The Great Fall

So today I want to talk to you guys about the Fall.. The Great Fall.
Not the fall of Man... no, we won't be going into that today.. today we are going to talk about the Fall of Woman... and more specifically, me.

As I'm sure many of you know, I had a great fall a few weeks back. Call me Humpty Dumpty if you like. But allow me let me explain.

Being... well... being me, I absolutely love to play outside -- especially kids games! -- which is the reason I have worked as a camp counselor over the last few summers... and also the reason that I tore my ACL a few years back. WELL... a few weeks ago, I had this brilliant idea of playing Capture the Flag with a bunch of the seminary students, study abroad students, and missionary kids who live on campus. It was a fantastic idea if I do say so myself. We rarely have an event or activity that we can do with all of the seminary students that is cheap enough or close enough for a lot of people to come. So I felt like this was a great opportunity.

So here was the plan:
Everyone was invited. Everyone should wear black, and everyone should be ready to run. We meet outside, and everyone should be ready to go.

When the night came, I explained the basic rules with the help of some of the missionary kids. We had to bright bandanas, and we were ready to start! We split the sides pretty much in half of the campus, so it was a pretty large playing field. Remember that our campus is set on a massive hill, which changed the game a bit. Oh yes.... let me also mention that we decided to play at 9 p.m. So we played in the dark... another one of my great ideas.

We finally began, and it was a great start. Since it was dark and there were lots of buildings, we were able to sneak around to the opposite sides without running too much. It was all going well, until.....

I had a hunch that I had found the general area of the flag, so I headed down the hill behind the chapel. But as I sneaked, I heard people chasing after me! I turned around to find about three or four people on my tail! I ran through the grass and decided to leap over a mini garden between the grass and cement back toward my side. However, when I jumped it was so completely dark that I was unable to see a two foot  fence that stood between the cement and garden... so to my surprise, my feet caught mid-air, and I fell very hard (chin first on the cement). The pain was unbelievable. My friend Nancho ran over to see if I was ok, and immediately cupped my chin to stop the blood flow...
A bunch of people crowded around, and eventually they slowly walked me inside to the bathroom. As we walked, someone asked Nancho to remove his hand, so they could see my chin. When he moved his hand, blood streamed all down his arms and on the ground... This is when I really started to cry, because I saw the gasps and horrified reactions of all my friends. They laid me down on the floor in the bathroom, and one of my friends, Jeremías, held my hand to comfort me. It was then that I realized that my hand was in a lot of pain as well. Nancho had ran down to the nurse's house to ask her to come look. So within another few minutes, they brought me back to the front of campus. She looked at it and immediately told me I would need stitches.
Jana, Kyle (staff members), Ms. Carolyn (the nurse), and I left to go to the hospital and get my chin taken care of. Miss Carolyn took us to the nearest clinic, since it was an emergency. We got out of the car, and I saw a tiny little clinic on the side of the road that looked no more than a hotdog shop. We entered a very small waiting room, where about six other people were waiting to be treated. Thankfully, they saw that I was bleeding and let me go first. I walked in the back, but for some reason they wouldn't let Miss Carolyn, Jana, or Kyle come back with me...

So I'm in a small somewhat shabby care clinic in Ecuador with nurses speaking in Spanish, and without any of the study abroad staff to help me communicate. I understood everything the nurse said as she cleaned my chin and brought me to another room to get stitches. But after she gave me the anesthesia in my chin and pulled out the needle to start stitching, Miss Carolyn (our nurse) pushed past the receptionist and burst in the room with ice for my hand. She explained that she needed to be with me, and began to ask questions to the nurse about everything she was doing. Apparently, the nurse was planning to stitch me up while the doctor sat in the room and did paperwork. Thankfully, Miss Carolyn had the sense to tell them we would go to a different hospital in hopes of a better doctor. She was very nice about it and told them that since my hand was hurting, we wanted to get an x-ray, which that clinic didn't provide.

So we headed back out to the car, and I was so thankful that we left, because I didn't exactly trust the nurse with my face. The hospital that we drove to was extremely nice, even for the States, which gave me more confidence. They got me in almost immediately, and the doctor spoke English! He looked at my chin and said it was extremely deep and he would rather have the plastic surgeon come in to stitch it up. WHAT A RELIEF! That could have been ugly...

In the mean time, as we waited for the plastic surgeon, another doctor came in to look at my hand. He said it was fine, but he would get the x-ray to confirm. So off I went for x-rays.... and when we returned,  the plastic surgeon had arrived soon after. Apparently he had performed surgeries for Miss Carolyn's husband after a few accidents, so she knew him fairly well! He was incredibly nice, but unlike the other doctors, he didn't speak English. That was not a problem at all, because I understood him easily. So he placed a cape over my face with a small hole over my chin, so he could focus on that. He cleaned it again and gave me more anesthesia. Then he investigated the hole to see just how deep it went... Apparently he could see the bone in my chin! So he started to tap it with his tool, which didn't hurt but was uncomfortable, so I asked him to stop. Eventually he finished stitching it up and bandaged it for me. About this time, the other doctor came in to tell me the results of my x-ray. I had a fracture in my hand/wrist.. The bone I fractured was a very important bone that takes a long time to heal due its lack of blood flow. :( I was told they would give me a cast to wear for two months, and I will have to do a small amount of therapy after. Thankfully, Kyle remembered that we would be leaving for the Galápagos Islands in roughly two months and asked if they could remove the cast before the trip. The doctor was extremely hesitant, saying that usually he would insist on 3 months in the cast. But when he realized it would only be three or four days early, he agreed, saying I would have to be careful. I was overjoyed!!

As I thought about it more, I realized that it really could have been much worse. We had recently traveled to the jungle, and I would have missed out on a lot of fun had I fractured it before. I also could have done it a week later, which would have ruined my trip to the Galápagos! It could have been my right hand instead of my left.. or it could have been my whole arm!! The plastic surgeon told me that I was very close to fracturing my chin, which would have required much more surgery and caused a lot more pain.

Overall, it was another opportunity in which I saw God's hand at work in my life. He has provided me with yet another challenge to choose joy in a rough situation. But I am thankful to Him that it is nothing worse. And I am thankful that He is able to teach me throughout every circumstance. And now I have a piece of artwork on my arm with signatures to remind me that I am blessed with a lot of people who love me! :)

I recently got my stitches out of my chin, which is hardly noticeable now. The issue now is that I feel a wad of scar tissue, which apparently no one else can notice but is noticeable to me. haha! So not to worry, I will hopefully be coming home to you all in one piece. :)
Thank you all for your prayers. God is definitely taking care of me and the rest of the girls here.

High five! :)   (More recently, my Spanish professor wrote High Five in Spanish underneath, so it says "Dame Cinco!")

So I survived! Woo! High five!!! ;)

Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair

Carnaval: A Week Long Water Fight

In case some of you haven't heard of Carnaval before.. Allow me to explain..
The week that Lent starts is also the week of a continental holiday throughout all of Latinoamérica.. known as Carnaval. This holiday is best known in Brazil for their wild parties, parades, and costumes. If you have seen Rio (the animated movie with the little blue bird), you'll understand on a small scale. While Brazil is the most extreme of the Carnavals, each country celebrates in its own special way. In Ecuador, there are two days designated to use "espuma" (basically foam/silly string) and water in a huge fight with your friends, neighbors, and strangers. This practice used to be aimed at the women of Ecuador as a show of male dominance, but in recent years it has developed to become a "friendly" water fight! Although the use of water is now illegal in public settings (with strangers), many people flock to beaches to continue the fun! While only two days are designated as Carnaval, you will begin to see foam and water balloons up to two weeks in advance! Mostly over-anxious kids are the ones to start early.. but at the seminary, we had to be EXTREMELY careful the week leading up to Carnaval.

In fact.. a few seminary students threatened me with water and foam, warning me to watch my back -- over a week early! I certainly did watch my back. I carried around my laptop as a shield, knowing that no one would attack when I had expensive electronics in hand.. (yes, I knew that as a fact. I was not compromising the safety of my computer) ... so one day, I decided to start the Carnaval fun for myself....
One night when Lady and I were talking, we could hear that there were a lot of girls in the next room being very noisy. I decided that Lady and I should attack. :) So Lady knocked on the door, and I ran in with espuma and sprayed EVERYONE! Then we ran back to our room as fast as we could and locked the door! The girls spent the next half hour to an hour doing everything they could to convince us to open the door.. they failed... mwhahaha.
and so.... I made a point of staying inside and locking my door at every possible moment the rest of the week.

Well the weekend before Carnaval actually arrived... all of the Americans decided to emerge from the safety of our rooms and face the unknown..... Saturday came... as did the Alpha (church) picnic on campus. I came ready for battle. I knew I would be attacked, since I attacked them a few nights before. (Some of us had bought cans of espuma in case we were attacked, and we wore clothes that would dry easily.) When Taylor and I walked up to the picnic, we saw some friends and greeted them as we walked passed. Little did we know, they were ready to attak us! They whipped around and sprayed us with foam until we were blue and pink all over! We did what we could to fight them off, but it was too late and we were not armed with enough espuma...

The rest of the afternoon turned into a water/espuma fight on the field with everyone. It was a complete blast. :)
And that wasn't even the worst of Carnaval... The American girls all thought that we had experienced all that Carnaval had to offer.. but boy were we wrong...

Sunday we were on our own and avoiding more festivities. We all stayed inside and worked on homework. (At least, I can't remember doing anything else... so we'll stick with that.) Monday we attended class as usual, while the seminary students got that day and the next day off, since they had just finished a block. I was a little worried on Monday, because the seminary students were attacking each other every once in awhile. But we all made it through safely.

Then came Tuesday... the seminary students still did not have class, and we attended class as usual. I decided to wear a t-shirt in case anyone decided to spray me to or from class. Usually, we get a ten minute break every day at 10 a.m. Our profesor told us that we would have a break at 10:30 that day, so we could have a meeting with Lucy, the director of the study abroad program. She also told us to leave our cell phones behind, so we would not be distracted. As the break approached, I was ready for a meeting, until my friend pointed out to me that all the facts pointed to us getting attacked. I finally connected the dots and realized the scheme. Our profesor played dumb about any possibility of an attack, but we knew better. So we decided to be ready for war! All the girls removed their jackets, socks, and shoes and brought their full water bottles with the intentions of surprising them with an attack too!

We all sneaked in a group to the corner, and started to cross the stairs that connect our building to the the office building.... when all of a sudden, we were all completely soaked from head to foot!!!! WHAT?! I had no idea what just happened.. When I finally realized that I was wet, I looked up to see seminary students on the roof with buckets and buckets full of water! They popped out from behind the walls with foam and more water to further attack us!

This was when I realized they were on the roof.. The poor little water bottle didn't do much.

We were COMPLETELY soaked!

I have never been so wet in clothes.

The war had begun.

We all ran back to our rooms, leaving small lakes on our floors as we found better clothes to play in. We spent the next two or three hours playing outside with the seminary students, the missionary kids, and whoever else we encountered! We used hoses, buckets, bowls, foam, and anything else we could find and attacked each other all day.
Allow me to share some of the wisdom I gained from this experience.

Carnaval for Dummies:
Rule #1: Do not trust anyone. -- Apparently God doesn't mind if you lie during Carnaval.
Rule #2: Always be aware of your surroundings. -- Surprise attacks are common.
Rule #3: Don't lose your bucket.-- It will be your end.
Rule #4: Watch out for hoses while running... -- Yes, I fell pretty hard on the cement and got a nice big scrape. Did I continue playing after? Why, yes, of course I did. :)
Rule #5: Lock your doors always. -- You will be attacked if you don't.
Rule #6: Get wet and dirty, and enjoy it! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

That evening, everyone had finished playing... except me. :)
María - the most competitive and sneakiest seminary student involved in Carnaval -- asked me many times if I could play volleyball that night. Although I could, I did not want her to plan a surprise attack against me... So I planned one against them! I spent almost an hour filling up water balloons with one of the seminary students, and put them all in bags so I could carry them up and attack everyone as they played! I decided to ask the other Americans, but none of them were up for playing more..
So I talked to Jana, our "R.A." while we are here, and she was up for the challenge! Wearing all black, we sneaked up to the gym and bombarded them with water balloons! I got my friend Kaths, who had not been attacked by anyone at all yet! But unfortunately, my balloons kept exploding on me... so I got it worse than anyone... haha, I know. Serves me right.

When we mopped up the floor, we ended up playing volleyball! So all in all, it was a fantastic day. The next day I felt much better, since no one had the right to attack me with water any more..

What a sigh of relief! We survived Carnaval! :) And it was a BLAST!




Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair

The Last 3 Weeks...

Good intentions do not always produce good results..
For example, I created this blog with the good intentions of writing in it every few days. Unfortunately, this goal has not been actualized. I intend to change my ways and begin to write more often.

And now, I am about to disclose as much as I can remember from the last month... hang tight.

The last time I wrote a full blog entry, I told everyone about the first time we went to an indigenous market in Otavalo. That was a fantastic trip! Since then, we have done a lot of things...
Every Monday we have a ministry class, which we used to plan two different ministries. Since the first few weeks, we have gone to a "dump," where we played with the kids whose parents work there. We taught them Spanish Christian songs and performed a play for them of Jesus' birth. I, played the part of the donkey, which was quite entertaining.

A happy little family

Well, all that to say, we had a blast. :)

The next week we switched it up and went to a nursing home in Ecuador to spend time with some of the old people there. That was the most intimidating thing I've had to do yet in Ecuador.. Allow me to explain.. In Ecuador, the culture is extremely different in their family values. Although it may be somewhat common in the States for people to live in a nursing home, it is absolutely not acceptable here. The "Ecuadorian dream" is to have a house with your family, and when your children get married, you would build another floor into your house for that family to live. This dream is not commonly accomplished, but the ideal behind it remains the same. Generally, the family sticks together as much as possible. The people who end up in nursing homes generally feel extremely unloved and abandoned by their family. Others might be slightly delusional or difficult to care for, which gives reason for their presence in the nursing home. With that said, we arrived at the nursing home with no idea of what to expect and no real plan.. 

The people were all sitting silently outside under an awning when we approached, so we all found a seat near someone and began to do our best to make conversation. I sat down next to a couple who sat silently next to one another. But a small old lady was staggering about, seemingly looking for a seat. So I jumped up to pull up a chair for her.... Instead, she pulled down her pants in the middle of everyone and started to pee! That was the right way to start off the day.. My friend Brianna and I were somewhat shocked. An attendant ran over to help her and clean up the mess she left on the ground.... SO... I decided to move seats.... The next lady who I sat next to did not seem extremely up for conversation, so I probed as much as possible without being extremely annoying.. When I asked her how many children she had, she said, "enough." So I laughed and asked how many grandchildren she had; she said, five. So again, I asked how many children she had and she replied "enough." I had a hunch that she had either forgotten how many children she had or she did not want to talk about them, so I let the topic drop! What else can you do? We made conversation about music and whatever else came to mind, and then the girls grouped up and decided to attempt a skit like we had in the dump with the kids. Becca read from a children's Bible, as we did our best to act out the stories. One sweet old lady sat in the front and said "Amen" the entire time we performed. She was adorable! After the skit, the same old lady talked to me for about 30 minutes about how God had changed her life and how wonderful it was to have his joy! It was such a beautiful testimony in such a sad place. She asked me about 20 times if my family had accepted Christ, and she told me her life story multiple times. Precious. Although I came into that ministry extremely intimidated, I left really blessed. 

We have done plenty of other things outside of ministry. There are a couple of missionary families on our seminary's campus, so we have visited them a few times and used their kitchens to cook! Miss Carolyn let us come over to make salsa and guacamole -- yummmm. It's funny because there are certain foods like tacos and guacamole that we consider "Mexican" in the States, but in Ecuador they consider them American! Too funny! They also have an extremely warped view of salad here in Ecuador.. They eat any cooked vegetable (topped with cilantro - always) and that is their salad. But, thank the Lord for Miss Carolyn, who comes into the "comedor" (cafeteria) once a week with a table of real salad (American style) for everyone to enjoy! :)  On weekends, we often cook for ourselves in a house or staff's apartment, or we go to the mall to buy American food... The malls here are nicer than a lot of the malls in the States! Pretty much every time we go, we get Pizza Hut or KFC. Sooo, I'm not feeling all that healthy as of late. Especially when we travel on academic outings, we always get fried chicken or some sort of greasy food. So I'm working on the exercise thing. ;)

For one academic outing, we went to the top of the mountain (the one that I can see from my dorm window) and took a "telefético"/cable car up to the top and walked around, and then back down. There was a group of latinos who were extremely excited to see all of us gringos together... so they asked us for a picture! Too funny. Then we continued up to the top and took a bunch of ridiculous pictures in the grass on the mountain. It was REALLY cold up there, considering that I had been sweating at the seminary. It was also rather cloudy, and we decided that we were inside a few clouds at some point! The grass was covering up some huge holes in the ground, which (you can imagine) ended in tragedy for me. I completely wiped out... typical Kristin! :) 

Another academic outing we have taken was to "Colonial Quito" - where we took a couple of tours through a church covered in GOLD! And we also took a tour of a museum of Ecuador/Quito. The lady was extremely nice at this museum, and we all loved her. (Funny story.. we take the bus everywhere... and about two weeks after this outing, we were on the bus, and Emily Grace spotted our tour guide lady on the sidewalk and pointed her out to me as the bus was stopping. So of course, I caught her eye and waved! I have no clue whether or not she remembered me, but she waved back! :)) 

Hmm.. what more? Well I recently got back from the jungle! No.. I don't live in the jungle, contrary to popular belief. I live in the mountains at 9,500 feet elevation-- the jungle is a completely different part of Ecuador. And we travelled for a week to go see it! Let's start at the beginning... 

On Thursday night, all of the girls were packing our bags like crazy, with no idea of what to expect. We knew we would be climbing a mountain, so we would need warm clothes... We also knew we would go swimming and hike through the jungle, so we would need shorts and sandals.. The packing thing was quite a mess, but I managed to jam-pack my bags with everything I could fit for every type of weather! The next morning, we packed up the sprinter -- with more people than usual. Lucy, the NILI coordinator, and her husband, Salomón, were going to come with us! Lucy gave birth to her son, David, two months ago, and he was joining us for the trip as well! Sooo... with 7 NILI's, Lucy, Salomón, their baby, Kyle, Jana, Jen, and another pastor joining us for the ride.... 14 in total... we packed up and piled into the Sprinter... shown below.

the Beloved Sprinter

The first day of travel was not the best, with very little room to move or sleep. Our first stop was an ice cream pit stop near Rio Bamba. We were told that the ice cream was delicious with lots of options for flavors... so I decided to go with the most extreme flavor and see how it was.. Since I have developed an extreme love for avocado on this trip, I bought avocado ice cream. It was DELICIOUS!

Yummm. Avocado!

We continued on the road and finally made it to Rio Bamba, where we said goodbye to the pastor and continued to the hostal. The hostal was sooo nice! It had a chicken and rooster walking around, some cats and dogs (pets of the owners), some canaries in a cage, a beautiful garden and Frank Sinatra music playing outside! It was magical. :) We then went to an indigenous market to buy fruit. It was the biggest market I have ever seen! It was all outside, and there were THOUSANDS of fruit. Two large structures were set up: one contained the market with fruits from the sierra and jungle, while the other contained all of the foods brought from the costal regions. It was incredible, and the fruit was delicious!

That night the girls and I had a fun night complete with a dance party and girl talk!  The next morning we woke up EXTREMELY early to make breakfast before the great hike up Chimborazo. The climb was incredible. It was extremely cloudy and cold as we hiked, and it was extremely difficult to breathe at times. Kyle and Salomón both intended to climb with us, but both felt sick, so they both returned to the Sprinter to wait for us. We had decided the night before that we would sing "the Climb" by Miley Cyrus as we climbed.. it proved nearly impossible with the lack of oxygen, but we did our best. We even attempted to translate it into Spanish! We made it to the second refuge, and all of us made it together!!! :) I was so proud, because one of the girls has asthma- and yet, ALL of us made it! I felt so accomplished. When we got to the refuge, we came upon a huge group of indigenous people who had gathered to pray and share food. It was such a beautiful sight! They welcomed us to their group, and we ate my favorite snack -- tostado! (It's almost like partially popped popcorn.. but the corn dries out your mouth and it's all salty... everyone else hates it, but I love it!) This was the beautiful sight we came upon... 

The sight was just amazing. I don't know that we will ever experience anything else like it. They began to pray together too, which made it even more breath taking. We had brought candies to eat as we climbed, and we had more than enough to share. After they allowed us to partake in their food, we began to hand out sweets to whoever wanted them. They were all very thankful, even though most of them spoke "Quechua" - the indigenous language. It was a fantastic experience. 

A really fun fact about Chimborazo is that it is the closest point on the earth to the sun! It just so happened that the same day that we climbed Chimborazo was my friend Emily's 21st birthday! So before we headed up the mountain, we surprised her with a cake, (which we ate that evening). :) Very fun. 

That day, we went to another town and visited a museum, where we saw an extremely old mummy and some other cool artifacts from Ecuador, one of which was one of the few remaining original copies of Don Quixote! We walked around the town and found some fun little shops. It is interesting to see how each town is different in the country. I love comparing similarities and differences as we visit new places. That night we went out to a church and participated in their youth group church service. There weren't that many people there, so they all tried to learn our names. We played a fun game in which there were two teams, each in a line... each person had a long stick in their mouth, and one ring. The ring had to be passed from one side of the line to the other before the other team finished -- without using hands! Lots of fun! :) I'll probably use that one again.

That night, unfortunately, I had some EXTREMELY bad stomach pains and could not sleep more than three hours.. I kept my roommates up most of the night too. :( I ended up getting sick, but that didn't seem to help either... I took a bunch of stomach medicine, and eventually in the morning I felt well enough to attend church again. It ended up lasting on and off throughout the week, but by the end of the week I was all better!

Since I can't exactly remember the order of my days... here are some foods we ate while in Rio Bamba.. some fried chicken, blood soup -- a specialty here.... they had us try it before they told us what it was.. apparently it's goat blood. So yea... and the afternoon that we climbed Chimborazo, we experienced "pig." We went to the market, in which there is a large room completely filled with booths of women selling their pig. Every woman is wearing the same pink outfit, and each are serving exactly the same meal of pig, potatoes and salad. When you walk in, they all start beckoning you over to their booth, and they rip off pieces of pig for you to try as you make your decision! 

Ok, so moving on... we left Rio Bamba on Sunday, leaving Lucy and the baby with Lucy's family. Salomón came with us and we ventured to Shell. In case any of you haven't seen End of the Spear or read Through the Gates of Splendor, Shell is well-known for its story of Jim Elliot and Nate Saint, who were missionaries to the Huaorani tribe. In the 1950s, the Huaorani had been completely untouched by outside world, living completely off the land and using their rituals. They were an extremely violent tribe, constantly in war with others. Essentially, any homicide resulted in a chain reaction of many more homicides as retribution. In fact, 70-80% of adult deaths in the Huaorani tribe were homicides! In the 1950s, a group of determined American missionaries, including Jim Elliot and Nate Saint, made the first contact with these people. They flew overhead and dropped goods down in baskets, eventually making a face to face interaction. Neither understood the other's language, but the contact was nonetheless friendly. Unfortunately, a clan from the Huaorani's came and murdered all of the American missionaries. Amazingly enough, years earlier, a girl from the tribe had escaped and was adopted by the Gringo's and befriended by the same missionaries who were murdered. When the young Huaorani woman heard of the murders, she accompanied the wives of the missionaries as they went to live with the tribe who had just murdered their husbands. They preached the gospel to the tribe, and eventually they were saved! The entire lifestyle of the tribe was transformed by the love of the Lord! (Read the book. I'm going to!) 

Dui is the little old guy in his skibbies!

Any way.... we travelled one day to visit the same tribe that had murdered those missionaries.. and I was able to meet Dui. Dui is an old man who was actually one of the murderers from the tribe. His life has been transformed, and I don't believe I have ever seen a more joyful little old man. I bought some really cool things from them, including a hand woven purse and a couple of bracelets. Many of the older people in the tribe didn't speak any Spanish.. they still only speak their indigenous language, but the younger people helped translate as we talked to them. Such a cool experience! To actually get to the tribe, which was about four hours into the jungle, we had to take a 30 minute plane ride in a tiny little plane, just like the missionaries originally did!

On Monday, when we travelled to the Huaorani tribe, we also went to a monkey refuge! They had taken in a bunch of injured or endangered monkeys to care for in the jungle! Some of them were pretty big, as in, bigger than a medium sized dog.. others were smaller. We also found a bunch of other weird animals.. like a badger-type animal and a sea otter? One monkey had been bred in captivity and was rescued by this refuge, but his development was severely damaged... so he can't use his arms at all. :( He was found sleeping with a dog outside. When we first pulled up the Sprinter, we opened the door to find a bunch of monkeys approaching the car! One jumped in and wouldn't come out!!!  After a few minutes of prompting, he left, but not before he stole a bag of chips from my friend's bag! Crazy monkeys....

Also while in the jungle, we visited multiple waterfalls! They were amazing! :) I am astounded at God's splendor with every new piece of His creation that I see here. It's truly incredible. 

The best waterfall we visited was a whole day journey. We drove to pick up our guide one morning and some long rubber boots for everyone. Then we continued into the jungle, where we took a canoe ride on a tributary to the Amazon River  into the jungle to find a waterfall!!! When we got there, we had a long hike ahead of us! On the way, our guide stopped us and covered us in mud that he found. Apparently, the mud is extremely expensive in Europe, because it cleanses all your pours! But here, it's free! When we got to the waterfall, we all went swimming! :) It was a blast. On the way back, he showed us a bunch of plants and explained their uses to us. It's amazing how God makes plants for every purpose. We even chewed on a leave that freshens your breath! He also used a "paint" plant to paint my face! haha When we got back to the sprinter, we had lunch waiting for us at a small restaurant there. We ate fish (like, still with skin, tails, and eyes)... rice, and salad. It was delicious! After lunch, we headed out to another indigenous Quechua tribe. This is one of those tribes which is made up solely of a family and their children, grandchildren, etc.. It was really neat to see how they live! It was an awesome day!!!

The next day, we went white water rafting!!! It was a blast. I wish there was more rough water, but we still had a great time, and it was quite a work out! 

All in all, we had an amazing trip.. the hostal in Shell was beautiful, and we could not have had a better time! I am probably forgetting a million things, but this is too long to keep going.. 

If you wanna know more details, ask! Otherwise, hopefully I'll write again soon!!! 

Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair

Opportunities

It is incredible that I have been in Ecuador for over two weeks now. On one hand, it feels like I've been here forever, and I am really missing my family and friends.. But on the other hand, it is insane that after years of talking about going to Ecuador, I am finally here. It has hit me a couple of times recently that the time is going to fly by, even though right now it feels like it is lasting forever. With this time warp in mind, I have decided that I really want to take advantage of my time and opportunities here. I have so many opportunities to grow in my faith in Christ, because I am being tested and stretched on a daily basis. I also have a lot of opportunities to grow in my Spanish fluency, because I am surrounded by Latin Americans who can help me improve my Spanish if I choose to spend time with them. When I first decided to come here, I thought that I would grow in both of these areas whether or not I made the effort. It seemed inevitable. However, now that I have lived here for two weeks, I have realized that all I have are many opportunities. And the definition of an opportunity is simply this: a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. It is possible to grow in Christ, just as it is possible to grow in my Spanish fluency. But, it is also possible to have a bad attitude and develop bad habits of gossip, irritability, and selfishness, just as it is possible to spend more time speaking English with my American friends than speaking Spanish with the natives. I could easily waste this entire opportunity that God has given me. But I pray that I don't. And I hope you will be praying the same for me while I am here.

I will write more of an update later, but for now, thank you for your prayers! :)

Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair

Flooded Pants, the Language of Bartering, and Dirt Roads.

The title of this blog will make sense after you have read this entry in its entirety. To say the least, this weekend was enlightening in many aspects. If you hope to read it all in one sitting, I suggest you clear your schedule, make a cup of coffee, and find a cozy chair. You are in for quite a ride.

Our weekend began on Thursday afternoon when classes ended. A few of the girls and I took a short trip to Carcelén, the nearby city, where I bought a couple of Disney DVD's for verrry cheap (The Lion King, Mulan, and The Emperor's New Groove- a dollar a piece! If you know me, this should not be a surprise.) Then the girls and I spent our afternoon getting some of our homework done and later watched Rio & The Emperor's New Groove. :)

On Friday morning, we all decided to wake up late (skip breakfast at 7) so we could "sleep in" (til 7) and pack our bags before our big trip to Otavalo!
--Just to fill you in... Otavalo is a city roughly an hour to two hours from where we are staying in Quito in the sierra (mountainous region of Ecuador). Otavalo is best known for its large indigenous market that claims the title of the largest indigenous market in South America! I was informed by our study abroad directors that they expected us to spend a lot of money there and encouraged us to bring as much as we were willing to spend, or else we would regret it later... So with that in mind, let us continue. --

We were advised to take medicine if we have a tendency of getting car sick. Although I have had a few situations where I experienced this, I truly believed that "mind over matter" would work, and that I would not have any problems if I kept myself busy talking to my friends. To my surprise, within half an hour of driving through the winding mountainous roads, I became extremely nauseas. The girl next to me was also feeling sick, and she had the courage to announce it to the driver; whereas, I did not. Thanks to her, they pulled the car over, and I was able to get some fresh air and take some medicine. I also moved further forward in the sprinter (our little caravan that we drive everywhere), which gave me the opportunity to pretend I was driving, keeping me from getting sick any further. Although these things helped a lot, the ultimate solution to my problem was found in a small shop on the side of the road... It didn't look like much at first, since the shop was tiny and not very clean. But when the worker handed me the complimentary cup of sweetened Ecuadorian coffee and a biscocho (bread biscuit), I felt knew that I was finally cured of my car sickness. The coffee was delicious, and the biscochos were too, especially dipped in coffee! We finished the rest of the trip with ease, as each of us were energized by our fresh dose of caffeine. :)

As we neared our hostal in Otavalo, we detoured through some of the cities surrounding Otavalo. Each of them contain one specific trade that they all specialize in, such as leather or wood. We stopped at "Wood Town" first, where we found a main square and a plethora of shops that contained wood carvings (lots of crosses, naked people, and Don Quixote's). Next we went to Leather Town, where we found lots of shoes, purses, leather jackets, and other leathered goods. I bought a black belt for four dollars! (You will not find that kind of pricing in the States--- especially since the lady adjusted it to fit me perfectly!) We then made a quick trip to Cuicocha....

Cuicocha (kucha = lake) is a 3 km (2 mi) wide caldera and crater lake at the foot of Cotacachi Volcano in the Cordillera Occidental of the Ecuadorian Andes. (-Wikipedia) 


It is essentially a volcano that imploded, and now contains a large crater at the top, which has filled with water and become a lake. The only wild life that is found in the lake is grass and ducks. The ducks dive under the water to eat the grass that grows there. There are also mountainous islands that are in the middle that used to be used for hiking trails and tours. Now this location is a national park and cannot be toured except by boat. 


Before we boarded our boat, some Ecuadorians saw us and began taking pictures with the "gringas!" It was funny to see how fascinated they were by us! Then we finally went on the boat to see the beautiful scenery! We had a great time, until the second half.....when it started to rain... Allow me to say, that in the mountains, the rain is COLD! So we froze just a little bit. When we got back, they gave us a "cider," which I am pretty sure was a cinnamon tea. It was fairly good, but it surprised us when we first sipped it!

Then we then headed to the hostal in downtown Otavalo! It was fantastic! We walked in, and the middle of the hostal was outside, so they had beautiful plants and hammocks in the center with rooms surrounding it. We were told that we had a few hours to do whatever we wanted, so (since Taylor and I shared a room) we put all of our stuff down and went out with Emily Grace and Maranda to the market to take a tour before the market was fully set up on Saturday. I ended up buying a decorative blanket and coat made from llama wool. It is fantastic! We got a lot of discounts because of the insane downpour that was occurring while we walked around! They were actually packing up the smaller market for the day as we walked around, and many were poking the tops of their tents to unleash the pools of water that had built up during the storm. We did a great job of navigating around the mini waterfalls, until the very end... when a man poked his tent right as Maranda walked under it! She was soaked! Although we felt terrible, it was still somewhat funny to see... :) We all laughed about it later. But that entire evening was a very cold one. I learned the idea behind "flood pants.." Because of the day at the market on Friday, the only pair of jeans that I brought for the weekend was flooded... I had to peel the wet, cold pants off that night in order to attempt to dry them for Saturday morning. Thankfully, I had warm, dry sweat pants to wear.. My friend forgot to bring any sweatpants, so she had a cold evening.... haha :(

We all went to bed extremely early Friday night, so we would be ready for our big day of shopping! And let me tell you, that was a brilliant decision....

The next morning, we woke up and ate breakfast as a group, which was provided for by the hostal. I had a chocolate pancake with fruit and café con leche. It was delicious. Taylor loved the coffee so much that she accepted everyone's offers and took five cups of coffee. It was after they placed them all on the table that she realized how much coffee she had! We had a good laugh at that. :)

Then we went to the market.. The market we had visited the day before had been expanded to stretch across every side street within two blocks of the main market square. The tents were linings the streets and sidewalks, so there was scarcely room to walk! They had everything from clothes to purses to bags to food to jewelry to blankets and more! I wish I would describe it to you, but it was just too magnificent to understand unless you experienced it. I will be posting photos soon. :) I bought a ton of warm clothes, because yes... it gets VERY COLD HERE! (Don't be too jealous!) The weather in the mountains is extremely strange. I bought a bunch of souvenirs for family and friends as well! I had a very successful day at the market, where I learned the language of bartering. It was difficult at first, but with time we all became experts. There were many times when we would state a price and walk away if they would not go that low.. but they would usually call us back. :) We grew so much in our Spanish and our bartering during that day in the market.

After our day of shopping, we went to a Chinese restaurant in town for dinner, but it seemed like we walked in on a family dinner! A cute little girl brought us to our table with our menu's, calling us "gringitas" the whole time. When we ordered the food, she continued to walk into the room and climb on our chairs the whole meal. Taylor took pictures with her, but the girl then took her camera and wouldn't give it back! We all eventually got frustrated with her, except Taylor.. lol

After dinner, we went back to the room and played cards by the outdoor fire place! It was a great evening of relaxation, competition, and good conversation. :)

Today we went to a small church in Otavalo, and it was a great service. The message was about Peter and how he was saved by Christ in the sea, but then denied Christ three times. The people there were really welcoming and sweet, and I really enjoyed the service, even though the church consisted of about 30 people total!

We left right after church to return to the seminary, and on our way, we found a huge traffic jam! We ended up turning around and taking some dirt roads through the mountains to get to the other side. There were some huge busses doing the same thing, so there were a few moments where I thought we weren't going to make it! But we prayed before leaving, and God was faithful in keeping us safe all the way back to the seminary!

Praise the Lord! Nowwwww.. onto homework.... wooot!

Thanks for reading! Love you all!


Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair

A Novel.

I am finally sitting down to write an account of what I have done thus far in Ecuador!

Let's start at the beginning.... Well, the first day was just travel, and it was exhausting. We had a very long day.. I left at 6:30 in the morning and arrived at the seminary at 1:00 a.m! But, allow me to say, that the day of travel has already been worth it. Unfortunately, the first night, I had to sneak into my room while my new Latina roommate was sleeping. I felt terrible, because I had to turn on the light to find my tooth brush and clothes to sleep in! But the next morning I was able to meet her for the first time, and she was so sweet!

My roommate is named "Lady," although I think she spells it "Leidy." She is from Bogotá en Colombia. She is so sweet, and I have loved getting to know her, although we both seem to be busy at different times. This weekend I went to class with her and her "novio" (boyfriend), and it was great. She is a new seminary student from Colombia, so we are both adjusting to life at the seminary and in Ecuador in general. We are both Elementary Education majors! So we are similar in our temperaments and personalities. :) She has asked me to teach her English, and we have made a tiny bit of progress.. she knows the words "wall" and "light." (We're getting there... we have a few months. ;)) I have had only some problems in communication with her, because her Colombian accent is different than what I have become accustomed to in my classes. But I am very happy to be her roommate.

In general, we are living in Quito, near a small city called Carcelén, and we walk there almost every day for Pan y Pan! (The bread shop in town... they sell empanadas con queso -- bread with cheese and sugar. They are delicious.) Because the city is downhill from our school, we justify our daily submissions to our cravings by telling ourselves that we are exercising as we walk there and back. It's true... but it is also a terrible habit that we have developed.
The actual city is very busy and dirty. Apparently graffiti is not illegal here, so you see it on every building and public wall. There are also stray dogs everywhere, and they are all injured or dirty or hungry.. It breaks my heart every time I see one. :(
The people here are definitely interested by all of the "gringas" that are walking their streets! But no one has bothered us. It's great, because one of the NILI's (girls from our study abroad program) is returning from last semester, and she knows EVERYTHING there is to know about Ecuador. She is also more fluent than all of us, and she knows almost everyone in the seminary. She has been a huge help in helping us learn new terms and the lifestyle in Quito in general!

The first few days after we arrived, we had orientation to help us as we began to learn the many differences between the U.S. and Ecuador. Por ejemplo:
-When you are walking by a table in the "comedor" (cafeteria) when people are eating, you say "buen provecho" (basically wishing them a good meal).
-You also cannot throw toilet paper in the toilet... their toilets won't decompose it... soooo, you put it in the garbage. TMI? Probably. But that's life.
-We sign out with a guard every time we leave the seminary campus. There's a wall around the seminary that protects us.
-We are not allowed to speak in English when a Latin is present.. because it is rude, which I totally understand. But it's hard! I have been thinking and dreaming in Spanish!!!
-We cannot drink water unless it is bottled... this is the case for the whole semester. Thankfully, everything is very cheap here.
-It rains all the time. And it gets really hot at certain times of the day too. But people only ever wear pants/jeans. Shorts are very "American." Sigh.
-Apparently, if you "invite" anyone to eat with you outside of the cafeteria, they assume you are paying for them. You have to be VERY clear that you are going with or without them and that you simply would enjoy their company.
-It's rude to leave food on your plate in the cafeteria. You should always offer your leftovers to the people around you. And usually they will take it!

There are many more cultural differences that I cannot remember at the moment. But I will definitely tell you in the future.

On Saturday, we went to the "Mitad del Mundo" -- AKA: the actual Equator!!! It's only about 20 minutes from our campus! We took a bunch of pictures and had a great time walking around the tourist area. While we were eating lunch, a bunch of llamas walked by us! Not something you see everyday in the States. It was pretty "chevere" (cool)! They also eat GUINEA PIG as a specialty here! Apparently, we will be eating that as well when we go to the Galápagos...

On Sunday I attended church with my roommate and her boyfriend. It was great! I especially love the Latin culture for their church services. Every person is so genuine, and the message was fantastic. After church we walked to a restaurant in town and ate lunch together. It was a lot of fun. I tried to explain to them the differences between the cultures here and in the States. They were extremely interested, and I was able to teach them some more English terms! (I should get an ESL certification for this. ;)) That night, we had a roommate party with all of the NILI's and our roommates. It was great! We ate and played games. It was definitely a bonding time for all of us.

My NILI friends and I went back to town in the afternoon on Sunday to buy some balloons and cards for our friend, Dena, because it was her birthday on Monday! Allow me to fill you in.. my friend Dena does not have much Spanish experience. For the first few days she only spoke in English. So on her birthday, we wrote out a bunch of well-wishes for her birthday in both English and Spanish, so she could learn how to say some things! haha So on Monday morning before breakfast at 7 a.m., my friends and I taped a bunch of cards to her door and then carried some balloons over to throw at her. We knocked on the door, and when she answered we threw 20 balloons at her. Unfortunately, we were unaware that she has a phobia of balloons... so she screamed for longer than we anticipated... However, she eventually came to terms with the idea of balloons for her birthday and appreciated the gesture. :) That evening we went to a mall near "Gringolandia"-- the expensive part of town. It was just like a mall at home, and it was actually a relief to be in a place that was as familiar as that. We brought a bunch of seminary students and the NILI's, and together we got food and celebrated Dena's birthday. It was a great day. Unfortunately, I sat in the sun for three hours without sun block on Monday and burned my face.... I was surprised since I don't usually burn. But it makes sense since we are at a 9,000 foot elevation! All that to say, my face is red in all the pictures. haha!

We also started classes on Monday. We are on a block schedule, so we only take one or two classes at a time for a month and then move on to another class. I was placed in the Intermediate Spanish class with most of the girls (everyone besides Dena). We already have a large amount of homework, but it is not difficult to complete. I love my professor. She had us do a debate today about whether or not aliens exist. I was on the "pro-alien" side, and it was funny to see how intense everyone got. She definitely forces us to be involved in class, which is fantastic!

I won't bore you with more details. But I love all of the people here. I have become very close with a girl from George Fox Univeristy. We hit it off from the start, and we have become "compañeras de compartir" -- we always share everything. We were assigned to share a cell phone during the semester, which works out well, since we have spent most of our time together. We also share our empanadas, soap, and whatever else we happen to buy while we are here. Everyone here is fantastic though, and we have had so much fun getting to know each other already. I love all the seminary students too, and some of them are already great friends to me!

Sorry for the long update, but I had a lot to say. I will try to write more often, so I can write less each time. :)

P.S. If you read all of this, you are a saint. haha! 







Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair

Anticipations... Pre-Ecuador

I decided that it would be a great idea to start my blog with a collection of my thoughts before I leave so that I might compare my pre-Ecuador fears to my actual experiences. :)

As for the actual plans and documents required for the study abroad, I am thankful to be done with the acquisition of signatures and paperwork! My visa came through, and I have all the necessary documents to travel. AMEN! That was a nightmare to say the least....

Now I'm realizing that the acquisition of documents is not that great a feat... the real challenge of studying abroad is the packing....

 ...The thought of packing for an entire semester in two suitcases is extremely daunting. I have had repeated nightmares in which I leave behind everything at home and have absolutely no way of returning home to get it. (Talk about waking up in cold sweats.) I have no faith that I will have room to bring all the shoes, clothes, toiletries, etc. needed, and I am even more doubtful that I will have room to bring a single gift/token home at the end of it all. (So don't go getting any ideas.) In actuality, I am sure I will leave a large amount of t-shirts, towels, etc. behind in order to make room for all the souvenirs and gifts. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.. the first challenge will be to just get down there with everything... and at the moment, this is a legitimate fear... Hopefully in a week and a half I will be laughing at my packing skills and not crying about forgetting something important.

My mom graciously bought me a Kindle for Christmas (which was extremely tactful on her part, since I am a complete "ratón de biblioteca" -- the Spanish term for bookworm, literally meaning "library mouse"). This was a smart decision simply for the fact that I will no longer be packing one suitcase full of books. (I think she realizes the value of suitcase space more than I do.) Since I got my Kindle, I have bought two dozen classic novels for under five dollars (now, that's a deal!) and countless other books that I am itching to read! I have started to consider renaming my blog "the recluse with yellow hair who always has her nose in a book," since that might be the name they give me in Ecuador now...
  However, I am hoping that once I get into a group of new, Spanish-speaking people, my social side will win out. (I'd like to make a few friends if possible.)

Should I be worried about the Spanish part of this study abroad? Yes.. Am I? ...Probably not enough. I should be studying my Spanish a lot before I leave, but I was so burnt out from my last semester that I am spending all my time with family, friends, or books. Spanish is getting the shaft until I need it to survive. (Procrastination at its finest.)

Speaking of survival... Coffee supply is another legitimate fear in Ecuador. Apparently they drink instant coffee down there... (that's not okay). I might be bringing a four-cup coffee maker, so I can survive the semester with as few headaches as possible. I would really appreciate your prayers on this one... Maybe God can cleanse me from my caffeine addiction? Or not..

Well, that's about all that I'm dealing with at the moment. I will be sure to include you on the packing process... that'll be a doozy.

So long for now!

Sincerely, The Girl with Yellow Hair