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!!