mistaken identity

I bought a horned melon at the grocery store tonight thinking that it was the same fruit I'd eaten when I was in Ecuador. It has seeds encased in weird, green, slime-like gel. Yum, right?! The texture wasn't at all like snot. Not. At. All. But, pretty much what I remembered.

Horned melon, courtesy of HyVee.

Later I got to wondering what the fruit was called in Ecuador because "horned melon" didn't sound familiar. So I looked it up on my blog and, sure enough, it was not called a horned melon. But, that's because it was not a horned melon. The fruit I was remembering is actually a granadia. Which is not Spanish for "horned melon," but is in fact a fruit in its own right. And, is not even spiky. Good one, self.

But it was fun looking through my blog again and reading all about my adventures. I actually made myself laugh out loud. 

The Amazon

We spent 4 days and 3 nights in the Amazon. And by that I mean basically just 2 days because we got in late on Friday—the weather was too hot so the plane was delayed flying us from Quito to Coca...what?—then left early Monday morning. Good times were had by all.

We stayed at the Yachana Lodge, an ecotourism lodge that is run by the local people and supported by the Yachana Foundation which also sponsors a local high school where kids from all over Ecuador are educated on agriculture, environmental preservation, and how to become good members of and leaders in their communities. I am a huge fan.

At the lodge they gave us these sweet rain boots because it's pretty muddy and wet in the rainforest. I had been looking forward to getting to wear a pair of these boots literally almost the entire time I was in Ecuador. In the rural areas all the people wear them, even the little kids, and I just fell in love with them. Weird, I know, but very true.

Ironically none of the boots they brought out for me fit me. They were either too tight or too loose, so instead of the sweet black Ecuadorian boots I ended up with these ridiculous cherry boots that look like they were bought at Target. Really, friends? My friend Nigel got to wear these sweet white boots you see below on the left that made her both look and walk like a cowgirl.

We went on a bunch of hikes and stuff and one day we journeyed over to the local healer's house. He was this sweet old guy who would clean your air, or aura, who would send the bad energy surrounding you back out into the universe. To get healed you had to sit up straight in the chair in the middle of the entry area, put your heels together, palms on your knees facing upward, and close your eyes. He would blow smoke on you from his hand rolled tobacco cigarettes, then use this bundle of leaves that smelled like lemons. After he'd gone around you and gathered up all the bad energy he would walk to the door of the house and, using the leaves, fling the bad energy back out into the universe. Then he would come back and make this cool little whistling noise between his teeth and continue to clean your aura until he determined that it was good. It was pretty cool.

After the healing we all went out and learned how to use a blow gun. Our guide, Juan, set up a target of a cocao nut on top of a piece of wood standing on end for us to shoot at. Despite the fact the the blow gun itself was about 6 feet long I still manage to shoot my first dart into the mud. The second one, however, hit the middle of the log, and the third one wizzed right by the nut itself. I gave myself the "Most Improved" award.

The next day, on our longest hike through the jungle, Juan showed us how the indigenous people can weave baskets out of palm leaves and roots to carry home fruit or small animals they have killed to bring home to eat. He wove this baby in probably about 5-10 minutes and it was freaking sweet! The best part is that you can reuse it until the palm fronds start to dry out and become brittle, and then you can just throw it away and it is 100% biodegradable. I love the jungle!

On this same hike we walked for some time through a shallow river. This is when I discovered that both of my lovely cherry boots had holes in the sides. A winner on all counts. There was nothing I could do about it so I was a man about it and sucked it up.

That day for lunch we had a little cooking lesson and we learned how to cook grubs! Three of the girls ate them raw, which means that you have to bite off their heads first so they don't bite you in your own mouth, then chew up their squishy, still wiggling bodies before you swallow. Yeah, I didn't do that. BUT I did eat them once we'd roasted them over the fire and they were delicious! I had seconds. They tasted like little tiny pieces of chicken, with crunchy, delicious skin. If you ever get a chance I highly recommend trying one. A cooked one, that is...

the times they are a changin

Today we leave Cuenca and go to Quito. Tomorrow we fly from Quito to the Amazon. Tuesday I fly home. There is a lot to say but since there have been lots of power outages recently (no water=no power=no wifi) I won't be able to upload any pictures to my blog until I get home. Try not to cry. However, here are some teasers to get you excited about future entries:

• I ate cuy and contrary to popular belief it did not taste like chicken: it tasted like duck.
• I said good bye to the kids and while I teared up a couple times thinking about how I wouldn't see them probably ever again I only came on the verge of really crying right as we were leaving the orphanage and Enaro said, "No llore. Los niños les gustan mucho." Don't cry. The children love you a lot.
• Although I was able to make it down to Ecuador by carrying on my guitar and one suitcase and only checking one other suitcase, coming home I somehow have to check 2 bags and carry on my guitar and another smaller bag. How did this happen?
• I will be home in 5 days.

PS The power went out while I was writing this entry and I had to continue it 3 hours later when it came back on again. Good times.

people climbing up, water falling down

Today we went on a hike up to a waterfall. I almost died because the air was so thin. False, but it did remind me a lot of hiking the Y my first weekend in Provo and not realizing that when you are up in the mountains as opposed to at sea level it makes it really hard to breathe.

The waterfall was up really high. It took us about 2 hours to hike up the mountain to the first waterfall. Some of the trail was almost vertical and we had to use tree roots and branches to pull ourselves up. It was awesome.

Along the way we ran across a field of cows.

Also a drinking trough for the cows made out a recycled tire and filled with water pumped from the waterfall up above. Uhm, yes.

Once we got to the waterfall I discovered my initials already carved into a rock there. Clearly someone in Ecuador is not-so-secretly in love with me.

While we were up at the waterfall it began to rain. This made the hike down a bit slippery and muddy (though I slipped a lot I did not ever fall—unlike some others I know. Bonus points for Cassi! Reminded me a little of our zip lining adventure, though not as muddy). These shoes used to be white.

After the first waterfall we hiked back down to the house where we had lunch, then hiked up to a second, smaller, closer waterfall and jumped off a rock into the freezing cold water. The rock was not very high at all, probably only 6 feet above the water, but I was afraid to jump. But I did. And scraped my foot on the rocks below because I didn't jump out far enough. This is my splash.

racial assumptions

Yesterday we went out to eat at this new gelato and sandwich place called Al Toque. You could tell that they were new and had just opened because they hadn't quite figured out how much of everything they needed on hand and had to tell us that they were out of the food for three of the meals we ordered. Good times. Once our food got there though it was quite tasty.

While we were waiting for our order, this older white couple came in and was looking at the menu. Our waiter came up to me and said, "Habla español, ¿sí?" "You speak Spanish, right? When I said I did, he asked if I could help the couple who'd just walked in. I agreed, and went over to help translate the menu for them. When I asked in English if they needed help with the menu, the looked at me blankly. I started to ask in Spanish but then remembered that they didn't speak Spanish, which is why I was there in the first place. I tried again in English, slowly, and they responded in broken English with thick accents that sounded Dutch (though that's really just a random guess). Eventually I figured out that they were looking for a bar or someplace to get a drink. I told the waiter they were looking for beer and he said they didn't have any there, so I asked where they did, and he told me the restaurant across the street so that's what I told them. They thanked me and left.

It made me laugh because the waiter assumed that just because these people were white that they spoke English. Heck, that's what I assumed too. It reminds me a little of a story my friend told me while we were still in high school. She was in her biology class and her teacher was talking about the rain forest in Costa Rica. Then she turned to one of the students in the class and said, "Hey, you're from Costa Rica, right?" The student looked really confused and responded that he wasn't, he was from the Philippines. This happened two more times and each time the student was not from Costa Rica, but the Philippines. It seems pretty silly since Costa Rica and the Philippines are two very different places and the people don't even look similar, generally speaking. But people all over make these mistakes all the time. And is it really racist if the only consequences of these assumptions is that you think someone speaks a different language than they do or is from a different part of the world? Things to think about.

the future

In two weeks and two days I will be home. 2 weeks and 2 days. 2 and 2. 22. Just like how old I am. Coincidence? I think not. While I know that I will be sad later, just like when I realized I was graduating, right now I am very anxious to just get the ball rolling with the rest of my life. Being here in Ecuador has been a really cool and enlightening experience and I am very very glad that I came, but sometimes I feel like I am just treading water while the rest of my life is on pause and waiting in the wings. Wow, talk about a mixed metaphor.

But really. For the first time in my life it seems that I have a real goal and I am excited to work towards it. And by work I really mean work because it is going to be really expensive to live in Boston and go to this bookbinding school, but I am so SO excited about it I can't even say. I figured out the financial logistics today and I'm going to have to make between $1500 and $2000 a month from December to August if I want to be able to pay for housing and just a third of tuition for the first year. I think I can do it. And by I think I mean I will because it will be so so so cool. And bookbinding completes me. That is all.

six things

Great things about today:

1. Johanna's projectile vomit which I successfully evaded by dancing away from it like cartoon characters when someone is shooting at their feet.
2. Alísia's impression of me jumping away from aforementioned projectile vomit.
3. Davíd's crooked smile and whirling eyes when we spun him around and around and around in the bouncy chair.
4. Nigel frantically pushing one and a half year old Julían to the floor when she heard him making the pre-vomit coughing sound because she thought he was going to vomit on her...which he almost did.
5. Julían clapping and saying "Bravo!" after us volunteers finished singing the Barney Song in Spanish very very very slowly (Te quiero yo, y tú a mí...).
6. The bracelet Mercy made and gave to me.

All in all a great time had by all. Especially those of us who escaped projectile vomit.

a hat on the head is worth two on the floor

Today is Cuenca's Independence Day. I'm not really sure what that means, but since yesterday was Día de los Muertos it has just been a party all weekend. We went to this sweet fair and fireworks show last night to celebrate and it completed me. At the fair there was an inside part that was in this huge house that is now a museum for the arts that used to be Lorena's grandparent's house. What?! Pretty cool. I bought several things that were not expensive but that I didn't really need (story of my life) and also saw this fantastic couple that I am in love with. They reminded me of the couple in Away We Go and I want to be a part of a couple like them. Here is a creepy stalker picture I took of them (the man is in the blue hoodie and his wife—or pregnant girlfriend?—is next to him in the black sweater):

At the fair we were standing on the second floor looking out into the patio watching and listening to this mariachi band (and secretly observing said amazing couple) when these people came out and lit these sweet paper hot air balloon things and sent them up into the sky. They lit around 5 or so, all different shapes and colors. Apparently they do it to show that there's a party going on. When we went outside we could see them all hovering in the sky far away. It was cool and I kind of wanted one, but all I could think of was that it was bad for the environment because once the fire goes out they fall back to the earth and become trash on the side of the road or in someone's yard or farm and that animals could try and eat it and die. Why can't I stop thinking about these things and just enjoy cultural quirks?
Outside Lorena's grandparent's old house there were tents set up by traveling Peruvians who had come down for the festival days. They were all dressed in traditional dress and they were awesome. I seriously coveted the men's knit hats, but alas they did not have any for sale. We talked to one of the guys and asked if we could buy his, but he said no. He did say that he would bring some the next day and we could buy it for $10. I was pretty stoked about that since before we came to that agreement he pointed us to another tent that had slightly different traditional hats for sale with tassels and white beads sewn all over that were $80. They told us that they took 3 months to make and it was all done by hand but still. $80? What the freak?! The picture below is one of the hats I was in love with. Note the white buttons and sweet strings hanging down. Amazing.
In the plaza outside of the house by the outdoor tents they had these weird structure things set up that were wired with fireworks. It reminded me a little of Las Fallas in Valencia, but way way way way WAY smaller. We were all waiting around for a while for it to start and people were going up and taking pictures right next to the thing, so after a little bit our group decided that we should get a picture. So all of us, a bunch of white girls and our little Ecuadorian host family go up to get our picture taken, and right as we are smiling for the camera they set off the fireworks. We ran away. Very fast. Some of the girls were screaming. I think that everyone there thought we were amateurs, which, to be fair, I suppose we are. Here is the thing mid-fireworks explosion. It was very smoky.
Cortney and Libby and I went back to the fair this afternoon to get some things that they didn't have in stock yesterday, notably the Peruvian hat. We went to the tent where the guy was that said he would bring the hat for me, but he wasn't there and the lady who was there with him didn't know what we were talking about. So we wandered around and I saw another guy with an almost-equally sweet hat (basically it was identical except that it had less buttons and shorter hanging strings). I asked him if he sold hats like the one he was wearing and he took his off and offered it to me. I bought it for $17. That's right, I bought a Peruvian hat right off a guy's head. It completed me. Here I am posing with him. When I asked if I could take my picture with him he put on a different hat from the many they were selling—I kind of wanted it to be me with a hat and him without, but I respect his need for head covering. Plus, he sold me the hat off of his own head so he will always be a 10 in my book.

halloween

Today is halloween. They don't really celebrate it down here, so we had our own little celebration in the house. Nigel organized it and she did an awesome job! (I will simplify it as there were many steps and they are not really important to the main point of the whole story which is that my team won.)

We were split up into 3 teams and each team was given 2 random household props that we were instructed to incorporate into a costume. We were also given $5.35 which we needed to spend exactly to buy other things to make our costume. The first team home and in costume won! We had a plunger and a mini white christmas tree and we decided to do the Statue of Liberty. We ran down the street, bought a roll of tin foil and a notebook, then stopped at the corner store to buy one bag of chips, 4 orange creamcicles, and 2 small chocolates to reach our $5.35 requirement, then ran home. We were the first to arrive AND the first ones done with our costume. We taped the tree to the plunger, made a crown out of a styrofoam plate, covered it all in tinfoil, including a tin foil toga and wha-bam! Statue of Liberty in our dining room. (PS I am particularly proud of the crown as I made it.)

Even though this is the first halloween I think ever that I haven't dressed up, I still had a really good time. Best. Activity. Ever.

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 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.

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.

food and friends

Every day after our afternoon shift while walking from one orphanage to another to get picked up by the bus we pass this lady who has one of those little food stands where she sells salchipapas, aka french fries with a little sausage on top (salchichas=sausages, papas=potatoes). To top it all off there is the choice of mayonaise, salsa de tomate (ketchup), and/or special sauce. Every Monday and Wednesday (ok, maybe not EVERY Monday and Wednesday, but fairly often) Chelsea and I buy some: they are only 50 cents! I usually ask for them without the sausage because it's a little sketchy but sometimes she gives it to me anyway. And I eat it. Salchipapas, con o sin salchica, makes my day every time.

Another thing that made my day today was when I went to the orphanage with the kids who are 2-5 years old. They like to chant their favorite volunteers' names like, "May-gan. Megan!" and they get really angry at you if you are not that volunteer whose name they are chanting slash if that volunteer will not be there that day. Whenever I go I always have to remind them of my name because they can't remember it. It's pretty awesome. In a not way. BUT today when I walked over to get the other volunteers to leave for dinner the kids saw me and started chanting, "Caaa-si. Cassi!" I didn't even have to prompt them! It was amazing.