back by popular demand

Today we went to the beach. There were these fantastic bicycles everywhere! I really wanted to steal one but figured it'd be hard to bring back to Cuenca, not to mention New Jersey. But I still want one. Take note, Christmas gift-givers!

The beach that we went to was in this fishing town and it was pretty run down. Apparently the beach had gotten really polluted so people stopped coming and lots of businesses closed because of it. Lucky for us, however, they just reopened the beach recently so we got to enjoy clean sand and wonderfully warm water without any crowds at all! Although a crew of camera men did follow us around because they were doing a story on how the beach had just reopened and all that. I thought it was kind of creepy and didn't like being filmed as I swam in the ocean or walked out in my bathing suit. Bleh.

BUT! One of the advantages was that there were several buildings for sale and I have a weakness for rundown buildings that are for sale. I just want to buy them and fix them up, but without taking away from their inherent charm. Maybe one day I will have enough money to buy houses all over the world and make them beautiful again... Or just live in them for a while and enjoy the atmosphere in random cities for a few months to a year at a time. You know, wherever my heart leads me.
After swimming my friend Nigel and I relaxed in some beachside hammocks and read our respective books. It reminded me of the Hammock Hut in Costa Rica.
Apparently the area we drove through on our way to the coast is home to the largest banana plantation in the world. There were banana stands all the way home. They completed me.
There were also stretches of cocoa beans along the side of the road drying out. They put them there because the asphalt conducts heat so they dry faster. Clever, but probably not very sanitary... But awesome things are usually not very sanitary—you know, tattoos, piercings, salchipapas, and cocao beans. It's all there together.

los pequeñitos

We had a sharing meeting on Sunday night for the new volunteer who came (though she was here previously so I was a little ticked we had to do it). The sharing meeting happens every time new volunteers arrive. Basically we just had to go around and everyone in the group had to share their feelings about working with the kids.

It sounds super lame. And I thought it was going to be. But you know what? It wasn't. As we went around and people starting talking about experiences they've had with the kids and how their love for them has grown, everyone started to get a little teary eyed. Now that I know these kids and have worked with them myself these stories mean more to me than they did at our first sharing meeting when I arrived with other new volunteers. The stories that people relate now bring to my mind actual images of the kids doing these things: the looks on their faces, their personalities, their gestures, all of these things that I have come to learn about them as individuals. Lorena, our "madre" here, told us that after working with these kids we will never be able to look at children again in the same way and I am starting to believe her. It's so strange to me now to see kids places with their parents, like at church or just in the street, and I am becoming more and more aware of what a blessing and a sacrifice parenting is.

When I was in high school my AP English teacher once told us that he asked his dad if he liked his life and if he had to do it over again would he make the same choices. His father told him that if able to go back in time and change things he would not have gotten married and had kids—he did it just because everyone else was doing it. My teacher himself never married and has no children of his own. He seemed to think that this was perfectly fine and that there was nothing wrong with his father wishing he was not a father. I think it's sad. I mean, isn't my teacher glad that is father did have children? Otherwise he wouldn't be here. I think sometimes we forget that our very lives on this earth are gifts from, not only God, but another human being. No person on this earth was born without a mother and father in some way, shape, or form. It's pretty ungrateful to think that we are here just on our own merit—also it's just not true.

I am so glad that my parents are parents and that I am their child. And I'm glad that I know they're glad about that too.

i feel like a scientist

Yesterday my roommate Cortney and I became scientists. We are in charge of the activity at the all-girls orphanage on Monday and we have decided to make lip gloss. I went to a pharmacy here that sells vaseline by the liter and bought 2 liters and 30 small containers. It all only cost $5! I'm a pretty big fan of pharmacies here because they have all sorts of cool stuff that pharmacies used to have, like the ingredients to make medicine instead of just the medicine and the containers in which to put said made medicine. Also "cajas muestra de heces" which is what the lip gloss containers we bought are actually called. I'll let you use wordreference.comto figure out what that means.

I brought the supplies back to the house and that is when the fun began. We'd found some recipes for lip gloss online but we decided that we'd need to try them out ahead of time because for some of them we didn't have all the ingredients and we didn't know how much they would make, or if they would even work, etc. After a lot of heating, measuring, mixing, smelling, smearing, and smooshing we finally ended up with about 4 flavors (mora—a type of berry, piña, honey, and vanilla) that we think will work. I will let you know how it goes.

PS Here are the websites for the fruit, honey, and vanilla lip gloss recipes. We only used flavoring and vaseline, no oils or butters or aloe, so I guess you could make them fancier if you would like. Follow your heart.

PPS Cortney and I experimented so much that now we need to buy more vaseline and containers for the actual project, but sometimes that is the price you pay in the name of science!

[PPPS The girls loved it! They also loved eating it, which was a little gross...]

cuenca canopy

Today we went on a field trip to the Cuenca Canopy! (That means zip lining!)

This is me before the journey. I am ready to conquer any zip line that crosses my path! (There ended up being 6!)

I remembered Duck Face. I win.

This is me on one of the shorter zip lines. Note that it looks as if I am wearing white, knee-high socks. Do not be deceived, those are just my legs.

After it was all said and done. Note the muddy pants: some people maybe slipped a little on the short trails connecting the zip lines. It is not their fault: it was raining heavily making the trails almost impossible to climb at some points. Emily was towed up the mountain at the very end by three of our guides and Roddy and almost didn't make it because she was laughing so hard.

The whole group. We are quite triumphant. Note that everyone else is wearing blue or brown or another darker color. I am in red. No big deal.

Our main guide/owner of the Cuenca Canopy. Quite a man.

the future

Even though we live in it we don't know everything about it.

Things to think about.

and this is why

I have to say that I was surprised by this announcement, maybe partially because I'm out of the country so I'm way behind on everything (note that I just learned about this today), but after listening to the committee's reasoning as to why Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize I feel really good about it. It's pretty cool for the President of our nation to be lauded for "creating a new international climate," "giving the people [of the world] hope for a better future" and that he is leading our country "on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." Our President is a man who realizes that just because our country is huge and has a lot of wealth and economic power, that doesn't mean that we can do whatever we want. In fact, because of these things we have a responsibility to play an important and leading role in helping promote peace and equality in the world instead of just using our military power to make others bend to our will. He is not just the leader of our nation, but also a prominent leader in the world.

"For 108 years the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate the international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman." That's pretty cool.

Also, the name Thorbjorn Jagland? Awesome.

google? what kind of animal is that?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

He built a windmill. In front of his house. Out of trash. Based on a picture he saw in a textbook written in a language that he did not speak. He brought electricity into his village and changed their lives forever. All I can say is: What a man.

the epidemic continues

People are still sick. So it was decreed that everyone—even those of us who are not puking or pooping our guts out—would stay home this afternoon and rest instead of going to shift. That means that, along with eating bananas, white toast with honey, and yogurt, we watched movies.

My favorite movie of the night was "Away We Go." It has John Krasinski in it, so I was already predisposed to love it, and I was not disappointed. It's all about this couple who is expecting a baby and they are trying to figure out where to raise their child. The travel all around the country visiting friends and family trying to decided if they want to move to any of those places. What it really ends up being, however, is the search for a family whose life they want to base their own off of. Eventually, of course, they realize that the only life they can live is their own and nobody else's lives or life decisions have to affect or influence the decisions they make about their own future together. Their story has not yet been written—only they can choose their own destiny. You know, all of that. It was fantastic. Aside from the f word and the awkward sex scene at the beginning it was a winner in my book. Why do movies always have to have those scenes in them that make them "So great! Oh, except for that one part..."? One day I will teach myself how to edit movies and then I will have a library free of such awkward scenage. One day.

quarantined

So remember how I was sick on Monday? Well now everyone else is sick. Six of the girls who went to work this morning left early to rest because they were feeling really sick. A few of them went to the doctor today and here are a some of the diagnosis (diagnosiis?):

• sinus infection
• tonsillitis
• ear infection
• strep throat

Only 4 girls went to the orphanages this afternoon (as opposed to the usual minimum of 10) while the rest of us stayed home. I was feeling fine but I had a scheduled off and Lorena, our house "mom" suggested I stay home too just to be safe. My stomach has been bothering me a little bit again (but nothing major, so don't worry—I think just left over stuff from not eating regularly since Monday) so maybe it was good advice to stay home and rest.

One consolation, I think, is that people seem to all be sick with different things, so at least it's not an epidemic of some kind, right? Right.

...Right?

I just hope that we can all get better soon so we can get back to work! That is what we're here for, after all. Plus, I don't know what some of the orphanages will do without us because they are so understaffed. It's rough enough when we're all working, I can't imagine how hard it would be with only 1 or 2 people! Let's just all pray for a speedy recovery.

motivation

I find that I often think that I am better than people. I think this realization (or at least the blogging about this realization) came after reading this blog entry written by my dear friend Clarence Pimptown, and yes, that is a moniker.

This feeling of superiority can be good when it motivates me to improve on programs that are already implemented or to treat others with more kindness or something. It's no good when it just makes me feel superior for no real reason, just pointing out people's faults in my head or aloud to others because it makes me feel better about myself. That is no bueno.

These two actions are constantly at war with one another. Hopefully I will one day learn how to let the first beat the second, or at least co-exist with the second in a way that will enable me to both make fun of people AND do things better than them.

My goal for the month of October is to actually do things better than, not just other people, but myself as well... and to try to mock others less. We'll see how it goes.

b-a-n-a-n-a-s

This morning my roommate Chelsea and I were scheduled to work with the 2-5 year old kids. We planned a really fun activity for them last night that I was really excited about: we found a book about a monkey looking for a banana, then made up little craft bags for the kids to make their own binoculars out of toilet paper rolls that they would then use to look for paper bananas that we made to hide around the park. We made sure that each of the zip lock bags had the same stickers and crayons and materials to decorate the binoculars so there wouldn't be any fighting over materials, which has been a problem in the past. I was excited to try out a new technique of separating the kids at different tables so that each kid would have their own space to create. We were ready!

I was really looking forward to doing the activity, but around 12:30 am last night I started throwing up. And that continued about every two hours until around 9 am, then intermittently from then until about 4 pm. Needless to say, I did not go to shift. Luckily my friend Chalae was able to cover for me at the last minute which was greatly appreciated. She told me that the kids really enjoyed the activity which I was glad to hear—I like when the activities work out (they don't always...). I had an off this afternoon so I was able to rest even further and I am happy to report that I am feeling a lot better. Not 100% yet by any means, but the vomiting has come to a stop which is always nice, especially when it has a tendency to come out of my nose... I just ate a banana and it has stayed down so it looks as if I'm well on my way on the road to recovery.

Some good news about being sick: I had the whole day off so once I stopped throwing up I was able to get some things done that I had been putting off for a while. Things like showering (the last time was Thursday, no big deal), laundry (including blankets and sheets!), and, of course, blogging.

Here's to a hurl-free day tomorrow! (Hear hear!)

guayaquil

Today we went to Guayaquil. It was a day filled with lots of sun, temple grounds, a lady stalker, flora and fauna, an unsolicited phone number, hijos solteros, skin advice from a stranger, crying from laughing so hard, delicious meat, oreo chocolate ice cream, important bathroom signage, river strolls, truck honking, live iguanas, screaming, giggling, 444 stairs, wind, 3 ducks, founding fathers, pirates, and an anchor.

It was a busy day.

friends in the city

The day before I left for Ecuador I met my friend Erica in the city for lunch. She and her husband recently moved there so he can attend law school at NYU and this was the first chance I'd had to come to visit. It was a pretty busy day for me, seeing as I was leaving for Ecuador the next morning, but Erica had been hounding me to come visit for weeks so I made the time AND I'M SO GLAD THAT I DID! I met her at her apartment in Hell's Kitchen where we made cucumber and cheese sandwiches, then walked over to the pier and ate them. We talked about living in the city, job hunting, married life, and life in general. I had forgotten how nice it is to have a friend that I don't have to explain religious things to because she already knows, often better than I do myself. Erica is seriously an amazing individual that I am lucky to have met in my many travels and even luckier to have kept in touch with since then. I snagged the above picture as we parted ways for her to head off to an interview that she was hoping wasn't a sales position (it was). Luckily since then she has found honest employment elsewhere. Yay for adulthood!

Additionally, I forgot how dirty walking along the streets of Manhattan can make your feet when you are wearing flip flops. Exhibit A:

Note that this is dirtier, in fact, than the dusty roads of Lake Como, PA AND the fields and roads of Ecuador. Things to think about...

ordinary people

Last night I finished reading Ordinary People by Judith Guest. I found it upstairs in our house library and I picked it up because it seemed so unassuming: I can't remember any reason other than that. When I opened the book to begin reading, I noticed that on the very first page a previous reader had written the following:

I want to punch that person in the face. I'm sure that they must have thought that they were doing others a service by posting their own opinion permanently in this apparently grossly offensive book to warn future readers of its perversion. They were not. All they managed to do was show that their own short-sighted judgement was not worthy of consideration.

"This book was alright"?! This book was beautiful. It was insightful and captivating; it is the first book I've read in a long time that pulled me into its own world so completely that I forgot everything going on around me. The characters are fleshed out and believable, interesting, sympathetic, and at the same time not completely explained. Their emotions were complex and personal and at the same time relatable. I found myself thinking about the book even while I wasn't reading it, always a sign of something that is well-written.

The novel helped me remember that everyone has difficult things in their lives. You'd think being here in Ecuador would make me more aware of that in a more tangible way and maybe it is a sign of my own short comings that a work of fiction has done it better than real-life experience. Regardless, Judith Guest helped bring the emotionality of human experience to the forefront of my mind. Some of the kids I'm working with down here were abandoned as babies, found in a church or by the side of the road without any explanation or apologies. Others were abused by their families and taken away by the state. Others of us lead lives that are not as apparently broken or fragile but sometimes are, hidden inside. We just need to remember that everyone needs love, whether they appear to have everything else going for them or not.

And that is my soap box rant for the day. Read this book: I'm glad I did.