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!