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!!!