Lunes, 19/9/2016: More medicines available at IESS, Tame manager tries to explain airline landing policy, Globetrotting artists

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Today’s (Lunes) agenda events –

Taller – Intensive workshops in theater with the Meisner technique and in dance with the Realease technique started today at 19:00 in the Sala da Laboratorio de Artes Escénicas in the Subsuelo  of the CCE.  (Subsuelo translates as subsoil so I think it’s the proper name of a space.  I don’t think these techniques are something you learn after you’ve been buried.)

Tallers en Imay – The Teatro Imay (Batan 4-70 y El Oro) has classes in theater, puppets, masks, crafts, yoga and more.  Hours are Mon & Wed from 16-18:00 and Tue & Thu from 16-18:00.  Call 2811-798 or 099 564 0935.  “Servicio de transporte disponible bajo pedido.”  (Shuttle service available on request. You’ll have to use Google translate to figure out how to request the service if you can’t do it on your own.)  For adults there are workshops on mask making for clown, magician and shaman and more.

CCE – The presidents of the nuclei of the CCE in Zamora, Azuay, El Oro, Cañar, and Morona Santiago will sign a “Mancomunidad Cultural del Austro” (Southern Cultural Commonwealth – more useless words for your day.  Did you ever wonder why there was a Banco del Austro and what Austria had to do with Ecuador?   The answer is nothing – austro refers to south or southern in this case.)

Articles about –

Eduardo Vega – Vega, a Cuencanan ceramicist and designer, was awarded the “Caballero de las Artes y las Letras” (Knight of Arts and Letters – at least I’m going with knight instead of gentleman or gent. The original award is probably chevalier of arts and letters.) medal by the French ambassador in Ecuador last Sat.

Talleres in centros municipales – Various free workshops are being offered in municipal centers all over the city.

El Cebollar (ave. Abelardo J. andrade)
today to 30/9 – digital workshop about tablet applications
in the afternoons, theater for children
El Ángel
today to 23/9 – painting for children
today to 30/9 – digital media for seniors
26-30/9 – juggling and circus for children
El Rosal (ciudadela Las Orquídeas)
from today – afternoons – a course on the Digital City with
computers – guitar workshop for one month
Alfarero (Convención del 45)
from today – decorating with globos (balloons, I think, and not the ones   you light and let loose at night), useful
for circus and juggling parties
26-30 – painting for adults
Eucaliptos (calle Tahuantinsuyo y del Cabildo)
starting today – digital literacy
Los Sauces (Control Sur, calle Juan Ruiz y Las Américas)
26-30/9 – recycling workshop for adults (to tell us what to starting today  – gastronomy workshop for children
19-30 – digital literacy for seniors
Barrial Blanco y Héroes de Verdeloma
starting today and lasting 2 mo. – guitar workshop
Ciudadela Tomobamba (Casa Comunal)
a digital literacy workshop

2 artistas trotamundos (2 globetrotting artists – I like these better for words for the day) – A couple, Colombian and Brazilian, drove from Sao Paolo in Brazil through the Mato Groso, Bolivia, Perú and are now showing their work on the Escalinatas in Cuenca after their 7,000 km trip.  Their goal is to reach México and get to know Latin America.  (Well, they’ve got a heck of a start on that project.)

Otras cosas –

Titular – 90% de medicamentos están disponibles: IESS (90% of drugs are available: IESS) – IESS has 90% of the medicines in the basic list established by the Ministerio de Salud at the “José Carrasco Arteaga” Hospital, and 98% at the Centro de Atención Ambulatoria.  The ARIESS system has been phased out in favor of a national call center accessed by dialing 140.  You can also make appointments on line at www.iess.gob.ec.  Appointments made on line increased from 24% last June to 54% in Aug.  The directors of IESS looked at the complaints about long waits for appointments, especially with specialists and unavailability of medicines as an opportunity for improvement.

TAME – Patricio Chávez, the manager of TAME, said that flights to Cuenca are not profitable and there is a deficit of 39% in ticket sales.  He also justified the cancellation of flights last week because the runway at Mariscal La Mar has special characteristics and their priority was passenger safety. (Are you choking on all that smoke yet?)

Chávez said that Cuena’s runway is short and is fine when the runway is mojada (wet), but not when it is “contaminada” (contaminated – with puddles deeper than 1 or 2 millimeters. Huh?)  The large Airbus A-319 manuals don’t recommend landing in puddles, but the smaller Embraer and ATR A-320 planes are OK.   (Sounds like they’re gun shy after running off the runway with the big plane.)  The local Control Tower decides if the runway is mojada o contaminada, but the whole thing is complicated because a plane can leave Quito or Guayaquil with clear weather in Cuenca, and then it changes in 15 or 20 minutes to a downpour.  (Lots of waffling.)

Currently TAME has 4 scheduled flights into Cuenca – 2 from Quito and 2 from Guayaquil, but they are not profitable.  They only cover basic costs.  (How can they ever get profitable if passengers never know if they’ll be landing or diverted?)

10 days in jail – A woman who was stopped at a document and alcohol control point on 10 de Agosto last weekend was jailed after she took an officer’s radio and threw it into the face of the officer who stopped her.  (So if you’re stopped, stay cool – even if you’re drunk as a skunk.  Driving somewhat drunk gets you less time than assaulting an officer.)  15 drivers were detained last Fri. for DWI.  Officers were also checking for drivers without licenses.  (So if you’re one of those gringos who are driving cars but have no Ecuadorian drivers license – consider this a warning.)

Tungurahua – The Instituto Geofísico warned that Tungurahua is getting ready to erupt again.  See the article in Monday’s CHL for details.

Certificación del español – The U. of Cuenca is the Centro Asociado al Servicio Internacional de Evaluación de la Lengua Española (SIELE) and is offering the service to the community and Spanish centers for extranjeros residentes y del país. Info at pespanol@ucuenca.edu.ec or the Instituto Universitario de Lenguas: 4051-000 ext. 2576.  (I’m not translating because if you’re a candidate for this certification you should be able to read the Spanish here.)

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne