November

Wow! I realize it has been a super long time since I have updated my blog...ooops.


The bad thing about it being so long is that a lot has happened.


I will try to get better about this... really... but know that if I am not spending much time in the cyber I am spending more time out with my wonderful Ecuadorian neighbors who I see so filled with God´s love.


We´ll do story by story to start this blog





W explains a part of Ecuador to Melissa and Tracy


So this past week Tracy and I gave a presentation on the benefits of breastfeeding at work and afterwards headed off to don W´s house to visit him. When we arrived he wasnt there so we sat and talked to his mom and learned how to make another yummy dish out of plantanes where it is basically this massive plantane ball that you eat... super yummy and yet ANOTHER great plantane dish! Nobody steal my idea, but I think i will just open up a plantane restaurant back in the USA to sell all of these awesome dishes made out of plantanes! :) When W came home we got to talking about how he has been helping his lawyer friends out with some cases and he explained a case to us that really opened ones eyes to the difficulties of corruption. His lawyer friend is a defense lawyer for a case where a guy got caught with drugs... aparently there is a certain amount of drugs a person can have on them and once it is over that weight then is when you can get in trouble. Well, long story short, the guy with the drugs says that the police put the drugs on him. W used to be a police officer and said that that is actually a very common thing that happens with the police officers. It was just so interesting and frustrating to learn all about this. W was super patient with us and was very willing to answer all of our questions about the Ecuadorian politics.... ok so my write up about this might sound boring... but really it was very interesting and a great conversation.


OH! So towards the end of that conversation Tracy and I were talking about saftey in Ecuador and it was really touching to hear W say that he prays for us very often and thanks God for our friendship. I cant describe the feeling that gave me but it was something that warmed me inside and and left me feeling almost overwhelmed by how blessed I am.



Comedor (soup kitchen) Friends

So things have been really busy at the soup kitchen lately.

I go straight there after I am done with work at the clinic everyday and it is a really rewarding part of my day. One thing I love so much is that as I walk in the doors of the little soccer court that is in front of the comedor I hear my name called out from all over and then get nearly tackled by a circle of BEAUTIFUL kids that come and give me a kiss on my cheek!! I LOVE KIDS !!! After that happens I seriously just want to jump up and give a lil shout for joy but I know it would scare a few people ---haha.
I have been trying to spend more time talking with the people that come to eat before we serve the food... I know there is a much greater emphasis at many soup kitchens back home on talking with the people there and getting to know them and understand them... hear their story. So that is what I have been trying to here in Ecuador. I sat down the other day and talked with a very nice and caring older woman with white hair... I had noticed that she was not there for a couple of days and she explained to me that she had been sick. She then explained how she lives all alone and how none of her kids check on her any more or maintain contact with her. So when she is sick, nobody knows. Later in the conversation I learned that she lives fairly close to my house and so I told her that I would like to stop by and visit sometime. The following week I left the soup kitchen with her (which means i didnt help do dishes...) and went to her house. Maria Avela lives in a situation like the majority of the people here in Duran. Dirt floor, no water. Some of her walls were old wood, others cane and she had metal over it all as a roof. She kept on telling me how this is all she has but that i am welcome to come over any time-¨if the padlock isnt on the door then I am here¨is what she would say. She invited me to come in and sit on her bed in a very small small room and she showed me her box of clothes that she keeps so that she can sew them to different sizes and sell them because that is the only way she can make money. The day before she had sold a dress and with that money had bought a jug of clean water to drink ( drinking the water here is dangerous). In one corner of the room she had a lil wooden shelf . That corner was covered with pictures of Jesus, crosses, saints, and rosary beads. She explained that that is where she prays every day when she wakes up, before she leaves the house and when she goes to bed. She then pulled out an old photo album and showed me pictures of all of her kids and her husbands funeral announcement. She began to cry as she explained to me that she has 10 kids and none of them have even talked to her in years. She said that they used to call a neighbors cell phone and then sometimes talk to her but that hasnt happended for a while. (NOTE- people have cell phones but not because they are rich... they are the phones like you can buy at target and put minutes on with a phone card... and they are used because hardly anybody can afford a landline) Talking with Maria was so hard because it was such reminder of the extreme difficulty so so many people live with here... true poverty... it left me feeling hurt but I know that was good. Even though what I really want to give Maria is a nice place to live and plenty of food to eat ( like everyone here) I know that I cant but I do want to make sure to give her what I Can - I want to give her my time and friendship and help her to know what a beautiful person she is and see God in her. I will actually be walking over to her place today and hopefully introducing her to someone from my house.
The little time with Maria really helped me to remember to think more about the situations that our kids at Valdivia come from and be more patient with them.

As I said earlier, I have been getting know the kids at the comedor too. Several of them come to Valdivia everyday so I know them really well. One little girl, Tabatha, gives the absolute BEST kisses on the cheek. She tells everyone that she is my sister so as I bring the kids their food they will ask me if its true and I just smile and say yes and then we all laugh. So our lil joke there is that Tabatha, who is 4, is my sister. :) I have decided that I want to teach my kids to give people kisses on the cheek so that they can brighten peoples day the way they do mine here.

First Communion
So the ladies at the Comedor invited us to come and help last saturday with preparing the food for the First communion. We were really excited to help with this because this was a special first communion of kids from the comedor and some of the kids were also Valdivia kids. So Karen and I went ot the comedor at 8 am on Saturday and helped prepare chicken salad sandwhiches and hotdogs and then we asked if we could sneak out for a bit to watch parts of the mass. SO we went into the church and saw all of the kids dressed so cute and we just looked at eachother with faces of excitement and like proud parents. I really felt like a mom... i was so happy for them, so proud of them, and i just about wanted to cry. 2 of our kids actually got baptized too so it was SO Incredibly touching and exciting! We got right up front and were taking pictures like moms too.
Karen is good about posting those so I will have to get them from here but i just wanted to share another exciting day in Ecuador.

Valdivia After School Program
So our Valdivia program has been going really well and we have been getting more and more kids. This week we had about 30-35 kids each day. Another thing I love about Valdivia.... kids! (Which is good consider that is what Valdivia is all about... right??)
I just sit back at different times during the time there and think to myself what wonderful kids these are and how I want the world for them!
Last friday we had the 3 different after school programs get together for a soccer tournament. So all last week during our free time we had our kids playing soccer (which is actually results in a lot of whining and requires a daily pep talk for some of our kids because so many of them love playing basketball instead). Considering this, we had many of our kids on a cheer squad and so during free time they made signs and cheers instead of practcing their soccer skills.
Oh! and by the way, Valdivia is super crafty! So Karen and I have been saving all of these nutrigrain granola bar boxes from the Soup kitchen (they got a huge donation and have been giving people them as they leave) so we have been creatively using these boxes in our valdivia activities. Andrew, another volunteer, was very creative and thought to use the boxes to make the kids jerseys to tape on to their shirts for the game. SO, lets just say that our kids definitely had the coolest most chevere uniforms at the tournament!!. :)
So we met Friday and had 29 people with us after taping the cardboard jerseys to the kids shirts, we all hopped on a bus and went over to the Arbolito community´s sweet soccer court that has a roof which is great because that means SHADE!
Lets just say Karen,Andrew, and I were all super pumped to bring our kids there but we were pretty sure that we would be bringing home the 3rd place pop-bottle trophey that our kids had made and not one of the 1st or 2nd place pop-bottle tropheys :)
Well lets just say that it was some super intense games that had me screaming out cheers until I nearly lost my voice and jumping and running all over the place cheering my kids on!
I was SO proud to see our kids playing so well... they werent fighting, pushing, complaining or anything!!! All of our pep talks about kindness and fairness duriing the week must have actually sank in!!! IT was AWESOME!!!
BUT!!!!! waht makes it even more awesome is that somehow our kids WON!!!!!!!! Both of the big kid games were won by team Valdivia!!! YIPPIE!!!
I left that day feeling super proud of our kids and just super filled with happiness.
The kids we work with are truly amazing and such blessings from God!

One thing that I would like to ask of all of you reading this is to please keep the kids in Valdivia and all of the afterschool programs and just in Duran in your prayers. They all live in very difficult situations and so many are malnourished and hungry for both food and so much more.
We are actually trying to gather kids vitamins to give to the kids at our afterschool programs.
SO if anyone would like to donate any or would know of any more sustainable ideas for vitamin donations please message me or drop me an email at melissaviaene@gmail.com

Update time

Well, I figured it was about time that I added an update so that the first thing you saw on my blog wouldnt be the title of my last entry about hating ants :)
Overall things have been going pretty well here. Things have been difficult lately because I have really wanted to be with family-my great aunt Lorraine passed away this past monday and I really wish I could be there for my family and to mourne her death with others who loved her so deeply. Please keep the family in your prayers- especially my great uncle Ed and my grandma.
This past week was a big week at work because at the clinic Tracy and I were asked to do a presentation on HIV for kids at the school right next to the clinic. So we worked hard all week to put together an interesting and interactive presentation on HIV and living healthy lives. The day of our presentation was thursday and we were super excited because we put together this really sweet game where we had a bunch o f cards with myths and facts on them-the kids had to decide as a group whether something was a myth or a fact and then put the card under the correct area on the board. The other super cool thing we put together was a demonstratin of the progression of HIV in the body... we had sweet props to stick onto a person that represented white blood cells, bacteria and HIV. When we practiced the presentation for the director of the school she said we should be teachers because it was really creative (but we couldnt take all the credit for that because we got the ideas for the activities from resources that our incountry director Megan had-Gracias Megan!)
So the big day came and we even got candies for the kids that helped during the presentation. We found out thursday morning taht we were going to do 2 presentations instead of one which we were just fine with. The difficult part came when we saw the age of the kids that entered the room for this added presentation. They were kids in 2nd-4th grade and we had planned our presentation for kids in7-10th grade. Before starting the presentation tracy and i cut some stuff out that just wouldnt be undersdtood by this group... and after starting we had new difficulties added to the list... first, all of the teachers of these kids left the room...yikes! 40 kids without the people they see as authority figures! Then groups of kids had to leave to go present their projects for the values fair that was going on. Well, when this group got up and left so did other kids and then the mass chaos started. kids were running in and out of the room talking and a whole lot of chaos filled the room. Tracy and I ended the presentation early with the group and took a breather before the next one came
We were SUPER DUPER grateful to see that the next group was actually the correct age group and things went much better the second time around.
Heres the other funny part of this whole ordeal. So there are three ways HIV can be transmitted. By blood, by sexual relations, and from mother to child. Well the school director told us during our practice that we couldnt say sexual relations and that instead we needed to say ¨lack of chastity¨tracy and I tried to explain our point that the kids at this age would be able to hear those words an that the new wording may lead to some confusting .... but our words didnt convince her. So just as we had predicted, during the presentation someone raises their hand and asks... well what is chastity? Tracy and i took a quick second to laugh inside ... a bit of a ¨see we told you¨. Luckily the teacher had told us that if necesary we could say HIV can be transmitted by ¨being¨with someone ... so we pulled out this new wording and after repeating it about 4 times and moving our fingers to emphasis the quotations around ¨being¨I think the kid understood that lack of chastity or being with someone is related to sexual relations....oh boy.
So after a draining experience with the presentations we went home and just said.... ¨welcome to Ecuador¨.
Overall it was super awesome though and we are excited to do other presentations... we just learned that we will have to adapt

I do NOT love ANTS!!!!

So! I said that I had another lil something to talk about...
well in my previous entry I intentionally left out a detail.
I woke up this morning on the floor of our living room....well on my mattress on the floor.
Why did my bed get put out there??? Well...!ª!!!
Two nights ago I came home SUPER tierd after a long community meeting and it was late ... 11:30 pm so I was more than ready to jump into bed. Well, just as I was getting into bed I looked down and noticed that my pillow and parts of my sheets were SWARMING ... I mean SWARMING with ants!!!!!! AGH!!! So after splurting out not pretty things I wrapped up my sheets and put them in the washer and put new sheets on my bed. I slept that night always worried that I felt an ant on me.
The next night I come into my room, again, very tierd and ready to escape into my Nicholas Sparks book. I learned the night before to look down before getting in... and upon doing so I noticed that my sheets were SUPER SWARMING with one area of ants and another of baby spiders... I have NO idea where the spiders came from ... but I followed the trail of the ants and found that they were coming out of one of my electrical outlets!!!!!! My sheets from the night before werent even dry yet!!!! luckily we had extra sheets.
I decided that there was NO WAY i was sleeping in my room taht night and I proceeded to take my bed out and move it into the living room. I have slept there for 2 nights now as I am spraying ant killer ALL OVER my room in hopes of putting off their next attack.
So...
That´s my ant excitement.
I am now going to head home to spray some more RAID Gold!
Belssings to all of you.

Great Day!

Hola a todos!
I had such a great day today that I had to share it with everyone. Really have been doing really well here in Ecuador and often find myself walking down the street with a big smile on my face thinking about how thankful I am to have been blessed with this opportunity.
So... I feel like I have SOOO much to share with everyone that I just dont know where to begin... I have a list but I am going to start with today and will come back another day to add things that are on my list.
So... today I woke up and ate some leftover bread pudding (I think that´s what it´s called... mom-is that right??) It was very tasty. When we have leftover bread we have been saving it in the fridge after it gets stale and when we have enought we tear it up and put it in a pan with a simple egg milk and yummy stuff mixture and after some time in the oven.... tadaaaaa ... we have a yummy treat!
So it was great to start off the day with the yummy bread and also to be very well rested... our WHOLE House was sound asleep by 10:00 last night! You know when people in their 20s are really tierd when they are ready for bed by 9:30 pm!!! It felt soo good to get some rest though... we were all shot! So much so that last night we decided not to talk in Spanish during supper like we usually do on Wednesdays.
I left the house this morning well nourished and excited for the day. I was even more excited after our new guard gave me a wonderful heart felt greeting too.
Once I got to work I was met with surprise... I got to help the nurses today!! So I spent the day helping the nurses take temperature, weight, height, and head circumference of babies and then I got to meet the pediatritian. Then I got to watch some ultrasound tests. In the middle of all of this excitement one of the nurses asked if i would do her a favor. She introduced me to a nice, frail, old woman and asked me to walk her up the hill to get some food. Our clinic is located at the foot of this HUGE hill and right behind the clinic there is a church and a school. It turns out that this lady, Piedad, comes weekly to receive food from the school kitchen. I assisted her in walking up the steps of the school (telling here that this was just like I help my own grandma). On the way there she explained to me how her and her husband live all alone and dont have any kids to care for them. They are very very poor and dont have enough money for food and medicine so the clinic helps them out by giving them food every 8 days. It was so nice to get to walk with her and talk with her and at the top of the hill she introduced me to the kitchen staff.
The staff there was very nice and they were excited to show me the really nice garden they had just planted in plant beds. I was incredibly excited because they had Zucchini !!!!! They dont have this normally in ecuador but they said that someone had brought it over from Europe. I was so excited to see it and told them that I would for surely come back and bring them some great recipes! I am so excited to do this!
After work I went straight over to the soup kitchen where i have been helping out everyday after work. I absolutely love helping out there. The ladies are so nice and are very happy to teach me about the food and how to cook different dishes. They were excited to hear about how my attempt at making Sango de Atun went the night before... and I was excited to tell them that it went well and everybody enjoyed it. They were kind enought to offer me my daily glass of colada ( a drink that reminds me of malt-o-meal that they make by cooking ground up oatmeal with a bunch of water and juice and then sifting out the oatmeal). It has become part of a tradition that they set aside a glass of this for me each day. Today I also enjoyed a plate of rice with menestra ... a mix of vegetables and lentils. It was great.
As I said earlier, I really love helping out at the soup kitchen. Several of the kids that come to the Valdivia afterschool program that I work at are there each day and it is nice to interact with them more. We have been praying the rosary each day before we eat and I have been bringing the 3 rosaries that we have in the house with me so that the kids can follow along. I have taught the other kids to follow along with their fingers. This is still super hard for some of the kids to sit through but i think they are improving. Overall I just cant begin to describe how the time I spend working there fills me.
This afternoon at the Valdivia afterschool program we made prayer books with all of the kids and then took them in small groups into the chapel of the chruch for adoration. (valdivia takes place in the church yard where we use the soup kitchen space, the library, and the basketball-soccer court)
It was really great to see the kids take time and pray before the blessed sacrament. It was especially great to see how happy it made some of the elders of the church to have the children there. One of the older men told me that we should bring the kids there each week (adoration is every Thursday). After having such a great experience with it today, we decided that we would like to do that. It has been such a blessing to work witht the kids and get to know them so well through this after school program, Valdivia. I love them all so much!
Okay I think that is enough for todays write up... now i am going to write a lil about the opposite of love that I have for something here in Ecuador.

But before I close this one off....
A note about Valdivia... If you have any ideas for some neat activities to do with kids PLEASE email them to me!!!! We are always looking for educational activites! the kids range in age from 6-14 :)
Gracias!!!

Visit to Milagro

Well Today Sept 20th I met up with 5 of the other volunteers and we went over to Washingtons house together to go to a town called Milagro (Miracle) for their city festival. It was fun to be able to introduce the other girls to Ws and his family. We went to Milagro on a bus for 1.00 and got to see lots of rice and sugar cane fields on the way there. This was really neat and exciting for me to see because both were new!


When we arrived in Milagro we learned that most of the celebrations for the city festival had ended but Milagro is known for it´s pineapple and thus it has a huge pineapple statue in it´s one of it´s parks. I had seen the picture in the paper earlier this week and had learned from Ws family that Milagro was known for its delicious and cheap pineapple. After hearing this I had 2 main goals for this trip to Milagro, both of which were met


1. get a picture by that sweet pineapple statue


2. buy some of this delicious and cheap pineapple.

When we arrived at the city it was evident that the festivals have ended so that was funny but it was still a good time.
Taking a small tour of the city, visiting the pineapple statue, the cathedral and the market, we took a bus back to Duran. Once in Duran we got off at one of the bus stops and saw W go talk to a guy he knew in a white truck. About 30 seconds later he looked back at us and said ¨get in¨. What was hillarious was the way he said this.... with a tone and gesture that questioned why on earth we had not already gotten in. So up we went and 5 minutes later we were safe and sound at W´s house.


Once back at Ws house we introduced the girls to Ws dad, Seg and showed them the pretty rose garden they had and their turtle. We also took pictures of us with our pineapples and had fun showing Seg how digital cameras work. He got pretty excited (naturally because it IS pretty sweet!) and had us take pictures of ourselves seated in the house, pictures of the roses, of everything! :) It was actually really nice.


Naturally, we could not visit W´s house without being served a full meal, so after a short time of talking and taking pics we were seated and served a really yummy meal of rice with a mix of some type of beef and veggi... almost stir-fry. In the middle of eating this Seg brought over a banana to me and told me that I should eat that with the plate. Well, apparently I wasnt moving fast enough because he took it from me and opened it up for me and plopped it onto my plate, telling me that I should really try it WITH the rice and stirfry. OKAY :) It wasnt too bad but really I think I prefer saving my banana for desert. :) Then I was given a bowl of tomato soup to try (i dont know why just me.... but I was super full already so I shared it with everyone)

First Retreat Group--Santa Clara

Well, Sept 4-14th I led my first retreat group- a group of college students from Santa Clara University in California.
(I wrote this a long time ago with the intention of adding ore but now I have so many other things to write about now that this one is going to be cut short....oops!)

What does this mean exactly? Well, this retreat group stayed at the AJS (where i live) retreat house. So, I took a week off of work at my normal jobs and instead spent the week with this group. We got up each morning and 3 of them walked with me to buy their group bread for the day. Each morning we would visit one of the places where the volunteers work. One of the places we visited was Padre Damien House-a home for people with Hanson´s Disease... and one of the places where I originally thought I may be working. It was really nice to be able to visit here and see my fellow volunteers, Lauren and Carolyn at work here. We were able to talk with the residents, sing with them, and we also were able to see the crafts that they make.... which are super awesome!!! They make these peace doves that are really neat, they make beautiful jewlery, belts, hammocks, bags, crosses and so much more!!! It was great to share these beautiful works of art with the students and it was especially awesome to see how much interest they took in the work that takes place at Padre Damien House. I would like to suggest that you take the time to visit the website http://www.thedamienhouse.org/ and learn more about this awesome place... I think just visiting the website will help to put into perspective why the group was so motivated and touched after visiting this place.

We spent other mornings taking the group to some of our neighbors houses, where they were kind enough to invite us in and spend around an hour conversing with them. This was also really super nice to do.

Ecuapoints.... Tracys story about W´s house

Hey everyone-- This is Tracy´s write up of our experience at W´s house last week. We both included different details and she is a great writer so I hope you enjoy!!!

Earning Ecua-points
Hola todos!Soooo usually I only update this thing on the weekends when I have a good chuck of time, but I just HAD to share with you a hilarious little glimpse of my life here while it is still fresh in my mind. This morning, Melissa and I went to the house of one of our AIDS patients that we visit often. We saw him last Thursday, and we made arrangements to come back this week to spend more time there. His mom is an incredible cook, and every time we even just stop by, we leave with full tummies and food to take with us. This is the house where I think I may have eaten cow tongue last week? Anywho...So, we had made plans to stop by at 8:30 this morning and spend a few hours there. In true latin fashion, we arrived a little late, closer to 9, and we were greeted as always with a welcoming hug. The house is lovely - small like all the houses, but this one actually has tile floors, a nice wooden dining room table, sofas in the sitting room, a little back patio, etc. Francia, the psychologist at Santa Marianita, told us that their house is nice because the father of the family has worked really hard all of his life. We had never met our patient's father before, but this morning, he was at the house, and he smiled and introduced himself as Segundo Lorenzo! I love his name - after getting to know him, I have decided that his name fits him well. He was an adorable man with such kind, welcoming eyes. He immediately embraced us and invited us to sit down at the table. We were going to share a cafecito (coffee) and desayuno (breakfast). We sat down at the dining room table, and they brought us out plates with two patties on them - they were green bananas (maduros) smashed down and fried with delicious melted cheese inside (kind of looked like flattened out cheesesticks). Next to it they placed a huge cup of coffee, and Segundo encouraged us to keep shoveling sugar into the cup, haha! After about 4 spoonfuls each, we finally convinced him it was sweet enough.The food was delcious, and Segundo was an incredible host. We sat there for almost 3 hours, just talking. We talked about everything under the sun, and he told us the amazing story of his life. When he was a boy, he grew up in the Ecuadorian province of Ibarra. As a child, he was orphaned. He came by himself to Guayaquil and lived on the streets for 4 years in his early teens. However, he always trusted in God, and he continued to look for work. He worked hard all of his life, and now, he has an amazing house, a wonderful family, and he continues to work hard even in his age (he turned 76 on Monday). He usually works during the week, but he didn't go today so he could stay and be with us, his guests. He said that after having spent 4 years on the street in a new city in his younger days, he knows what it feels like to be a stranger somewhere. For this, he always invites foreigners to his house, and shares with them as if they were family.He is so proud of his family, and so faithful to God -- another just incredibly inspirational person. He says that the Lord gave him an enormous heart, and because of this he always wants to be a good and generous person to everyone that he meets. He has always been a great example to his children, and to everyone. If you work hard, really hard, you can go far in life. He grew up without a father and mother, and without love, so he works everyday so that his children and grandchildren will never have to know that feeling.I was touched by Segundo's openness and by his deep understanding of what it takes to love others and to get the most out of life. On top of this, he was so charming, and funny! He has this amazing manner of speaking that just captivates whoever who is listening, and he is soooo wise! My favorite thing was how he delighted in listening to Melissa and I talk. He laughed when we spoke Spanish to each other, because he said we sound funny, and then he would ask us to speak to each other in English so he could hear how it sounds. It was sooo cute, his eyes would light up, and he would listen so intently, laughing and then saying, "No entiendo nada!" (I don't understand anything!)He also gave us some tips about living in Ecuador which I found hilarious. The buses that go just within our city of Duran usually cost 18 cents, and those that go to the Puntilla (where Nuevo Mundo is) and to Guayaquil cost 25 cents. Segundo asked us how much we had been paying for the buses, and of course we said, well, 18 and 25 cents. And he said something equivalent to "Nonsense!" He told us that if we are only going part of the way, to get on the 18 cent bus and give them a dime -- You are only going half the way, half of 18 is 9, you're even giving the driver a gift when you give them 10! On the 25 cent bus, give them 12. Melissa and I had never heard this before from anyone, so who knows if it's actually a common practice, but it was amusing, and so we agreed we would try it soon.After we had finished the coffee and fried maduros which were veryyy greasy and veryyy filling, they brought out ANOTHER plate of them, and slapped another one in front of us. Somehow I ate it. By 10 am I was sooo full and thinking I didn't need another meal the whole day. We continued to talk, and after a little while, Segundo's wife came in from having gone to the doctor. She greeted us lovingly as always and asked us if we enjoyed breakfast and of course we said yes. The time passed quickly, and soon it was almost noon. I always have to leave my morning job around noon so I can go back to the house, change clothes, and catch the bus to school with the kids at 12:45. It is always a tricky thing to escape from house visits on time, because Ecuadorians are soooo welcoming that often they don't want you to leave, and they are soooo patient that they often don't understand schedules. This is definitely teaching me PATIENCE above all. I often have to start aying goodbye a half an hour before I need to leave, and even then I cut it close. Well, it was about 11:45, and I was thinking, I should tell them soon that I have to leave...when, magically, Segundo stood up and announced that it had been such a pleasure to have us, but he had to go somewhere so he had to say goodbye. I was amazed...I would actually leave there on time! A miracle!We began to all say goodbye and as always they were sooo wonderful and loving. They told us "Aqui tienes una familia.(You have a family here)." They asked if they could be our parents here, and they told us that when our families come to visit, they will invite them to the house to eat! We hugged all of them a few times and then began to move towards the door. I thought we were safe....but then, Segundo turned to us and said "Wait, you aren't in a hurry, are you?"My heart sank a little. "Well, yes, unfortunately...I have to catch the bus to go teach..." I began, but it was too late. "Sientense, mis hijas! (Sit down, my children!)" Segundo exclaimed. "Stay just a few minutes and eat my wife's delcious caldito de pollo (hot chicken soup)! Ya esta (it's ready right now)!" I looked at him incredulously--"Ya esta?" I asked...because in latin cultures, "Ya esta" can mean right now, or in an hour, or maybe just sometime before the sun goes down, haha. "Si si si! Ya esta!" he assured. Melissa and I looked at eachother and smiled helplessly as they pushed us toward the table.We sat talking to our patient, and I watched the minutes pass on my watch...noon. 12:05. 12:10. 12:15. I felt myself getting nervous, and uncomfortable. I didn't want to offend them by leaving, but I can't be late to my job. Finally, at 12:18, I got the courage to stand up, and I started to say "I'm really sorry, but I have to go now..." Before I could finish, Segundo appeared rapidly from the kitchen and gently pushed me back down in my chair. "Alli viene la sopa! (Here comes the soup!)" He ran back to the kitchen and appeared with a hot bowl of soup and placed it in front of me. And at this moment began the chaos. The steam from the soup rose up and warmed my face as I bent over the bowl to begin eating. It was SCALDING. My eyes widened. I needed to consume it in about 5 minutes, but there was no way I could do it without burning my tongue off. I began to blow on the soup feverishly. Melissa laughed. "Sopla, sopla! (Blow, blow!)" they said. At this moment, Segundo's wife appeared with a bowl of soup for Melissa, and she began to blow as well. By this time, the whole family was standing around the table, as we sat there blowing forcefully on our scalding soup! As the parents encouraged us, our patient ran to the corner and turned on a fan to help out, haha! The fan blew on us, we blew on the soup, the family stood around cheering. In this moment, eating became a spectator sport.Finally, I got brave. I lifted a spoonful to my mouth, and put it in...OK, it was still hot, but I could do it. I braced myself and began shoveling spoonful after spoonful in my mouth. It was delicious, chicken broth, with yuca (like potato), carrots, and a chicken leg in the middle. Segundo and his wife laughed as Melissa and I ate and ate. I occasionally glanced at my watch and began to eat with more gusto as each minute passed. "Ay, me tengo que ir! (I have to go!)" I exclaimed. Segundo left and returned with an old plastic butter container. "Just eat the soup, and put the chicken leg in here to take with you!" I moved the chicken leg into the container, ate a few more bites, and got up to leave. "No!" exclaimed Segundo, pointing to the bowl, where there were a few swallows left. I sighed and sat back down, and at this moment, he actually lifted to bowl to my mouth, and tilted it up! I slurped as best I could as half the soup ran into my mouth and half dribbled down my chin. Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard inside. Finally, I slammed down the bowl, and we were all laughing. Segundo smiled with a knowing look, like he was satisfied since we had had a good, healthy lunch. Melissa put her chicken leg in the container, we whisked our things into our arms, and started to run out the door!I looked down the street and saw a yellow bus approaching. "Can we take the yellow bus?!" I called, hoping we could. They said yes...I ran to the other side of the street to flag down the bus, Melissa followed, running out the door. Yellow buses cost 25 cents, but we were only going to be on it for less than 5 minutes. I looked at Melissa, and in that instance, our eyes both said the same thing. We were totally paying half. I quickly climbed up, placed a dime in the driver's hand, and without pausing, continued to sit down. Melissa did the same. The driver looked into his mirror, and for a minute I thought we had failed. I said "We're only going a short way." "Ah, vale (OK)," the driver replied, and with the grinding of the engine we were off!For the first time in a half hour, Melissa and I BREATHED, looked at each other, and busted out laughing! We were both bursting with food, out of breath, and we had just paid 10 cents for a 25 cent bus ride! hahaha. We were so proud. Ten cents, not even the 12 that Segundo had instructed us to pay. We decided that once you begin to learn little secrets like that about life here, you are well on your way to being Ecuadorian. At that moment, we created what we are going to call "Ecua-points" and decided that we had earned quite a few for our boldness.So, here I sit -- my heart is warmed by my new Ecuadorian "family" and the adorable Segundo Lopez, my stomach is full and probably will be for 3 weeks, and I am proud to know I am slowly learning to be at home here. And just like this, I go through each passing day, finding God in my life in Ecuador and, little by little, finding Ecuador in myself!

La Casa de W-- W´s home

Bueno!
This morning has been such a super morning and so crazy and interesting and worthy of what a fellow volunteer, Tracy and I have decided to call Ecua-points, that I just had to come and write about it immediately.
Thank goodness I have time!.... but be sure to excuse me if this seems like rambling or has lots of mistakes... i just had to share my excitement and I am not here to write like a novelist. Tracy will also be writing something about this in her blog which I will add at a later time to fill in any details I missed!

So this morning we had reserved time to go visit some of our HIV/AIDS patients that we work with at the Redima clinic, doing what we call home visits. This is my favorite part of my work at the clinic so I was very excited. Tracy and I met at 8:15 this morning and walked over to first visit not knowing if we would have time to make it to another patients house because this one loves talking. Well, we arrive to find Washington there waiting for us and food already cooking in the kitchen. We then were introduced to his Dad, Segundo Lopez, who began to talk with us after greeting us with a nice warm hug. While our intent was to come and visit Washington, Segundo invited us to sit down, and after bringing us our breakfast of what could best be described as a plantane patties or pancake with cheese in the middle, Segundo sat down beside us and started talking to us while Washington was still in the kitchen. I know Tracy and I were both thinking that Washington would enter at any moment with his own plate of food and join in the conversation... but insted the morning continued on quite differently. Segundo immediately insisted that we mix up our coffee and add plenty of sugar because one must eat these plantane pancake dealios with coffee because the two flavors compliment one another. I am not going to lie... I was not excited to drink coffee and I just about asked if I could drink tea instead. BUT I sucked it up and told myself to try it anyway, and made sure to add extra sugar (a decision that was well supported by Segundo). The sugar coffee ( I only but a lil less than a teaspoon of coffee to 4 teaspoons of sugar) really wasnt all that bad and did go pretty well with the patties! Tracy and I sat there conversing with Segundo while enjoying our plantane patties. The only time we saw Washington during all of this was when his Dad called for him to bring us more food.... thank GOD he only put one more on our plate because these patties are fried and so are plenty greasy.... it was funny because a few seconds after Washington put the third pattie on my plate I swear his dad Segundo read my mind when he said... Ya les van a engordar!!! which more or less translates to...You guys are going to get fat!! To which both tracy and I responded: Ya sé !!! or I know!!!!
I dont know how on earth I did it but I did get that third one down and seriously felt as though I had eaten enough for the DAY!
Segundo took our plates into the kitchen once we had finished and told us to speak to eachother in English while he cleared the table... So, we did... and each time he would enter to take another plate he would comment on how he didnt understand at all what we were saying and how we could be talking about him and he wouldnt even know it.... ¨but,¨he would say, ¨I like it... I like hearing your accents¨
We conversed with this man all morning. One thing that was really interesting was that upon hearing Segundo talk to us in the morning I did note how much easier it was to understand him than his wife or his son Washington. The reasoning for this was explained after Segundo commented on how well Tracy and I spoke Spanish, to which we responded with gratitude. He then explained that he was from the Sierra and doesnt like how the people here from the costa speak. (sierra is the northern region by quito and we live in the costal region in Guayaquil)
He went on to explain how in the Sierra they dont cut off the ends of words like they do here in las guyas and that in the Sierra they simply speak much more clearly.
(this conversation was super interesting and explained a lot to me. It also made me feel pretty good because I have been told by SEVERAL people here that I speak like someone from the Sierra... which makes the people here in la costa laugh.... but anyways...)
As the mornign went on Tracy asked a very good question of Segundo... how he and his wife met.
His response to this was quite long and had only one reference to meeting his wife.... instead he spoke of his life story.
He explained that he grew up in the Sierra region by the time he was 8 years old, both of his parents had died and he was left an orphan. So, he moved to Guayaquil where he lived on the streets eating the left over banana scraps found along the shoreline and sleeping on the street covered with newspaper. He lived like this for a couple of years, trying to find work, but without luck, until he was about 10 (if I remember right) when the owner of an Italian Restaurant agreed to offer him work. He worked there for 4 years working from 8 am until 4 am for no pay apart from food to eat and a place to sleep.
He then explained that one day when his restaurant boss sent him to the market, he was stopped by a police officer and had a conversation that clearly was God reaching down to offer him his help. This officer asked where he worked, how old he was, where his was from, how much he earned and why he was working at this place. After Segundo answered all of the above the officer found explained that he actually knew an uncle of Segundo´s and went back to the restaurant and demanded that the owner pay Segundo for his four years of work there. Much to my surprise, the owner actually did give him the money. Segundo then left and was able to buy clothing for himself and was cared for by this officer, eventually finding work as a police officer. Some years later he changed jobs and worked in the dining room of a college, which is where he met his wife.
Why do I share this life story with all of you? Well, because I found it fascinating and incredibly inspiring. This 76 year old man (just had his birthday Sept 1st) was so welcoming to me and Tracy. He told us repeatedly that we had a home here in Ecuador with him and his family and we were more than welcome to come by and talk with him whenever we wished.
Upon receiving such great hospitality and kindness from him, we asked where he learned to be such a kind and caring person, if he had so little time with his parents....
He explained that it was genetic and he got it from his parents... it was something deep inside of him and something he made sure to pass on to his children.

We continued to converse the rest of the morning, talking about our families, health, languages, foods, different types of people, work, and more.
He told us to be sure to tell our parents that we have a welcoming home in Ecuador and that when they come to Ecuador they are welcomed in his house as well. He likes to hear people speak English so he said that they could speak in English too :)
Anyways....
Segundo eventually said that he needed to go buy his wife some medicine. THis was actually perfect timing for us because it was about 11:50 and Tracy needed to get back to my house to catch the bus to her afternoon job. As we left we were each handed a bag of goodies that contained Guyaba Jam, two mandarine oranges and a banana. Just as we were leaving and saying goodbye to Washington and asking him why he didnt come out and join us while we were talking with his dad, his dad came in the room and insisted that we stay algungos minutitos mas... just a few more minutes and have some caldo de pollo or chicken soup with them. We explained that we really didnt have time but he insited, and here is where the adventure began!!!!
Tracy and I sat down and waited for the soup, which we were told was already ready. We should have know that in Ecua time this actually means it will be ready in 10 or 15 minutes, but we had no choice but to wait and so we waited and at 12 15 we got our STEAMING HOT bowls of soup. It was so hot that we explained we really didnt have time to eat it bc Tracy had to catch the bus at 12:45 and still had to change clothes. But this didnt matter.... their solution was to simply eat it faster. Segundo, the father, sat beside Tracy rooting her on as she grabbed her spooon and blowed vigorously over her soup trying to have hope of not burning her tongue. Washington then decided to help out by turning a fan on to help cool the soup. So the two of us sat there trying to shovel spoonfuls of this steaming hot chicken soup into our mouths so that we could catch the bus. After about 3 minutes them mom comes into the room and adds some wierd dark chunch of what may have been some type of meat to the soup. And Segundo again started rooting for tracy to jsut make sure she eats this piece (my guess is is was one of those inside parts of the chicken like a gizzard or something... I have no clue) Tracy is really brave and did just what Segundo said, and shoveled in that mysterious blob eating it up.
I suggested that we get a container to bring the soup home with us because we really did need to leave, and I was very realieved to see that the mom did bring us an empty margarine dish to put the soup in.... this brought me such relief because I was SO SCARED to eat that Unknown piece of meat!!!!
So !!!! after having Segundo cheer us on yet a third time while drinking up what was left of the broth, tracy and I left for the bus... where segundo´s wife (washington´s mom) told us to be sure we payed no more then 10 cents even though a normal bus fare is 25!
So... Tracy and I gave it a try and after getting a wierd look by the bus driver, we simply said that we are only going a few blocks and sat down.... the bus driver didnt say a word! SOOO we definitely won some more Ecua points.... living as an Ecuadorian and paying less than half of the bus fare because we werent going far at all! :)

Well I really hope that this write up can capture at least a tad of the excitement that this morning entailed.
If it all just seems like a bunch of random jibberish, just trust me that it was all super interesting, hilarious, nerve racking, intense, and very Ecua (Ecuadorian)!!!!!!

I wish blessings on all of you and thank you for all of your prayers and letters!!!

I would like to end this post with a prayer

Lord, Thank you so very much for this beautiful morning and for sharing your love with us through the family of Washington.
Lord, I pray that you send your blessing down upon all of the people of Ecuador and around the world who are suffering from HIV/AIDS. Help them to know your love. Please help those who are knowledgeable of HIV/AIDS to share what they know those who are confused by the myths that exist about HIV/AIDS.
I pray that through this sharing people can find hope for change.
Amen.

First Entry From Ecuador

Please forgive me for the delay in getting this updated! Things have been super busy here so finding time to make it to the internet cafe has been difficult!

Well as you hopefully already know, I have safely arrived in Ecuador. I arrive the night of Aug 4th. Our flights were delayed which was a good thing for me bc I lost my connecting flight ticket so I had to go back out to ticketing adn check-in so that i could print a new ticket.
It was quite the ordeal. I was scared to death that I wouldnt make it back in time for the flight but one of my fellow volunteers Danny stuck with me through it all which was a huge help and comfort.
BEfore you continue I have to ask for forgiveness for any spelling mistakes! I have nowhere near enough time to search them out... so thanks for understanding!

In Country Orientation.
Once we arrived in Ecuador we spent our 1st week living in one of the retreat houses where the reatreat groups that we host stay.
Driving down the dirt road to the house I felt a storm of emotion. That first night I dont think I slept more than 2 hours.
Quiet is something hard to come by when roosters of the neighborhood take turns announcing that mornign is 5, 4, 3... hours away and so on. The dogs also like to chime in and help the roosters do their work. :)
The first week in Ecuador was packed to the fullest. I woke up each morning birght and early to the music of the neightbors. I remember a couple mornings when I couldnt help but smile despite the loud music when I was greeeted by the smiling face of a little girl (about 2) looking at me trhough the window of her cane house. My journal entries in those first days of orientation here were filled with words such as overwhelming, scarey, intimidating, questions, and prayers toGod for strength and support. Though all these feelings were difficult to handle in the first days, they had a positiveside too-- bc when my first feelings
of joy and excitement came I appreciated them all the more. My first package of excitmetn came during our trek to one of the after school programs called Manos Abiertas. We learned a lot on the way there ... about taking buses and such and it was as though with every step we took and bus we rode, I could feel my level of excitment rise.
In my journal that night I wrote that going to the neighborhood 28 where the Manos program is held was a bit of sensory overload. This neighborhood was a ¨former trash dump. The program was held in a fenced in area that serves as a private school during the day. This was something that i could not believe in my first week. The building on this site would be sen by many back home as a shed and Dad´s pigeons have nicer buildings. Seeing the same kids that came to Manos Abiertos later digging through the trash piles was soemthing that left me with feelings that I cant seem describe. That same evening Diana and Aide, two young Ecuadorian women that we work closely with gave us a talk on school in Ecuador and I´d like to share my notes with you.
Public School in Ecuador
-80 kids per teacher
-buy own books and uniforms
-teacher paid 180$ per month
-kids learn by copying ( I learned this when I was helping a boy with homework in the first week... he was learning numbers in English and had to write out long hand the numbers 1-300 three times!!!!)
-sometimes there are two grades in one class
-usually there are no bathrooms
-school is either from 7am-12 or from 12:30pm to 5:30
-here in la costa the school year is from April to January

Day Trip to the Beach
So after our first week in Ecuador ... a week that was SUPER DUPER FULL of activity and learning a ton! We had the sweet surprise of spending a day at the beach... which meant ocean time for Melissa!!!! The ocean is something that I absolutely love so I was pumped. I was the first person to get down to the beach and didnt waste any time before getting into the awesome water. On the way down to the water I was excited to find a piece of a sand dollar because I love collecting shells (just ask my parents.... my shell collection takes up a good chunck of shelves in the house). I went back down to the water after putting the shell with my towel...I love riding the waves and had an awesome time playing in the waves with my fellow volunteers. When I left the water and walked up to my towel for a break I was super duper duper insanely excited and let out a loud scream when I found a WHOLE ENTIRE SAND DOLLAR!!!!!! My director was sleeping on the beach and was immediately startled by my shreak and I was immediately reminded of those times as a kid when we would get in trouble for yelling for help when we didnt really need help. BUt I just couldnt hold in my excitement!!! It was a whole entire sand dollar...my First EVER!!! So I immediately started explaining this in attempt to wipe the angry and startled look off of her face. I think after a few minutes of my explaining she just realized I was nuts and I found a buddy to go shell hunting with. Gina, one of my fellow volunteers went with me and together we walked the beach hunting for shells. We found SO many sand dollars that day and some really pretty other shells. I was so into my treasure hunting that I forgot to reapply my sunscreen... (yes Jennifer.... I forgot...) and so I got good and red. I immediately was reminded of the lecture I had given to my sister Jennifer earlier this summer when she got burned while lifeguarding. I was pretty embarrassed and somewhat glad that she wasnt there to lecture me back because I sure felt dumb!

Our Own Houses at Last!!
So after living in a reatreat house for one week... living out of our suite cases for the 3rd week total... we finally had the day where we cleaned eachother´s houses and then got to move into our own houses. This was sooo exciting!!! I think everyone in the house unpacked all of their stuff that very night because we were all so happy to finally have our own space to put our stuff and organize everything that had become such a mess after three weeks of living out of our suitecases during orientation. I am living with 4 other girls Kasia, Karen, Lauren, and Elyse in a house in the neighborhood Antonio Jose de Sucre (AJS). We have a nice house with a chapel and porch where we have our clothes line and a hamock. We live in the upper level of a 2 story building and right below us is a preschool. It was so much fun for me because every morning that
first week we got to wake up to the sound of kids playing and then they play this super loud music that they sing and dance to. Now that we are waking up and out of the house before 8, I really miss having this morning pep`me-up! We have a fenced in yard and a guard 24 hrs and a dog named Oso (bear).
We take military style showers down here. We turn on the water... turn it off and lather up... and then turn it back on to rinse off. The first few seconds of the shower are always a great shocker and wake up call because the water is cold. However, I have come to appreciate the cold water after returning home all sweaty after running around with kids at the afterschool program I work at.
Our house community eats meals together 5 times each week. Someone different cooks each night. We pray together each night and one night each week we have a spirituality night where someone plans a longer prayer service of some sort.
We also have one night a week called community night where the 5 of us do something fun and relaxing together. The past couple of weeks we have made popcorn and made decorations to hang in our house or decorated recycled margarine containers to use as lil message boxes for eachother. I have absolutely been loving having this time in community and feel that it is a huge support for each of us down here. THe prayer time together has been awesome and we have had some really fruitful reflections. This is a beautiful part of the Rostro de Cristo program... placing such an emphasis on community living and prayer.
Hormigas-Yes, ANTS!
I have discoverd a new hobby down here in Ecuador, and it is killing ants!I am very well known in my house for my love for killing these lil buggers.
Ants seem to appear out of nowhere in our house and take over areas. Our house has developed several plans of attack against those lil buggers and we have been somewhat successful in some areas but the lil guys are brave and always come back for more. We are always trying new tricks to keep them out and after learning that they are pretty much immune to the ant killer spray that we have here, our newest tactic is washing things down with laundry detergent and placing lil bags of laundry detergent powder throughout the house. Supposedly the lil buggers hate the smell so we will see how this goes. They say that eventually we will give up on this attack... but as of now, I beg to differ... I cannot let these things win! We must FIGHT! :)

Work
So this past week was my first full week of work.
MORNING
In the morning I work at a clinic alongside a counselor. I have spent the past two weeks intensely studying about HIV and AIDS and have learned a great deal. Myself and another volunteer, Tracey will be working at this clinic helping the counselor with pre-HIV test counseling, putting on workshops and other dealios to educate people about HIV and my favorite part of the job is visiting HIV patients. We have met three so far and have loved getting to spend time with them. Two of the people have been little boys who are 4 and 5 years old and one is an older man. We are encouraged to visit them and will be doing so throughout the year, checking in with them and letting them know someone cares. We will also be playing with the little boys.
AFTERNOON
In the afternoon, I come home on the bus and have time to have lunch.
Then I work directing an afterschool program in my neighborhood. This week was my first week of real work here because we had to make changes in location. Originally this program was held in a community building at the end of our block... but a new president was elected for the neighborhood and he decided he would not let us use this space any longer despite the fact that it had been held there for six years. SO my first week of afternoon work was spent searching for a space... which we found at church a few blocks away from our house and then cleaning the space and preparing it for use. I think it will take a while for us to get back to having the same number of kids as the program previously had, but overall the first week in our new space went great!
I am really loving this afternoon job because the kids are great! Each day I get greeted with a bunch of hugs and a kiss on the cheek (custom greeting here in Ecuador) and a cheerful ¨Hola Melissa¨!!! I absolutely love it and have loved getting to know more of the kids in my neighborhood.
I will give more updates on work as the year continues

Yay Produce!!!
So Friday August 29th was my day to cook in the house (the five of us each take a day).
So I took out my Clares Welle recipe book and decided to make Morocan stew. Some of the ingrediants in it required a Market run... so I went with a retreat group to the Market and I just have to share about how much I got for my money!
SO for $11.00 (I was shopping not only for my one night) I got¨
-7 bananas
-10 kiwi
-2 lb of strawberries
-4 papaya
-1 coconut
-lil bag of walnuts
-lil bag of raisins
-2 eggplants
-2 lb of sweet potatoes
-1 red pepper
-20 nectarines
Fruit and vegetables are definitely the thing to eat down here and after living the college life where I could barely afford a bag of frozen veggies and a banana each day, this has been a great treat. Chelsea, one of my roomies from last year would be super excited to know that tomatoes are 10 cents a piece and Jenna, another roomie from last year would be excited to hear that green peppers are the same price.

Getting to know our vecinos-Neighbors
So another beautiful part of the Rostro de Cristo program is the emphasis it puts on interacting with and seeing the face of Christ in the people of Ecuador. Thus we are highly highly encouraged to spend time interacting with our neighbors. This morning I had a lovely time doing just that. Elyse, one of my house mates and I went over to the house of one of our guards, Omar, who lives not even a block away from us. We spent all morning with his wife learning how to cook a traditional Ecuadorian dish called sopa de bodigo or soemthing like that...
It was super interesting to see how this soup was made... it took over 2 hours! But boy was it ever RICO-Delicious!!! it had balls floating in it that were stuffed with meat, and a veggi mix. The balls themselves were made out of mushed plantanes. I am really hoping that Elyse and I can remember how to do it all but we are excited to know that if we run into trouble we only have to run about 50 feet and ask what to do! So from 10:30 to 2 pm today we were conversing with and learning from our neighbors. I know that I am very excited to continue to get to know more of our neighbors better and to learn more great recipes!

Finishing up orientation in OH

Well, my two weeks of orientation here at John Carroll University in Ohio have come to an end and I will be leaving for Ecuador on Monday, August 4th - which is my Grandpa Siegle's birthday.... Happy Birthday Grandpa!!! These two weeks have been quite intense. We are up every morning for prayer at 7:30 and end the day with prayer at 9. Rostro de Cristo is joined with the Jesuit Volunteers International at this orientation. It has been fun and inspiring to meet all of the awesome people here. The workshops and speakers that have made up the two weeks have been very interesting and helpful in preparing us for the year ahead. One could have one awesome roller coaster ride just by sitting on the back of my emotions in the past 2 weeks. :) I have experienced excitement, peace, sadness, fear, joy, and a several other emotions that I don't even know the names for! :) But one thing that has been consistent throughout all of these emotions is my faith that God is with me and will stay at my side throughout this experience. One thing I have found particularly fruitful during my time here is ending my days with the Examen. It's a prayer form that has more or less been tagged as "Ignation" and is more or less a time to go through your day examining God's presence in the day. I hope to post a copy of the particular method of doing the examen that I have grown to love.
One thing that has become evident in these two weeks is the power of mail!! Receiving a simple letter in the mail can bring so much joy to a day or week! So, if you want to bring me a bit of that joy please feel free to drop me a letter in the mail--- Just a simple letter, nothing more. Of course emails are great too, but with my limited computer access, snail mail is really a wonderful way to go! Drop me an email and I will send you my address (otherwise just ask my mom :)
When I get to Ecuador, my first two weeks will be orientation and then I will figure out which of the sites I will be working at.
I wanted to share a blessing that I found during our 2 day silent retreat. I really liked it
May the sun bring you new energy by day.
May the moon softly nurture you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries.
May the breeze blow new strength into your being.
May you walk through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.
-Apache blessing

I this is my prayer for all of you!
Please continue to keep me in your prayers.... I GREATLY appreciate it.