I Can't Believe It!

I just can't believe it! I'm going to be home a week from now. This semester has just flown by. The last 2 weeks have gone by even faster than most of the semester.

Tuesday night, November 17th, the power went out because of the energy crisis. We played games outside with the seminary students and had a lot of fun. The first game we played was Hide and Seek. Kevin decided to hide on the roof of the tallest building on campus. He told me this while we were waiting to start, so I had an idea where he was. The seminary is situated on a hill and the building is on the top of the hill. When everyone else had been found, I decided to tell the students that he was hiding up top so they had a general idea of where to look. After looking and yelling for another 10 minutes or so, they gave up and started to play a different game. Kristin, Manuel, and I decided to go up and look for him ourselves, but couldn't seem to find him. We tried calling his cell phone, but he wouldn't answer. We eventually got Dan and Kristina to help us look, while Caleb (their 3 year old son) started praying. About 30 minutes after the game had finished we saw what looked like a person laying down at the very top of the building. We shined flash lights at him and yelled his name, but still got no response. Kristina thought maybe he hurt himself or something and was worried. Finally, Kevin looked around, saw us, and came down really quickly. We were all slightly mad he was fine and had made us worry. He told us, "I'm sorry. I was praying. I couldn't hear anything with the cars and wind." Since then, any time we can't find Kevin, we've joked that he's up on the roof praying again. After this, we all went and continued playing games with the seminary students.

Wednesday night, one of the volunteer missionary couples invited us to dinner. We headed down to Carcelen to pick up some pizza, after searching for Kevin (again). We then enjoyed hanging out and eating Mariam's Pizza for the last time while we're here.

We finished up our Spanish classes on Thursday with our final presentations. We each had fun sharing about our experiences during the semester with everyone from NILI. Thursday night, we headed to another Liga soccer game! The game was moved from 7pm to 5pm because we had another power outage, making it difficult to get anything done (oh the joys of Eco-friendly power...). The game was really exciting. We went with a group of 11 people and had a great time jumping, yelling, and cheering Liga on to a 7-0 victory!

Friday, we traveled to Evelyn's house which is south of Quito. Her family owns a beautiful house with a really nice yard and garden. We cooked a nice "American" lunch consisting of Taco Salad and Apple Crisp for dessert. After lunch, we enjoyed climbing the many avocado trees in the yard and picking around 100 avocados bigger than your fist.

Saturday, it was a really nice day, so we all decided to walk to El Condado, the mall, for lunch, which is about a 2 and a half mile walk. Afterwards we took a taxi back and then watched the seminary soccer team play some soccer.

On Sunday, it was time for Kevin, Jen, and I to head to the airport to catch our flight to the Galapagos! We spent 5 great days on the Yolita II, out yacht. We were in a group of 16 passengers made up of some people from the UK, some Asian Americans from San Fransisco, and some people who live in Austin, TX from Italy and Bosnia. We also had a very good guide, Washington, on our boat with us who took us to the islands and told us all about the animals and plants. During our trip, we traveled to 3 or 4 of the main islands along with some of the smaller ones in between. We saw all of the animals that live on the islands including marine iguanas, land iguanas, tortoises (though only at the Charles Darwin Center), blue-footed boobies, masked boobies, tropic birds, flamingos, albatros, sea lions, seals, finches, mocking birds, canaries, lava lizards, crabs, frigit birds and many others I can't think of right now. We also snorkeled a lot and saw thousands of fish, white tipped sharks, rays, sea turtles, octopus, lobsters, star fish, sea lions, and seals. We went inside a cave like lava tunnel, visited the post office (a place to leave post cards, where other people will pick them up and mail them if they live where the post card is going), and jumped off the top deck of our boat. It was a great trip and I have tons of pictures to show (though I'm probably not going to have time to put them online 'til I get home).

We got back from the Galapagos on Thursday, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner with the missionaries. We headed straight to dinner and enjoyed all the normal things you would expect to have on Thanksgiving. It was delicious! Thank you everyone who helped cook :)

Yesterday, since I didn't have classes, I had the opportunity to work alongside some of the students and some other people who live on campus with some construction. At the bottom of the seminary, they're working on building a new house for the rector of the seminary. Yesterday, it was time to start on the floor. I helped tie steel, which isn't hard, it just hurts your back. It took us 3 hours to do this for about 2/3 of the house. The we took about a half hour break and had a snack of rice and beans to tide us over until our very late lunch that took place at about 3 in the afternoon. Then, it was back to work. While most people were shoveling gravel to even everything out before pouring concrete, I helped mark the level of the concrete. Then, it was time to start mixing concrete. I helped shovel gravel into buckets and then move the buckets to the concrete mixer so they could be dumped in. This was very tiring work. After just a half hour I had a blister on my thumb that popped from shoveling and started to get some on fingers from carrying the buckets. Soon, I was too tired to shovel any more, but I kept helping move the buckets when it was time, which allowed me to take some breaks. Eventually, after lots of hard work, there was concrete covering about half of the area that we had prepared earlier in the morning and it was time to stop for the day. After cleaning everything up, we headed to lunch to get some leftover chicken and rabbit that had been cooked on the soccer field like earlier this semester. It felt great to sit down, relax, and eat after 7 hours of work.

Last night was graduation. Many students, including my roommate, Carla, graduated. It was fun to go to the ceremony and celebrate their accomplishments. I was also able to see my family, that I had stayed with, again since they were there.

Things at the Seminary are winding down. All of the students are going to be gone by Monday. We're leaving for the jungle tomorrow, so when we get back, the campus will be empty. We get back from the jungle on Thursday, and then I head to the airport on Friday night to catch my 12:20am flight out of Quito on Saturday. I'm going to be home sooner than I know. The next time I post, I'll be home. What a crazy thought! I have a lot of pictures to share, but I don't have time to put them online right now. I'll make sure to get them up when I get home so all of you can see them. Until then, "Dios te bendiga" or "God bless you."

Wow! It's November!

I can't believe it's already November! This semester is going by so fast. I have less than 2 weeks of classes left and then we go to the Galapagos and then the jungle and then we fly home December 5th.

Tuesday the 27th of October, I went to an orientation at a nearby orphanage so that I can help out there some. Since then, I've gone to the orphanage the past 2 Saturdays to help out. Both times I've helped out with the toddlers and have had a lot of fun. I basically get to play with the kids and since I'm there during dinner, I help feed them, too.

Thursday October 29th, the NILI professionals returned from the jungle. Kevin, John, and I went to the artisans market in Quito so John could buy some last minute things before returning to the states the next morning. While downtown, we stopped in a small shop to enjoy some colada morada and guaguas de pan (more explanation of these items to come). Thursday night, the Fischer's (the missionary family in charge of Work and Witness here in Ecuador) had a party at the Work and Witness Center for us. It was a combination get to know the Fischer's party, birthday party for Jael's first birthday, and a going away party for the Mappus' and John. We had a lot of fun eating, watching Jael, with the help of Caleb, open her gifts, playing with the balloons, and just hanging out.

Friday the Mappus' and John left for the airport and headed back to the states. This was kinda sad, because we all became kind of a little family while they were here. Also, the same day, though much later, my roommate, Carla left for Peru for a week with one of the other seminary students for a young adults event. She got back after a great trip, this past Sunday morning.

Also, on Friday, we went to the Teleferico (finally). We went up Pichincha, a volcano right next to Quito, in something like an enclosed ski lift. We were up about 5,000 ft higher than normally in Quito, so there were warning signs because of the thin air. The view of Quito and the surrounding mountains was great even though it was a little cloudy.

November 1st and 2nd are a very important holiday in Ecuador and most of Latin America, Dia de los Defunctos, or Day of the Dead. It is kind of like our Memorial Day, where people remember their deceased relatives. There are also many traditions that go with this holiday, which we were able to see and participate in. On Monday, we went to 2 cemeteries. The first was a cemetery of mostly indigenous people. Outside the cemetery there was a carnival like atmosphere with people selling flowers and decorations at increased prices along with homemade rides for kids. The cemetery was very crowded with people visiting graves. The graves were very unorganized, so that you couldn't always tell where one started and one ended. These people were cleaning and decorating the graves along with eating. It is traditionally thought that on this day, the dead can return and eat with their families. The second cemetery we went to was for mostly people of mestizo heritage or mixed Spanish and Indigenous. These people tend to be higher in social class and more educated. This cemetery was huge and much more organized. It was still very crowded, but people were only cleaning and decorating graves. No eating here. Then we went and got ingredients to make coloda morada and guaguas de pan, our project for the next day.

Tuesday was a day full of cooking. First we made colada morada and guaguas de pan. These are both foods traditionally made during the holiday. Colada morada is a drink that is made with all kinds of yummy things and is purple in color, giving it its name. Guaguas de pan are bread babies. Guagua is the word for baby or child in the indigenous language. The bread is made into the shape of babies and then decorated in a way similar to our ginger bread men. If you want to see some of the ingredients, cooking process, and finished products check out my pictures by clicking on the title of this post, "Wow! It's Novemeber!" After finishing our making (and sampling) our food, we took some to all the missionary families. During the holiday the students cook the meals at the seminary. Tuesday night, it was NILI's turn to cook. We cooked spaghetti with meat sauce, made a salad, and shared the colada morada and quaquas de pan we had made earlier.

Thursday night, we went to a soccer game! La Casa Blanca, or the White House, is near the seminary. This is the stadium of one of the countries teams, called Liga. The game was against a team from Argentina for the quarterfinals of the Latin American Cup, so it was a pretty important game. The security to get in was pretty impressive (3 checkpoints) along with a lot of police in full uniform and crowd control gear inside the stadium and on the field. At the start of the game, there were rolls of paper thrown onto the field from the stands, sparklers that flashed really brightly held by fans (just another example of lesser safety laws), and songs sung. It was really exciting! The entire game was a lot of fun with the fans singing and chanting the whole time. Argentina scored first in the 1st half. But Liga came back and won with 2 goal in the 2nd half. Great game! Though the traffic afterwards was horrible.

Friday was a slightly interesting and frustrating day. First, the power went out, though this was expected, and it was only out for an hour when we thought it would be for 4. Ecuador is in the middle of a power shortage. They use hydroelectricity to power everything. Right now, we are in the rainy season and the reservoir should be getting refilled after the dry season. But instead, it has barely rained. Not only did the season start later than it normally does, it seems to have ended, hopefully only temporarily. To deal with the power shortage they are turning power off to certain areas of the city at a time. This, of course, causes many problems, especially with traffic, since the police often aren't informed of where the power is going to be out. So, if you are wanting something to pray for, pray for rain. Ecuador desperately needs it. The second reason it was a frustrating day was that the power cord to my computer decided to die. Thankfully, I have some good friends here who are willing to let me borrow theirs to get homework done and to keep in touch with people.

The tickets we bought to the soccer game on Thursday came with tickets for the game on Sunday, too. Since the game was at 11:30, we went to an early church service and then headed to the game. This game didn't end up being nearly as exciting. It was just a normal game against another team in Ecuador and they ended up tying 0-0. But we still had fun.

Monday, we started our last week of normal Spanish classes. Next week we just have group presentations followed by our final projects which are also presentations. I only have 1 day of my New Testament class left, followed by a test. I also registered for classes for next semester on Monday. I'm working on making plans for when I'm home over break. It all seems crazy! I'm going to be home before I know it. I'm looking forward to being home and seeing everyone I miss, especially Dallas, and eating things that I miss. But I'm also really going to miss Ecuador.

It's Raining! It's Pouring!

Well, I feel like I'm about to repeat myself, but a lot has happened since I posted last. Then again, it has been almost 3 weeks. So, I've got a lot to share! To see pictures, click on the title "It's Raining! It's Pouring!" and go to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024948&id=1308660525&l=468fc5a9ce

Well, starting where I left off, Wednesday the 7th of October, we went to a Museum of a famous Ecuadorian artist, Guayasamin. His artwork is a little dark and it's not a style that I am very fond of, but I appreciate his work. His art tells the stories of people who have no voice, people who are oppressed, living under a dictator, dealing with war, or suffering.

Thursday night, the Benedick's invited us over to watch "End of the Spear." This movie is based on a true story that took place in Ecuador. It is about some missionaries, who lived in Shell, Ecuador (I'll be going there the last week I'm here in Ecuador). They were trying to minister to a tribe in the jungle. The tribe ended up killing the missionaries when after they landed their plane and started to talk with them. The families of the missionaries returned to the tribe to minister to them and were eventually able to bring them to Jesus. If the weather cooperates while we are in Shell, we'll be able to fly into the jungle and meet the tribe.

Friday, was a holiday. No one worked or had classes, so, our classes were canceled, too! It was great to have a day to just relax! We were supposed to hang out with the students, but not many of them were around, so I just enjoyed relaxing. In the evening, a group of us went to see "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" or "Lluvia con Hamburguesas" in Spanish. It was a really fun movie to go see. Also it was in 3D, which made it even more fun.

Sunday, it was back to church with Carla. Normally, we take a bus to church and then try to get a ride back with someone from the church and we all pile in someone's car. This time, we met the pastor or the church in Carcelen and took a taxi to church with him. After church, we ended up getting a ride back to Carcelen in the weirdest minivan I've ever seen. Where there would normally be windows in the back, there were sheets of metal painted the same color as the van. Inside, there were no seats in the back, just a carpet to sit on.

Sunday afternoon, it got cloudy and cool. It started raining Monday morning. Since then, it's been raining on and off every few days. We'll have a few nice days, followed by a few cold, rainy days. Rainy season has officially arrived, a little later than usual, but it's here.

Wednesday, we took our next little field trip. We were supposed to go to the Teleferico, which is kind of like a ski lift that goes up into the mountains around Quito, but it was raining. So, we headed to our backup plan, the Vivarium (or Herpitarium). At the Vivarium, we got to see a lot of snakes and other reptiles and amphibians like turtles, lizards, frogs, and iguanas. At the end, we got to go into a room where they showed us a boa up close. Then, if we wanted to, we could hold it. So, I did! It was fun.

Friday through Sunday, Kevin and I did something I had been nervous about doing all semester. Each of us went and stayed with an Ecuadorian family for the weekend. This has probably been one of my best experiences of my time here. Evelyn briefed us on some typical etiquette for while we were there in class before we left and gave us our assignment, learn how to make a typical Ecuadorian dish, bring some to class to share on Monday, and present the recipe to the class. Kevin and I bought some flowers to give to our host mothers. The original plan was to be picked up by our families around 7. They changed the plan and moved it to 5 because they wanted us to help with something. Both of our families were from the same church. My family included the pastor of the church, Freddy, his wife Jenny, and their kids, Jeremy (4) and Yadi (11 months). Their house and church is in one of the poorest neighborhoods I've seen since I've been here in Ecuador. We went to their house and helped them make bread for a ministry the church has on Saturday mornings. They have a small room in the house with the metal bread oven. In front they have a machine that they use to hand mix the dough. When we got there the dough was almost finished. We went into the oven room and helped roll out the dough and shape it before baking. It was a lot of fun. Saturday morning, we went to the church and met with about 20 people. We split up into 4 groups, each carrying bread and juice. Each group had a route that they've been going to for about 4 months (it's a pretty new ministry). We went to certain houses and gave the children a piece of bread each and filled a container with juice. One person in our group also had survey forms to gather information about the people for the first time. It was incredible to be a part of this ministry. The people have basically nothing and are so incredibly gratefully to know that their children are going to have a meal every Saturday morning. Some of the situations the people were living in amazed me. One house we went to had at least 3 families living there, each with their own children. Another house had 8 children at it, the oldest probably only 12 or 13, with no parents around. I think they were working. The woman at the last house had a son who was 20. He had basically never been out of their house because he was physically and mentally handicapped. He was in a makeshift wheelchair made out of a plastic lawn chair, with the legs cut short, attached to some metal and some wheels. Being a part of this ministry was an unforgettable and eyeopening experience.

Now, this wasn't all I did with my host family. Jenny runs a little shop where she sells emanadas. Each night I helped her in the shop, both cooking and cleaning. I also helped with and played with the kids when they were busy with other things. I had a lot of fun playing with Jeremy and Yadi. I went to the market with Jenny on Saturday morning to buy food for the weekend. We also spent some time just having fun. We played UNO a lot. I also learned how to make Morocho, which is a drink made from some sort of grain from corn and milk. The grain is cooked in the milk and some spices and sugar are added. It's really good. I went to a youth Bible study on Saturday night. On Sunday, I went to church with them. Jenny teaches Sunday school for the kids at the church, so I went early with her. After church, they had a family from Colombia over for lunch. We enjoyed hanging out and talking throughout the day. Before I left, we had dinner. Dinner was at the house of some of their relatives, which was above their house. Kevin and his family were also there. We ate dinner and had cake to celebrate a birthday. Then, it was back to campus for the end of an amazing weekend.

Monday, we all got to share and eat our foods in class. Since food is always a fun thing (unless it's chancho and makes you sick), we enjoyed trying each other's foods. Dan had ham and cheese emanadas, Kristen had fruit with chocolate, Kevin had coloda morada (a drink made with many different fruits), and I had Morocho. After class, we had a party for Lucy becuase it was her birthday. We had a lot of fun eating cake and other delicious snacks.

Tuesday, the weather was nice, so we decided to go to the Teleferico again for class instead of waiting until Wednesday. When we got there, we were told it was closed for renovation, so we had to figure out a backup plan. As we were leaving, I found if funny that no one knew the Teleferico was closed because there was a bus fully of people trying to go. We ended up going to an archeological park called Riopamba. When we got there, it was closed, too. But Evelyn was able to convince them to let us in (something that would never happen in the states). We had a lot of fun seeing all of the buildings and things that have been dug up at this site.

Friday, was our last day of our second block of Spanish classes. That means I only have 4 weeks of classes left! Then I travel for 2 weeks and then I come home. It's crazy how fast everything is going by. This last block of class is mostly conversation and projects. Doesn't sound hard, but our homework can be kind of tedious, like watching the news in Spanish every day. But I know it will help, just like everything else has.

Friday night we went back to Colonial Quito to see it lit up at night. We went to La Virgen del Panecillo, which is the virgin of the little bread. It's a statue of an angel on a hill in Quito. The angel is standing on a snake and a piece of bread. It's called the little bread because the hill resembles a loaf of bread, so the loaf the angel is on is smaller. From this hill, you can get a great view of the city. After this, we went into the center of Colonial Quito to see all the buildings lit up at night and to take a quick carriage ride. We went to dinner at a restaurant that has an incredible view of the city. We sat on the roof and got to enjoy the scenery, though it was a little cold.

Saturday we went to Tulipe, which is another archeological site and museum. We got a tour of the museum and the site. It was really interesting. They have uncovered an area that had several man made pools of water that were used for certain ceremonies and a huge sundial. We also got to take a nice walk through the woods next to a small river. At one place, there is a pool where you can bathe. So, after our tour, we returned there and swam for a bit and had a pick-nick lunch. The only downside were the leaches. They were small, but we all collected a few.

Saturday evening I had fun relaxing and playing Euchre with my parents and boyfriend via Skype. My mom would hold my cards up to the camera and I'd tell her which one to play for me. It made me feel right at home. We also went and sang happy birthday to Kristina Benedick because her birthday was Sunday, but we wanted to be able to surprise her, and didn't want to get up any earlier than we were already going to yesterday.

Sunday, we left campus around 8:20 to get to an early church service. After church we headed for Mitad del Mundo, or Middle of the World. There are actually two Mitad del Mundo's. One is a where the Equator really is, verified by GPS. The other has a giant monument and if off by a few hundred yards, but they got pretty close for not having the technology we do today. We went to the Equator first and got to do some really cool experiments on the Equator, from trying to walk in a straight line with your eyes closed (much harder on the Equator than other places), moving a drain from one side of the Equator to the other and watching the water flow the other direction, and balancing an egg on a nail (yes, I succeeded in this!) Then we headed to the monument which is much more touristy, but still a lot of fun. We ate lunch here and walked around exploring the Insectarium and the shops. On the way back to the Seminary, we dropped Dan and Kristina off at the mall for a date on Kristina's birthday. Then, we headed back to get ready for the real party. When they got back, we were all ready in their house and had a birthday party!

This week is kind of weird. All of the NILI professionals are in Shell with Stan and his family. Kevin and I are alone in class once again and we don't have any classes with Stan in the afternoons (which will give me time to write my exegesis that is due a week from tomorrow). Dan and Mabel, and John and are all leaving to head home on Friday. So things are starting to change as we head into our last block. We still have a lot to do, but it's going to go by fast.

Always an Adventure

As usual, a lot has happened, both good and bad, since I last posted. So, I'll just start where I left off.

We've finished our first block of classes. Our second block consists of more conversation and a few short essays along with continuing our grammar. Kevin and I have been joined by Dan Benedict and Kristen in class which makes conversation much more fun.

Friday night (September 25th, yes I know that was a while ago), I went to the Nazarene elementary school in Carcelen with Jen, Lucy, and Salomone. There was a parent informational meeting of some sort and I went to help Jen with the kids while they were in the meeting. We told a Bible story, sang some songs, and colored.

Saturday, we went to Parque Carolina to help with a fundraiser. The children's hospital in Quito was selling used clothes in the park to raise money. We went and helped fold and sort clothes so it was easier for people to look through. It was a lot of fun, though Lucy's wallet got stollen while we were there. Just a little reminder that you have to be careful about your possessions.

Sunday, I went to church with Carla again and after church, we took a taxi to Carcelen and got Chinese for lunch. For dinner on Sunday, Carla and some other people decided to make dinner in the kitchen. Carla and Yoan, who are both from Venezuela made us a typical Venezuelan food, which for whatever reason I always have trouble remembering the name of. It's similar to our English muffins, but I liked them better. We had devilled ham mixed with mayonase and ketchup, butter, cream cheese, and cheddar cheese spread to put on them. I tried mine with the devilled ham and it was really good.

Tuesday night, I got sick again. I was up for about and hour and a half and then was able to go back to sleep. When I woke up Wednesday morning, I was feeling pretty weak, so I decided not to go on our Wednesday field trip. I missed out on going to the fruit market. Throughout the day, I began to feel better and even ate some dinner and did my homework for class the next day.

Thursday, I woke up feeling horrible. I was in the bathroom every 15 minutes or so for 2 hours. I couldn't keep anything down and was getting very dehydrated and weak. I think that was the worst I've ever felt. Kim decided to take me to the doctor. At the doctor, they gave me an IV and some medicine through the IV for the vomiting and diarrhea. The doctor gave me some Pedialyte and wanted me to buy more and keep drinking it all day. He also gave me a prescription to help my stomach. Then, I was off to the hospital for some tests to see what was causing me to be so sick along with instructions to go to the ER if I threw up again, to come back the next morning to see how I was doing (especially since we were leaving for Otavalo for the weekend), and to eat a very bland diet (rice, potatoes, bread, chicken soup, no grease, no butter, no fruit, no vegetables, and nothing fried). I went and got the tests done and then came back to the seminary so I could rest. By the evening I was feeling better and ate some rice.

Friday morning, I went back to the doctor with my test results. The results: parasites! The doctor gave me 2 more prescriptions, 1 for the parasites and 1 for an antibiotic. He also told me to keep drinking lots of Pedialyte and stick with the bland diet for the next few days. With this information, it was time to head back to the seminary, pack up the Sprinter, and head to Otavalo. For pictures of our trip to Otavalo, click on the title, "Always an Adventure." We went to 3 towns before heading going to our destination, Otavalo. First we went to the wood town, where, as the name suggests, they make a lot of things out of wood. We also went to sweater town and then leather town. It was a lot of fun to look through all of the shops in these towns. Then we arrived in Otavalo. Now, the reason we went to Otavalo is because it has the world's largest open air market and it's a lot of fun to buy souveniers and gifts there. When we got there, we drove around the center square where people were busy setting up there areas for business Saturday morning. We then went to the hostal we were going to be staying at. I really liked the hostal. It had a big courtyard with trees and hammocks where we could all hang out and relax. By this time, I was already feeling much better and was able to eat some spaghetti at dinner.

Saturday morning, I woke up, ready for some shopping. But first, was breakfast. When I got to breakfast, everyone broke out in song. They were singing me "Happy Birthday," since it was October 3rd and my 21st birthday! After breakfast, it was off to the market! I had a lot of fun buying gifts and souvenirs all day. It was fun bartering and just looking around at all the different things for sale. For lunch we went to a "Mexican" restaurant, and while the menus said "Tex Mex," it wasn't what we think of as Tex Mex. It was good, just different. For example, my taco de res (cow) was mostly beans. After a long day of shopping, we returned to the hostal to relax until dinner. We went to a pizza place for dinner (I think Kim, Jen, and Lucy have a favorite pizza place in every city). After dinner, Kim, Jen, and Lucy slipped out and came back with an apple pie with candles on it (yes, I was feeling good enough to eat my pie). Again, everyone sang me "Happy Birthday" and I got to blow out my candles. They also had a purse that they bought in Otavalo for me as a gift and Kevin had a little figurine with 3 pigs on it as a reminder of when we got sick. Then, I got to be a part of a NILI tradition, where, on someone's birthday, everyone goes around and says things they appreciate about you. It was a really cool experience. I felt loved and at home with people I've known for less than 2 months. After dinner, it was back to the hostal. In the courtyard, there was also a fireplace, so we decided it would be fun to have a fire. Kevin, Yoan, and Lorena decided to go look for marshmellows so we could make s'mores. The only marshmellows they could find were small ones but we made them work! Dan and Kristina provided us with Amor con chocolate, which are waffer crackers with chocolate on the inside (they come in lots of flavors like strawberry and lime and some others). So, we had our makeshift s'mores! It was a lot of fun and a great end to a great birthday!

Sunday morning we went to an indigenous church. It was fun to worship with them even though we didn't always know the words to the songs. Their children also danced for us. After church, we drove to Cotacachi, an active volcano with a lake in it's crater. In the crater, you can take boat rides out on the lake and see volcanic gasses rising to the surface of the lake. I can now say, "I've been in the crater of an active volcano!" After the volcano, we got lunch and started to head back to Quito. On the way, we stopped at a little shack on the side of the road where you can buy roses (Ecuador's largest export), 2 dozen for $1.25!

Monday, it was a little weird to return to classes after not going since last Tuesday, but it was fun too and definitely nice to be feeling better. After class, I went to the mall, where I bought Piel de Ecudor which in English would be Skin of Ecuador. This is actually a shirt for the Ecuadorian soccer team. But, I figured it was time to get one since there's another World Cup Qualifying game on Saturday. It's in Quito and we're going to try to go!

Tonight, the Howard's (one of the missionary families) invited us to dinner. They grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and made potatoe salad. It was a lot of fun. We hung out for a while and watched the tiebreaker game between Detroit and Minnesota on ESPN! I love baseball, so it was really nice to be able to see a game.

Also, about a half hour ago, I took my last pill of all my prescriptions! Hopefully, being sick while I'm here is completely behind me. I know some of you were praying for me while I was sick, and I really appreciate your prayers. Thanks so much!

No Coma El Chancho! (Don't Eat the Pig!)

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I've been pretty busy and have lots to talk about and pictures to share. As for pictures, you can see pictures from our 10 day trip by clicking on the title, "No Coma El Chancho! (Don't Eat the Pig!)" and by going to the following link (there are 2 albums of pictures, so make sure you check out both):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022778&id=1308660525&l=cf266b0fb0

Also, the following link has pictures of the Ballet Jacchigua, which I'll talk more about later:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022910&id=1308660525&l=0b390cd900

Friday morning, we packed up "Optimus" with our luggage, piled in, and started the drive to Riobamba, our first stop in our 10 day trip. Riobamba is in the mountains to the south of Quito. We had a beautiful day for a drive. It was a clear day and you could see all of the snow topped mountains and volcanoes that are normally cloud covered. When driving south to Riobamba, you get very close to the foothills of Cotopoxi. Cotopoxi is a beautiful volcano and we stopped along the road to take some pictures. During our drive, we also stopped at a small place along the road to use the bathroom and to get ice cream, which is always a nice treat. We also stopped at a mall for lunch.

When we arrived in Riobamba, we checked into our hotel. Lucy is from Riobamba, so after we got settled, we drove around and Lucy gave us a tour of her city. We went to an open vegetable and fruit market. It was fun to see all of the different fruits and vegetables piled all over the place. It was a lot of fun and we bought some fruit to make juice with later and to snack on. We also went to a meat market where they had their freshly butchered meat hanging up for sale. They had everything from your normal cuts of meat, to chickens that still had their heads, to pig heads that still had the eye balls, to cow hooves, to pig tails. It was pretty interesting to see. I've decided that the real reason we go on these trips is so the NILI staff can eat at their favorite places because as we drove around, they kept pointing out where we were going to eat for various meals. For dinner we went to a pizza restaurant that had very good pizza.

Saturday, we woke up early, got breakfast at the hotel, and headed to Chimborazo. Chimborazo is the mountain, that if measured from the center of the earth and not sea level, is the highest mountain on Earth due to it's proximity to the Equator. I think it is also the highest volcano in the world. It was another beautiful day, which was great for our climb. We drove towards the mountain and eventually left pavement behind as we drove up a dirt road in the foothills of Chimborazo. While driving, we got to see wild alpaca and some other great sights, which I tried to take some pictures of. On Chimborazo, there are two refuges. One is located where the road ends. The other, I'm estimating is at least 1,000 ft higher up the mountain. So, we started our climb with pockets stuffed full of candy and some really hard substance that had vanilla in it and helps if you get light headed while climbing. My goal was to reach the snow, but unfortunately for me, the snow was well above the second refuge that day (they told us they've gone up before and there's been snow on the drive up), and I had to stop about three fourths of the way to the second refuge. Just walking a short distance at that altitude makes you very out of breath. The guys continued on after we stopped and eventually reached the snow (we got to rest in the Sprinter for an hour and a half before they got back). Even though I didn't reach my goal, I was able to enjoy the amazing beauty. It was so quiet and peaceful. With it being such a clear day, you could see other smaller mountains that were really far away. You could also see mist coming off the top of Chimborazo and clouds lower in elevation than we were. It was such a cool sight!

After our climb, it was time for lunch, which is always a good idea after hard work. We headed for the chancho market. Chancho is pig. In the market, there are stalls along all 4 walls with vendors all selling the exact same thing...chancho. And when I say chancho, picture an entire pig just laying on the counter waiting to be cut up and sold. When you go in, all the vendors try to get your attention and buy from them by yelling compliments like "Guapo!" which is handsom. Lucy went and bought us a leg which we took and then bought sides from another vendor. To eat the Chancho, Lucy put gloves on and broke it into pieces, which we then ate family style. We also got fresh fruit smoothies that were made from ice from Chimborazo. This ice all gets brought down the mountain by one old man, who every morning walks up the mountain, puts a block of ice on his back and walks back to Riobamba. Talk about physical work! Now, you may be wondering why the title of this post is "Don't Eat the Chancho." Well, it wasn't long after this that I started to not feel the best. At first I thought it was just from being tired after climbing Chimborazo, but it got worse throughout the day, and then I got sick overnight.

We went to Lucy's home church Saturday night for the youth service. After that, we went to get dinner on the street. We got the biggest burgers you've ever seen with the smallest burger patty. They were crazy! The piece of hamburger was flat and was probably only 3 inches in diameter, but there was so much other stuff on the burger. There was ham, bacon, egg, cheese, chancho cheese (we're still not sure what this is), french fries, ketchup, and mayonnaise. It tasted really good, though I think I'd like it better without the egg. It was so big, I wasn't able to finish mine (ok and partially because I was starting to not feel so good).

The next morning, I got up for church and was feeling better, so I ate breakfast and went. At breakfast, I found out Jen had been sick the night before, too. At church, I realized I probably should have just stayed at the hotel and rested because I got very tired, kind of dizzy, and started to not feel as well again. They took me back to the hotel during lunch, got me some Gatorade to rehydrate myself, and I slept.

When I woke up, I felt much better, so I decided to go on our afternoon drive. We went to an area that was affected by a volcano eruption about 5 years ago. There was a small town on the volcano that was destroyed. Samaritan's Purse got permission from the local priest to help rebuild. The rebuilt the town in a different place. Now, the people from the town sleep in the houses built by Samaritan's Purse, because they feel it is a safer place than where their town originally was, but they still go back to their original town during the day.

Monday, was our first ministry day. We went to help the church at the District Center. When we got there, there were 2 giant piles in front of the church. One was a pile of dirt, the other a pile of grass. Our first job was to plant the grass. Now, in the states, this wouldn't be too hard. Spread the dirt around and then lay out the sod. Well, here, it's done a little different. The main difference is that instead of having nicely cut pieces of sod, they basically just took a bulldozer, took the top layer off of a field of grass, put it in a dump truck, and dumped it in a pile. So, the grass was all clumped together and buried in dirt. It was like digging for treasure to find a clump of grass in the pile. Eventually, we realized, we weren't going to have enough grass to cover the entire area. So, we made it look as best we could by spreading the rest of the dirt around evenly.

After lunch, we started working on making tables for the kids' classrooms at the church. We started off by sanding down the table tops so the kids don't get splinters. Some people also cut the metal that was going to be used for the legs to length and then welded them together. When we got done sanding, another load of grass arrived, so we helped spread the rest of the grass over the area that didn't have any yet. After this, we headed back to the hotel after a long days work. It felt great to shower. I had been completely covered in dust and dirt because the District Center and the area around it is very dusty and then we also played in the dirt for quite a while.

Tuesday, we went back to the District Center to finish our tables. We put them all together by drilling holes in the tops and the legs and then attaching the tops to the legs using grommets. Then, we painted them with a spray gun. Jill, helped draw a precious moments picture on a wall of a classroom. When the pastor saw her work, he asked her to decorate the cross in the front of their sanctuary. We went to a nearby internet cafe to print off some ideas for a design. Then, Jill got to work drawing up a plan and then she got started on her project.

In the afternoon, a bunch of kids came to the church. Jen, Kevin, and I led them in some songs with fun motions. Jen split the kids up into 3 groups, with Kevin, Harrison, and I each leading a group. We each had a Bible story to tell the kids and then the kids got to act out the stories. It was so much fun. After we were done with the kids, the church wanted to do something for us. They had a big thank-you planned for all the hard work NILI had done. They had the kids sing songs, people pray for us, and they gave us each a doll as a gift. It was amazing to see some hard work mean so much to people.

Wednesday, was our last day in Riobamba. Jill went back to the church to finish the cross. Kevin and I went with Jen to a Nazarene School. There, we went into different classrooms and helped them learn some English. With the youngest kids (2nd and 3rd grade), we sang a song about animals in Spanish and helped them learn the names of the animals in English. With some of the older kids (4th and 6th grade), we sang a song in both Spanish and English. With the oldest kids (7th or 8th grade), we asked them questions like "What is your name?" and "Where are you from?" and they got to answer. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we went and met with the principal. As we were going in, Kim told us that they might give us a snack and it's not optional. Well, we got a little more than a snack. We ended up with lunch, and that lunch was...Chancho! I was oh so happy to see the one thing that I really never wanted to see again. But, because I had to be polite, I ate it, hoping I wouldn't get sick again. So much for hoping.

After our wonderful lunch, we picked Jill up and left Riobamba Guayaquil. Guayaquil is a coastal city and is the largest city in Ecuador. Again, we had a beautiful day for a drive. As we left the mountains, it was fun to watch the plants slowly change from mountain plants to coastal plants. In Guayaquil, we stayed at the District Center. We arrived right before Wednesday night church got out, so we hurried and got into our rooms before it ended so we didn't have to wade through people to get in.

The next morning, Kevin wasn't feeling well, so he slept while we got breakfast. We went to breakfast at a place that serves all of the typical breakfast foods of the coast. The coast, the mountains, and the jungle all have very distinct cultures, so it only makes sense to try coastal food when you're in the coast. While we were at breakfast, I started to feel sick. After breakfast, we went to the Iguana Park. It's a little park in Guayaquil that has iguanas just roaming around. They're everywhere! There are also some turtles in a pond and pigeons, like there are in any city. After this, I went back to the District Center to sleep because I was feeling horrible. Kevin was feeling better so he went to the Boardwalk with everyone. That night, I went to the mall for a little while with everyone because I was feeling a little better and I wanted to get out, while Kevin stayed back to rest.

Friday morning, I was feeling a little better. We went to the same place for breakfast and then we headed to Salinas, a little town on the beach. I slept the 2 hours there because I was feeling pretty badly again. When we got there, we looked for a hotel. Kim and Jen got tired of looking and decided to take a break by going to the beach for a little bit. I stayed in the Sprinter and slept cause I didn't want to move. When we did get a hotel in the afternoon, I just slept for a while. Kim, Jen, and Lucy went and got me some Pedialyte, some Sprite, and some warm Jello. After drinking these things, I started to feel much better. I still stayed at the hotel to rest for a while, but was feeling a lot better by dinner time, so I went and ate a little bit.

Saturday, we went to the beach. I didn't really have an appetite, but I was feeling much better. We rented a tent with some chairs so we had some shade. I swam some. Kevin and I decided to swim out to the buoy. We didn't realize it, but there was a pelican sitting on the buoy and it didn't like it when Kevin touched the buoy. It spread it's wings and wouldn't stop watching us. We also rented some jet skis for a bit and had fun riding those around. We decided to leave when the tide had come in so far that we couldn't back up anymore because there was a wall behind us with the street above it. We went to a small market in the afternoon. On our way back to the hotel from the market, we walked along the beach. There was a man painting little painting right there, so we stopped to watch. I took a mirror, and painted a sky and some water with his fingers. Then, he painted some birds, buildings, and a boat with a brush. Then, he put a piece of glass over that and painted the rest of the water, a beach, a tree, and some people. He then covered this with another piece of glass. It was really cool to watch him do and it has some amazing details, so I bought my first souvenir!

Sunday, we got up and made the 9 hour drive back to Quito to end our trip. I slept a lot of the way because I was still very tired from being sick. It wasn't until Monday night that I finally started to get my appetite back. Monday, after our trip, we didn't have any classes which was very nice. I was just able to relax.

The last of the NILI professional arrived this week. The Benedict's arrived Monday night with their 2 children. They are here to learn Spanish before the more to Shell, which is in the jungle, as missionaries for 2 years. Kristen, who I know from when I went to Mexico City 3 years ago, got here Tuesday. Finally, Kevin and I will have some other people in our Spanish class! Dan Benedict and Kristen are both going to be joining us.

Yesterday, Kevin and I went to El Condado (the mall) because we needed to buy some things for a project in Spanish. While we were there we had fun going to some other stores. I came home with some food from MegaMaxi and some candy from a candy shop along with the paper and markers I needed for my project.

Last night, we went to the Ballet Jacchigua. They do many folk dances from around Ecuador. It was really cool to see. Their costumes were very colorful and beautiful. I loved the music. There were 4 men who all played instruments and sang.

Tomorrow, is our last day of the first block of classes. Kevin and I have our final, but then we're done! It's crazy to think that I'll have been here for 5 weeks tomorrow, which is a third of the total time I'm here. This first third has been amazing and I'm really looking forward to the rest of my time here!

Now, for some random things I've noticed, especially on our trip:
-When people take their livestock to pasture, they don't just let them wander through a certain field, they tie them to a certain spot in the field.
-They utilize all of the space that can possibly be farmed, including all the way up to the top of mountains that are very steep.
-A 2 lane road (1 lane each direction), can quickly become 4 lanes when enough people want to pass each other.
-People are not intimidated by bigger vehicles. A car will pass a truck or bus that is going to slow even if there is a large truck or bus coming the other direction.
-Signs are not always as they seem. On our way to Guayaquil, there was a sign that in English means something like "Interstate Traffic That Way" which would usually been, go that way to quickly bypass the town or city. In this instance, it meant, hour long detour around a small town along twisty, turny roads. (Personally, I think the people of the town just like to laugh at people take that route)
-When on twisty, turny roads, go slowly around turns. You never know when there might be a cow resting in the center.
-Guayaquil is as different from Quito as everyone says it is. People are louder and out later at night. Traffic is crazier for two reasons: 1, there's more of it; 2, the people drive crazier (though not as crazy as in Mexico City if I remember right). Food and climate are different.
-At the beach, buoys that you would think mean "swim past here at your own risk" for swimmers and "don't come past here" for boats really are just guidelines. Many of the smaller boats, especially the ones that sell rides, will go through areas that people swim in and even come to the shore where people are swimming. Ecuador kind of makes me think of "Pirates of the Carribean" with the pirate code being just guidelines that the pirates don't actually have to follow.
-At the beach, people try to sell you anything and everything. Jewelry, woven baskets, flip flops, blow up water toys, whale watch rides, food, drinks, candy, coconuts, live small lobsters or big shrimp (I forget which, but what is someone going to do with live food on the beach?!).
-If you let one person talk to you about what they are selling, everyone who is selling stuff will flock to you.
-I don't think Ecuadorians know exactly what raisins are. First of all, the Mappus' bought a tub of rum nut raisin ice cream and there were maybe 3 raisins in it. Second, there was some breakfast food in Guayaquil that was supposed to have raisins in it, but instead it had once giant raisin that was more like a prune. Third, I bought a box of Raisin Bran cereal and it had like 5 raisins in it and the box even says that raisins are 15% of the ingredients. Anyway, I have seen boxes of raisins in the store and I assume those are actual raisins, but who knows.
-Don't eat the chancho!

The End of the Beginning

Well, as of Friday night, I'll have been here in Quito for 3 weeks. I'll be 20% done with my semester, which seems crazy when I think of all I still want to learn and still have to do. But, I definitely have a start.

Thursday night, we had our Bible study...in the dark. The power went out not long after we got to Jen's house, so we lit a few candles and continued with our Bible study. As I was saying in my last post, Jen was going to cook us monkey bread. Now, people here have never heard of that, and when you tell them that you're going to eat "Pan de Mono" they give you odd looks, so we had to share. After our Bible study, we took some monkey bread to Lucy and Solomone and to Dan and Mabel (some of the NILI Professionals), where we talked for a while. Dan an Mabel are have lots of good stories to tell.

Friday was the quincenera of one of the girls who lives on the campus with her family. A guincenera is a girl's 15th birthday and it's a huge deal. It's kind of like sweet 16 in the States. So, on Thursday at Midnight, a group of us gathered by the gate to the seminary to wait for a taxi full of a Mariachi Band to arrive. When they got here, we all went to the girl's house and the band started playing. After she woke up, we all crowded into the house to celebrate with her. It was a lot of fun. The Mariachi Band played several songs and we had cake and just had fun. The party lasted for over an hour, so I was very tired the next morning.

Fridays, our Spanish class in the morning is shortened. Instead of 9:30 to 12:30, it only goes til 11 so we can go to chapel. Well, chapel ended up being canceled because only 3 students showed up. Now, this isn't because they chose not to go, there were 2 major conventions going on at the seminary and most of the students were helping in some way with those. The seminary rents out part of its property for conventions and other things to pay the bills. Also, my New Testament class in the afternoon was canceled, so I ended up with a very free day. It was great. Kevin and I took advantage of this and headed to Carcelen with a few seminary students. Kevin needed to mail a few letters. I wanted to look at the DVD store and I ended up buying 3 DVDs for $5. We also stopped at a bread shop (they have great bread here and it's cheap).

Saturday, there was a big soccer game between Ecuador and Colombia. A group of us watched the game at the house of one of the pastors that lives on campus. The projected the game onto the wall of one of their bedrooms. It was a lot of fun to watch. Colombia won in the last 10 or 15 minutes, to the excitement of only one person in our group, who screamed as loud as she could, for what seemed like a very long time.

Sunday was a crazy day. Normally, I get on a bus with Carla and one other seminary student to get to church. But this Sunday, our church was meeting at the seminary with somewhere around 30 other churches from Ecuador. Talk about a lot of people! I have a few pictures of the service that you can see by clicking on the title of this post, "The End of the Beginning." And here's a video of the worship:



One of the most interesting things about the service is that some of the Quechuans (the largest group of indigenous people in Ecuador) were there with their churches and the sang and danced for us. Here is a video of them singing:



Kim informed Kevin and I on Monday that we needed passport pictures. We were going to go get our Censos the next morning before class. Censos are Ecuadorian IDs for people who are going to be in the country for a long time. When we have them, we don't have to travel around the country with our passports, unless we're flying, which is very convenient. So, when I got out of class in the afternoon, we headed to Carcelen to get our pictures taken. We also bought some bread while we were down there. We then went to get our Censos on Tuesday morning. We process was pretty simple and it didn't take us very long. We got a number and waited for our turn while gluing a passport picture and writing some basic information (name, residence in Ecuador, nationality, etc.) on a large envelope that contained copies of our passports. When our number was called, we went and gave them our stuff, they took our picture, paid them $4 and they printed out our Censos. They kind of resemble non-drivers licenses in the States.

Tuesday night, the NILI professionals wanted to order pizza for dinner and they invited Kevin and I to join us. We had fun eating Pizza Hut pizza, drinking Pepsi and 7UP! with ice, and just talking in English. It was a lot of fun.

Today, we headed to Colonial Quito for our Wednesday field trip. For pictures, click on the title again. We were supposed to go to a Ballet tonight, but they are out of town so we are going to go in a few weeks. Colonial Quito has some very old and beautiful buildings. We saw the outside of the President's house while we were there. In Colonial Quito, we went to a church, a bread shop, and a museum.

The name of the church we went to was "La Iglesia de la Companera de Jesus" or "The Church of the Companion of Jesus." It is called this because a woman named Mariana de Jesus prayed there every day. Personally, I think this woman was a bit fanatic, but she is very respected by Ecuadorians. She came from a rich family. When she turned 15 she decided to dedicate her life to Jesus. She changed her name to Mariana de Jesus because she was not going to marry. She only ate honey. Any food her family provided her, she gave to the poor people of Quito. Now, here's the weird part. She wore a shirt that had spikes sticking out of it on the inside and beat herself on the back to share in the pain of Jesus. The church itself was gorgeous. I was very sad that I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. Almost everything is covered in a layer of gold. The church is designed so that it is symmetrical. While a painting or sculpture on one side of the church may not be exactly the same as on the other side, they closely resemble each other. Also, in the back, there are "2" spiral stair cases. On a closer look, there is only 1 real staircase. The one opposite, is an optical illusion painted on the wall. There are also 2 famous paintings in the church. One is a graphic portrayal of the punishments in hell for different sins. The other is of the day of judgment when the righteous join Jesus in heaven and the wicked are taken by demons away from heave to be tortured.

We then took a break in a bread shop. Everything looked very good. We all got different things and everyone liked what they got. I got a piece of chocolate cake that was "muy rico" (very good).

We then went to "El Museo de la Ciudad" or "The Museum of the City." This museum showed the history of Quito. It was very interesting and we had a very knowledgeable guide. Again, I wasn't allowed to take pictures when I was inside, but the Museum had some courtyards that were very pretty that I took pictures of.

After the museum, we headed back to Optimus Prime or Optimus for short (our nickname for the Sprinter, the large vehicle we take everywhere) and headed for lunch. We ate at a place called "Pollo Campero" or "Chicken Farmer." After lunch we headed to El Jardin, the mall. I bought a few snacks at SuperMaxi before leaving.

This is going to be my last post for a little while. On Friday, we're headed out of town! We are going to 2 other cities in Ecuador, Riobamba and Quayaquil. There are 11 of us going. The 2 NILI classic students (that's Kevin and I), the 4 NILI professional students (Dan and Mabel, and John and Jill), 3 NILI staff (Kim, Jen, and Lucy), and 2 seminary students (Harrison and Carmen). We are leaving after lunch on Friday and coming back the following Sunday. Some of the things we get to look forward to are climbing Chimborazo (a volcano), ministry work in Riobamba, and sightseeing in the costal city of Quayaquil! It's going to be a great experience!

Mas!

It's been almost a week since I last posted, so here's some of what I've been up to.

On Saturday, the students cook the meals. Carla was supposed to help with dinner, so I helped to. Little did I realize I'd spend 4 hours in the kitchen. We went in at 4:30 (dinner is served around 7) and finished cleaning up around 8 or 8:30. I helped cut green beans that were then cooked, wash, peal, cut, and fry potatoes to make french fries, and fry a food that is kind of like a small hot dog. And of course they also cooked rice! It wouldn't be lunch or dinner without rice. The main part of the meal was very interesting. I don't know what it's called but it was fun to watch it be made. They took plantains and shredded them. Then, they mixed it with peanut butter. Then, they took the mixture and made little rolls stuffed it with tuna. Then, they fried them. It was really good. I wasn't expecting tuna to go good with the banana and peanut butter tastes, but it did. After everyone ate, we washed the dishes and cleaned up. It was a lot of fun!

On Sunday, I went to church with Carla again. I didn't realize it before, but there are around 10 students from the seminary that go there. Like the week before, we took a bus there and got a ride back with someone. After church, we went to El Condado, the mall, for lunch. I got McDonald's because it sounded good. Then, for dinner we went to Carcelen and ate in a small place. At the restaurant, there was a TV and Spiderman 2 was on in Spanish. I was entertained to watch it in Spanish because everything was dubbed except for names. I still find it hard to believe how cheap food is here. I'm given $10 for lunch and dinner on Sundays and I spent just over $6. My dinner, which was very filling, was only $2.35. That includes the soda I had.

My classes have continued this week with Spanish every morning from 9:30 to 12:30. While this still seems like a lot of Spanish at one time, I'm already noticing an improvement in my Spanish. And my New Testament Class and Kevin's Christian Faith Class are in the afternoons when we can fit them into the NILI schedule and Stan's schedule. I have a lot to read before I have NT tomorrow.

NILI has started a new program called NILI Professionals for adults to come learn Spanish. This semester there are going to be 3 couples here for the program. Tuesday night, the first couple arrived and tonight, the second couple will arrive.

Yesterday, I woke up at my normal time, 6:45, to go to breakfast. When I got to breakfast, I found out that breakfast wasn't being served then. Disappointed that I could have slept longer, I headed back to my room to take a shower. Later, after our Wednesday morning meeting and devotional time we got breakfast. Lucy was great and made us grilled cheese sandwhiches and provided us with fresh mora juice and cold milk for our cereal! So, this really was a great breakfast! 1. I miss cold milk already. 2. Mora anything is amazing. In English, mora is a blackberry, but they seem to be so much better here. 3. I like the cheese they have here. We have it for breakfast a lot, but I've never had it warm. It was great! So, thanks Lucy!

Instead of Spanish class yesterday, we had a field trip and the NILI professionals went with us. We went to la Basilica! La Basilica is a beautiful old Catholic church. Not only is it beautiful, it is huge and you can explore it and it has great views of the city! I took lots of pictures that you should check out by clicking on the title of this post, "Mas!" We started out by going into the main sanctuary. The arcitecture and stained glass windows were amazing. Then we headed back outside into a kind of courtyard. After this we headed up the towers. We were able to walk along a catwalk above the roof of the sanctuary. We also climbed some very steep stairs to the top of the dome over the center of the sanctuary. After carefully going back down the stairs, we headed up one of the clock towers using a very skinny spiral staircase. We continued up past the clocks of the clock towers using ladders. The rungs of the ladders were made of rebar. It was kind of scary, especially since I don't like heights. We went up through the bell tower as high as you can go. There was only the top peak above us. The floor here was thick wire, so you could see the 12 or so feet you'd fall if the wire broke. From here you could go outside and sit on the legdes of the roof. There were no railings or anything to stop you from falling or even any signs telling you to be careful. I guess they figure that if you're stupid enough to actually stand up while you're out there and risk falling, you deserve to die. The view from here was spectacular, not that it wasn't from other places in the Basilica, but this was quite a bit higher up. It was a really awesome place to go!

Last night, I did laundry for the first time while I was here. There are 3 decent sized washers and 2 driers. I only had 1 load to do, so it didn't take me long and it was relatively easy, though figuring out which cycle is which is kind of difficult since it's all in Spanish. One thing that I found interesting is that the 3 washers are designated for certain types of clothing (I didn't follow this becuase I didn't want to do more than 1 load if I didn't have to). Each washer is labled "solo jeans" or "solo camisetas" or "solo ropa interior." In other words, "only jeans" or "only shirts" or "only underwear." The only reason I can think of for them to do this is that a lot of the students have never used washing machines before and have only hand washed their clothes. By telling them to do that, they make sure they don't mess up any of their clothes.

Tonight is our weekly Bible study over Richard Foster's "Celebration of Disciplines" at Kim's house. We're going to be talking about the Spiritual discipline of meditaion tonight. I've learned that another name for our Bible study could be "American snack food night." We always have some sort of snack and ff we have cravings for something American, Kim or Jen will get what we want before the Bible study and we'll eat it then. Tonight, Jen is making us monkey bread! Yummy! I don't know exactly what goes into making monkey bread, but it's kind of like a huge cinnimon roll except with some different stuff. It's good!

That's all for now!

Rabbits and Fliers and Class! Oh My!

Yesterday was an interesting day.

We had our last Spanish class of the week, which included a quiz over what we had learned this week. In the afternoon, we also had our class that is in English. For me this is New Testament, for Kevin it is Christian Faith. Since Stan is teaching both, our first 2 days of class were combined, but from now on they'll be separate. Though I will probably end up sitting in on Christian Faith when they are discussing things I find interesting. Also, after class, Stan offered to make Kevin and I Bible covers out of leather, which will be very nice to have for my paper back Bilingual Bible.

On Friday's we go to chapel with the seminary students. Since, yesterday was our first full Friday on campus, it was also our first time in chapel.

After chapel I headed back to my room until it was time for lunch. I was relaxing and checking some things online, when Carla came in and told me to come with her and bring my camera, we were having rabbit, cooked over a fire, for lunch. So, I went with her to find the whole rabbits being put on a grate over a fire along with whole chickens. If you want to see pictures of the cooking process, click on the title of this post, "Rabbits and Fliers and Class! Oh My!" When the rabbits were mostly cooked they took them off the fire and removed some organ that I don't know what it was and some people ate it. I tried a piece and it was pretty good. I just wish I knew what it was. We moved the tables and chairs from the cafeteria outside to eat lunch. The rabbit tasted kind of like chicken (which, if you didn't know, I don't really like), but it was a little different and I like it more than chicken.

Before dinner, a group of us headed to Carcelen to hand out fliers. These were to spread the news about the Nazarene elementary school in Carcelen. We split up into groups of 3 and wore some funny things like clown wigs, funny hats, and funny glasses. I got to wear heart shaped sun glasses. I was a little nervous about this. In the U.S., most people would give you dirty looks or say things because you were wasting their time and people just don't like being handed things by complete strangers. Also, by wearing funny things, we stood out, which I don't like to do in any situation, but especially in a city in a different country that I am still unfamiliar with and where I have been told many, many times to try to blend in as much as possible. I was very surprised to find how open people were to being handed fliers. Not only did they take the fliers, they usually read them. They often said, "Gracias," asked questions, or if you missed them, they would sometimes even come and ask for a flier. And because we were wearing funny things, they seemed very curious and wanted to know what we were handing out. It was a really cool experience.

El Museo del Bicentenario

Yesterday, instead of having our Spanish class, we went on a field trip to the Bicentennial Museum. The building was very beautiful and if you want to see pictures click on the title of this post, "El Museo del Bicentenario." While there, we learned about the revolution of Ecuador against Spain that started in 1809, making 2009 the bicentennial. We listened to guides through the museum talk about different parts of the revolution and we watched a few videos. I now know why there is a street in Quito named 10 de Agosto. That was the day the revolution started. It was all very interesting and a lot of fun. After going to the museum, we went to El Jardin, the mall for lunch and then headed back to the seminary.

Pictures!

I got my pictures uploaded! To see them, click on the title of this post, "Pictures!" The title is linked to the album that is on my facebook.

I'll get more up as I take them. Enjoy!

La Gran Carrera

So, my arms are sore, for a few reasons, but I’ll get to that as I tell you how the last few days have gone. Yesterday and today, I have been exposed to many new things. It’s been great…mostly.

Sunday morning, I went to church with my roommate, Carla. We took a bus and got there around 9. Sunday school was from 9:30 to 10:30 and the service was from 10:30 to 12:30 (but this could be longer). Sunday school was interesting. It started with somewhere between 5 and 10 people there. As it got closer to the service starting, more and more people showed up and joined in. During the service, they sang many songs, most of which I didn’t know, but a few of them I did. The pastor used some objects during his sermon which helped me get the idea of what it was about. It’s hard to listen to Spanish for so long and not get lost. After church we got a ride back to the seminary with a girl from the church. We then walked down to Carcelen with 2 other students for lunch. On Sundays, I am on my own for lunch since it’s not provided at the seminary. We went to a small place where I got shrimp with rice (a huge portion) along with some fried bananas for only $5. We then took a taxi back to the seminary, where I decided to take a “Nazarene nap.” At 5 we all (Kevin and I, our roommates, and the NILI staff) headed over to the Hall’s house for a welcome party. The Halls live off the campus in a gated area along with the Fishers, who I was introduced to as we were headed back to the seminary. The Work and Witness building where Work and Witness teams stay is also there. We ate American tacos for dinner, played the Wii (part of why my arms are sore…sad, I know), and just hung out and had fun.

Yesterday was crazy. I got up at 6:40 and went to breakfast and 7. Breakfast was really good. We had slices of bread with some kind of cheese and hardboiled eggs. I also found out that they drink their milk warm, which was kind of weird because some of it solidified on the surface, but was fine all around. I then headed back to my room because I didn’t have class ‘til 9:30. I pretty much just relaxed, checked some things online, and took a short nap. Class at 9:30 was Spanish. I will have this every weekday at the same time. The class will be split into 3, 4 week blocks, with 1 class focusing on different things each block. Today, our professor, Senora Evelyn, tested us to see what level our Spanish is at using a written test and by talking to us individually. We also talked about what we’ll be doing for the semester. We get to do a lot of day trips for Spanish! Our first one is Wednesday! It’s going to be lots of fun and I’m going to learn a lot. We also got a quick tour of the seminary today. We got to see where all the missionaries that live on campus live and other fun things. We had a travel workshop scheduled today at 2. This turned out to be La Gran Carrera or the Great Race. Our first clue was to find out roommates and head to the gate of the seminary with everything we need when we go out (NILI ID, copy of passport, some money, and our charged cell phones (yes, I’ve been given my own cell phone for the semester)). At the gate we were asked if we had everything we needed, given a form to fill out when we leave, and given our next clue, which told us to get on a bus to a certain place. We were also given the 50 cents needed for both of us to ride the bus (yes it’s that cheap, 25 cents a person). It took us a little while to figure out which bus we needed because there are many and once we figured it out we had to wait. We got on along with Kevin and his roommate, Harrison. Once we got to where we needed to go, a bookstore where Stan and his family were waiting, we raced each other into the store and got our next instruction from Stan: find a yellow book with NILI on it. We found the book and got our next clue, to take a trolley (also 25 cents a person, given to us with the clue) to a certain stop and go to the nearby market. Again we raced out of the store, pushing and shoving (I’m sure this was a great sight to see). We found out where the trolley was. Kevin and Harrison beat us to the trolley and were able to get on without any trouble. We had to wait because the next trolley that stopped was so full only a few people could get on. We had to push our way onto the next trolley, which was also very full. At each stop, more and more people crammed themselves on and we got squished. Trying to hang on when there are that many people is almost impossible and that’s the other reason my arms hurt. Then, the trolley we were on decided to be difficult and stop working, making us fall even farther behind. After about 5 or 10 minutes of roasting in the trolley with lots of people pressed up against us and no air moving, the trolley started again. We made it to the market where we got instructions to buy something using the 75 cents we were given. I now have a woven bracelet that says Ecuador on it and Carla has a matching one. We then were told to take a taxi to a park, which we did for the $2 we were given (again, very cheap). At the park, we had to take a paddle boat in a circle. Then, we were sent to the nearby mall to find Juan Perez, who happened to be out Spanish Professor. We had to say something in Spanish that was on our clue (all the clues were yellow pieces of paper). She gave us our last clue which was to take a bus to Carcelen and then take a taxi to the seminary, which can be complicated because to be dropped off at the entrance to the seminary when coming from Carcelen, you have to go in a big loop and make a U-turn (which some taxi drivers aren’t very fond of). We arrived at the seminary quite a bit after Kevin and Harrison because getting a little behind them with the trolley caused us to get into a lot of traffic on our way back. But it was still a lot of fun. Then, last night there was a party for the seminary students to welcome us. We had snacks and played lots of games from UNO Attack to Jenga to some get to know you games. Afterwards we watched a movie.

Not only have I had some very interesting things to do, I’m also starting to get used to certain things that are different here. Going to the bathroom for instance, takes a bit of thinking because I have to remember to throw my toilet paper away instead of flushing it. We also only get 4 rolls of toilet paper a month to share between the 2 of us. This is plenty, but it seems odd to ration it like that. At meals, lunch and dinner mostly, I will be eating a lot of rice, potatoes, and soup. Almost every meal will have at least one of those items and a lot of it, too. Public transportation is crazy. You can be standing at the bus stop, but unless you know how to signal the bus, it won’t stop, same with getting off. The bus also only stops for a few seconds and is moving by the time you are fully in the door. The busses are very jerky so you have to be ready for this or lose your balance. Buses and trolleys can be very crowded and uncomfortable, but they’re cheap, so I guess I can’t complain too much. Children as young as 4 or 5 often work with their parents. At lunch yesterday, we were served by 2 young girls, probably 4 and 6. And on the bus yesterday, a boy, who was about 12, took our bus fare. Water, like in most 3^rd world countries is not safe to drink out of the tap, so we have a large bottle of water in our room to get water from when we are there and there are also many jugs on campus that we can get water from and refill our bottle with. I’m finding the altitude doesn’t really affect me too much when I’m just walking around campus as long as I drink enough water, but as soon as I try to run (like today during the race), I find myself very out of breath, much quicker than usual, and it takes me longer to recover. But I think I can deal with that, especially since you won’t find me running often and I’m making sure to drink plenty. When I want to send an email or update my blog, I have started writing what I want to say in a word document and then pasting it. This is because the internet here can go down without notice or just not be working well at a random time, so instead of getting frustrated and trying to get back on the network, I can just wait until I am connected and paste what I wrote. I haven’t been successful in getting pictures up yet, though I haven’t tried too hard yet, so I’ll get those up when I do.