What few photos I have...

I'm on a hammock yo. The roses our host mom left us in our room after our first weekend away, and beautiful Puerto Lopez...

Where's Waldo? My suitcase is brown. Can you see it?

Delicious dinner from my host mom.

My roomie and friend - LISA!

View of the montanas from our room in Quito.

What I see every morning.

"You were like McGyver."

So it seems like the best idea is to start with today and work my way backwards...

Today was my first day back at Remar after a long weekend. We worked in groups with some of the students, but most were at the park, so we walked over there in the hopes of created groups there. There is a new group of volunteers who do not appear to have the children's best interests in mind (which is a judgment on my part, I know) and constantly take them to the park and let them run free without supervision and without group activities of any kind. Last week we walked over to the park for the first time and three of the volunteers were sprawled out on the grass sunbathing as the children (from age 2 to 10) ran around in all different areas of the park. When the volunteers saw us, they stood up and started playing with a few of the students. I don't want to spread negative energy in this blog, but I think that part of the story is necessary for this next part of the story.

So today we walked over to the park, and two of the under 5 year olds were playing on a concrete bench without shirts on...others were sitting by themselves about 20 meters from the volunteers. Others were scattered throughout the large park/field. We walked up and one of my favorites, Melina, was having a bad day again today. Last week I did individual counseling with her by learning how to play soccer without words. Sometimes she just doesn't want to talk - and since my Spanish is not that advanced it kinda strangely works out. So today she was also down and didn't want to talk, so I had her explain to one of the other women from our program who is not usually at Remar how to go on the zipline swing. (I have a photo on someone else's camera of me on it - it is AWESOME and a lawsuit waiting to happen in the States.) So Melina explained to the other adult how to play and seemed in better spirits. Then we heard the shrieking sound of a child.

We rushed over to see one of the 5 year olds being held by the wonderful Becca (on our program). The itty bitty was screaming and Becca asked me if I had a band-aid. A large crowd of Remar kiddos had gathered around the little girl and I ran to my bag where I had band-aids. I ran back to the group to see a ton of blood and the 5 year old in hysterics. Becca was doing a great job saying calming and empathetic things to the little girls who was obviously in a ton of pain. As I assessed the situation I realized a band-aid was absolutely not going to help. The volunteer that I had already had pre-conceived notions about was squatting near the little girl and doing nothing. "I can't touch her. I don't have rubber gloves."

Apparently the itty bitty had been playing with a brick - like ya do - and had dropped it on her big toe. Her big toe looked mighty broken and there was a lot of blood. Well, something had to be done. So I looked around and saw a vendor on the street selling some sort of food product. I ran to him and asked him, "Tiene plastico..." (Do you have plastic?) But in my panic I forgot the word for bag. Again I looked at him with pleading eyes and said, "Plastico?" He opened a drawer in his cart and showed me a plastic bag. I said thank you like I have never said thank you before, grabbed the bag and ran over to the itty bitty and useless volunteer. "Are you going to do this or should I?" She jumped out of the way.

I squatted down, and, repeating, "Lo siento, lo siento," tried my best to clean all of the blood. I looked at my left hand, without the glove, and saw blood on it. "Can you go get me another bag?" I asked the useless volunteer. "Where?" (I wanted to say, "Umm, the Supermaxi or perhaps the corner store..." knowing there was nothing but a remote park within 40 meters in all directions so where could I have gotten a plastic bag besides the vendor that was about 15 meters away?) I pointed with a bloody bag covered hand and she went on her way. When she returned, she handed me the folded up bag. Very helpful. "Can you please open it for me so I can put in on my hand?" Apparently, this was rocket science.

Eventually, we got a wipe on the girl's foot and put my "glove" around her foot and secured it there with her hair band. (I actually believe the hair band was the useless one's idea.) Then the itty bitty was whisked back to Remar by one of the directors of my program, who had come to visit for an hour this afternoon.

I told this story to my roommate, Lisa, and she replied, "You were like McGyver." Hence the title of this post.

Besides that, and trying to tell that story in Spanish to my Spanish teacher (without knowing the word for blood, toe, bag, and brick), my day was pretty uneventful.

This past weekend I had an AMAZING time with more zip lining in MINDO. Mindo loves us. Our little group that traveled there on Saturday morning and returned Sunday and decided that Quito hates us and Mindo loves us. It was beautiful - cloud forest wonderfulness and sunshine like you wouldn't believe. We also saw a butterfly garden and found a batido stand complete with swings as seats. Saturday night we played card games in Spanish at the restaurant and went on this crazy amazing rollercoaster ride in the shape of a caterpillar (photos to follow eventually) and all was right with the world. However, actually getting to this heavenly spot was a bit more complicated than one might have thought.

We headed to the bus station at 8:10 on Saturday morning. We bought tickets for the 9:20am bus to Mindo - the last one that morning. Got on the bus and then a couple said they had our seats. Sarah and Becca, the brilliant Spanish speakers of the group, left the bus to problem solve. Eventually we all got off the bus to learn that they had sold us tickets to a bus that did not actually exist and would not exist. Without getting into too much detail - we were annoyed, betrayed, and just generally angry at the bus company. After much growling, we decided to take cabs the 1.5 hour trek to Mindo. The bus had been $2.50 per person. We paid $10 per person. Brilliant.

On Friday we went to Otovalo, which is a town known for its shopping. AWESOME. Bought a bunch of gifts for my family (including the cutest little sweater for my niece that made my heart ache even more for her. I actually had to hide it from myself so I wouldn't look at it and be sad) and jewelery galore.

On Thursday we went to the futbol game. Oh my gosh it was so great. We all bought shirts for $5 and pretended to know the words to all the songs. And guess who learned how to curse in Spanish?? Our team won!!

Besides that, I was sick on Tuesday - I woke up crazy nauseous with hella cramps in the center of my stomach. I will spare you the beautiful details - but after some oregano tea and my host mom's healing thoughts, I felt better by that evening. I slept until 4pm and my host mom told me she kept opening the door to check on me and her host son told her to stop it and that she needed to leave me alone. They are so cute. I was very scared it was going to last a while, but it sure didn't and I felt great the next day.

I suppose that's it for now...I will post some photos in a moment if I can...

Much love from Ecuador!!

banos in spanish means bathroom, it is also an awesome town in ecuador!

All is fantastic here in Quito. I returned last night from an excellent weekend in Baños where I hiked through the Amazonias with mud up to my knees, zip lined at 20 meters and 200 meters, had many delicious meals and great conversations with the wonderful women that accompanied me there, made friends with a man named Nacho (but his real name is Hunter) and a man named Novita (which I think translates to little girl friend), danced salsa, had a flaming shot in the colors of the Ecuadorian flag, and overall had an amazing time. I also spent some time after nearly freezing to death while hiking in a hot tub and sauna and then the next day met my first hot springs. (Those I encountered are not what you are thinking if you are thinking of natural beauty and spiritual awakenings - picture a really hot, brown (full of minerals) public pool with kids in innertubes and cannonballs.)

This week should be full of excitement:

Tuesday - Fundación Remar and Spanish lessons
Wednesday - Trip to Cumbaya and then Spanish trivia in the evening
Thursday - Fundación Remar, Spanish lessons, then a football game in the evening
Friday, Saturday and Sunday - day trips or weekend trips to different exciting locations in Ecuador

And then I only have one week left! I cannot believe how fast this has all flown by! I am going to miss my lil kiddos at Remar so much - we started talking about termination (i.e. discussing that we were leaving with our kiddos so they can prepare for dealing with it) and I almost started crying today. It will definitely be difficult...

That is about it for now! Miss you and love you!

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED

oh my gosh - keeping up with this blog in the whirlwind of activities and without internet in mi casa is very difficult. where to start -- how about the orphanage? fundacion remar...i am getting more and more attached to the chicas and chicos there every day. they are so adorable and kind and loving and i just want to take them all home with me. my friend sara in the program, who lives in chicago, and i have discussed moving in together and getting two sets of bunkbeds and adopting four of them. i am not sure how much either of us is kidding...

we play games with the kids and draw pictures. basically, we just provide warmth and attention and have them work on turn taking (¨te toca¨ = your turn) and saying please (por favor) and thank you (gracias). last week while i was playing with the girls on the playground they were playing on their wooden jungle-gym type thing in the school lot (which we have since been kicked out of because the other kids want to come in and play and aren´t allowed) and pauline (10 years old) stood on a tree stump and said, ¨¡TIA!¨(which means aunt and is what all the children call us) and asked me to carry her from one log to another. I said, ¨¿Que dices?¨ (What do you say?) To which she replied, ¨Tia, por favor!¨ So what could I do? I picked her up and brought her to the other log.

Three or four other girls saw this happening, and began shouting, ¨Tia, por favor.¨And again, what could I do? Positive behavior reinforcement people - you know how much I love it. So for a solid 25 minutes I carried the girls who said please from one log to another. At one point I was getting seriously tired, and must have looked it or been slowing down because one of the girls came up to me and said, ¨¿Nesicitamos una otra tia?¨(Do we need another aunt?) To which I replied, ¨¡Si!¨(Yes!) So she brought one of the amazing women I work with from the program over and we carried little girls together from one log to another. By the time we finished the girls had no doubt what we wanted to hear, my pants were discustingly full of sap, and I was exhausted.

This past weekend we went first to Malta to visit a university there and then to Puerta Lopez with the entire group. The Malta experience was certainly unforgettable. We slept at a hostel - which generally I support. However, this was quite the dirty hostel. Not great. Before that we were driven from the restaurant we went for dinner back to the hostel, and we pulled off to the side of the road. One of our directors asked the driver why we were stopping, to which he responded, in Spanish, ¨Because I need more minutes for my phone.¨We had stopped at a convenient store to get him more minutes. Because that is what is culturally acceptable in Ecuador. I laughed.

There was an ice cream place right there and I said we should all go for ice cream. The directors agreed, so we told the driver we would be right back. No, no, they knew of a place with better ice cream. So off we went. We atte ice cream and were merry, and then got back in the bus on the way to the hostel once again. But this time, the driver just drove. I don´t know if he was bored, or wanted to show us the town, or was toying with the idea of leaving us in a ditch somewhere, but we drove around for a good 10 minutes not having a clue where we were going or why. At one point one of the directors said this would be one of the best episodes of unsolved mysteries - ice cream in hands, 80s music on the radio, an old beat up bus - but we will never know what happened to these psychologists. Happy to report we lived.

Next day we went to a university in Manta, which was the most ridiculously hilarious and wonderful experience I can even begin to explain. We walked in and the students handed us plastic flowers and applauded when we walked in. I don´t know who they were told we were, but I seriously know what a B-list celebrity feels like know. They followed us around, shook our hands, wanted our emails, took pictures with us (probably 40 pictures were taken of me that day), people chased us to speak with us...and I am still completely unclear as to why. They gave us a little suvenier and said, ¨We hope you keep this forever and think of us¨and had each of us stand in front of the whole full auditorium and smile and wave. Surreal. And we are all still clueless as to why it happened.

That day we took the same bus that perhaps considered dumping us in the ocean on what should have been a 2 hour trip to the gorgeous coastal town of Puerto Lopez. However, one of our amazing strong and wonderful women was hit with the bacteria (we think) and she was the sickest I have ever seen anyone in my whole life. She was physically ill on a near constant basis. I can´t even describe how much my heart hurt for her and I think we all just wanted to support her in any way we could. I will fast-forward through that because of how traumatic it all was and get to the better part - we arrived at a gorgeous natural resort on the beach, with mosquito nets and ridiculous gorgeousness. I slept to the sound of the waves and it was amazing. We also bought some souveniers and just soaked in the sunshine. Amazing seafood, great breakfasts, bonfires, dancing, merriment. It was a great weekend.

This week completely flew by. I can´t believe it´s already WEdnesday! A few of the girls and I are taking salsa lessons, so I did that today after a full day of working with the incredibly children at Remar and then 3 hours of Spanish lessons. My instructor is a complete delight and I look forward to seeing her, even if I can´t completely understand everything she tries to tell me. Now I am going to head home to my host family and have dinner and do some homework and probably pass out. My brain seriously needs more sleep with this alititude and Spanish all over the place.

it is actually at a point, and i know those of you who have studied abroad will relate, that there is no way of accurately describing my day to day life. a man today got on the bus i take to remar selling remote controls. it is amazing. i don´t have keys to my house, so i have to ask my host mom to let me in -- and out. there´s no way of getting out of the house without keys.

Anyway, I am loving my time, loving my friends, loving this country and its people (remind me to tell you the story of all the amazing people we met on the way to Puerto Lopez while my friend was super sick). I cannot believe it is halfway over and I am going to have to say goodbye so soon.

Hope everyone is well!!! HUGS!!

my first days...

July 2
Arrived to find my bag missing. Not worried or even concerned until I realized I needed contact solution - and low and behold Sara had some for me to borrow! My host mama is warmth incarnate and I cannot believe how fortunate I am! I am sharing a room with a total sweetheart named Lisa. Tara and Anton, the heads of the program are in a word: delightful. All is great except I don't know enough Spanish. Oops.
July 3
Woke up to a delicious meal of fresh exotic fruit, coffee and rolls and marmalade that my host mama makes herself. (in case you were worried about my vegetation diet - she is a vegetarian also and so is Lisa. Yippee!!) then my host mama walked Lisa and I to our orientation (after a whole lot of confusion because I don't know if I mentioned, but I don't really speak Spanish well just yet.)
On the way to orientation (wearing the same clothes I wore the day before) I was hit by a car going less than 2 miles per hour. My host mama called the dude who was backing out of his driveway words I couldn't understand, but "imbicile" was definitely in there.
Our orientation was great. Churches, shopping for cheap beautiful jewelry, tours of the ciudad de quito, tour of a palace... Then to top it all off my roomie bought me a delicious beverage that tasted like the middle of warm blueberry pie. Que delisioso! We went back to where we started our day, this group of incredible people (joined by a love of new cultures and a desire to help others) and we watched a pride concert with four drag queens and a bunch of hilarious American music.
Today, besides losing my luggage and getting hit by a slow moving vehicle, I also almost got my wallet stolen. It was all quite surreal. Just before we got on the bus the first time, Tara gave us a safety lesson and we discussed that people will target us, etc. Etc. So we are o this crazy busy bus and this woman with nice clothes and jewelry was all saddled up next to me. We were riding for like 3 stops when I felt her hand slyly move between my bag and my waist - so I grabbed my zipper ever so slyly myself. When she has nonchalantly grabbed it I was already holding strong. She looked at me and I looked at her and we both smiled. In my mind her smile said, "you can't blame me for trying, gringa. It's nothing personal." In my mind my smile said, "I am not gonna judge. Who knows what I would be doing if I was in your place." honestly, I thought it was a beautiful moment.
Lisa, sara, Andrea and I all live super close, so we took a cab home and then Lisa and I had this amazing soup with cheese and then this amazing egg and potato dish I had to take a picture of. Our host mama is a great cook and I can't stop being part of the clean plate club. Good thing I am beginner fitting Monday.
Then, because my suitcase is still m.I.a., Lisa and I went out for a glass of wine at a place down the street. It was so fun - we definitely bonded and she is even cooler than I could have even hoped.
July 4
Happy Fourth of July from Ecuador! This place is beyond incredible. We went to look at our respective work sites today. I didn't realize remar is an all-girls home! So excited to learn from these girls who have seen more in their 3-15 years of life than I have in my lifetime. We went up the mountain to the outskirts of Quito and saw a little chica with a bag that I thought were smarties at first glance. Turns out they were chicken feet. Like ya do. Sara who is from chitown said she felt like she was on a set of a movie. She took the words out of my mouth. This much desolation my eyes have never seen. Never. But rather thAn want to change or fix anything here, I thank goodness I am getting this experience to see what the world really holds. i am gaining a better understanding of why people immigrate to America. And on the day of our independence. It's an amazing experience and suitcase or not, fluency or not - this is the best most eye-opening two days I have ever had.
Then we all met for lunch and Tara got a phone call that my suitcase had found its way to Quito! The whole table applauded. Again - couldn't ask for a better group of people. TarA took me to the airport where I had an important cultural lesson in waiting. Waiting. And waiting - don't worry. Just wait. I dug it.
I GOT MY SUITCASE!!!
Then we met up at a coffee shop and chatted and went our separate ways toss get a good night's sleep to prepare for our work and Spanish lessons tomorrow. Dinner was amazing and now I am about ready for bed. Trying to understand Spanish makes me super cansado.
Goodnight! Buenos noches!

donde esta mi maleta and other fun stories coming soon!

well, i have been keeping track of my adventures thus far but i don't have internet access and the schedule here is amazingly brutal. i will add more about my first four days in quito later, but today was my second day at work and in spanish school. me gusta mucho. the orphanage i am working at, fundacion remar, is full of little girls who i have no doubt i will learn ever so much from. today we played simon says and discussed turn taking. it was brilliant. the little girls want to touch you and be close to you every moment they can, and although i was warned i might go home with lice, i am soaking in every hug they give me. how could you not really - they are the most adorable bright children despite having seen more in their 3 to 15 years than i will probably ever see.

spanish language lessons are really tough but my maestra is amazing. she makes me laugh constantly, usually by laughing at me. i really like her and like that i get her sense of humor even though we don't (yet) fully speak the same language. it's pretty incredible.

i really couldn't be happier with the people, places, and experiences i have had this far. thank you all for all of your support and well wishes. i love you!!

Ecuador...

Greetings! I am back and ready to write again. I am leaving for Ecuador in 15 days and have not really begun to prepare in any way. I figure I will head out with good intentions and work on my Spanish a bit now and see where the Universe takes me. :)

Still working out quite a bit. I discovered CrossFit thanks to some friends of mine who have a gym in their backyard. It's amazing - push until you collapse is pretty much the message. I feel changes in my arms that I have never imagined and I have only been doing it for about six weeks. Planning on bringing CrossFit to Ecuador...and running...and hoping to buy a bike. We shall see.

I don't know how much internet access I will have in Ecuador - but I will try to update this every once in a while to tell you all what challenges and successes I am having. I am really excited!

Bye for now...