below is an explanation on why the artist chose to represent greetings.

“Greetings are the beginning of all relationships.”

Greeting is a gesture standing for meetings, respect, homage, awe, reconciliation and peace. The 'Greetingman' conveys the depth of the korean greeting form. It also brings out the meaning of peace and reconciliation which overpass the limits imposed between different cultures and racial backgrounds.

But what makes these particular statues special to me is that the line going between them is the equator  and the site is in Cayambe, Ecuador. So the Northern Hemisphere is bowing in greeting to the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.  This was part of my holiday train trip which I loved so much - and promise to write about next.

There were several things that really impressed me about our experience visiting the equator in Cayambe.  First of all was just the fact that I was at the equator.  Secondly, I really loved this experience as opposed to a more touristy place. But what was really kind of interesting to me is what 300 hundred years can bring.  The French Geodesic Mission 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Geodesic_Mission) came to Ecuador to measure the earth near the equator to prove  that the earth is not round, but in fact has a bulge.  They left France in 1735 and arrived in Quito in 1736. It took years to take the measurements, and then more years to  later confirm the measurements and establish the shape of the earth.

But in 2017  a group of tourists from all over the world approached this monument in a tour bus. As we neared the equator everyone got out their mobile phones and put on their GPS apps so that they could do a count down  as we neared the location  of 0' 0' -the center of the earth.  There was chorus of voices from Brazil, Germany, USA, Ecuador- chanting in unison with their personal computing machines... 10, 9, 8, 7 ......1, 0'0!!!,)' And we were at the equator.  (mas or manos). So in around 300 years  we have gone from not really knowing the shape of the earth - and European scientists taking close to a year to travel and then more years to measure  and more years to confirm -to having tour buses with tourists from all over the world using their personal computers/GPS to count down to the equator. What a species!

World Mirror at Quito Airport 

Yoo Young-ho has to raise money to create and place his Greeting man.  However, in  2017 he gave these to statues to Ecuador to help Ecuador to recover emotionally from the recent large and devasting earthquake  (7.8)(http://www.koreaherald.com/common_prog/newsprint.phpud=20160429000881&dt=2.)

 In addition to the two Greetingman in Cayambe, he donated two statues from his other project - World Mirror.  World Mirror is supposed to represent the meeting of two cultures - and in this particular case South Korea meets Ecuador- and also shows that as you look at other people/cultures you are looking at yourself. The picture shows the Mirror Men installation at the Quito airport so I get to see this everytime I fly.

And before I close just a short note about me - I am doing very very well.  I was really sick most of Sept-Dec. and actually didn't realize how sick until I got well.  I am now well, and I really like my new living situation.  I am coming to Greenville and will be there March 16-25.
I really intended and really want to write about all my wonderful travels over Christmas - but somehow I haven't done it.  My Spanish is still quite rudimentary, but it is improving.

My next blogs will be about my train trip and Cuenca.  And I hope to see some of you in March.

(I have no idea why the text for this is in so many colors, and I can't fix.  If I wait until I figure it out - it will be another two months--so I am going to post and hope you enjoy the variety!)