March update

Thank goodness it is still March so that I can say that I have been at least leaving a monthly update! I have been finding it to be so hard to find the time to get to the cyber so please forgive me for my lack of communication.
March has been a great month.
It started off great with:

A visit from my Mom, Aunt MaryBeth and fiance Dan
March 5th-14 I was overjoyed to have the opportunity to share my experience here in Duran with some of my family. While they were here I had an great time introducing them to my amazing neighbors, co workers, and students from Valdivia. They were able to witness the incredible hospitality and generosity of the people of Duran through tummies that were filled to the max for eight days. They were able to try a variety of traditional foods prepared by neighbors and my mom also was able to learn how to prepare a few, which was a lot of fun! (Ask my mom to make you something!!!) While my mom tried the foods prepared by our friends here in Duran, they were able to try here amazing Special-K bars which I was SUPER EXCITED to be able to eat while she was here. Everybody here LOVED them!!! (No surprise).
They were especially lucky because they were here for a very special after school program event:

After School Program OLIMPICS 2009!!!!!!!
Wooooohoooooo!!!!! Go Valdivia!!!
So on my family´s last day here in Duran, they were able to witness the fruit of a good month of hard work. In the first week of February we announced to our kids in the asp programs that we would be working extra hard to prepare for the Olimpiadas in March. Our kids worked hard on getting in line in order of height and age (the first race at the olimpics). THey also worked hard on practicing their math, Ecuadorian geography, memory, language, skits and relays.
The week before we elected 20 kids that had behaved well and hadnt missed many days and thus formed TEAM VALDIVIA.
Our kids did great the day of the olimpics and it was a big help to have my mom, MB, and Dan there to help out. The kids also loved having more people there to cheer them on. We started the event off with a nice parade around the soccer court and then the kids split off according to the events they were participating in.... it reminded me SOO much of Play Day back in grade school. Now I have a whole new form of appreciation for all of the hard work those teachers must have done to have Play Day run so smoothly!
The day went great and the kids had a lot of fun, coming in second place.
We were SOOO proud of our kids!
The following Monday we celebrated with all of the kids from Valdivia sharing a day of soccer, a nice popsicle break, and ¨special¨bread to go with the usual banana.


Alrighty
So I am cutting this short.... there is much more that happened in March, and more to say, but I think it is better that I wrote something than nothing at all.
I am now off to Omar and Elizabeths house where Omar´s mom is hosting a bingo to raise money for the church. Wish me luck!!! :)
May God bless you all back home and please keep the people of Duran in your prayers.... it is so greatly appreciated!!

Saludos
Melissa