The End

Hi guys!

So, this is the end.  I'm writing to you from the Cuenca airport, where I'm catching a flight to Quito, where I'm catching a flight to Houston, where I'm catching a flight home.  I'm sad.  It was a hard goodbye, both to the kids and the other volunteers.   (Although, in the week before I left for Ecuador, I said something like 18 goodbyes.  I should be used to them by now.)  It's weird, in many ways, it feels like I've been here much longer than two weeks, like I've been here for months.  But I don't want to leave--the rhythms of the work are somewhat part of me.  Perhaps this is what belonging feels like.

As I'm leaving, a few thank you's are in order to those who helped me get here.  (I don't want to publish their names online without their consent, but a lot of you guys will know who they are).  First, to my parents, who both permitted their young daughter to go to a developing country, and for funding it.  I'm very lucky about that.  A fifth-grade teacher at the elementary school I attended, for recommending that I do OSSO (she volunteered here herself several years ago).  Those who agreed to serve as my references--my boss, my piano/band teacher, and my Young Women leader, who were all willing to say nice things about me to help me get accepted.   And everyone who has taken the time to read about my adventures on this blog, especially those who have left comments or texted or emailed me about it.  Thank you thank you thank you.

I was in the OSSO orphanage all day today--Casa Alegria in the morning, and Casa Milagros in the afternoon, although the two groups were somewhat mixed today, so I sort of just rotated between all of the kids.

In the morning, I had the typical Casa Alegria schedule--feeding, and then bath time.  I had to feed Jhon again (the boy who really really hates to eat), which is always an experience.  In all honesty, I could just take his bowl at the beginning and pour it out on his bib to obtain the exact same result, in a fraction of the time.  However, we do try and get his meals into him--it takes a while, though.  I can feed him in the time it takes to feed three or four other kids, because he fights so hard.  While he was eating, I talked to him about how some things in life, like the superhero movies that Martin always wants to show, are completely optional, while others are mandatory.  And how eating falls into the second category.  I doubt he understood much (or any) of it, because I don't know how much English he has, or comprehension in general, but maybe the sound of my voice distracted him.  And the effort to get a toothbrush into that boy...it's quite impressive how forcefully he manages to prevent anything from getting in his mouth.  If it weren't such a harmful habit, I would applaud his ethic.

After everyone ate, it was time for all the kids to take their showers.  Although I don't actually wash the children (that job falls to the orphanage workers), I do dress and undress them and help carry them from beds and wheelchairs to the shower.  I've gotten a whole lot more comfortable with other people's nudity while I was here, which is a good trait for an aspiring physician to have.  I've also seen some...interesting things in that regard, which I won't explicate on.  You guys can use your imaginations.

I then chased Bryan around a bit, exploring around the orphanage grounds with him (although we've both already seen the entire thing).  I then read a bit more to Cecilia--we made it most of the way through Superfudge, which was fun.  I read that book around second or third grade, and it's interesting to see which plot points still seem familiar.

During my lunch break, I did a few necessary departure things (washed my sheets, emptied my trash, swept my room, double checked that my shampoo was out of the shower, donated extra laundry pods to the left-here-by-volunteers cabinet), and then went to the bakery with another volunteer.  It was awesome--they had shelf after shelf of freshly baked bread, and the smell rivaled any bakery I have ever been in.  And the bread tasted as good as it smelled--I had no idea what I was buying, because there was no label and I wasn't sure how to ask if there was a filling, but I bought some kind of cheese-filled roll, and it was yeasty and gooey and wonderful.

After lunch, I had my shift in Casa Milagros.  Fortunately, I only had easy feeders there today, so that was pretty efficient.  Although one boy seems to be attempting to eat his toothbrush, as it is covered in bite marks and whenever I put it in his mouth, he clamps down.

One of the little boys just got a new hearing aid, and he apparently doesn't find it comfortable, because he keeps trying to pull it out (and occasionally just gives it to people when he pleases).  They've had to tape it to his ear to prevent him from pulling out, and it creates quite the comical effect.

Another volunteer set up a bunch of crafts for the kids to do, which kept most of them busy--I was in charge of supervising those who couldn't or didn't want to do the activities.  I pushed Laura on a swing for a while, until Martin announced that he wanted to go for a walk (he can propel his own chair, but he struggles on hills).  We looped around the orphanage grounds, stopping every once in a while to run over to give Laura a push to keep her swinging.

I then went into Maria's room to spend some time with her (she gets cold really easily, so she can't go outside much, even though being walked around is one of her favorite things).  Instead, I sang to her. Another young boy heard the noise and ambled in her room to listen.  He even applauded occasionally (especially when I would slip his name into the songs).  It was very good for my ego.

Because her name is Maria, and I was told that she loves music, I spent the past few weeks singing the Sound of Music to her.  We've gotten through pretty much the entire soundtrack (except for the weird yodeling goatherd song, because my yodels would song akin to a drunken cow being tortured.)  Tonight, I ended with "So Long, Farewell," which I had never sung to her before.  I hope she understood the goodbye.

I then went to say my final goodbye to all of the rest of kids.  Martin almost cried, which prompted me to almost cry, and Cristian, who always high-fives me and sticks out his tongue, gave me a hug (along with high-fiving me and sticking out his tongue).

I then said my goodbyes to the other volunteers, with hugs and promises to meet up in the US (all but one live within a few hours drive of my college, so it's feasible.)

Keenan and Sasha, the volunteer directors, then escorted me to the airport.  Cuenca to Quito was easy (the airport there is tiny--it only has three gates), but Quito to Houston was more interesting.  Apparently United check-in has its own section of the airport, but it's completely unlabeled, so I walked past all the check-in counters three times, until I finally asked for help.  I was able to cobble together that I was supposed to get into the long, snaking line.  Fortunately, I had extra time, and the women behind me in line were super nice--they were from Ireland, and had just gone to Macchu Pichu in Peru and the Galapagos Islands.  And their accents made them so fun to talk to--if anyone has seen the movie Brooklyn (you should, as both the movie and book are lovely), they had almost the same accent as the protagonist.

Eventually, we got on the flight to Houston.  I was sitting in the middle of a large high school language-immersion tour group, and somehow they decided that I would know how to fill out the customs forms, so they all asked me for advice.  I told them that it was only the second one that I'd filled out in my life, but I tried to give them the answers--the form wasn't too complicated.  (Also, apparently going to Ecuador, you aren't allowed to take more than 2 calculators without declaring them for taxes.  File that under completely random laws).

Fortunately, all the high schoolers were exhausted, so they were pretty quiet and we all were able to sleep a bit.  We got back to Houston and it was bizarre.  Everyone was speaking English!  I could read every single sign, and even if I had a question, I could just ask it and understand the answer without charades or guessing as to what words meant!  (Although I did bump into someone and instinctively let out a "perdon, señor.")

In Texas, I didn't have a lot of time.  The bags were supposed to come out at 5:50, but didn't start until around 6:15, and my flight started boarded from 6:25-6:55.  I got my bag around 6:30, then bolted through security (or tried to.  The woman in front of me didn't understand that she had to take off her scarf, and jacket, and empty her pockets).  My gate was on the other side of the airport, so anyone who happened to be at George Bush International early this morning got to see me sprinting in sock feet on approximately three hours off sleep, clutching shoes, laptop, sweatshirt, and passport to my chest because I didn't have time to put them in my bag.  It's not my most attractive state.  Eventually I realized that I could run faster in shoes, and put those on, making it to my gate right as they were about to stop letting passengers on.  Fortunately, I made it on the flight, and am currently flying home!  I'll publish this when I get to my house.

I wish that I could tell you some great life lessons that I learned from doing this--maybe I'll figure those out a little while from now, when I have more time to reflect and not just do.  But here's what I have so far: love everyone, wholeheartedly.  The innocent, the broken, those tough and those tender, the vulnerable, the seemingly unlovable.  In small ways and large--both can be incredibly impactful.

And I don't think that I'm going to stop posting on this blog--I won't write every day, but I really enjoy having my own little corner of the internet to do with what I wish, so if anyone wants to check up on it occasionally, you're welcome to.

Thank you so much.  This has been an amazing journey,  and I am better for it.  

Hi guys!

So today was my second-to-last day here, as I leave tomorrow evening (but I'm trying not to think about that.  I love it here).  I spent this morning volunteering at the Casas orphanage next door, the one for healthy children about age 3-7.

Every week, they try and take the kids on a field trip.  Today was field trip!  The nuns had originally planned to take the kids to the local country club (Cuenca Tennis y Golf Club) to go swimming, but unfortunately the pool there was closed, so we ended up playing on the (very nice) playground at the club instead.

It's weird, the country club there looks like it could be placed in any somewhat wealthy suburb in the US--a few tennis courts, a sprawling golf course, a pool, and a playground.  Yet on the way we passed  a bunch of cows just randomly tethered to poles on the side of the road (that is actually pretty common here.  It was so odd to see at first).  It's interesting where the cultural differences and similarities lie.

On the playground, the kids soon learned that they could go much higher on the swings if I pulled them up by their feet than if they just swung themselves, so I spent quite a while pulling children up above my head and then releasing them in order have them swing as fast as possible.  I think I pulled off a shoe or two, but that act got some awesome giggles.

After, Diana and a boy named Juan pulled me around to try out all the playground equipment.  We went on teeter-totters and climbed through the jungle gym.  I learned that those tube slides are definitely not built for people my height, because I kept hitting my head as I was going down (perhaps that's why they have the sign on the playground that says that it is only for children under the age of ten.  I wonder).

After the playground, the kids had a snack--potato chips and this disgusting orange soda.  It was so sickeningly sweet, it makes Fanta taste bitter.  But the little kids liked it.  We then went home, to go to our second shift.  On the bus ride home, two kids fell asleep on top of me, but it was a nice feeling

My second shift today was in the OSSO orphanage, both in Casa Alegria and Casa Milagros.  One of the boys, Martin, had just purchased a movie, so anyone who wanted to went to a small room to watch Captain America.  (I was in the room, but didn't really get much out of the film, because it was all in Spanish, with no subtitles in either language.)

During the movie, Bryan (the deaf five-year-old boy) got a little distracted, so we ended up playing a few games with him in the room where the movie was showing--matching games and puzzles, both of which he is really good at.  However, because he is deaf, he can be fairly loud without ever realizing it, and eventually it got quite distracting to the other kids, so we went to play outside.

First, he held my hand and pulled me around the grounds of the orphanage.  We eventually ended up at the wheelchair swings, where he proceeded to have me push him on every swing.  (He's not in a wheelchair, but the swings fit able-bodied kids as well).

After the movie finished, I went in to read to Cecilia some more, then had to feed the kids.  Fortunately, I was not in charge of feeding Bryan, the boy who hates to eat, today.  (He can be frustrating).  Instead, I fed this boy named Martin (different Martin than the one with the movie.  We have a ton of double names).  He was pretty easy, but had a tendency to smile whenever I smiled, making it difficult to put food in his mouth.  Therefore, I had to spend the entire time with my ridiculous not-really-a-frown (I physically can't frown) on my face in order to make it easy for me to feed him.

That was about it for tonight--I took my final Ecuadorean shower (the next shower I take won't burn or freeze me, and pretty soon I will be able to brush my teeth using tap water!), and am pretty much packed all the way.

Thanks for reading, guys.  Love you all!

Judy Blume and Rainbow Crowns

Hi guys!

I spent this morning in the special needs orphanage again. This orphanage is actually split into two parts--Casa Milagros (House of Miracles) and Casa Alegria (House of Joy), and the volunteers are stationed at one of the two houses.  Casa Milagros houses the older residents--I think the youngest one is about 10, and the oldest is 27, while Casa Alegria has the younger kids--the youngest we have is 3, and the eldest is about 15.

I was in Casa Alegria today.  A lot of the kids here are more severely disabled--we have quite a few who are nonverbal, and for some of them, the employees (the orphanage hires physical therapists, social workers, psychologists, and other professionals) have no idea how aware of their surroundings they are.  However, there are a few who are pretty aware of what is going on.  For example, one little boy named Bryan is mentally fine, but was malnourished for the first few years of his life and is also mostly (around 75%) deaf.  Fortunately, they fit him for hearing aids today, so he should get them reasonably soon.  He can't really communicate with people, which is really difficult, as he is very smart--we have a bunch of matching games, and he can get all of the answers right on the first try.

This morning, my first job was to feed all of the kids.  For some of them, it was really easy--a lot of them love to eat, and it's just a matter of how fast the spoon can get to their mouths.  For others, though, it was more interesting.  One boy tried to spit out every bite, giggling all the while, and it took me around 20 minutes to get him fed.  That was definitely interesting.

After that, everyone took showers.  I wasn't responsible for actually giving the kids showers, but had to undress them and carry them around.  That actually went fairly well--most of them are accustomed to the process, so it was pretty quick.

In the midst of that, I set Bryan up with some more matching games, because it would occupy him during all the wheelchair transfers and quick clothing changes. If not, he tends to get involved in the chaos and run everywhere, which would likely end in me or one of the tias tripping over him with another child in our arms.  Not good.

There's another girl in the orphanage named Cecelia who is very ill.  She has a degenerative condition and is unable to move or speak.  She's also on oxygen full-time, so it's hard to take her out of her room.  However, she is aware of her surroundings, so the volunteers are encouraged to spend time with her.  I went into her room and just talked to her for a while, but eventually ran out of things to say about her bedroom and the other kids in the orphanage (I guess if I really wanted to just talk I could have lectured on Harry Potter for a while or something), but fortunately I had other plans.  The orphanage has quite a few English-language books, so I spent an hour or so reading Superfudge (by Judy Blume, from the Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Series) to her.  I don't know if she enjoyed it, because she can't really react, but I did.  I loved that series when I was little.  And I'm sure that she appreciated not being alone all of the time, because she is not given a lot of attention, because the other kids are much louder and more vocal about their needs.

This afternoon, we went to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for the house.  It was the same store that we went to a few days ago, but foreign grocery stores are always an interesting experience. It's weird to see how people live their ordinary lives here (or anywhere that is not where I'm from), and food is definitely a big aspect of that.

Speaking of food, I tried to make macaroni for dinner tonight, and spent 10 minutes trying to google translate the directions.  I finally figured it out, only to find out that for some reason the stove didn't work (there was gas, but no fire, and I didn't know how to light it).  So I ended up just eating a sandwich.  It's an adventure.

This evening, we went to another orphanage, the one for older kids that I went to on my first day here (and twice since).  We usually go on Mondays and Thursdays, and Mondays are craft nights, while Thursday is outdoor play.  I was in charge of planning the crafts, so we ended up making coffee filter flowers (we only stay there for about an hour, so it needs to be something fast).  Some of the girls made incredibly elaborate flowers, with multiple layers of paper petals.

One of the groups of girls was teasing their friend about a boy she liked--I tried to join in their discussion, but wasn't able to contribute much.

One of the youngest girls came up to me after, as I was kneeling on the floor picking up paper scraps, and put something on my head.  It was a rainbow coffee-filter crown--probably the most regal thing I have ever worn.

I'm slowly starting to understand Spanish a bit--when someone is talking to me, I can usually get the gist of what they are trying to say, although I won't usually be able to respond.  At the beginning, everything would come out in French, which was a problem, because apparently my brain thought it only had room for one foreign language.  Fortunately, I've been able to get a little Spanish here.  Although I wish it was all in French--I would be able to explain what I was planning on doing next Thursday, and what didn't happen yesterday, and how I could give the kids their toys only if they listened to the nuns.  But it's ok.  It's good to experience being completely lost sometimes.  I'll just say that it builds character.

Anyway, it's pretty late now.  Thanks for reading!

Babies and Big Kids

Hi guys!

Today, I spent the morning shift in Cunas, the section for the babies.  I was partnered with Janessa, my roommate from Idaho, and we had three babies in there--Kimberly, Miguel, and Erika.  All of the babies were a bit fussy today, and tried to climb over each other and squabble amongst themselves.  (Which is a bit funny, considering that they're all tiny--their fights are basically them trying to use each the as ladders until we pull them apart and bounce them around the room.)

And I'm pretty sure that they are all sick--they all seemed warmer than normal, and the tias were giving them what I think was amoxicillin (I only saw the pink liquid, not the bottle).  A cold has been going around both the volunteers and the orphans, though--I was sick last week (I'm totally fine now--it lasted like 48 hours), and a lot of the other volunteers have been coughing and sneezing.  I was actually supposed to be in the OSSO orphanage today, with the special needs kids, but I switched with Drew, because he didn't want to be coughing around the babies.

We found that the babies really loved a certain toy--a small drum with a string attached to a bead on both sides.  They were very excited to make loud noises, and even more excited when Janessa and I were able to use it properly (spin it between our hands) to make even louder noises.

Miguel is slowly learning how to walk--he can now toddle around while holding onto only one person's hand, or while supporting himself against the wall, and it's so fun to see!  Although it's sort of sad--when he finally learns to walk, the person who witnesses it will probably be just a volunteer, and not someone who will know him and love him long-term.

We then went on to feed the babies--they give them a ton of food here, and it seems like it's too much.  They had this huge bowl of applesauce that, in all honesty, I wouldn't be able to finish.  And they're babies.

After that shift, we went to church.  A few of the kids from the OSSO orphanage wanted to get out, so they were allowed to come with us, wearing their nice shirts and ties.  During church, I sat with a young boy with an illness that has many of the same symptoms as autism, which meant that I wasn't able to sit and listen much in church.  Instead, I was managing a very wiggly young boy--for the first few minutes, he was fascinated by the pattern of my dress, but eventually his attention to that ended, and we had to find other ways to keep him distracted.  He ended up sort of laying on my lap while I rubbed his back to keep him calm.  Although this isn't exactly how you're supposed to spend sacrament meeting, I figure that service to others is equally pure religion.

Also--the only thing that I forgot to pack was my razor, so my legs were visibly furry this morning in my knee-length dress.  Whoops.  But it probably kept me warm in the unheated chapel.

For my second shift of the day, I went to the casas for the older kids (3-7).  They're always a bit crazy.   We started out with jumping rope, and the kids loved that (especially the little girls).  No one was very good at keeping the rhythm of the rope (it's easier if you hop in between each jump, but that's hard to explain with my minimal Spanish, and they didn't understand if I tried to demonstrate it_, but they were happy to let us spin and spin and spin while they tripped over the rope time and time again.

We also brought twister, but not a lot of kids were interested in it, so I ended up calling out "mano izquierda, amarillo," for only 2 kids.  But they were fascinated by it, and it was 2 kids less for everyone else to worry about.

I also spent a lot of time with Diana today, because she's sort of clingy and really wants attention.  She usually calls me "amiga," but sometimes she will call me "Mama," which breaks my heart.  She's so desperate for any female to love her that she sees all the volunteers as substitutes for her mother.  (I have no idea what happened to her family, but I know that she has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, so her home situation was likely not a good one.)

We have a new girl in the orphanage.  She's probably around three, and she just came last week.  (If you don't want your heart slightly cracked, skip to the next paragraph.  This is a really sad story.)  On the first day that she got here, she was crying for her mother to come take her home.  One of the older boys came over and told her that she had no mother, and that's why she was here at the orphanage.  I can't even imagine the pain the poor girl was feeling then.  But she smiled a little bit today.  I guess that's what the volunteers are here for--to make the situation a bit less horrible for the kids.

Everyone at the orphanage got a haircut today, which was quite comical.  I spent a lot of time unbraiding and brushing the kids' hair to prepare them.  One of the boys was so embarrassed about his new hair that he hid from everyone else until we could coax him out, which is funny, because most of the boys here grow up really quickly.  They like to try off their curse word and obscene gestures on us (they learn to curse in English just to see the looks of horror on the volunteers' faces).  And the girls too--at the orphanages for teenagers, a lot of the girls have babies of their own by the time they're fifteen or sixteen.  It's a difficult life.

But some of the little kids are still little.  Today, we also had a raucous game of tickle tag (which is exactly the same as regular tag, but I'm always it, and when I tag someone, I tickle them until they escape.)  Some of the kids really got into it--one of the nuns was watering her garden while we were playing, and they would run straight through the water, so I ended up soaking wet as well.

Anyway, that's all for tonight.  Love you all!

More Ecuadorean Explorations

Hi guys!

So this morning, my roommates, Alyssa and Janessa, and I had the morning shift off, so we made plans to go into town.  We wanted to maximize the time we spent there, so we woke up as early as we normally would for shift.  However, when we looked it up, we realized that nothing in Ecuador really opens until 10 AM.  Oops.

We spent the next hour or so just hanging out and talking at the volunteer house, and then went to the first stop on our excursion--the Ecuadorean mall.  One of the first things that I noticed about the mall in Ecuador was the bizarre music--it was a mixture of American pop music from 5-10 years ago, strange arrangements of said pop music (I heard a choral version of Royals by Lorde), and latin songs.  It's weird to walk around in.

At the mall, we went to the grocery store, partially for the cultural experience and partially because Alyssa needed shampoo.  Shampoo apparently comes in bags in Ecuador (as does milk), so that was a little bit weird.  They also had all these really strange fruits that I've never seen before--I took photos, but I'll upload them tomorrow.  It's after midnight here, and I have a shift bright and early in the morning.

The store had this bread section that was phenomenal.  I wish I could write down the smell--just imagine the scent of baking bread, but magnified.  Plus, it was ridiculously cheap--I bought a roll that cost 16 cents.  They also sell bagged pancakes in that section--I'm not quite sure if you heat them up in a toaster or how you prepare them, but it was definitely interesting to see.

The grocery store also had really strange eggs--smaller than chicken eggs, and speckled with brown dots.  I have no idea what animal they were from, but they were definitely not laid by your average chicken.  And they don't refrigerate eggs (or milk) in the grocery stores here, which feels so odd.

We walked around the mall for a bit after that (learning that they don't have toilet paper in bathroom stalls here, but that you have to grab it from a canister on the wall before you go in), and peeked around the other stores.  They have a lot of very American-seeming stores.  If it weren't all in Spanish, I wouldn't have been surprised if it were plopped down in the center of some suburb in the US.  They even have a KFC (which we didn't try).

After the mall, we went to the artisan market.  I'll save my descriptions of that for tomorrow, when I can post photos of some of the gorgeous artwork.  They also sold musical instruments, and we overheard someone playing Summertime on a traditional Ecuadorean instrument, which was...quite a sound.

Our next stop was the flower market, which was huge and full of flowers (shocking.  Flowers in a flower market).  Janessa loves flowers, so she had a lot of fun looking at (and smelling) everything. You could honestly sense the smell wafting down the street from a few blocks away.

We then went back to OSSO for a quick lunch, then to leave for our shift. We went to an orphanage called Remar, which primarily houses the children of drug abusers.  (They also run a rehab program for the kids' parents.)  It was pretty mellow, as most of the kids were out at a dance, but we played with the few that were there.  We started with losing a soccer match--one of the players on the other team had this phenomenal footwork that he loved to show off.  We then went on to play a matching game and Twister with them.  It was a fun shift, but there wasn't much to do because there were so few kids there.

This evening, all of the volunteers went out to go see Dunirk.  It was good, but very intense.  On the way to the theater,  we passed a park with a zipline that a few of us absolutely had to try, so we went on it.  As we were leaving, a police officer came over and told us that the playground was for children only.  (Fortunately, he told us after we had gone on, because it was really fun).  I guess now I can officially say I've had a run-in with foreign police.

Thanks for reading guys!  I'll post photos tomorrow.  Stay wonderful

Special Needs and Star Wars

Hi guys!

Today was pretty busy.  I spent all day (literally from 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM, minus a lunch break) in the orphanage for kids with special needs.  I love it there--they are so sweet, and it's interesting to see how they live, but it's also quite exhausting.

This morning, I was put in charge of feeding a girl named Lucy.  We got two bites in, but Lucy then decided that she didn't want to eat.  I was holding the bowl fairly close to her hand, so she reached out and swatted her breakfast...all over me (and my llama-fur jacket and completely clean jeans.  I was briefly minorly irritated).  I ran over to the sink to clean up, and then got to spend the next 15 minutes cleaning up the floor.  All the other kids at the orphanage thought that it was absolutely hilarious, because they didn't have a mop, so I was down on my hands and knees with a rag, Cinderella style.  It's nothing terribly unexpected, though, and I can wash my clothes.

Speaking of that, I had my first experience with Ecuadorean laundry today, because of that incident.  I thought I would be able to hold out for a few more days, but that was my last pair of jeans.  All the buttons on the washing machine were in Spanish, so my awesome roommate who is fluent came out beforehand and showed me which ones to push in order to prevent my clothes from turning strange colors.  All is well now.  I have a week's worth of clean clothes again.

After I fed Lucy, she had another incident.  One girl, Laura, who is normally very sweet and protective of all of the kids at the orphanage (she's the one who carries around a doll all the time), seriously lost her temper.  She scratched Lucy across her face, leaving a long gash.  Laura spent the rest of the day in pretty big trouble with the tias.

Another boy made me a bracelet out of pipe cleaners--it was the cutest thing.  I tried to show him how to braid them, but that proved too difficult, so he just sort of twisted them together.

After the shift was over, we all went back to the volunteer house to eat lunch.  After lunch, one of my friends was craving American-style ice cream, so we took a trip to the little convenience store across the street.  We bought our desserts, and she saw another thing that looked odd--these little flat disks.  She's the one who speaks Spanish, so she confirmed with the clerk that yes, they were edible.  We took them back and tried them, and they literally were like eating paper.  Another volunteer suggested that next time, we should just use them for crafts.  It was an experience, though.

After lunch, I went back to the special needs Orphanage.  I was with the younger kids this time.  They have one girl who is completely bed-bound, so I tried out my Spanish reading skills on her.  The OSSO house had a copy of a few different Magic Treehouse books, so I read a few chapters of one of those to her (I love that series when I was little.  I tried to write one and got about 2 pages in).  I have no idea if what I was reading was comprehensible Spanish, but I can always hope.

While I was reading to her, a little boy came up to me and gave me the biggest hug--he held onto me for probably five minutes, and just buried his face in my hair.

I also spent a bit of time chasing around Bryan, a little 5-year-old.  He found a foam ball, and learned quickly that if he tosses it, the volunteers will go chase it, so we spent quite a while playing catch.  He has the best laugh--whenever something even barely funny happens, he will bust out in ferocious giggles.

At dinner, I fed a little boy named Jhon, who I learned really does not like to eat.  And he knows quite a few tricks to avoid eating--he will open his full mouth when I'm wiping his chin, in hopes that I'll wipe his food out; start fake coughing in order to force stuff out of his mouth, close his lips whenever I come near with a spoon, and spit out anything that comes near him.  Feeding him was quite the experience, but we got through the whole bowl.  About a quarter of it ended up on him, but I'm pretty sure that the tias give him extra for that reason.

We then had a Star Wars party with a few kids from the group.  Someone found a copy of Rogue One, and we showed it in a little room with a TV.  We made popcorn, and someone had bought little glow stick lightsabers to hand out.  I think I would have liked the movie, but I didn't really get to watch it--I was watching the kids, holding one on my lap, and doing laundry at the same time.  (Plus, the movie was in Spanish, with English subtitles, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to read the subtitles through the film.)  They all had so much fun, though.  One boy doesn't get to go out much, because he's on oxygen full-time, but was able to go to the party, and he beamed through the whole thing.  He has the biggest smile--I didn't realize that many teeth could be visible in a grin.

One boy watching the movie always laughed at the worst moments--whenever there was a death or a serious scene, he would start cracking up, which would make us all laugh as well.

Anyway, it's getting late.  Thanks for reading, guys!  Stay wonderful!

Daycare, Babies, and More Soccer

Hi guys!

This morning, we went up into the mountains above Cuenca (past where we went on the swings yesterday) to go volunteer.  This place wasn't actually an orphanage--it's a daycare called Trini, created so impoverished children would have a place to spend time at while their parents work in the fields.  It's staffed by a few Ecuadorean women, and has about 20 kids, ranging from about 9 months to age 5.  (I think after that, the kids are sent to school during the hours when their parents are working).

It was so fun!  They wanted us do something somewhat educational with the older kids, so before we left, we drew big bubble letters on half-sheets of construction paper.  We brought pom-poms, feathers, and pipe cleaners and let the kids decorate the papers.  (We figured that it might help them learn the shapes of the letters, at least.)

The drive was pretty long and bumpy but really interesting.  (Before I came here, someone advised me to write everything that I was doing down when on any type of transportation, but I haven't been able to do that--I want to look out the window.)  As usual, we passed a bunch of wild-ish dogs.  Most of them seem pretty tame, but I don't approach them too closely.  But a lot of them get fed, and not many look malnourished.

This city is beautiful--here are some of the views from near the top.  It's apparently one of the oldest cities in Ecuador, and a lot of the architecture remains from the Spanish conquests, but the outskirts of the city are all green and forested.
  

As soon as we got to the daycare, we were essentially let loose with the 20 children.  (There were 4 volunteers--Drew, Paige, Payton, and me, plus the volunteer director, Keenan).  All the kids were outside in the playground of the orphanage, so we spent quite a while chasing them around.  Basically, whenever one of the little ones cried, one of the volunteers would scoop them up and twirl them around for a bit until they smiled again.  I also got a chance to practice my Spanish reading--all the words try to come out in a French accent, but I've slowly begun to adapt to rolling my r's.  (It's so fun, and so many common words have an r in them--gracias, señor, and perdon come to mind).  I read the Spanish version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and then a book in English about what movements the animals make.  One of the girls sitting on my lap loved this one, and as soon as I turned a page she would tell me the name of the animal in Spanish.

The kids then went in for their snack--they each got a pear.  All the volunteers are very sticky now.  There was one 2ish-year-old boy who was really cute--he was in a high chair, and kept crying.  I picked him up, and he pointed his arm to where he wanted to go.  I followed to where he was pointing, and he wriggled out of my arms and ran right to another boy, maybe 4, who immediately hugged him until he stopped crying.  Apparently they were brothers, and their bond was so obvious and precious.

There was another little girl there with the most stunning dark blue eyes.  Most Ecuadoreans have eyes that resemble black pools--so dark that you can't even differentiate the pupil from the iris, but this child had these orbs of blue set into her cinnamon skin.  Looking at her, you could tell that one day she would grow up to be truly beautiful.

After the kids ate their snack, the orphanage employees came to us, laughing, with a request.  They asked if we would be willing to show them traditional North American songs and dances.  The volunteers conferred for a moment, and we decided on "If You're Happy and You Know It."  Then we went on to "Let It Go," but I was the only one who knew the entire song, so for the verses I was essentially singing a solo.  However, I'm not certain that they were telling the truth about not knowing the song.  I refuse to believe that I was the only one in the group who babysat (or had any interaction with a child under the age of 10) during 2014.

They loved that, and a bunch of the little girls were clapping along, so then we went on to "traditional North American dances."  We confirmed that no one in the group knew the Cotton Eyed Joe, so we went onto the Macarena, which is technically in Spanish.  Oh well.  We continued with YMCA, the hokey pokey, and the Wheels on the Bus, but then decided that we knew no more traditional dances.  It was the funniest thing--all the little kids were copying us, and we were awful.  Paige and Payton went to the same school, and were going to do a dance that they learned from seventh grade (apparently every middle school PE class has a horribly awkward dance unit--I wonder if they had to do the weird German clapping dance), but they couldn't remember the steps, so we just stuck with the easy stuff.

As we left, every little kid came up and hugged us, like a receiving line at a wedding but a bit less orderly.  It was the sweetest thing.

In the afternoon, I had another shift with the babies.   Good news!  Cuma, one of the babies who I met on my first day here, was cleared to go return to her family, so she no longer has to live in the orphanage.  (I don't know the background of her situation, or why she was there in the first place, but everyone is very excited for her).  I believe that she has a brother in the older group, and he returned home as well.

There were 5 babies in the room today--Erika, Kimberly, Miguel, Hector, and a new boy named Julian.  I was pretty sure that Hector had colic or something, because he would not stop crying unless I was both holding him and in motion.  So we walked and bounced around his little room for about an hour and a half, until one of the tias had to take him somewhere.  Whenever I put him down, he would let out this heart-wrenching little squall, and I would immediately take him up again, because he sounded like he was being slowly tortured.

After Hector left, we played with the kids for a while, tickling them and letting them crawl all over us (punctuated by Erika's occasional "wow's").  Then it was feeding time.  (This next part is a little gross.  Skip to the next paragraph if you don't like grossness.)  Erika, after eating an entire bowl of soup, determined that it no longer belonged in her stomach.  Most of the vomit splatters got on her high chair and the floor, but a decent amount got on me.  Plus, I had the pleasure of cleaning it up off of the floor.  I'm pretty sure that on this trip, I've gotten 8 different body fluids on me (no blood yet, although writing that probably jinxed it).  It's an adventure.

OK, grossness is over.  This evening, we went to yet another orphanage, near the center of Cuenca.  We had another massive soccer game, and I wasn't exactly an asset to my team.  I sort of passed to a person on the other team.  In my defense, however, they were sisters and were dressed alike, so it was hard to tell them apart.  However, I am very good at running back and forth across the field very enthusiastically.  Even so, we lost to a group of Ecuadorean kids wearing crocs and pajamas.  There was this one boy, probably about 16, who was phenomenal--as soon as he took control of the ball, it was basically in the goal.

After that, a group of volunteers went out to dinner at a little restaurant in the center of Cuenca.  It was nice to have an occasion to all talk--the funny, the sad, the heartwarming.  We discussed our favorites and least favorites of the kids, as well as the silly things they do.  Apparently one boy is still learning how to use the toilet standing up, and tends to leave the bathroom mid-stream.  But the talk turned sad as well--I didn't work in the orphanage for the older kids today, but one of my friends was there and said that they got a new girl, who spent all day crying for her mother.  I hope she gets to return to her one day.

Thanks for reading, guys!  Love you all!

Cuenca City Tour

Hi guys!

Sorry I'm posting this late. Our wi-fi was down for a few hours last night and this morning.

Every week, the volunteers get 3 shifts (a day and a half) off of volunteering to just go be Ecuadorean tourists.  Today was that day, so the volunteer directors led us on a tour of the city of Cuenca!  It was awesome.  I felt like little Erika all day--every other word that came out of my mouth was "wow!"

I think that these boats were used
when the Spanish conquered Ecuador   

Apparently, during the worst time,
the 50,000 bill was worth $2.50

We started out going to the main museum of the city.  Disclaimer: I am insufferable to go to any museum with, because I want to read every single label and look at every single item, a habit that drives most people crazy. The first exhibit was about Ecuadorean money, which I didn't get a whole lot out of, because all the text was in Spanish.  But I learned something about an inflation crisis, and they also had model boats, which were cool (although I really don't know what they had to do with money.)

According to the Wikipedia article on Cuenca (which I read like 6 times before I came here), the city is the cultural center of Ecuador, which was reflected in some of the awesome art we saw there.  They had an exhibit by only Cuencan artists, and some of the work was gorgeous.  Due to my previously-confessed tendency to go through museums slowly, I only saw about a third of the paintings and photographs before I had to catch up with the rest of the volunteers, but here were some of my favorites.


Fortunately, there was another volunteer who behaves similarly to me in museums, so we sort of split off from the group and went a bit slower.  She also is fluent in Spanish, so she was able to help translate all of the placards for me so I actually understood what I was looking at.  A few highlights: examples of ancient Ecuadorean dwellings, some weird musical instruments, poetry in Spanish and Quecha that I'm going to Google Translate soon, and a real shrunken head.  (I didn't get photos of that, unfortunately.  But it was weird.)

In the back of the museum, they had real Incan ruins, called the Pumapungo Ruins!  Apparently, when the Spanish came to Ecuador, they tore down all of the Incan buildings, so only the foundations remains.  I believe that they said that these ruins were part of a building dedicated to priestesses and other holy Inca women, but I could be completely wrong about that.  They also have a native garden full of only the plants that would have been used during the time of the Inca Empire.        

They also had some very cool animals in this part of the city.  We weren't exactly sure if we were allowed to get this close (I touched one), but no one was around to tell us no.  

As we were leaving, we passed the Cuenca Symphony Hall and listened to the orchestra rehearse for a few minutes--they were really good.  I think they were playing Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, but I wasn't sure (I played an arrangement of the piece on piano in elementary school, but don't know it at all anymore.)

Even crossing the street here is an adventure.  Pedestrians don't have the right-of-way, so you have to wait until a car is a ways away and then bolt across the street before it gets too close to you.  In traffic, it can be interesting.

We then walked over to the produce market.  It wasn't only produce--they also sold raw meat, and there were just chunks of meat hanging from strings on the ceiling (you sometimes had to duck to avoid hitting them).  Apparently, refrigerating meat is less common in Ecuador than in the US.  I didn't get a photo of the meat, but I did get a few of the produce.  They sold grapes that were almost the size of golf balls, and some fruits that I'd never heard of, as they don't sell them back home.

Most of the kids at the OSSO orphanage live their entire lives there, and 6 have died in the 18 years that the orphanage has been open.  We went to the main cemetery in Cuenca to put flowers on the graves of two of the children who had passed away.  They do burial a bit different here--when someone passes away, they have a gravesite for four years, and then either their relatives pay for them to remain in the cemetery, or they move somewhere else.  There is a small graveyard at the orphanage, so after the four years, they move the ashes of the deceased orphans back to OSSO.

After that, we went to go get lunch--traditional Ecuadorean food (I had chicken, rice and beans, and cooked bananas).  Food is ridiculously cheap here--almost everything on the menu was less than $5, and everything that I have eaten so far has been awesome.

The restaurant was about a block away from one of Cuenca's oldest cathedrals, so our group all walked down there.  The church is gorgeous--I could try to describe it, but I'll just show you photos.                                         

We then went on a double-decker tour bus to see some other parts of the city.  It's strange--that's essentially one of the most touristy activities that one can do, but even so, there was only one other non-Ecuadorean couple on the bus.  We drove through the city, eventually going up and up and up a long winding road.  When we reached the end, Keenan, one of the volunteer directors, led us to another extraordinarily long staircase.  At the top, there was a swing that swung out over all of Cuenca.  It was a bit terrifying to go on--essentially, it was a lawn chair with a seatbelt, attached to a few 40-foot wires.  The worst part occurred when I was strapped up at the top, just about to be dropped--you could see just how long a fall it would be.  However, this was the result:

While we were up there, we also met a cute British man who was flirting with Brynlee, another volunteer.  He had previously been talking to Keenan about what we were doing in Ecuador, and then asked Brynlee if she was an orphan.  She said no, and he said that it was a pity, because otherwise he would certainly give money to her, as she was very cute.

We then popped into another cathedral at the top of Cuenca (it was pretty, but not as nice as the other one we had previously seen) and began the long, winding drive back into the city.

Once we were back in Cuenca proper, we explored some more.  We first went to this hidden Ecuadorean clothing store--you had to enter through a professional building, passing a law office, psychology practice, and dentist before you were ushered into a room stacked high with handmade blankets, sweaters, jackets, skirts, and pants.  It was astonishing (and difficult to pull anything out without the entire tower of clothing toppling).  We then went to another store of Ecuadorean goodies, and then a knockoff market, where they sell fake brands (my favorite was Hike brand shoes).  We also saw a store where they sold $1 videos--they had almost everything, from classics to stuff that doesn't seem like it should be out of theaters yet.
                     

We then got some phenomenal ice cream (our lunch was too big to justify having a proper dinner), and randomly ran into some guys performing a break-dancing show, so we watched that for a bit.  There was this adorable little kid watching them and trying to imitate their dancing--he wasn't particularly successful, but he was adorable.

  

After that, we returned to the volunteer house.  Although today was very fun, I look forward to tomorrow, when we can get back to work with the kids.  Thanks for reading!

Soccer and Scary Snacking

Hi guys!

This morning, I was again at the orphanage next door with the healthy kids.  I was in charge of the group with the youngest older kids (if that makes sense)--about 3-4 years old.  The main reason that I was with this group was because Diana, the girl from yesterday, grabbed onto my hand as soon as I got there and pulled me up to her room.  The entire group of kids was hilariously sweet today--as soon as we walked into their room, they started yelling us in Spanish that we were all beautiful (the group of volunteers here was 3 girls).

There were four kids in the group--Diana, a girl named Nicol, and two boys, Wilson and Juan.  Juan was the smallest, probably around three years old, while the other three kids were around four or five.    It was definitely an interesting experience.

Before we got there, there was another man volunteering with the orphans--he used to live in the US, but taught English in Ecuador during his young adulthood, and decided to come back for his retirement.  Now he spends a few hours a week at the orphanage to give back a bit.  It was clear that he cared a lot for the kids--apparently he once led them on a field trip to his house to meet his pet donkey (only in South America),  taught the kids how to make paper airplanes, and knew all the children by name.  However, for some strange reason, he decided that it would be beneficial to give them coffee.  Coffee!  For a group of 15 already-hyper very young children.  I'm not quite sure why he thought that this would be a good idea, but it definitely made our work more interesting.

Fortunately, the paper airplanes occupied the kids for a while--they would throw them all over their porch, then chase them down.  Diana tried to make her own, but she wasn't able to fold it in the right places, so I had to help her a bit.

We had brought a craft to do--paper chain animals--so we tried to teach the kids to make those.  Nicol was really the only one who had the patience and coordination to make them.  After I showed her how to fold and cut the paper into strips, she folded and glued it into linked loops for quite a while.  The other kids just had fun cutting up the paper, and the floor was quite colorful afterwards.

After a while, though, the little boys got tired of cutting up little pieces of paper, and decided to expand their scissor-use horizons.  I had to teach Wilson that no, we probably shouldn't set up a barbershop, especially if the one (Juan) getting his hair cut didn't actually desire the service.  I think that I managed to get to Wilson before he actually cut any of Juan's hair out.  I didn't see any black locks on the floor when I was picking up the pieces of paper, anyway.

Diana, along with being adorable and loving to be held, also has a few tricks up her sleeve.  She has learned that the volunteers tend to be somewhat softhearted, and respond quickly to any cries.  Whenever she wants attention, she will trip and start crying as if she had just broken every bone in her body.  As soon as I (or one of the other volunteers) scoop her up to ensure that she is actually ok, she starts giggling and hugging us.

After, we took all the children out to play in the playground at the orphanage.  I rotated between pushing swings, being served imaginary pastries at a tea party in chairs that were definitely not sized for adults, holding someone who was terrified of a caterpillar, picking little kids up who wanted to look over the gate to the chickens next door, and chasing around little boys who just wanted to stretch their legs.

Another family also came to volunteer.  It turns out that the parents were Ecuadorean, but had moved to Westchester County, New York, in their twenties.  They had their three kids with them, two girls and a boy who were about 16, 20, and 23.  It was nice to be able to speak English to someone in the chaos.  The parents had grown up about an hour away from Cuenca, and came back every few years.  They wanted to visit the OSSO orphanage for kids with special needs as well, but weren't allowed, as you need to get a background check just to get into the gates.  They were incredibly kind though, and had actually brought donated clothes for the orphans.

This afternoon, I was back at the OSSO orphanage for our soccer game!  We had some bad news, though.  The boy who was most excited about the game couldn't play.  He had gotten in trouble for losing his temper and breaking something, so the tias punished him by making him stay inside.  They said that we couldn't reschedule the game, because then his punishment wouldn't be as powerful.  I saw him beforehand, and he looked heartbroken, but they will hopefully have another soccer tournament soon.

But the tournament was so fun.  Basically, wheelchair soccer as we played it was just regular soccer while pushing the kids in their wheelchairs.  It was usually the volunteers who kicked the ball.  We split the volunteers and orphanage workers into 2 teams each (4 teams total), and had volunteer team 1 play against tia team 1, then 2 vs 2.  The tias won both of the games, so the final game was tia on tia.  It was so fun, for everyone.  The kids loved getting in there with the ball and running around, the tias looked like they needed to have a bit of joy (they work incredibly hard), and the volunteers loved to just watch it all.

After that, we had an "all-star" exhibition game of tias vs. volunteers, as an exhibition for the kids.  I was goalie, and we actually won!  We ended the game at 5-5, but then had a penalty kick contest to determine the actual winner, and they only got 2 penalty kicks in, while we got 3.  I'm pretty sure half of the goals I prevented were just due to my instincts of self-preservation--when there's a ball flying at my face, I naturally want to stop it.  Also, I've gotten good over the past few days at fending off children who are trying to reach to my face to steal my glasses--maybe those skills helped me as well.

Me sporting my soccer-player face paint

Tonight, we had an adventure.  Anytime we leave the orphanages is quite interesting, because the locals feel free to stare at the group of laughing gringas.  We certainly stick out a bitThe entire group went out to a traditional Ecuadorean restaurant to try cuy, which is a South American delicacy.  Guinea pig.  And I actually ate it--it didn't taste much different than any other meat (although it was a bit salty), once you got past what exactly you were eating.  I wouldn't ever order it again, but it was good to say that I tried it once.  In addition to that, we had essentially an Ecuadorean feast--potato fritter things that reminded me of latkes (although most of the group had never tried them), rice, corn, and chicken, plus a bunch of desserts that we passed around.  Some of those were awesome (we had coconut-strawberry flan), and some weren't (apparently cheese chunks in molasses-y honey is a treat).  But it was quite the experience.

Guinea Pig during the cooking process

Guinea Pig, about to be eaten

During dinner, I overheard a funny story.  Keenan, one of the volunteer directors, complimented Afton (the girl next to me in the photo) on her phone case.  He asked her where she purchased it, and she said Amazon.  His response: "In Ecuador or in Peru?"  Apparently, he's been here a bit too long.

Anyway, I have to go now.  Stay wonderful!