No time to waste!

Hi friends! I have been so busy with my group and have been having a great time! I wrote another group blog post about our time in Otavalo if anyone is interested...

http://www.carpediemeducation.org/blog/2013/02/adios-otavalo/

And a quick picture....

Check out the group blog!

Hi friends, if anyone is interested I posted to the shared group blog which can be found here...

http://www.carpediemeducation.org/blog/category/sam-peru-and-ecuador/

Brief Rant- internet cafes

So lots of awesome things have happed here in Ecuador, but I am going to be silly and choose to spend my rareish computer time ranting about how much I hate internet cafes.

They smell. There is always someone looking at porn. The chairs always suck. They never have bathrooms. People stand behind me and watch what I'm doing. They don't always have Google Chrome, so I have to wait for it to download. They are always ancient computers without SD slots.

But mostly, they are SO SLOW.

Yesterday I spent an hour and 45 minutes trying to upload about 90 pictures. And at that time, they STILL weren't fully uploaded, and the store was closing (another thing I hate, they all close at 6). Thankfully I was smart and did it in two halfs, so at least some of my pictures were saved. The other half, all that time for nothing. And now of course, about 25 of those pictures and a brief video clip aren't on my SD card and I've now I've lost precious pictures twice. Thankfully they were all scenery pictures, sucks to lose them but they're not super personal.

If you're taking time out of your day to read this silly post you probably already know this, but additionally, a lot of my pictures that did "upload" turned out like this...

Well that sure is pretty huh? Seriously. 

Okay, well sorry to complain so much. It's hard to come up with blog post topics so today I just spit up what was on my mind. Speaking of spitting up, I love bananas, I really do. And I love that they cost about 12 cents here. But lately, I've been just eating my banana and all of a sudden I start to gag. I think if I had a normal gag reflex I would actually throw up. I have no idea why this keeps happening, I like bananas and they are good! 

Okay now I am still ranting but at least in a little more positive way. Last night I talked really fast to the 60 year old English lady who is living in the same house, she got a kick out of it. I also tried talking to the cab driver at the same speed in Spanish but he didn't understand me, but that was probably moreso because of my accent and poor grammar. 

Some thoughts for my family

Hello everyone. This blog is mostly for my immediate family but I figured it couldn´t hurt to share it with everyone. Originally I was going to write an email but I like having everything organized in this blog. Hope everything is going well at home, happy almost birthday Cassie! Don and Bernadette, made any wedding plans? 

Here are some thoughts I want to share...

I love traveling. I have meet so many people who have been all over the world and I am so jealous. I will be doing lots more traveling. Wanna come with? Or take me somewhere? ;) I used to say/think that I would really only ever travel through Latin America, I didn't want to waste my money on a place other than a country that speaks Spanish. I think that is slowly changing, the world is just so big and I want to see it all. I'm still pretty hesitant about Europe, but all the other continents sound great.

Last Sunday I climbed Cotopaxi! It was so so hard, but I had an absolutely wonderful time.

                 

With that, I am wanting to do more adventurey things. I was imagining myself stuggling through all these hikes and mountains and camping, and realized I am not good with this stuff and have no experience with it. But, I know someone who does! Jerad, I know we never really hang out, but I want to travel with you. Not just for your outdoorsy skills, but I think you would be a really good travel companion. Lets hitch hike to Colorado and camp our way up a Mountain, or go to the boundry waters, or the Grand Canyon. I really want to climb the volcano here in Ecuador, Chimborazo, with you. Also, there is this Galapagos volunteer work my awesome Spanish teacher was telling me about...you work on a farm during the week and have weekends to explore the islands. You pay the flight and enterance fee (total $650), and then for a month it costs only $300. In total that is signifigantly less than my time on the "mainland"! So get a job and lets go to Ecuador. 

I hate this internet cafe. Actually, I hate them all. The retired women from England in my house has an iPad and I am so jealous of how much easier her life is with it. But with all the theft here. (its unbelievable how common it is), I feel like it would be really silly to buy a fancy gadget for my future travels. I do know that I want a smart phone when I return home though, no compromising there. So it's very silly for me to be a spoiled American with a laptop, smartphone AND tablet. But oh how nice they are...

Speaking of spending all my money, I've been reminded here of how much I LOVE stickshifts. Dad, while you're car shopping for me, keep them in mind! I want to learn so badly, I really couldn't tell you why. I would love a stick shift. 

Question for you all, what's worse in a bathroom? No soap, no toilet paper, having to pay for it, or one that's co-ed? I regularly experience all of these things, but the worst is when it's a combo. No 25 year old Dutch freak, just because I am waiting in line for the same bathroom as you does not mean I want to chat with you while you use the urinal. And no paper AND no soap? I can deal with one of the two but both is gross. 

Another thing I still haven't gotten used to is the kissing. In Mexico and other parts of the world people greet each other with a "kiss" but there´s generally two inches of air inbetween the faces. Here they are real contact kisses and it's rude not to make contact. It's okay with me when its a middle aged women, or someone I actually know and like, but when some twenty year old guy I just meet comes up and kisses me on the cheek in the same way a couple in the states would I am not a fan. Twice now I have watched a guy kiss a girl on the cheek, I assume they're dating, than a minute later I see him kiss another girl and I freak out in my head, "what is he doing?! Terrible person! Oh right...everyone kisses here"

Okay, those are my slightly unorganized, poorly spelled thoughts, while I was waiting to upload some pictures. I've wasted almost two hours of daylight just for 90 pictures or so, once again, I hate this internet cafe. 

Some change in plans

It's been an emotional last few days!

On Tuesday, I found out that the school I had been at would be starting their mid year vacations on Thursday, and so yesterday was my last day with the kids. I totally wasn't expecting this, and I was (am) heartbroken. I was not mentally prepared to say my forever goodbye, did not have enough pictures with them, and I wasn't excited to spend a week somewhere other than this school.

Thankfully everyone was there the last two days (their all absent a lot, no idea why). On Wednesday I told Cristhian at least three times that if he slept in his house tomorrow I would cry, please be here on Thursday. (I'm quite proud that I was able to communicate all that!) I got the Alba's phone number (picture of her below) and was invited to the school cook's mother's house in the country (??). The last day was fun, we spent a lot of time with the kids who are blind dancing. I danced individually with all my kids and told them my good byes verbally in English quite fast. Klever wouldn't let me take his hands while we were dancing but he did give me a big hug. Cristhian was very unhappy to be dancing with me, but when I was talking a mile a minute to him he just nodded his head laughing at me and pretending he was listening. Lesly too was funny when I was talking with her, they all had never really seen me use my voice to communicate. I loved that I could tell them just how much I cared for them and everything they had taught me. Usually I'm to self conscious to be that honest with people. We also got put in the room with the blind man to sing, but instead of spending my last day yelling at them to do the actions, I just sat on the floor and hung out with them while belting out the songs so the blind man thought we were working. It was quite fun for me and Cristhian, but the others didn't realize how weird it was that I was totally slacking off.

Cynthia and my little friend who's name I only know in
Sign Language showing off their work to Cristhian

These kids are so much different than any other kids I've ever gotten to know before. I visited the daycare I'll spend a week at today and was reminded of how kids are kids everywhere. They have snot dripping from their nose, they rush to show you the little boat they made, they love water, they're hard to understand, and they are always oh so cute. Each of them is beautifuly unique, and so very valuable. But when it comes down to it, they are all so similar through out the world. In my mind, Pato, Stephano, Klever, Cristhian, Alba and Lesly were different though. The combination of their uncommon language, the fact that they're Ecuatorianos, their disabilities, and their age (not really kids) made them so different and so memorable.

So I guess I'll be spending next week at a Guardaría. This daycare is funded by the government for families who otherwise wouldn't be able to pay for childcare. There are at least 100 kids, all under five. It's for sure not what I signed up for but I love kids and I really am happy to serve where ever I'm needed. I'm glad I get to explore another part of the city, learn how to take the bus, and actually practice my Spanish. It should be fun!

The same day I found out the terrible news, there were some other changes in plans, but this time for the better. I am going to the JUNGLE. Woot!

Some pictures of where I'm going from their Facebook page

I had been looking and looking and emailing for something to do after my time with this organization ended and for when my group from Carpe Diem arrived. I finally decided that being independent and not asking for help are NOT the same thing, and so I mentioned my dilemma to my coordinator. He knows this organization, has been on this same trip, and the dates line up perfectly. It sounds like so much fun. Birds, anacondas, monkeys. Swimming in the lagoon, beautiful sunsets, hammocks, taking a canoe to get there, no electricity, piranha fishing.

Sunday, I am going to the mountain Cotopaxi. (or Volcano, I can't keep straight which is which). So many changes, but I am excited to experience all these new things!