PERU!!

Dec 9 Left Cuenca at 6pm on the bus. The bus took 5 hours and was a
terrible ride. Em and Kels thought we were going to die at certain
points driving too close to trucks full of gas tanks, with danger signs
plastered across the back. At the bus station in Guayaquil we wandered
around looking for the McDonalds, but settled for cheese empenadas
instead. I loaded mine with salsa to spite the gal selling them who
kept warning me the salsa was spicy. From the bus station we got a
taxi, of whom we asked about our hostel direction and he said yes he knew
it. Wrong. We were lost, driving around for close to 45 minutes, and
when we finally found it he tried to jip me another dollar because of
the extra driving. I don't think so buddy. Even before the taxi
drove away, we realized that the hostel didn't have our reservations.
We came in later than they had expected, and they had given away our room. We loudly laughed about the trouble we had had, and luckily
they upgraded us to a private room for the same price. We had a hot and
sweaty night of sleep in Guayaquil, and got up bright and early the
next day to fly out to Cusco.

Dec 10 The first flight from Guayaquil to Lima was fabulous. It was a
large international airplane, and I had three seats to myself to sleep
on. In addition, they gave us muffins. The flight was a little
delayed, and by the time we got into Lima, some people from our flight
were running on. We went to the bag carousel to pick up our checked
luggage, and at first Kels’ and mine didn't come out. Uh oh. We both
have bad lost bag karma and we were afraid this might be more of that. I went over to the desk to talk about our missing bags, and right as I was chatting with the guy, our bags popped out on a different carousel. Phew. From there we processed through customs, and popped back out to re-check in our bags; when we got to the counter, though, we realized the lines were too massive to stand in, and we carried on. Luckily they didn't catch our over-regulation sized sunscreens. Once in Cusco, we grabbed a taxi to our hostel, only after being told, "Did you already pay for that hostel? It’s in a bad part of town". Oh brother. In the taxi, a girl came along with us who worked at a travel agency, spouting off information about Cusco and obviously trying to get us to sign up for a trip with her. I was exhausted though, and not interested in listening to Spanish at the moment; we said thank you, we're tired, we'll call you later. Our hostel was much nicer than we had expected after the warnings, and are very happy with our decision. After arriving we showered, went online,
and then headed out to the city center to find some dinner. We ended
up at a Mexican/Italian/Peruvian place, which actually had some pretty
good Mexican food. We wandered and did some shopping, and ended up at
an Irish pub (the highest Irish pub in the world) to cap off our night.

Dec 11 We slept in a bit, and ate the breakfast provided at our hostel.
From there we ventured out, got our train ticket to Machupicchu, and
continued shopping shopping shopping. It's been a while since we've
been in such a touristy place, and we couldn't resist the fun shopping
offerings. After shopping ourselves out, we had some lunch, a McDonalds
Flurry, and headed back to our hostel, stopping at a grocery store
along the way. Our spaghetti dinner that we had picked up at the grocery store was questionable (a.k.a. not good), and our night started with a drink at the hostel bar, to McDonalds for some fries (hey, we don't have McDs in Cuenca), and then out to a bar with live music and 2 for 1 priced drinks. The music was all English cover songs, and we got called out a couple of times being the only gringos in the bar. We tried to go out dancing as well, but after realizing it was a Tuesday, settled for just going home.

Dec 12 We woke up and had breakfast at the hostel again, and ventured out
to try to find the LAN ticket office. The night before we had been
talking about our travel plans, and realized we were a little too
trigger happy with we made our original travel plans. We all decided
it would be nice to move our flight back, have less time in Cusco,
and have more time in Cuenca to get ready for Christmas and our next travel plans. After a bit of an adventure finding the ticket office, we handed over our credit cards and happily made the switch to leave two days earlier. From there we had lunch, and then hiked up to San Blas, the hippie-boho
area of Cusco. San Blas had a lot of sweet shops, definite hippie
items, and narrow, winding streets that kind of reminded us of
Santorini (all the doors were painting blue as well). After San Blas,
Kels and Em left to find a coffee shop, and I went to my first museum in Cusco, the Museum of Precolumbian Art. It was a beautiful space with collections of ancient pottery, woodwork, silver and gold, as well as a section with post-conquest, European style religious paintings. The collections were great, and best of all I was completely alone in the museum, which was a half eerie, half exhilarating experience. After the museum I returned home, made mac and cheese for dinner, and finished the night by joining some guy in the TV room to watch the end of two movies. Not a bad end to the day.

Dec 13 We got up for our earliest day so far at 7:30am, getting ready
and heading upstairs for breakfast. The plan for the day was to take a
tour of Moray, Maras, and Salineras, areas near Cusco. After
breakfast and sandwich making, we headed out with the hostel guide,
John, to wait for our tour van to pick us up. The first stop was
Chincheros, a small pueblo about 30 minutes outside of Cusco. There we
drank coca tea and were given a demonstration of how they clean,
process, and dye lamb and alpaca wool to make all of the beautiful
sweaters and scarves here. From Chincheros we went to Maras, another
small pueblo with Salineras salt mines located about 10 minutes
outside. The salt mines were scattered in a valley, part of the Sacred
Valley, and consisted of a giant network of little pools, which fill
with salt water and then are harvested in the summer months when all
the water evaporates. The final stop of the tour was Moray, where
large, archeological alien-looking circles can be found. There were a
total of four terraced rock circles, which spanned down 150
meters. Made with original stone, the idea behind these large circles
was the different levels allowed for different climates, and in
different climates one could grow different produces. The bottom ring
was hot and humid, like the jungle, while the top ring was cold and
dry, like the climate found in the mountains. We climbed all the way
down to the bottom ring, and although we were still cold, were
impressed by this grand and intelligent architecture characteristic of
the Incans. There were four large circles at Moray, each one representing an
Incan territory with Cusco at the navel or center of it all. Very cool. After Moray I passed out in the bus, woke up in Cusco, said goodbye to our fellow tour mates, and went to Plaza de Armas to chow down on some falafel.

After the falafel lunch it was naptime, and then another
lazy night in. We watched a movie again, and actually went to bed the
latest we had so far, just from watching a movie. Grandmas.

Dec 14 Today included some good sight seeing. We had a leisurely
breakfast, and then spent a lot of the morning chatting with John, the
tour guide that lives and works at our hostel. From there we walked up
to Santo Domingo Church, also known as Qorikancha. It is a church that
had originally been an Incan place of worship, and then after the
conquest by the Spanish was turned into a Catholic church. I managed
to sneak in on the student discount, and am really glad I did.
Beautiful architecture and a really unique history. After the church
we grabbed some lunch, and headed over to the Choco Museo. It had
displays of how chocolate is processed, and then some chocolate beans
we could crack open and try, as well as chocolate and chocolate tea
samples. Yum. From the museum Emily headed home, and Kels and I
continued shopping and then ended up at San Pedro Market, a mix of
souvenir clothing and meats and fruits and cheeses, just like our
market in Cuenca but much larger. We came back to the hostel for
another leftovers dinner, with plans to stay in and watch a movie that
night. Haha. Naive us on a Friday night. We met some guys from our hostel in the TV room that convinced us to go out, meaning my two sweaters and make-upless face had to change. We started the night at Paddy's Pub, where I have officially found a delicious and cheap dark beer, and had plans to
meet up with the guys from our hostel at a dance club after. Well, we went
to the club, nobody was there, so we came up with a plan B. We ended
up at a place called Mushroom, which had a bouncer and list at the
door, but then a weird mix of Gringos and Peruvians inside. We made
friends with two guys from Savannah, and then we danced and chatted the night away.

Dec 15 The next day we paid for our late night out, spending most of
the day sleeping, eating, or on the computer. Not exactly what I want
to be doing in Cuzco, but a day without plans was actually kind of
nice.

Dec 16 Yet another lazy day in Peru. We slept in, had breakfast, and
then Kels and I got ready for our adventure of the day: a trip up to
the Cristo Blanco on the hill. We took an 8 soles taxi ride up the
hill, which saved us quite a bit of getting lost and heavy breathing.
The view from the top was incredible, and what was even more beautiful
was the fact that some Incan ruins were just a stones throw away.
Instead of paying 70 soles to get in, we were able to peer into
Saqsayhuaman free of charge. The walk down was similarly beautiful, on
a peaceful cobblestone path, passing families on their way up for a
relaxing Sunday. After returning to Plaza de Armas, we read for a bit
in the square and came back home for lunch and another lazy afternoon.
Luckily the rain and the fact that everything is closed (because it was
Sunday) made me feel a little less guilty about enjoying the
relaxation. And the next day we were off to Aguas Calientes and on Tuesday,
Machu Picchu!!

Dec 17 So this was it, the big day. We got up early, had a nice
breakfast, and got on a microbus to take us to Ollantaytambo. The ride
was rough and windy, but luckily I had popped a carsickness pill and
slept through the whole thing; Emily and Kels were not as fortunate.
Once in Ollantaytambo, we headed to the train station to leave for Aguas Calientes. Our ride with was Inca Rail was pleasant, and the views from the train were gorgeous. Once in Aguas Calientes, we walked around looking for our hostel and worrying about the rain that was falling, hoping it wouldn’t ruin our Machupicchu day. We ended up staying at a very hippie hostel; sufficient, but making us miss our hostel in Cusco. From there it was town wandering, food eating, and bus ticket buying. We were back in our hostel that evening by about 7pm, and in bed at 8:30pm. Luckily, the town had a power outage that night, leaving us to sleep in the dark and without the hostel dorm room lights turning on and off. Awesome.

Dec 18 The next morning we woke up at 4:45am, got ourselves ready, and
headed to the bus stop. Kels and I had been hoping to climb up to
Machupicchu from Aguas Calientes, but decided on the bus when Kels
still wasn’t feeling well; that choice turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
The hike up would have taken us at least 2 hours, straight up steep,
rock stairs. Once at Machupicchu, we entered and headed straight to
the gate for Huaynapicchu, the hike up the characteristic Indian nose
that you see in every photo. Everything was covered in fog that early
in the morning, and although it was a bummer the views were hidden, it
was almost cooler seeing everything covered in fog. Very mystic. We
started the Huaynapicchu hike at 7:30am, and were immediately floored
by what it was, an hour hike STRAIGHT up a mountain, up steep and
slippery stairs. Luckily there were railings to hold onto every now
and then, but it was still way steeper than we had anticipated. At the
top the view was again hidden by the clouds, something which made my
afraid-of-heights roommates really happy. We still got peaks in the
clouds of Machupicchu, and it was beautiful and peaceful way at the
top. After the treacherous walk down (down the same slippery and scary
steps we walked up), we were back in the village of Machupicchu, ready
for 10am lunch and exploring. We walked through all the parts of the
city (which actually wasn’t as big as it seems from pictures) and then
up towards Machupicchu, the larger mountain opposite Huaynapicchu. It was incredible. I couldn’t believe that I was actually at a place that I had been dreaming about visiting for years. After taking in the view, we decided it was time to head back down to Aguas Calientes. Kels and I opted to walk down, both for the experience and to save the $9 on the bus. And again, we were so glad walking up hadn’t worked out. It took us more than an hour just to go down, and once we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes our knees, feet and
legs were so sore. Oh well, the true mark of an accomplished hike.
After returning to our hostel we showered, napped, and had an odd
Mexican dinner (okay, so were not in Mexico. Guess we couldn’t have
expected much), we headed back to our hostel to chat with other
travelers and watch some movies. Again, we couldn’t believe what we had
just done that morning. We had seen Machupicchu.

Dec 19 The next morning we slept in, had breakfast at our hostel, and
got our stuff ready to go. Unfortunately we had seen all there was to
see in Aguas Calientes (it’s a small town), and our train didn’t leave
for Ollantaytambo until 2:30pm. So there we were, at 11am, sitting in
the town square, people watching. By 2pm we headed over to the train
station, and boarded our more crowded train for what would hopefully
only be an hour and a half long ride. Unfortunately, travel karma was not much on our side this trip. There was an unforeseen rockslide on the train tracks, and our train had to stop for close to an hour while they moved the debris. Needless to say, that extra hour stuck on a train full of loud Americans was not what we wanted to be doing. Once in Ollantaytambo we were pretty ready to just be home, so we quickly found a micro bus to take us back. They like to load up their transportation here, and this was no
exception. Every seat was filled, with backpacks piled on laps. I
popped another carsickness pill, but didn’t give it enough time to
start working. The whole ride was me either trying to sleep (with my head bouncing against the window), feeling sick, or feeling the woozy affects of the drug. It was not a pleasant drive, but we were glad to be back in Cusco. We ran to the grocery store, bought our dinner and lunch, and hurried back to our trusted hostel, Southern Comfort, for some dinner and R & R. The
next day our long journey back to Cuenca began.

Dec 20 We got up for breakfast in our hostel, showered, and packed up all our things. We were planning to just hang out in the hostel all morning, but I had the urge to visit Plaza de Armas just one more time. I did some last minute shopping, and was about to head back to the hostel when I
walked past the Convento de la Merced out of curiosity. The student
price was only 3 soles (about a dollar. And yeah, if I still look like
a student, I’m going to cheat and get the student price), and after
contemplating for a bit, decided to go in. The convent was a beautiful flowery courtyard, and the church inside had all the typical statues and beautiful decorations of a Catholic church. Around the main square were small museum rooms, one filled with gold and silver pieces, another with art, and another with cassocks worn by the first Spanish priest to come to Cusco. In the silver and gold room, they had a beautiful piece that held the second largest pearl in the world. It was an incredible and beautiful space, and they
even had tour guides standing around to offer information. My tour
guide was William, and we ended up chatting for about 15 minutes
before I took off. Well, well worth the $1. Back at the hostel it was
lunchtime, and the final Internet fix before our long, dreaded, trip back to
Cuenca. As Emily said, “I don’t really like the travel part of traveling...”

We headed to the airport around 2pm, a little early for our 4:50pm flight, but we really had nothing better to be doing. We checked in, got rid of our bags, and walked over to the security area only to be told there were no shops beyond that point, and it was too early for us to go through security. We found some chairs upstairs, and continued our marathon of sitting and waiting. We finally headed down at 3:30pm, went through security (where the guard found Emily's erotic Incan statue she had bought for her boyfriend. Hilarious reaction), and did more sitting. And of course because we actually had extra time, we were given more time with a 30-minute flight delay. After the delay the flight went by without a hitch, and at the airport we found our bags, and got in an overpriced taxi to our Lima hostel. At the hostel we ordered in pizza, and chatted with the only other guest, a girl from Switzerland, before going to bed early. Our 3:30am wake up call would be coming far too soon.

Dec 21 Well I think I slept one hour the entire night, strange because
I usually don't have trouble falling asleep in new places. We woke up
early, got our stuff, and headed out for our second to last taxi ride. The
airport was crowded, strange at 4am, and we were glad we had yet again
arrived early. Another delayed flight, another fine flight, a muffin
and a lot of sleep. Off of the plane in Guayaquil we went through
customs, found our bags (they all arrived again! I'm hoping this means
my lost bag bad luck is over), and got in another taxi. We didn't know
how to find our bus back to Cuenca, but eventually the right person
yelled "Cuenca" at us, and we followed him quickly to the ticket
counter. We were pulling out of Guayaquil about half an hour later, on
our way home! The bus ride was fine (after popping a Bonin, of course),
and the final leg of the trip took us through Cajas National Park, a
beautiful reminder of the place we call home. Fredy picked us up at
the bus station, and it was "Hallelujah, we're home!" from there.
Incredible trip, but travel always makes me appreciate home (even a
temporary home) all that much more. Now it’s time for Christmas in Cuenca, and after that another trip to meet my parents in the northern Ecuador to see Quito, Otovalo, and Mindo before coming down to show them Cuenca.

Holiday Highlights

Because it has been a while since I have written a blog, but also because I am still feeling too lazy and busy to re-hash everything I’ve done the past three weeks… I will be giving the highlighted version.

·      I visited both Piedra de Agua and Parque Paraíso for the first time. Piedra de Agua is the nicer of the hot springs in Baños de Cuenca, and Parque Paraíso is a beautiful park here in Cuenca. Parque Paraíso actually translates to Paradise Park, and indeed it was.

·      On the Saturday after Thanksgiving one of the teachers at CEDEI (and her husband) hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for us all. It was in their beautiful apartment, and all of the food was incredible. We were about 20-30 people in all, young and old. Basically, it tasted like Thanksgiving should taste, and I feel incredibly blessed to be in Ecuador with this group of people.

·      Next Saturday, Kels, Emily, Mark, and I will be doing something that has now been added to my Ecuador bucket list, just so I can cross it off: We will be starring in a commercial for a bank. A friend of mine, knowing I spoke English, asked myself and some friends to help her friends out with a favor. They are making a commercial for a bank here in Ecuador, JEP, that will be put on their website and played in the stores. Nervous? Yes. Excited to do something completely random in another country? Absolutely. 

·      Last week was our last week of regular classes, and this week will be our last week of Intensive and Saturday classes. So four days from now I will be a free woman, and five days from now I will be on a bus to Guayquil.

·      Kels, Emily and I are going to Guayquil next Sunday, and on Monday flying out to… PERU!! I have dreamed for years of going to Machu Picchu, and two weeks from now that dream will be realized. I am so excited. We will be in Cusco a total of two weeks, with two days in Aguas Calientes (the pueblo closest to Machu Picchu) and one whole, beautiful day in Machu Picchu. Pray for safe travels and few headaches… Our planning hasn’t quite come together yet.

·      After Peru, I will be returning to Cuenca for Christmas Eve, and then flying to Quito on Christmas to meet up with my parents! We will be touring Quito, Otovalo, and then spending two days in the cloud forest in Mindo. From there, the three of us will fly down to Cuenca, and spend New Years Eve here in Cuenca. It’s easy to say, I am a lucky girl.

So goodbye for now blog, and see you in 2013 with an update on my vacations! God bless, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Cuenca Weekends

This week started out well with an election celebration on Tuesday night at one of the local Gringo bars, Inca Bar. About 20 Americans (and Irish Mark) gathered at the bar to watch the election update and counts, and had celebratory jello shots passed around when they announced that Obama was projected to win. We ended up staying awake until 2:30am watching Romney and Obama’s speeches, but it was well worth it. Good day to be an American. Thursday evening all of us were greeted with a surprise, when something at the power plant in Cuenca exploded and left half of the city without electricity. Because it starts getting dark around 5pm here, my 4:30pm and 6pm classes were canceled, allowing me to go home early and relax on a night that I really wasn’t interested in teaching. Friday morning I got up early for another trip to the beautiful Cajas National Park. It was a sunny day, and we did a different, more strenuous hike this time. Cajas is gorgeous, and it was nice to get away from the sounds of the city even if just for a couple of hours. After returning from Cajas I showered quickly, threw on some clothes, and hustled to school to teach my 6pm class. Luckily, we’re still in the first unit in my 101 class and the lessons go by very quickly because the material is so basic. I was able to cover that day’s material and the previous day’s material, meaning I didn’t need to make up the missed class. Score! After class we headed home, ate a quick dinner, and left again to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. This was my first time at an Ecuadorian movie theater, and it was a great experience. My friends were excited that they could put crushed up potato chips on their popcorn (a thing here), and I was just excited the movie was in English and not poorly dubbed Spanish. Although I tried to keep up with the Spanish subtitles, it was just nice seeing an American movie in English on the big screen. The next morning we got up early again for our Saturday classes, which we are counting down the days of: only 4 more Saturday classes left (including the one Saturday where we just have to sit and administer the final). Because the 300-level classes at CEDEI are writing courses as well, Kels, Emily and I thought it would be fun (and helpful) to do a sort of writing workshop for our 300-level students, rotating them between our three classrooms and teaching them each a different element of writing (run-on sentences, punctuation, and linker/transition words). It worked out perfectly for Mark as well, because he had a rugby game that day in Guayaquil and could not find anyone to cover his Saturday class (not a very popular thing here, Saturday classes). He was able to teach most of the first half of class, and then ditch his students with us in time to catch the bus with his team to Guayaquil. After class we were all exhausted, and came home for a quick lunch and nap. After my nap Isabel and decided to try something new by going to a Bible study through our church. It ended up being just us and three other ladies, and we had a great study, focusing on 2 Timothy 3. After the Bible study we had coffee, chatted, and took some group pictures. I arrived at home from the Bible study to find Kat and Kelsey watching Singing in the Rain. Let the lazy Saturday night begin… We watched Singing in the Rain, a little bit of the The Voice, Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, and then the Duck football game (which ended at 2:30am our time). Late night, but it was worth it. The next morning we slept in, waking up just in time to look at the clock and realize we had an hour to get out of the house for a soccer game. We were going to watch the Cuenca soccer team play, and while I don’t know very much about soccer and am no soccer enthusiast, it seemed only right to watch the Cuenca team at least once. Kels, Emily and I piled into a taxi, getting out at the stadium to meet up with Clara, Adam, Josh, and Lynsey. We decided on a whim to buy some Cuenca team jerseys: $5 each. Entrance tickets: $6. Weird paper hats to protect us from the sun: 50 cents. And of course, cultural experience: priceless. The stadium that Cuenca plays in is unfortunately not very nice, while the team is unfortunately not very good. It was a fun experience nonetheless, complete with some random guy taking pictures of us because we are gringos. After the game we chowed down on some food, and had yet another lazy Sunday with the only productive activity being a visit to the mercado. Successful weekend in Cuenca, I would say.            

Cuenca Days

This past weekend Cuenca celebrated its Independence Day, fittingly named “Cuenca Days”. Basically, it was the best weekend to be in Cuenca. The week started off well by our lighter load and lack of an intensive class. Wednesday evening Kels and I went to Eucalyptus again in hopes of dessert and Ladies Night. Well, it wasn’t Ladies Night, but we still had wine, chocolate cake and French fries, an excellent food combination. Everyone we were with, though, questioned our food combination choices, and chalked it up to being a weird Oregon girl thing. Thursday night, instead of going out, we chose to have a relaxing movie night. We watched both “Taken 2” and “Ruby Sparks”. Friday morning we got up, ready to enjoy Cuenca Days. It was a beautiful sunny day, and there were artesian booths set up all over the city with blankets, jewelry, handicrafts, and artwork. We wandered along the Ferria booths for a good couple of hours, taking in the crowds and beautiful goods. There were also street musicians scattered along the way, playing mostly salsa music with excellent dancers out front. Again, Ecuadorians know how to move. After wandering for a while we stopped at Inca for lunch, waiting an unfortunate two hours, but still enjoying our tacos when we finally got them. After lunch, Kels and I decided to join our friend Mike on a trip to the cemetery; Friday was “El Día de los Defuntos”, the Ecuadorian version of Day of the Dead. The cemetery was a good 40-minute trek away, but it was well worth the walk. We got a colada morada along the way to warm ourselves, which is a hot punch-like drink made with fruits, flour, and an unnatural purple coloring I don’t want to know the origin of. The colada morada was served with a bread called “guaguas”, oddly shaped in the form of a wrapped up baby. The cemetery was full of people, and beautifully decorated. It was interesting taking in all of the beautiful flowers and decorations, and also noticing those that were there mourning a recent lose. Although it seemed many families visited out of obligation, it was beautiful to see the ones that were there to say hello to their missed loved one. After coming home from the cemetery, Kels and I put on our dancing shoes and headed out for the night. The streets were filled with people, and it was fun seeing so much energy and comradery.

Saturday morning Kels and I got up late, and got ourselves ready to head out to see Mark’s rugby game. Our roommate, Mark, had joined the local rugby team, and we were not going to miss his debut. We almost did though… After asking what bus to take and eventually waiting for and jumping on said bus, we realized we were heading in the wrong direction. Back to square one. We tried desperately to flag down a taxi to take us, but all the taxis were full because of the festivities in town. Eventually, we found an empty taxi, and were thankful to be on our way to the rugby game, only a little late. I personally had never seen rugby before, and it was interesting to see the combination of futbol and football in the sport; definitely a tough sport. After the game, Kels and I came home and lounged around until our beloved Ducks were on. I had not managed to watch a single Duck game in Guatemala, and it has been wonderful seeing so many games here, especially since our Ducks are kicking butt. After the game ended at 10pm we didn’t feel like going out again, but stopped by San Sebastian park for a quick second to listen to the band playing in the square. Sunday morning I got up for church, and had a pretty laid back and productive Sunday of grocery shopping, finishing my book, and doing some last minute Ferria shopping. All in all, great weekend to be in Cuenca. This week intensive classes start again, meaning my wonderful free evenings and coming home before dark are over. But I like being busy, so bring it on! I’m excited to meet my new batch of 101 English students.

Halloween-time

Que semana… What a week. It started out early on Monday morning with a visit to the SRI, the Ecuadorian IRS. We had to register as persons making money in the country, but in order to do so we needed to prove residency through a water or phone bill. Well, somehow our house missed the memo of what bill we needed, and showed up Monday morning with our electricity bill. Not good enough. Luckily, other teachers from CEDEI were registering that morning also, and we just “borrowed” the bill of another teacher, who happens to live down the street from us. Another hoop cleared, and hopefully the last for a while. As I said earlier, this week was midterm/finals week, meaning we were just reviewing and testing all week. I had little lesson planning to do, and a couple of hours on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to grade papers and plan for the next week while watching my students take tests. Beautiful. With this extra time in the morning, Kels, Annie and I enjoyed a venture to the market Tuesday morning, exploring a new part of the market with handmade baskets, art, and sculptures. Tuesday evening my roommates and I decided to put a little bit of Halloween in our lives and watch a scary movie. We ended up seeing “The Woman in Black”, the movie adaptation of a play I had seen in London three years ago. I remembered the play being haunting and scary, and the movie did not fall short; I don’t think I will be watching another scary movie for a long time now. Wednesday evening I enjoyed Lady’s Night at Eucalyptus, the same restaurant we dined at last week. For Lady’s Night we received two free glasses of wine with our dinner, enjoyed the company of about ten other female CEDEI teachers, and ate another DELICIOUS dinner (I tried the green curry this time. It was excellent).

Friday morning Kels and I took the grand adventure to Baños de Cuenca, a pueblo nearby with several hot springs baths. We took the public bus (which costs a whole 25 cents) for about 30 minutes outside of the city, and got off where our nice bus driver recommended. Because we had never been to Baños before, we were a little skeptical when it felt like we were wandering deserted neighborhoods in a small town. But after asking a nice woman at a tienda where to go, we came upon Hostería Durán, the cheaper of the thermal hot springs baths. It cost $4.20 to get in, and it included a large hot springs pool and an incredible steam room. After spending around an hour there, Kels and I were relaxed and content. We stopped for a chocobanano at the tienda where we had asked for directions, and got back on the bus towards Cuenca. After our hot springs experience we were exhausted, and took a quick nap before heading over to Centro for our free dance classes. All CEDEI teachers are entitled to free dance classes, but only about four of us showed up. No worries though, more dance space for us! Our teacher, Danny, was an expressive and excellent dancer, and really funny. He taught us some beginning Salsa and Meringue moves. I still have a long way to go, but my goal is to be a better Salsa and Meringue dancer than I was when I came here (not a difficult task, really)! Friday evening I was back at Centro giving my Intensive 101 class their final, and after the final we all went out for pizza together. They were a great class and I’m really going to miss them; dinner was a nice closure to the class, and one of my students even paid for everyone’s pizza! After dinner I came home to Kat 1, Kat 2, a zebra and two pirates: my roommates were all ready for the Halloween party we were going to that evening. I quickly put on my gato negro costume, and joined the girls upstairs. Although most of us had Saturday morning classes, we decided just this one Friday we were going to go out; a bar in town was having a Halloween party with free entrance and free drinks. We arrived at Inca Lounge around 9:30pm, and were surrounded by even more dressed up Gringos, and more Ecuadorians than I was expecting (Inca is famous for being a Gringo-friendly bar and restaurant). The evening was fun, although our 1:30am leaving time was probably not the best decision… Waking up at 7am for Saturday classes was rough. Luckily it was midterm day, and after giving them their speaking test and doing a little review, I again just had to sit and watch them take the exam while I graded my Intensive 101’s finals. And I think we all learned our lesson; that will be the last Friday evening we go out while Saturday classes are still in our lives. Saturday was spent as the definition of a lazy Saturday, with frequent naps, eating, and the watching of the Oregon Ducks football game by me and Kels. Saturday night we costumed-up again, and went to the house of some fellow teachers for a little party. They had great food and a bonfire over which to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, but Kels and I only lasted a couple of hours there because the night before had still left us tired. We took a taxi home with another teacher, and were happily in bed by 12:30am. Sunday morning I visited another church with fellow teacher Jeff, a church called 608. The name is based off of the verse Micah 6:8, which says, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”. The service was nice, and a lot smaller than the previous church we had been to. The rest of Sunday was spent grading midterms, cooking (homemade pasta sauce and hummus again), and watching TV; the perfect lazy Sunday, preceded by that perfect lazy Saturday.

Today my regular classes resumed as normal, but I decided it was time to do something fun outside of the classroom. I took my first class to a nearby pizza place, asking them for the English menus and asking my students to order in English. The conversation quickly turned to Spanish, but at least I tried. And with my second regular class, we attempted to go to ice cream, although many of my students didn’t want ice cream (what kind of teenagers are they?!). After sending the rambunctious boys home (because they didn’t want to do anything fun) the two girls in the class and I went out for humitas, tortillas de chocolate, and flour drinks. It was a nice turn around from my frustration with the boys that didn’t want to participate in my planned activity. Yes, today was a great day to be an English teacher. And the rest of the week I only have my two regular classes, meaning it’s going to be a week of smooth sailing, and lots of outside of school activities. I can’t wait. :)     

Food Babies, Shoes, and Friends

It seems that the more time we spend in Ecuador, the better the weekends get. This weekend started out right with an eventful and fun Thursday evening. After class got out at 8pm, Kels and I ran into our friend Isabel, who talked us into enjoying a nice dinner out to celebrate the (almost) end of the week. We ate at a place called Eucalyptus, a restaurant owned by a British ex-pat, with a beautiful environment and even better food. I ordered the pad thai, that, although was different from traditional pad thai, was still amazing. Our dinner ended perfectly with roasting marshmallows over the fireplace, a great idea for a restaurant that draws a mostly gringo crowd. After dinner Kels and I headed home, excited to watch the ASU vs. UO football game online. Once we got home though, and tried to enter the house, we realized the door had accidentally been locked from the inside, leaving us no way to get in. We asked the señora that cares for our house if she had any keys for the door, but after trying several with no success, we began to lose hope. That was when I noticed the window above our door that had no glass pane, and which we had covered using a cardboard box. I looked at Kelsey, told her it was happening, took of my coat, and climbed the bars up to the window. I was hoping not to do this in front of the señora, but because she was still hanging around, I just went for it. I ended up hanging through the window, reaching down to unlock the door from the inside; not an easy maneuver. Needles to say, I felt like super woman; it made the Ducks game and the ice cream bar I had bought even sweeter. Kels and I ended up pulling out our knitting too, and were very satisfied both with our evening, and the prospect of what we will be like as old ladies, knitting and watching Duck football.

The next morning started of with us meeting Isabel at Parque Calderon, the main square of Cuenca, with plans to head to the bus station and then off to Gualaceo. Although I had heard Gualaceo was pretty, the main draw to visiting this other town was simple; shoe shopping. Everyone we had talked to had told us this was THE place to get shoes or boots, and because all of my boots had been left at home, it was time to venture out and buy more. We took a taxi to the bus station, and from there caught a 60-cent bus to Gualaceo, about a 45-minute ride. The scenery along the way was nice, and we were on a luxurious bus compared to the buses I had grown accustomed to in Guatemala. 45 minutes later we were in Gualaceo, ready to get our shopping on. We stopped first to get lunch, settling for a pizza place because we couldn’t find any vegetarian almuerzos. The owner was nice and chatty though, an Ecuadorian that spoke English well and had been to the States before. After lunch we starting heading towards where we thought the shoe shopping was, stopping only to take pictures of a whole pig being roasted (a common sight here, actually). After wandering for a bit we came across the central market, full of fresh fruits, veggies, and right in front of a beautiful church. We took some pictures, but still wondered, where are all the shoes? We almost thought the trip was a bust, with us wandering around, asking, looking, and not finding more than a couple stores with shoes. Eventually though, we saw a street sign that rung a bell, because the pizza shop owner had told us this was the shoe street, so we turned the corner and decided to check it out. And thank goodness we did; this was it, boot mecca. We spent hours in a two-block radius, stopping in close to 20 stores, and trying on boot after boot. By 3:30pm, we all had at least one pair of shoes in hand, and were ready to head back to Cuenca, accomplished. We caught another 60-cent bus heading out at 4pm, and I napped during the ride with a shoppers smile on my face. We pulled into Cuenca close to 5pm, and Kels and I took a taxi home, had a quick dinner, and headed to CEDEI Centro where I had class at 6pm, made better by the fact that I was rocking my new boots.

Saturday morning was class as usual, which went by at lightning speed again; we had to get through an entire unit and peer edit papers, because their midterm was coming up the next week. I was exhausted after class. Emily and I stopped for a good ‘ol slice of Chicago Pizza (a pizza place near CEDEI Centro that serves a slice of cheese and a glass of soda for $1, hard to beat), and then headed home for a quick nap. After that it was mercado time, and a little bit of wandering around Parque San Sebastián, enjoying a semi-nice day. That evening we went to our friends Clara and Adam’s house for a get together and potluck. I think sometimes when you’re in other countries, your ability to adapt to plain food is a good thing; but sometimes, it makes you really forget what GOOD food tastes like. Well at this potluck, we had a taste of GOOD food, and it was amazing. Annie made a killer pad thai, Kat an epic bean dip, and Clara made a potato salad and two fruit-topped cakes that were incredible. We ate until we all had food babies, drank some beers, played ping pong, seesawed (yes, they had a seesaw at their house), and watched the boys play soccer on a half-size soccer field (complete with metal goals) in Clara and Adam’s backyard. It was such a fun evening, and I’m still smiling thinking about all of the food. After that we headed to the local discoteca, Zo, to do a little dancing before going home.

This morning I met Isabel at Parque Calderon again, and headed to church at Verbo with her and Jeff, another teacher. Church was great again, where we sang some songs in Spanish I knew in English, and listened to another sermon in their prayer series. Now it’s time for a lazy Sunday; reading, sleeping, watching movies, knitting, and maybe a little grading and lesson planning. This upcoming week at school is finals week for my intensive class, and midterm week for my regular classes. Although I’m sure the students are dreading the tests, I couldn’t be happier; less lesson planning, and more time to sit, watch them take the test, and lesson plan for the next week! Oh the life of a teacher…     

Busy Weekends

Kelsey and I decided we wanted to be more proactive about what we were doing here Ecuador, and proactive we were this weekend. It started on Wednesday evening when we went out for beers after work at the La Compania Cerveceria, the only microbrewery in Cuenca. As Oregon girls, Kels and I were both craving a real, good beer, and luckily the Cerveceria delivered. Friday was a national holiday, meaning we had the day off and a little extra time to play and explore. We started the morning with a trip to Cajas, a national park about 30 minutes from Cuenca. Although the weather was kind of gray, it was beautiful nonetheless, and nice to get out in nature again. We went with our friends Oliver and Sarah, Oliver being another CEDEI teacher and Sarah his Ecuadorian girlfriend. The elevation at Cajas is about 9000 feet, around 1000 feet higher than Cuenca, which we could definitely feel at different points. We went on one of the smaller “hikes” (walks) around two of the lakes, and spent a lot of time stopping, taking pictures. We even spotted a llama within our first 30 minutes, which was on Kelsey’s Cajas bucket list. She was pretty excited. After our hike we went into the lodge and had a canelazo drink, a warm alcoholic beverage made with herbs, cinnamon, and the local Ecuadorian liquor, Zhumir. The idea behind the drink (a shot essentially) is to warm you up with the alcohol, and to help you adjust to the elevation with the herbs. Kels and I weren’t super enamored with the drink, but it was worth trying once. We had taken a taxi to Cajas after showing up at the bus station to find out no tickets remained for the buses to Cajas. So after spending $15 on a taxi there, we planned to take the bus back into Cuenca. We were waiting in the bus stop beside Cajas, when I remembered many people had told me that a successful way to get back from Cajas to Cuenca was hitchhiking. So I decided to try it… I was a goofy gringa, smiling and passing cars with my thumb stuck in the air. After about 10 minutes and a lot of cars passing me, I thought maybe I was just too weird looking and wouldn’t get anyone to stop when… I couple pulling out of the Cajas parking lot stopped for us! Unknown bucket list item accomplished: successfully hitchhike in Latin American. The man was from Colombia and his girlfriend was an Ecuadorian, and they were on vacation from Guayaquil, heading to Cuenca for the first time. Although I was excited about successfully hitchhiking, and it was a really pleasant ride, I was pretty excited when we piled out of the car near Parque San Sebastián, where we had been four in the backseat. Returning home from Cajas was great too, because it was the first time I had left Cuenca and had that returning home feeling for coming back to Cuenca. After our hike it was nap time, shower time, and off to our next event. We ended up going to a friend’s house that afternoon to watch the Ecuador versus Chile fútbol match, one of many World Cup qualification games. It was definitely more exciting watching the game with a group of Ecuadorians than it would have been had I watched the game by myself; but, I still must say, soccer isn’t my sport. After the game we devoured some pizza, and hung around for karaoke/dancing time. It was unlike any get together I had been to before, and something must be said for how well Ecuadorians move, and how much they like to move, that they end a fútbol get together with living room salsa/meringue dancing, a few trying desperately to teach the gringas how to move their hips. Hilarious.

Saturday morning I had class for four hours yet again, although the four hours goes by surprisingly fast; I only managed to get through three-fourths of the material I had planning for the day, which I count as a win, because I would rather be over-prepared than under-prepared. After class, Kelsey and I were in a productive mood again, going grocery shopping at both the mercado and Supermaxi. Post shopping it was naptime, and a quick dinner before attending the Saturday night church service at Verbo. I went again with my friend Isabel, and we were blessed to sit by a 50-something-year-old woman named Dora. In the greeting “God be with you” part of the service, she gave us a big, warm, motherly hug. And then when it was time to break off into smaller groups for the sermons, we just asked her, “Where are you going?”, and she took us under her wing to her sermon of choice. It ended up being a great selection, the sermon being given on the different steps of prayer (ask, look, call), and by the son of an American missionary with impeccable Spanish. Although his Spanish was flawless, I think his being a second language learner (and the fact that he was super animated) helped me to understand the whole sermon, something I can’t always boast. After chatting with Dora at coffee hour after church (and exchanging numbers), Isabel and I took a taxi back to the city center, and I was off to my next event. We had planned our housewarming party for this weekend, inviting all the teachers at CEDEI and any Ecuadorian friends/boyfriends/friend-boyfriends, knowing fully well that things might get a little crazy. And crazy they were; we probably had close to 50 people in our house, with different bubbles of conversation, guitar sing-along, and dancing. Also, it was a dip party, and oh my the dips that people brought; they were delicious. Although the party was really fun, cleaning up the next day makes me want to never have a party again. We spent hours cleaning up the kitchen and mopping, with the water turning black every few strokes. Needless to say, Sunday was spent cleaning and recuperating, with a little bit of lesson planning and grading in the evening. All in all, a successful weekend in Ecuador, and hopefully only a first of many adventure-filled weekends.   

Update: Week 3

Well, I unfortunately have not been as diligent about blogging as I was in Guatemala, so here’s my attempt to catch up from the last week and a half. Teaching is still going well. Definitely a challenge, but in a good way. I love (most of) my students, and figuring out how to explain something and make the lessons fun is good. Also, lesson planning is taking less and less time, and I’m able to enjoy the city and not freak out every moment about school. Balance is coming.

On Sunday, my friend Isabel and I went to a new church, Verbo. It was a large church (close to mega church – 1400 members), and it had a great worship and message. Near the beginning of the service, they asked anyone that was new to raise their hand and let them know they were new. At first, Isabel and I weren’t going to raise our hands because we didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves. But once we saw the ushers walking around with roses for the new visitors… Well, what girl isn’t a sucker for flowers? After they handed us our rose and some pens and information, they told us to get up and walk over to the cafeteria for some more information. We ended up getting a welcome by one of the pastors, a goody bag with chocolates, pens, and more information, coconut cake, and coffee. After the welcome an American missionary came over to our table, talking to us about the church and answering any of our questions. He informed us that the church had its own orphanage, and by coincidence a woman that works at the orphanage was standing behind us and gave us her number. Hopefully, once teaching becomes less time-consuming, we will be able to go over there and volunteer a couple days a week. I definitely miss being around children, and although they aren’t my kids at Fundación, it will be a great outlet to have here.

Yesterday was an interesting day, a very “This is Latin America” sort of day. In the morning, Kelsey, Mark, Kat and I got a taxi to the Cuenca consulate to pick up our passports and visas that were being registered. We arrived around 11:30am, got our passports from one window, left to get photocopies at a store next door, came back in, waited in another area, entered a room with a woman typing stuff into a computer, left to pay $4 at a banco window within the building, went back to the room, got a paper, left again to take photocopies, and finally went back into the room to get our “empadronamiento” paper and BE DONE WITH THE PROCESS! We had gone there the week before to give them our passport, and that was a two-hour, three-stop (not including the stops at separate copy stores) process, plus this day… Yeah. Such an inefficient, Latin America experience. And we were the lucky ones; our roommate Kat had gone the week before to Guayaquil (a 3 hour van ride away) to get her entrance stamp fixed because they had swamped two numbers on accident. And our roommate Emily flew to Quito yesterday, to be there for about seven hours, to get more pages in her passport because they didn’t have enough space to add yet another stamp. Kind of ridiculous. To add to our super Latin American day, Kelsey and I went to San Sebastián park (which is less than a block from our house) last night for a free, outdoor dance/exercise class. It… Was… Amazing. First of all, Ecuadorians can MOVE. They were moving in ways Kelsey and I couldn’t, and this is including the old grandmas and grandpas that were taking the class too. There we were, gringas, dancing in the back row, looking up at San Sebastián church, with grandma and grandpa getting down, and kids running in and out of the rows and playing soccer on the side. It was beautiful.

This morning I went for a walk to enjoy the sunshine, followed by gringa lunch in the sun at a café near our house. Annie, Kelsey and I decided to splurge on some good food, and were rewarded with incredible black bean burgers and seasoned fries. And by splurge, I mean lunch cost $5 instead of $1-$2. It was delicious, and yes, I still love Ecuador.  

Teaching For Days...

Wednesday marks two weeks that Kels and I have been here in Cuenca, but it already feels like it’s been months. We are in our second week of teaching, and I must say, it is a lot more work than either of us was expecting… We are the only teachers in our room, planning our own lessons based off of a curriculum, coming up with our own activities, and grading our own assignments and student participation. It’s a great introduction to the world of teaching, but yes, it is still much more than we were expecting. As I said, earlier, I have three 101 classes during the week, which are both easy and extremely challenging at the same time. They’re easy because the grammar points are easy, but difficult because my students know very little English, so I find myself pointing in the book and making a lot of gestures. I have caved a couple of times and clarified in Spanish, but I’m trying to do that less and less. It is nice knowing Spanish though, because I can anticipate the kind of sentence structure and pronunciation errors my students will make. Teaching takes up quite a bit of our time, and I feel like we have been doing little else besides teaching and living. We have successfully gone to the American grocery store, twice, have returned to the mercado multiple times, found bread stores, notebook stores, pizza, and even yoga mats. Slowly, we are learning our surroundings and figuring out life in Cuenca. We have not, however, had time to be tourists yet. I have not taken a single picture here in Cuenca, and I hope to remediate that soon, but for now, photo posting will have to wait. Our weekends are cut short by four-hour Saturday classes as well, meaning our “free time” is limited to Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday afternoon (before it’s time to start planning on Sunday again). Summary: Teaching is hard, but great to learn now, and I am still happy to find myself in Ecuador. :) 

Ecuador Arrival

Where to even begin… Well, ECUADOR IS AWESOME! Kelsey and I left Portland early at 8:45am on Tuesday, September 18^th, flew into Houston, and then onto Quito. We were exhausted of course, but our Quito flight was incredible. The plane was mostly empty so we had three seats to ourselves, and even got a full meal! Once in Quito we passed through customs, got our bags (both had arrived!), and got in a taxi to head over to our hostel. The nice hostel attendant helped us drag our heavy bags to our back room (the elevation was killing us already), and we brushed our teeth and got in bed, knowing the alarm would be going off at 4:30am the next morning. We had scheduled our flight to Cuenca for 7am the next morning, which, at the time, seemed like a good idea… In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t the best plan. At 5am we met the hostel attendant in the lobby, got into our taxi, and were shuttled right back to the airport. Our flight to Cuenca went off without a hitch (except for having to pay $10 extra to check my backpack because it was too heavy… Oh well), and we arrived in Cuenca around 8am to find all of our bags had arrived there too. Though exhausted, we had planned to meet with other teachers at 10am at CEDEI (where we will be teaching English) to look for housing. So, faithfully, Kels and I showered and headed out at 9:30am. At CEDEI we met Emily, who ended up having appointments to look at two apartments that day. We went with Emily on her visits (only one landlord showed up though), and looked at a third place as well. After that it was lunch, nap, and then meeting up with other teachers that night for a beer and get-to-know-you. The next morning we met up with Emily again to check out the second place from the day before, and then saw an eight-bedroom house. After seeing the eight-bedroom house twice (we had visit the day before too), we decided it was what we wanted. So Emily, Kels, Mark (a friend from Ireland and the only boy in the house), and I said, “yes we’ll take it” without any formal documentation or deposits paid. We went out for a beer to celebrate, and went back to our hostel to collect our stuff and move in that day. Kels and I decided to share a room to save rent (okay, $80/month versus $110/month… Every penny counts here I guess!), with Emily and Mark on our floor, and three other girls on the upstairs floor. By 4pm we were all moving in, and went out to dinner that night to celebrate again. The next morning we had our first CEDEI orientation at 9am, where we met ALL the new teachers (there’s about 30 new teachers, 50 English teachers total at CEDEI) and got our first English teaching run-down and building tour. OVERWHELMED is pretty much all we were feeling, but little by little I think we will understand what we’re supposed to be doing here. After our long meeting, it was more beers, naptime, and then grocery shopping. We went to the mercado for the first time, a large covered building with stacks and stacks of fresh fruit and veggies, potatoes, and a really smelly meat section. We bought some veggies, some potatoes, got overwhelmed again but left satisfied after spending less than $5 on a whole bunch of good stuff. From there it was… Friday night! We ended up going out with our roommate Kat’s boyfriend and his friends, all locals and all Spanish-speaking. The next morning, Saturday, we made an adventure to the “real grocery store”, Supermaxi, where we could find packaged goods and more American-style products. Again, kind of overwhelming (and a half hour walk away), but once we were done and paid only $30 for a bunch of stuff, we were glad we had gone. The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing, shopping for random necessities, and then finished with a movie night interrupted several times by car alarms going off outside. Sunday we had another meeting for CEDEI, where we actually received our class assignments. It all became real, and at that point, OVERWHELMING again. I know teaching will make more sense once I’ve done it for a bit, but at this point I’m a little terrified. Plus I have all 101 classes except one long 301 class, so figuring out how to do ice breakers in English for people that have no previous English knowledge… Kind of difficult. Kels and I began lesson planning Sunday afternoon, and while it felt construed and time consuming, I know with more practice it will become easier and easier. After lesson planning and some dinner, I joined Isabela and Hannah, two other English teachers, at an evening church service. It was great to be in church in Spanish again, and was a very well planned and delivered sermon.

         On Monday, CLASSES STARTED! So I live in a house with five other new teachers, and Sunday evening we were all FREAKING OUT, and Monday evening we were all FREAKING OUT. Because most of us have never taught before, and because we were given little time to plan and little structure, this will definitely be a very foreign and stretching experience. 

ECUADOR!

I’m going to make this very short because I have to be at the airport at 6:45am tomorrow, but I LEAVE FOR ECUADOR TOMORROW!! I have gone through a roller coaster and a half of emotions about this trip, but right now the strongest emotion I am feeling is excitement; excitement to have another adventure, to travel with one of my best friends, Kelsey, to be immersed in another culture again, and to learn how to be a teacher. I have been so blessed in this life, and am so thankful for my parents and the wonderful people in my life that support me so much. Life is good and God is good, and while this was originally my blog spot for Guatemala, I am continuing on it because las puertas continuamente están abriendo (the doors are continually opening). I have wondered many times if this was what I was supposed to be doing with my life now, but with all the doors God has opened for me, and all the support I have received, I am going to let doubt go, and march forward with an optimistic attitude and a big smile on my face. Until Ecuador… Hasta luego. 

Short and Sweet: Home in Amerca

Well, I have been home from Guatemala for a week now, and I must admit, America is very nice; I miss my sweet children at Fundación Salvación so much, and my dear friend, Brooks, but central heating, carpet, and hot showers are all very enjoyable luxuries. My parents and I left Huehuetenango the day after Christmas, and after hugging and crying with my host family, Cony, and our sweet Tienda Family, we began a week and a half travel experience where we got to see many diverse and beautiful places in Guatemala; we traveled to Xela, the Fuentes Georginas natural hot springs, picturesque Lake Atitlán, European-like Antigua, lake-front Flores, and the mystic Mayan ruins of Tikal. It was a perfect vacation with little to no snags and amazing weather; it was difficult, though, to still being in Guatemala and not be with my children at Fundación. I have been dragging my feet on writing this blog, mostly because I don’t like writing, but I realized my experience would be incomplete without a reflection of returning home. So here is goes…

            First of all, we are SO blessed in America. I know everyone that goes away to a third world country realizes that, but I think the crucial step to having made a realization like that is to continue to remember that lesson as you become more and more integrated back into American culture. We really have it all here, and while I definitely realize there is still poverty in the Sates, from where I am sitting right now in middle class America, things look pretty good. I’ve realized how important it is to live each day with the kids of Fundación on my mind and in my heart, and to think, “Would the kids be proud to see and hear that this is how I am living?” Easier said than done with the constant barrage of consumerism and narcissism we have here, but a lesson I will not give up on.

            Another lesson learned from my time at Fundación is to just enjoy each day of life even more. It’s hard to spend time with such wonderful children and not love life, but coming back to the States I’m realizing there is a culture of one-ups-manship and pressure to constantly prove oneself, which creates a people far too stressed and far too inwardly focused. While I was on vacation with my parents, on New Years Eve to be exact, I received news that Sandra, the founder and director of the orphanage, had been killed in a car accident. Two days later, I also learned that a close friend of my roommates Lizzy and Lydia had been killed in a car accident. Life is too short and God wants too much joy for us to be so concerned with our outward appearances and reputations. Sandra was an incredible – albeit sometimes stern – person that lived her life in a way that would have made Jesus proud, and through her life and death myself and others that knew her have been taught so much.

            One other lesson that I was reminded of in Guatemala is to look for Jesus in everyone around us. In the kids at Fundación I saw Jesus every day, and I have been challenging myself now that I am back to see Jesus in everyone – in the homeless man on the street, in the rude cashier clerk, and in the drunk sorority girl. God intentionally created every last one of us, meaning that if we look hard enough, we really can see a little piece of God gleaming out of every person.

            So while it’s nice to be back to trashless streets and toilets that are guaranteed to flush daily (toilets that you CAN flush the toilet paper in, something that has proven to be my hardest reverse culture shock difficulty still), I still dearly miss Fundación Salvación and Guatemala. I have realized I met some of the most inspirational and kind people I have ever known in Guatemala, and enjoyed the best six months of my life hugging and kissing the children of Fundación, in an environment that signified they had been abandoned or abused in order to arrive there. Life is beautiful and blessed, and even through the toughest trials of our lives, the light will always push out the darkness better than more darkness (tribute to MLK Jr., since I did begin writing this on MLK Jr. Day). I will forever remember my time at Fundación, and I pray that it might inspire you all as well. God bless.     

My Last Week in Huehuetenango

            My last week in Huehue, and it certainly has been a bittersweet experience. We had a very full and wonderful week, with the last sad goodbye looming in the distance on Sunday. Monday we started out our week as usual with a morning at home and an afternoon at the orphanage. But instead of writing pen pal letters or playing with kids, we ended up spending three hours separating out gifts for the kids. Let me explain: Brooks and I received a very generous donation from the mother of one of the girls coming on the Pepperdine mission team this Spring Break. Although she had never met us, had never been to the orphanage, and her daughter had not even been to the orphanage yet, she was still touched when she heard about the orphanage through our Pen Pal Program, and donated three giant boxes chalk full of gifts for the kids. The gifts ranged from candy and bracelets to kites and soccer balls; it was incredible. So Monday afternoon, Mom, Brooks and I spent three hours going through the boxes and separating out gifts into bags for each child at the orphanage. Although it was a lot of work, it was actually pretty fun; it was fun to think about each individual child, realizing how well we know these 100 kids and that we could pick out what we thought each of them would like.

            Tuesday afternoon we had our second to last yoga class, attended by my mom, and our friends’ Emily and Marveli. Wednesday Brooks and I started our day by heading over to the orphanage to help the kids write some letters to their pen pals. Because it’s the holiday season, many pen pals have been sending Christmas gifts to the kids. It’s so wonderful to see their excitement, and Brooks and I had been taking videos and photos of them opening their presents to share that joy with their pen pals. It was actually one of my favorite, and last, pen pal writing sessions. That afternoon, after lunch, my mom and I headed over to the Halcones bus station to meet up with my dad, who had just finished his red eye flight and six-hour bus ride to meet us in Huehue. Needless to say, he was exhausted, but it was still great to see him. It was kind of my final signal that the end of my time in Huehue was coming. We all headed home, introduced him to the family, and had a relaxing afternoon while he napped away his sleepless hours. That evening my dad had an exciting welcome dinner with two of Otto’s cousins there (and drunk), and a power outage. Welcome to Guatemala, Dad.

            The next morning my mom had her last Spanish class, Brooks and I ran some errands for our party on Sunday, and around 12:30pm we all headed out to have lunch with Cony at Casa Blanca. Because Cony wasn’t going to be spending Christmas with us, we wanted to have a quasi-Christmas to spend some quality time with her. Cony is an incredible person with a beautiful spirit, and I am so lucky to have met her. Our lunch was good, with all of us sharing various breakfast dishes, and getting to chat with Cony and enjoy her bright spirit. After lunch we wandered to the city center and showed my dad the central park and the church, which took all of half an hour. That afternoon we went to the orphanage, the first time for my dad, of which my dad obviously took a liking to instantly. It has been great seeing the orphanage through my parents’ eyes, getting confirmation from them of how special Fundación is and why they understand how it captured my heart so quickly. After the orphanage (where dad met his pen pal, Meme, for the first time, and bonded with a little girl named Claudia who he said he was going to take home) we all headed over to yoga. I was hoping to have a well-attended yoga class, or at least to have our three good friends from the gym, Gina, Emily, and Marveli, there. Unfortunately, none of the above happened; we showed up, and had no one else attend our class. We had a quick yoga class just to show my dad what the classes were like, and then luckily had enough time to stop by the frame shop that was finishing up a project for us. Brooks and I had made three large collages with pictures of all of the kids at the orphanage and their pen pals, and had them framed for a great price of Q420 total (about $55). Thursday evening we picked them up, and they looked spectacular. We were so excited to hang them at the orphanage, and to have them available for the kids to constantly be reminded that there is someone out there that cares about each one of them individually. After picking up the frames we had dinner with our family, and then got to participate in a Catholic Christmas tradition with our family: A posada. A posada a procession of friends and family that is meant to be a representation of Joseph and Mary asking around for lodging before the birth of Christ, a very cool and fun tradition. We started at the house of one family, attended by neighbors as well as Cony, Otto, Yesi, Fancis (the French student), and Lucia, and after a short prayer our whole group left the house to create the procession. We carried a manger scene, various candle torches, and sang Christmas carols along the way. We were progressively joined by other people, and after walking through the neighborhood for about ten minutes, we ended up at the house of another family. Once outside, we began a sort of back and forth calling, where the people outside of the door would say something (asking for lodging like Mary and Joseph) and the people inside would say no for a while and then finally say yes. Once we were accepted, we all filed into the house, which had pine needles spread out on the living room and dining room floors, and many chairs and stools set out. The pastor said a few words, and then the good part began: the food. They passed out tamales and hot punch to everyone, the traditional Christmas foods in Guatemala. Unfortunately, we were all still full from dinner, but enjoyed splitting one tamale between the four of us. We were all tired and ready for bed by 9:30pm, but I can only imagine that the party continued late into the night.

            Friday morning we ran some more errands and finished a craft project for the orphanage, and then headed over to Fundación in the afternoon. Because my mom’s last bead party wasn’t exactly what she thought (it was fun, but highly populated by boys), we decided to have another bead party, this time with only girls. We headed over to the niñas room, set out the beads, and started calling the girls in. By the end we had about 20 girls beading with us, as well as some that let me paint their nails (surprisingly not as popular as I thought). After the beading party we had plans to have dinner with the orphanage staff, but were afraid our plans might have been forgotten since Sandra had not been in the orphanage all afternoon. After resolving that dinner wasn’t going to happen, and making our own plans to go out to dinner, we got a call from Sandra that she was on her way back to Huehue from Xela, and would be meeting us at the restaurant for dinner. Phew. We called a taxi, rounded together Migdalia, Cristi, and Juanita, the other orphanage employees, and headed out by 7pm. We ordered pizza for everyone, and enjoyed the great company and a much needed opportunity to say thank you to the wonderful ladies of Fundación Salvación. They all work so hard, and deserve so many thank-yous for what they do.

            The next morning, Christmas Eve, mom, dad and I headed over to the orphanage to try to cash in on every possible orphanage opportunity. We spent the morning playing with the kids, and then last minute decided to make macramé bracelets with some of the kids. Well, when you offer something to one kid at Fundación, eventually they are all going to be interested; we came up with a good system though, where kids would line up to get string from me, mom would teach them how to make the bracelets, and dad would hold the end for them as they worked. After a good hour of bracelet making, we headed home in a rush to have lunch with our family. That afternoon I took a nap, learned how to make tamales, and made a cheesecake. By 7pm we all had first dinner together, a combination of leftovers and a prepared potato puree, because the big dinner for Guatemalan Christmas comes at midnight. After dinner, we all put on our warm coats and walked together to the city center to see the main church decorated for Christmas; it was very crowded as a mass was letting out, and I imagine the church and city center were pretty full most of the evening. It was nice just strolling through the park though, feeling like you were sharing Christmas with more than just your family. After returning from the church, we started presents time. Lucia, my almost four-year-old host sister, was the Vana White of presents, passing them out to everyone with a Christmas hug, and obviously getting most excited when she found one of her own presents. We started opening presents at 11pm, and were still sitting around the tree and nativity opening presents at midnight, the official Christmas moment in Guatemala. Fireworks were being set off outside in all directions, some small and noisy, some giant and sparkling, all set off in probably an unsafe manner. We watched the fireworks for a few minutes, and then all headed back in for our midnight Christmas hug. We all hugged, and sat down to finish opening presents and eat grapes and candy-filled marshmallows. After that snack we all headed downstairs, and had second dinner of tamales and hot fruit punch, a dinner all of Guatemala was enjoying at that exact same time. It was certainly one of the most unique Christmases I have ever had, and definitely a memorable one.

            The next morning, Sunday, we all slept in after having been up until 1am the night before. We slowly wandered downstairs, and had a breakfast of leftover tamales. The rest of the morning passed by with packing and finishing touches to our Christmas party, and after a quick lunch at home, Brooks and I headed over to Fundación Salvación for my last time. Because it was my last day, Brooks and I were planning an elaborate Christmas party for the kids, complete with individualized crown awards, pizza, videos, presents, and hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy canes. We arrived around 2pm at the orphanage, and began getting everything ready for the party, with myself sneaking away to the baby room and playing with other kids periodically. By 4pm it was time for the despedida to start, which began with the portion organized by the orphanage. It began with a song by the Kinders, a rock band of some Parvulós and Escolares, and a dance by the Escolares and Pequeñas. It was all so sweet, and got my tears started early. After these performances my parents and I went to the front for a gift presentation and parting Bible verse reading, followed by a few tearful words from myself. After our moment up front, Estela, one of the older girls I was close with, sang a beautiful song, which was followed by a closing prayer. After this portion, Brooks and I started up our Christmas party. We began with crown awards for each of the children, which consisted of Pollo Campero crowns turned over, decorated with a specific award written for each kid, such as “best smile” or “the most likely to fall asleep while writing a pen pal letter” (which actually happened… Three times with Cente). Some were funny, some were sweet, but I think most of the kids really enjoyed the laugh and the personal recognition. After the crowns, our pizza miraculous arrived on time (our friend who was picking up the pizza and making our hot chocolate thought the party was the following day… So that presented a problem), and it was stuff-your-face time. Luckily, all of the kids were separated into tables by their groups, meaning we could just pass soda and pizza to the leaders of the group and have them distribute to their groups; this made what could have been a very chaotic moment much less stressful. After pizza (accompanied by American Christmas music, of course), Brooks and I presented our Pen Pal frames, and then passed out the boxes of gifts to every group leader. I think we were intending to give some sort of signal to start opening, but after waiting a couple of minutes without any signal, a beautiful moment of chaos ensued with kids unwrapping presents and stuffing their faces with the candy they found in their bags. After the kids had a chance to check out their presents, we found some of them over at the Pen Pal pictures, finding themselves and pointing out themselves and their pen pals to everyone. It was wonderful. I slipped away for a minute to the baby room to give Nila and Lesly their gifts, and watched Galilea play with the new blocks the baby room has received. After this small, chaotic break, Brooks and I started up the videos portion by showing the Xela trip and Thanksgiving videos we had made. The kids loved seeing themselves on screen, and I teared up again remembering all of the amazing things I have been able to do and the beautiful kids I have shared them with. Right after those videos ended, in perfect timing, Marveli showed up the hot chocolate, ready to serve. We poured out pitchers full for each table, and ran around sticking two marshmallows and a candy cane in each cup. Interestingly enough, Brooks and I had known a while back we wanted to do hot chocolate with candy canes, but didn’t have any luck finding them in the local grocery store, Paiz; miraculously, when we opened up the boxes of gifts on Monday, we found 125 large candy canes. Perfect. The kids loved the candy cane/marshmallow/hot chocolate combo, and again we did this all while blasting Christmas music; it just felt like the perfect Christmas to me. After handing out the hot chocolate we showed another video, a compilation of videos from various pen pals our friend Laura had put together. Each pen pal greeted their kid on screen, done in various levels of Spanish (some really funny, some really good). Again, I think the kids loved seeing their pen pals on screen and loved hearing their name and knowing that someone was thinking about them. After that video I was surprised by a fourth video; Brooks had made a video for my going away, a compilation of still photos and videos he had taken of the kids saying nice things about me. It was incredible, and reminded me again that I am so blessed to have a friend like Brooks, and an amazing place to have shared with him. When the video ended, Brooks called all the kids forward to mob me with hugs, and for a good five minutes I was surrounded, giving hugs left and right.

The night was perfect; it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Fundación, and although it was still painful, I know I will not soon forget the kids of Fundación Salvación; they will forever positively affect me. After the hug mob and clean up, I began my goodbye rounds, giving hugs and kisses in every room. Some kids began crying along with me, reminded me that my time at Fundación was not in vain. After the hundreds of sad goodbyes, Marveli and her mom, Teresa, gave us rides home, and one last hug and goodbye.