¡Feliz Navidad!

Days before Christmas (the 22nd) we went to the beach! We just went for 2 days. The missionaries said it was the best way for us to spend Christmas because otherwise we might get sad. We wore our Santa hats as well!


I spent Christmas in Ecuador!!!

I was so scared that I was going to spend Christmas alone! You all know I was worried before I came here! But I spent the day with lots of people, and the missionaries here did a WONDERFUL job of making me feel at home! I wasn't even sad one bit! I missed my family of course, but I wasn't sad.
In the morning, we woke up and got all pretty in dresses :) Then we went to the orphanage to visit and give just a couple of gifts. My little Nicolas...the boy I want to adopt...wasn't there! But the other kids are so precious as well.
After going to the orphanage, we went to the Browns' house (the missionaries). They completely surprised us with some stockings full of stuff!! So then it felt a bit more like Christmas. We opened our stockings, hung around the house, picked up some more people from the airport (which we've been doing a LOT lately). Then we cooked TONS of food and had people over. It was so nice. The Browns did a great job of making us not feel sad at
Christmas.
Notice how we're wearing those dresses ON CHRISTMAS!

Mindo

I forgot to write about Mindo! A couple weekends ago, I went to Mindo with some friends. Mindo is in the jungle and known for butterflies and hummingbirds. But we never even got time to look at those things...and we still had lots of fun!
We just left really early Saturday morning and stayed over that night. When we got there, we ate breakfast and then went to David's (one of my friends here) grandmom's house. She was making cañita, which is sugar cane juice. The process was so neat. She has this machine....
She puts the sugar cane in one side and then it just crushes it and pours the juice out into the strainer and container.
Then we went to a river to swim. It was a long ride there in the back of a truck, and then it was an even longer walk down to the river. But it was beautiful.
We spent the day at the river. Then we went to a cool little bar place with bar SWINGS! so cool!!! and got batidos de coco...coconut shakes...It was so much fun.

Crying Babies, Prison Bible Studies, and Shoe Boxes

Well, I figure it´s time for an update! so here goes... I have moved houses. Now I´m staying in another house with another Ecuadorian family. They are a young couple with 2 children. The husband is a youth leader in a local church. We live in a huge house on a big property with 2 other houses there. The one house is the future home of a teen pregnancy home.

Then there is one other house, which is ¨La casita del amor¨or ¨The love shack¨and it´s for pastors to come with their wives to spend some time. Then there is also another little building, which will be a small sewing factory for 6 women in the future. After women get out of prison, they can come to work there. These plans are for the future, though. Right now the missionaries I am working with are trying to raise money to pay for the houses first by renting it out. So the future teen pregnancy home is now a guest house for missions teams that come, or for this big missions conference.



Since I have stopped my student teaching, I have been going to an orphanage to help. There are 17 infants and usually 1 or 2 at most tías there, or helpers. The first couple days I went, the babies were fine. But yesterday, I could have cried with them, it was so sad. First, I just fed a baby and then changed diapers (cloth diapers). But then, I heard just one baby in another room crying. So I entered the room, and all 4 babies started screaming. And they all hit their heads on the posts of their cribs. I was getting upset though, because I just couldn´t keep every baby from doing it. Then of course they were crying even more because of the pain. So finally I asked the tía why they were doing that. She says they all do it, and it´s just a result of being abandoned. I was so sad though.
All the babies wanted to get out of their cribs, so I put them all on the floor. As soon as I did that, they were so happy playing. But I had to just go get something in another room, and as soon as I´d take just 2 steps away, all the babies would cry. One little girl...I mean all the babies are about 6 months....grabbed onto me and was just hugging me and cuddling. I just feel so sad for these babies, because who knows how often they are held. The tías have enough work to do just feeding, changing diapers, keeping hte place clean, and doing was, that it appears the babies hardly ever get held. And this one boy Nicolas keeps following me around eveyrtime I´m there. He´s one that hits his head a loooot even on my chest or wherever he can. And he´s always crying, but he is the cutest and I want to take him home! Haha. I think by the end I will have a very hard time leaving the orphanage permanently. It´s so hard to leave each day, especially when you have to leave with 17 babies screaming and holding their arms out. I pray that God can be a father to every single one of them, and provide great families for them all as well.
Today we returned to the prison for a Bible study. Monday we had a huge Christmas party for the women, gave gifts, ate food, and had a great time. Today, first we gave out Christmas shoe boxes from Samaritan´s purse, which were sent here from the U.S. It was amazing. Some of the kids´faces just lit up. I had to try not to cry it was so nice. And it´s just neat that people in the U.S. send these boxes...in fact, I have in the past....and here I am on the other side watching people open the gifts. How amazing! Thank God for the boxes and the people sending them! People send little letters or cards inside too, and those are really special to the children.
Well, I will have to meet with my Spanish tutor now! (Two people recently have told me they were surprised to find out I wasn´t Ecuadorian bcuz of my accent....so yay!)

I forgot to write about one thing...The church that I've been attending here has been talking a lot about Quito, how it's dangerous now and keeps getting worse...and how God wants to change it. Apparently Quito has been called the light to South America, and the Pastor says that Quito will now be called the light to the world....that's what the Pastor says God told him. So anyways, the Pastor says that God has been telling him for the church to pray around the Panecillo, which is a HUGE statue of the virgin Mary. It is a huge statue that is supposed to protect/ look over the whole city. And most of the city is Catholic, and it is like a huge idol. So he says that God said to go around the statue seven times like Nehemiah did in the Bible with the wall of Jerusalem until it fell. This huge statue is also leaning a lot, and everyone says that it is going to fall soon anyway.
The night of December 6th, which is Fiestas de Quito...sort of like our 4th of July....everyone gets really drunk and parties outside. So that night at midnight, the church met and got together to pray for the city. I said I would go, but I didn't really know what I'd be getting into.
First, we just prayed in small groups of 8 to confess our personal sins, then pray for God to have mercy on the whole city for everyone's sins. Then, the pastor talked about specific things that we should pray for. Everyone had a paper from the whole month of things to pray for each day, along with Bible verses. Some things, for example, were for drug addictions, violence, teenage rebellion, orphans, pray for all the pastors and churches. And so we started to pray at the church, and just talked a long time about how God can change Quito. There were 56 people there. Then at 2:30 a.m., we left the church and got into a bus. We drove the bus ALL around Quito for HOURS and prayed for the city. We drove past lots of people drinking and one person on the ground hurt with an ambulance. Then finally after driving around and praying, we drove to the Panecillo, the huge statue of the virgin Mary. And we drove around it 7 times, which took a long time because it's a long drive around it. At the end everyone was singing praise songs to God, and lots of peopel would stare at the bus as it went by. Pretty much everyone we passed had a bottle of alcohol in hand.
Finally, when we got to the top of the mountain after driving around 7 times, we got out of the bus and walked around the Panecillo 7 times. Then we prayed for the city and the people once more at a spot where you can look over the whole city. It was amazing. Now, we just wait to see how God changes it. Quito has been getting progressively worse over the years, and now it's just really dangerous. The missionaries who I'm working with right now saw someone get shot outside of their house 2 nights ago. And I've heard so many stories of people getting robbed in clear daylight. Because guys just come up to you right in the middle of a crowded park and flash their guns or knives at you from inside their jacket. then they tell you that they have friends all around the park watching you, so if you panic or try to run they'll get you, and so you just have to give them whatever you have. Also, I was out with some friends and a girl wandered off alone and some guys tried to rape her, but some other guys came around the corner, so they let her go. I have felt safe walking around myself, but I know you have to be really careful and this city is very dangerous. Anyway, it was interesting doing that prayer vigil. It lasted until 7:30 a.m.! Praying for 7 1/2 hours!!! The pastor asked me what I thought, if I thought they were a bunch of crazy people or what. I just told him it was great to see a church so passionate about God and prayer for the city. It often seems like we don't want to pray for 20 minutes. 7 1/2 hours was a long time! But yeah...that's something neat that I did recently. Also, if you look at the picture at the bottom of this blog you can see the Panecillo at the top of the mountain way off in the distance.

Feeling Better, and Loving Ecuador!

Well, I haven't written in such a long time that I'm not sure where to begin. First of all, I will share how my Thanksgiving went.... Patty and I cooked a huge amount of food for Thanksgiving including a turkey and stuffing, and we had 12 people over for it. But we ate it on Wednesday instead of Thursday, because Wednesday night I left for the beach with a bunch of young teachers from the school. We went from Wednesday til Sunday. It was BEAUTIFUL (see facebook pics!) and I loved it so much. Our hotel was right on the beach the closest I've ever stayed to the beach. And we just spent the days laying out in the sun and we went out on a boat pretty far for just $4 and they took us to this island which was beautiful, and let us jump out of the boat far out which we also loved doing. Then besides that, I went to the closest city with my host family because they were staying at the beach also near me. Overall, I enjoyed the trip SO MUCH! It was wonderful- hot, beautiful, good seafood, and just a great time.
Since then, I've just finished teaching which was also wonderful. Before Thanskgiving, my students and I practiced a Reader's Theatre for many days, and then performed it for the parents. It was sooo cute, and I loved doing it because it's something I've learned about doing in class, but the first time I actually saw it done in a classroom. I really enjoyed the class I worked with, and my students were so cute. But now I've finished my student teaching completely, and I said bye to the kids. They were so cute because they were so sad to let me go. I was sad too.
Since I'm done student teaching and started my missions' internship, I've moved out of Patty's house and into a house with another Ecuadorian family. This family pretty much only speaks Spanish. The husband knows a little English, but yea mostly Spanish, which I am excited about. Also, I will start taking Spanish lessons with a tutor starting tonight.
I know more of what I'll be doing now with this internship. Tomorrow and each Wednesday I will go to a women's prison to help lead a Bible study. Then I will also be helping out at an orphanage which is right down the road from my house. Also, I'll just be helping a lot Rich and Lisa (the missionaries here) get ready for the huge missions conference that's coming up.
I will spend Christmas...from Dec. 19-25 at the beach again. Rich and Lisa told me I can go with their family, along with the other 2 or 3 interns. They say it's the best way to spend Christmas away from home because when you're at the beach you don't even feel like you're missing Christmas. I'm happy we'll be going to the beach, because I already am getting homesick thinking about all that I'll be missing!
Since it is the last month, I keep thinking it is going to fly by, and I REALLY am going to miss it here and miss all the people I've met. I don't want my time here to end! Yet at the same time I obviously want to see everyone at home also. Well, I miss you all... hope everyone at home is doing well too! Thanks to EVERYONE for your prayers while I was sick...it really was a miserable time, but I'm so thankful to be better now, and eating whatever I want! :)

Still sick...

Well, I am still sick. I returned to the doctor yesterday, and she felt my stomach. It hurt SO bad for her to touch it. She said it is inflamed, which makes sense from all the parasites and bacteria. But she also says it will take a long time to get better, which makes me sad...I can´t eat normal foods, and I am still in pain everyday. Next week is Thanksgiving break and I want to go to the beach with some people, so I am praying I will be better! I´d hate to have to stay back because I´m in pain.
The other day I stayed after school for a teachers´chapel, which was incredible. We just sang a lot of worship songs, and I couldn´t help but cry. Some of them were about healing, and I am asking for God´s healing everyday. But, it´s just also amazing to be teaching in a Christian school, where the teachers pray so passionately for their students or for themselves to be able to help their students.
This week has been fun, as we are getting ready for our Thanksgiving Feast next week at the school. We will be having a feast (parents make the food) for all the maintenance workers at the school, and the kids all made thank you cards to them today. I´m really excited for it- but again, I WANT TO BE ABLE TO EAT THE FOOD! even if just a little...We will also be doing a little reader´s theater for the parents and another class. I´m really excited for it. The kids will dress up as pilgrims and Indians. We will also dress up for the feast (yes I have to dress up too). I´m also happy that even though I´m in Ecuador, I still will be having some sort of Thanksgiving.
To all of you who are praying for me, thank you so much! And God has answered my prayers, just that I may be able to be in the school. Because over the weekend, I felt like I would never make it in Monday, but I did. And thank God! Because that is why I am here. And usually it hurts most at night anyway, which obviously I want the pain to fully go away, but until then...I´m at least thankful and glad I can be teaching!

Ready to be well again...

Okay, this has not been a pleasant week. I have been feeling sick for 10 days. But the first 6 days or so I could ignore it. I just felt stomach pains. However, now I can´t eat or drink without it hurting. I have been sick before, but honestly I don´t think I have ever been this sick. Wednesday was when the pain worsened, and I really noticed myself getting sick. I went to the doctor and he said I had parasites, but he told me to come back Thursday morning for a blood test and stool sample. Thursday, I ate a normal lunch, and later that night threw up. I still thought I would make it in to school the next morning, but I woke up to take my medicine with just a TINY bit of yogurt and water, and I threw up. So I stayed home.
I went to the doctor to get my test results, and the stool sample said I didn´t have parasites. But the blood test we couldn´t read. I just layed in bed all day in really terrible stomach pain, throwing up also if I even tried to drink water. Finally, at about 5pm we were able to talk to a doctor over the phone, who is a friend of the family´s from church. She could tell from my blood test that I have a bacteria infection. So she told us which medicines to buy (you don´t need a prescription here) and we bought them. However, I still had to wait to take them because I would throw them up. So I waited for a lady to come and give me a shot (in the butt) hahah.....for the vomiting. It´s amazing though....after that shot, I have not thrown up at all! Then I took my medicine and went to bed.
Saturday, I was feeling much better, glad that I was put on the ¨right¨ medicines finally. However, I was still running to the bathroom all day....not to throw up though....I still could not eat Saturday, just a tiny bit of soup and rice. Sunday morning, today, I woke up with stomach pains worse than ever in my life. I couldn´t even walk it hurt so bad. If I tried to walk, I would just bend over because of the pain. And I haven´t eaten anything but a tiny bit of soup today. I´m still running to the bathroom. The doctor came over again this morning. She felt my stomach, asked where it hurt, and told me that I must have parasites. She says there´s no way it could only be a bacteria infection. With the antibiotics, I wouldn´t have diahrrea or so much pain. So I must get tested again, because she says its not 100% accurate. You should usually get 3 tests. I was so glad to find out I didn´t have parasites! And now....I´m thinking again that I may. Today I took medicine for the parasites, as the doctor told me to. But still, I am in pain and can´t eat.
Well, that was a long story to tell, but I figure those of you who read this are wondering how I´m doing. I´ll keep you posted! And please pray that I get over this quickly so I can return to school, since that is the reason for me being here!

Well, I haven´t written here for a while...Last weekend, I went to Santo Domingo with my host family...which is in the jungle! I was loving all the banana trees, pineapple fields! and papaya trees. We walked around the farm for a while, and we went swimming in a river...aren´t you all jealous it was warm enough for me to swim!!! I had so much fun. I was also able to see everyone gathered at the cemetery for Day of the Dead, or Día de los difuntos. It was cool because I´ve learned about it so much in Spanish class.
Teaching at the school is going great. Now I´m teaching Bible, Reading, Grammar,Handwriting, and Math. And I´ll keep adding on as time goes on. I LOVE this school though. The atmosphere is COMPLETELY different than any I´ve experienced before. in such a good way! Having all Christian teachers who love their kids and want them to succeed...it´s just great! Today we had parent-teacher conferences, and it was actually enjoyable to watch. The parents all really care about their kid´s education and want to help them in any way possible. Half of the parents spoke English, half Spanish, and one Korean dad had a translator to translate from Spanish to Korean. So I just thought that was all interesting. I love the diversity. Well, I´ll write more soon, but I´m going to meet with another girl who student teaches at a different school, but lives with a teacher at my school...soo ciao!

I didn´t really want to write here because I didn´t think I´d ever say this, but...yes, I´m homesick. Sometimes it´s the little things that do it. Yesterday, I stopped at a store on my way home for just some apple juice and cookies. And I told the lady what I wanted but she said What? and so I told her again, and another girl started laughing at me. Then she kept giggling as she took my money. It was just frustrating because people always understand me. I´m already intimidated to go in by myself and order things in Spanish, and then to be laughed at is just not fun. Then, everyday when I come home, I can never get the gate open to come inside because you have to turn the key and kick it this certain way...I was just getting very frustrated and thinking, I want to go home! And I haven´t really made any good girl friends yet.
On a good note, today we carved pumpkins with the kids, and it went really well. And most of the kids had never done that before, so it was neat to see them doing it. They all wanted to taste the seeds, so I brought home a ton of seeds and cooked them, so they can try them tomorrow.
While we were carving the pumpkins, I could smell something delicious and it smelled like apple cider. Well, later as I was about to leave, the Spanish teacher stopped me and told me to go down to the home ec room because there was colada morada and guaguas de pan (if thats spelled right?) which are for day of the dead...just some little breads in the shape of people ,with clothes on them in icing. And colada morada is supposed to look like blood...it´s red and full of ground up red corn and tons of fruits, and it was served hot today. It was DELICIOUS though. And it was neat because I sat around talking in Spanish with ladies and listening to the cook talk about Day of the Dead, the history and traditions. This weekend we will go to Santo Domingo, where the family I´m staying with has a farm. and it´s right by a cemetery, so I think we will see people bringing their goodies to the graves, and there will be lots of colada morada and guaguas de pan and things being sold in the streets. So, hopefully I will write again Monday or Tuesday to say how that all went!

Seeing God

This Saturday I went to a place called Calacali on a retreat with teachers from the school. I didn´t know hardly anyone, but I decided to go so I could get to know people. We went to a cabin on a beautiful farm. A few of us climbed a mountain and there was such a beautiful view. While we were there, we ate a great lunch and just talked and ate S´mores on a fire. Then, we went to Mitad del Mundo, the middle of the world. There, we just walked around, took pictures by the equator line, and ate dinner at a nice restaurant. I got to know a lot of teachers and how God brought them to the academy. At dinner, I sat with the director of the academy and he was telling me how one girl who student taught there last year is now a teacher there. So he said, That happens sometimes, you know! I can see they are already trying to recruit me. Apparently, they lose teachers all the time because many just stay for a couple of years.

Today, I went to church and there was a time for testimonies. Everyone who spoke told about something that happened Thursday night. At the church, they were having the Bible study, about 20 people, and 4 men with guns came into the church. Immediately, the Pastor told the people to pray and speak in tongues. So the people all started doing this, and the men looked like they were fighting with someone, but no one was there. They could not hold their guns up. But one man took a knife to the Pastor and tried to cut his throat, but could only make a red mark, not even any blood. Then, all four men were trying to push the Pastor onto the floor to beat him up, but they physically could not push him down. As they were trying, one man got up to try to help the Pastor, and one of the men shot him. He was only 3 meters away, but the bullet did not touch him. It was on the floor. The man giving this testimony said that when he took a shower later, he was searching his body and stomach, but he had no mark at all. After the men saw that the bullet did not go into the man, they got scared and left the church. It sounds hard for me even to believe, but I heard the testimonies of so many people who were there on Thursday, and I know God has the power to do these things! It´s just that I´ve never personally witnessed something like this before, and I´ve never even heard a story firsthand like this. But wow! God really was protecting his people, and showing Himself to those men also. This is not uncommon here, because another young teacher at the school was telling me that she was at a Bible study and men came in and held her and some girls up with guns, but they were not hurt either. So, this is something to pray about here, for safety. When I first heard the girl´s story about being held up by guns at Bible study, I was scared to even be in a church almost, but God can clearly protect his people. I just still am in awe of that whole situation.

Getting Adjusted

Well, I had my first weekend here. Friday night I attended a Bible study here at the house. It was a little bit intimidating because they kept calling on me to answer in Spanish. Then Friday night I went to a McCafe..which we don´t have at home. It´s just a McDonald´s Cafe. They dont serve food, just hot drinks and have couches and wifi. Then, Saturday I went to a big sports thing, much like the X Games. We watched biking, skateboarding, paintballing, breakdancing, climbed a rock wall, and ate food. Sunday, I went to church for a little while and then went to watch a soccer game of one of the boys I´m living with. It was fun, and then we went to the mall, which made me feel like I was at home. Plus, I got ice cream for the first time since I´ve been here. And you all know me...I was DYING for ice cream! haha.
Today I had another great day at the school, getting to know the kids and teacher a little better. I worked a lot with one girl from Korea, who hardly knows any English at all. I feel really bad for her, because I was working on synonyms with her. But almost every word, she didn´t even know what the original word meant that she needed to come up with a synonym for. The class I´m with has a lot of struggling students, and my co op seems so glad to have me help her out. Today I got chicken nuggets and fries for lunch, which I was very happy about. Friday I got something that I didn´t really like. And then we don´t eat dinner. Lunch is their main meal here, and then they eat a light snack like toast and coffee before bed. So you all know me...I LOVE to eat! so this is a big adjustment. Well, I´m still missing you all, but I´m surviving!

My First Day at the Alliance Academy

Well, I went to the airport last night, and my bag came! Wahooo!!! So since I had my clothes, I went to the school today. When I first got there, we had chapel. This week was spiritual emphasis week, which means they had chapel everyday. It reminded me a lot of VBS. They did a theme of Power Lab and had a couple from California leading it. The kids seemed to really love it.
My class consists of 7 Ecuadorian students, 5 from the states, 3 from Korea, and 1 from Taiwan. They all seem to speak English pretty well. They were SO excited for me to be there, giving me hugs and they all had made me a cute card. My cooperating teacher has lived here for 18 years and is a missionary. She told me that her main goal in being there is to see her students accept Christ. In the past week, 6 accepted Christ during chapel. She said she had 2 Muslim students accept Christ before too. I can tell she truly loves her students so much.
The school´s atmosphere is totally different than any I have been to back home. It´s not all indoors. To get anywhere, you walk outside. It is beautiful, right by mountains. We drove there this morning and walked home. From now on, I will walk there each day, or at least walk home because Patty, the lady I live with, has to stay there later than me.
I met so many teachers today and they were all so nice. Everyone made me feel very welcomed. One young teacher asked me to be on their teacher volleyball team, so I agreed to. I told her I´m not very good, but she said it was fine.
All in all, I had a wonderful first day! I loved everything about the school, and I am so excited to be student teaching here. It is like 100% opposite of the last school I taught at, which I needed.

I loved the school because it just looks so different from what I'm used to in the states. Since it's warm all year round, you walk outside to get to most classes, which I loved!



Just the view is AMAZING! I love the mountains in the background behind the playground.

¡Estoy aquí! (I´m here!)

Well, I arrived in Quito safely! The only problem is I don´t have my luggage. Last night, the airline said it should come today, but it hasn´t yet. I can´t start teaching until I have it. I am really hoping and pryaing it comes soon!
My family here is very nice. They are Ecuadorian...mom, dad, and two sons, who are 21 and 23. They also have a maid, who is very nice and brought me a whole pot of hot tea this morning for my throat. She also made a different (Dominican Republic trip people, remember....different is good! haha) , but delicious lunch today.
I have my own room and bathroom and it´s all very nice. Though I have to say I was kind of surprised when I took my shower and it was freezing! Guess I should have been expecting that one. Today I just sat around, talked with the family and watched some TV in Spanish...kind of funny, I watched She´s So Raven, which I watch at home a lot. Here it´s Es Tan Raven.
I´ve been told that Mrs. Weber, the teacher who I´ll be student teaching with, is very nice and excited to meet me. Also, her class has been asking about me for weeks and can´t wait for me to come. So if you want to pray for me, Pray that my bag comes quickly!!! Thanks...missing you all! Fam, I hear the family picture turned out great, can´t wait to see it!

Hey everybody! This is the blog I'll be using while I'm in Quito. I'm not sure how often I'll have the chance to write- but I'll try to keep up to let everybody know how I'm doing.