The finca

Sunday the "youth" went to go pick guavas (at least that's how I think it's spelled!) at Tannya's parents' finca.  A finca is what they call any land you own outside of town that stuff is grown on. :)  Basically a farm, I guess, although most people don't live on theirs.  I'd gone with Tannya and her husband, Iván, the weekend before and we had fun walking all around, eating a bunch of different fruits; guavas, caimitas, lemons, and I think a few others, but I don't remember their names!  They were all yummy and pretty ripe, so they invited a bunch of friends from church to go Sunday and hang out, eating fruit.  Sounds pretty boring, but it was hilarious!!!! :)  We all crammed into the back of Tannya's dad's truck to for the 10 minute ride to the finca where the entertainment started.  Her dad has it fixed up amazingly, my reaction the first time I saw it, was that it looked like Paradise, or the Garden of Eden!

The truck couldn't make it all the way to the guava trees, so we walked for a bit and got to them.  A couple of the guys had found hooks attached to looooooooong poles and brought them with us.  They started trying to pull the guavas down, from the ground.  A couple others had a different technique.  They started climbing up into the tree.  The guava trees didn't have very large limbs and the guavas were all really high up in the air, but nobody fell out, so that's good, I suppose! :)  Meanwhile, most of us were just hanging out, on the ground, watching them and picking up the guavas that fell, to eat.  One of the guys, Petete, starting a running commentary similar to the commentaries on nature channels.  It was hilarious!!  Unfortunately we didn't start taking video until after he'd mostly stopped, and I don't know how to put video on here. :)  Oh well, I'll just have to show people when I visit. :)

We also went swimming and hung out some more, then went home and changed, because we were all full of bug bites (I stopped counting after 20 on 1 leg!!!!)

Carnaval

Nope, it doesn't mean one of those school carnivals that we used to have when we were little (or was my school the only one that did that?).  Carnaval is Ecuador's take on Mardi Gras, the party before Lent starts.  I'd never celebrated it before, since Oregon's not one of the major Catholic states!  All I knew was that it was the beginning of Lent, but I didn't know anything more.  I'd heard bits and pieces here and there, people saying, oh just wait until Carnaval or that's something we do at Carnaval, but I didn't know what it was really about.  Little by little I started to figure it out and by the time it came around, I knew that it involved tossing water on people and getting everyone wet.  It sounded like the perfect kids' holiday, especially in a tropical country, where it's warm-hot year round! :)

So Carnaval weekend was coming up and I still didn't know what it was about, other than lots of water.  It was one of our 4 day weekends so I was looking forward to being lazy at home and catching up on sleep. :)  Saturday I managed to do that, then Sunday came and about a block away from my apartment, the owners of the building saw me walking to church and offered me a ride.  I accepted, I didn't really feel like walking 14 blocks, since I knew that I'd end up walking home, too. :)  They invited me to eat iampacos with them after church, so afterwards I hung out at their apartment most of the afternoon, then headed downstairs to clean.  I didn't get a picture, but this is me eating an iampaco a couple years ago, along with a close up of one. :)

During church Mayra, a friend of mine and close neighbor, had asked what I was doing Monday and Tuesday.  I told her that I had no plans and she invited me to hang out with her family for Carnaval.  So Tuesday I hung out with her family most of the day.  The original plan was to go hang out at the river, I think, but since it was raining most of the day (I joked that God was playing Carnaval, too), we stayed at their house.  I really enjoyed getting to know my neighbors some more. :)  They only live a block away from me and both Mayra and her older brother Byron go to the same church that I do.

Impressions
So, going into Carnaval I thought it was a day or two where people played with water.  After Carnaval I realized that I was partially correct. :)  It's a weekend, but starts about a week or so before and lasts for a couple weeks.  In houses it meant that kids were constantly filling up squirt guns and water, but they weren't confined to use within the house or yard. :)  Since most of the houses here have a flat roof that's used like a patio, kids (and adults) would stand on the roof, or on the balcony of the house and launch balloons at pedestrians, cars, whatever happened to be under them!  But that wasn't the extent of it!  I was sitting in my living room when I heard a truck pass by along with a lot of laughter.  I looked out the window and saw a large truck filled with people in the back.  That's not that odd of a sight here, an empty truck will often stop and pick people up on the side of the road.  What struck me was that every single person in the back was soaking wet and had buckets of water and glasses that they were using to throw water on people as they drove the streets!  Definitely a fun holiday and I almost wish I were a kid here to have huge water fights!  It reminded me of a family get together about 10 years ago and nearly everyone from my generation running around.

Emanuel Anniversary

So, this week is Emanuel's 10th anniversary as a school and we're celebrating it!  Down here, it appears, that all the schools celebrate their anniversary of when they were founded or approved or something like that, I'm not quite sure.  But this year it's more of a big deal, since it's the 10th anniversary.  Yesterday started the festivities with a whole school chapel.  They even bussed the preschoolers and kindergarteners over from their building.  Chapel was awesome!!  It was hilarious to watch the little kids, who don't get chapel on a weekly basis, jumping up and down and singing the songs.  They even somehow managed to convince some older kids to come out and jump with them! :)  I got pictures and video (although I can't figure out how to put video on here, if anyone knows, let me know!), but unfortunately my asthma was acting up, so I wasn't able to participate and enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Today was the open house at the preschool/kindergarten building and we had a lot of fun. :)  The preschoolers were in groups, rotating with their parents through different activities to show their parents the types of things they do at school, while the kindergarteners were all in their rooms, doing presentations.  English was out in the back patio and I had a cd player and some books.  I played songs and had them dance for their parents.  It was hilarious to watch how the different groups reacted to the songs! :)  Some groups were practically glued to their mom's legs and wouldn't move or do anything, while other groups were singing and dancing with no inhibitions!  When they got tired of that, I had them look for colors in the books, something that we've sort of done in class.  They were really cute, but unfortunately  my camera was in the other building so I didn't get any pictures!  With the kindergarteners, I had them sing a song and name animals, which they did quite well.  I was so proud of all of my kids today!!! :)

Now I have to focus on the older kids, who have their open house on Friday.  I'll be extremely surprised if I end up having a voice after Friday!  I just have 2 classes at the main building, 2nd and 3rd grade, but I'm also helping the chemistry/biology teacher with his presentation, since he wants to do it bilingually, but doesn't speak English. :)  He chose one of the high schoolers who's good at English and she's going to do all the English speaking, but I've had to help her translate and practice pronunciation.  It's been fun to work with her and get to know some of the high schoolers better.  It should be an interesting week, this week!! :)

Staff Retreat

So life has been a little crazy this past month, I had planned on blogging about the staff retreat, but haven't had time. :)  Oh well, it's never too late, I suppose! So, since my internet's r e a l l y   s l o w, I won't put more pictures on here, just links, otherwise I'd never get anything else done today!!  Oh, and the picture above is of the active volcano that wasn't too far away from us. :)  Close enough that we could see the lava spewing up, at night and hear the thunder of its rumblings, but far enough away that we couldn't get any pictures of the lava or actually feel the earthquakes, or probably get hit with the lava.  On the way home we saw how smart and prepared they were, they'd dug canyons out, for the lava to flow through, so that it wouldn't destroy everything.  There never was any lava in them, not enough came out of the volcano, so it never reached the roads, but still was an interesting thought. :)  (oh, and mom, I purposely didn't tell you, until after we got back, about the volcano) ;)

The speaker's topic was serving God, but I think I learned more about community and supporting others (which does fall under the topic of serving God, but usually is its own). :)  Right before the retreat had started, I found out that my sister, who was almost 9 months pregnant, had viral meningitis.  This was hard news for me to hear, for a number of reasons:  she's my baby sister, her baby is the first niece/nephew born in my family, and I was too far away to be able to call and find out what was going on.  The cafeteria had wireless and I'd brought my computer, intending to use it to download pictures and video, so that I didn't have to worry about filling up my memory card on the camera.  The first time I took my computer to the cafeteria during free time I got some weird looks, but when I explained what I was doing and why, everyone said that they'd pray.  That was the beginning of being able to live out what a church community should look like, when someone is hurting!  Throughout the day people who'd heard what was going on continued to ask me about my sister and nephew and say that they were praying.  Then the 3rd night we were there, I asked to share with everyone, since most people knew about it, I thought it would be easier than updating one person at a time.  After than, many continued to ask me how they were doing and to pray for them.  This has continued to this day (nearly 2 weeks after my nephew was born, yay!!!) and has been a tremendous support to me.  For the most part it's not THAT hard to be far away from my family, I talk to my mom most days and can talk to my brother-in-law and one of my sisters every day, as well, so I do have communication with people, but I realize, when stuff like this happens, that I REALLY am far away from my family.  But I wasn't far away from family, because I had my friends here, supporting me and praying for me and my family, acting as family. :)

Then of course, there were the pranks that we all pulled. :)  There were about 8 males and 20 some females on the trip. :)  Shoes were stolen from us, clothes taken from them, water tossed on numerous people, faces painted, nearly all happening late at night.  It was great!!  At first the guys were all united and winning, pulling better pranks, but then us females, at first in little groups scattered all over, but then working as one team, were able to overcome the initial advantage the guys had and recover our shoes, etc. :)  Unfortunately, we were all sworn to secrecy, so as not to reveal details of what happened, suffice it to say, we had fun!  And, if you choose to moralize it :) we because a community and worked as a team.

And for those who have gone on a retreat/road trip with me, I DID make cookies, a double batch, that barely made it to the campground. :)  I think there were 5 left or so, by the time we got there!!  Of course, the fact that the driver was driving slow enough that we wanted to get out and push, might have had something to do with it. :)

Anyways, here's some pictures from Facebook (I have tons more, but they're not for public consumption, just those who participated in the retreat! :) )  Staff Retreat album.  And here's the workshop pictures, from when I helped my roommate Diana :)  Theater (don't say I didn't warn you about me looking odd!)

And now, I'm off to color some more :)  I love teaching little kids!!!  (I'm actually working, I suppose, making Adjective Bingo cards)

Acting

Diana, my roommate, is the school psychologist and as such, in charge of leading a workshop for each class.  She knew that I liked to act, so she asked me to help her and act out telling a story.  She chose the book You Are Mine by Max Lucado.  I love his kids books, they have such an amazing message and gorgeous illustrations! :)  She wanted me to dress up like a life-size rag doll.  I was trying to come up with where on earth I'd find clothes that would work for that, as it's hard enough to find clothes that fit me (I'm a little taller than most Ecuadorian women), much less a style that would work for a doll.  So, I decided that I'd make it!  At first I was going to make a dress, but the fabric store didn't have enough fabric, so I thought a skirt might work, along with a t-shirt that I already had.  We figured I also needed a wig, so I bought bright pink yarn.  I thought that if I was going to dress up, I'd have fun with it!  I didn't get the fabric until a couple days before we were going to do the workshop, so I took the fabric to school and sewed the skirt by hand (nevermind the fact that this is the first article of clothing that I've ever made!).  It was hilarious to see people's reactions to me sewing!!!  Apparently, girls from the States aren't supposed to know how to sew or cook or anything like that, so for me to know how to sew and sew by hand was a shock to nearly everyone! 

Then came time for the performance.  The book is about a bunch of wooden puppets who get into a competition to collect the most boxes and balls.  It then escalates into seeing who can get the highest, with the most boxes and balls.  I told the kids that I was a puppet from the same village and had a story to tell them about a friend of mine, the main character in the book.  At the end, he accidentally ends up in the house of Eli, the carpenter, who created all of the puppets.  I love how it ends, with the words that Eli uses, being the same that God uses to remind us that our stuff isn't worth anything, without him. 

The kids' reactions were hilarious!  When the first came in, I was hidden, so they couldn't see me, and then, after Diana introduced me, I came out and started telling the story.  They all knew me as the English teacher, as we've only gone to 2 classes, so far, that aren't my students, so they knew who I was and all started laughing as soon as I walked into their sight!  I suppose I looked a little bit different than they normally see me! :) It was fun to watch their faces while listening to the story and hear their questions and responses afterward.  I had so much fun, it'd been waaaaaaaay too long since I'd done any acting! :) (I'll put pictures up when I get back to Macas, I'm in the mountains right now for a staff retreat and the internet isn't wanting to upload pictures, there's some great ones :) even some of me in makeup!)

Christmas Eve

So Christmas Eve has been slightly different this year. :)  Normally I'll be running around making deserts for Christmas Day, and finishing up (read starting and then finishing) my shopping and wrapping and then going to church for the Christmas Eve service.  Now for this year...

First of all, I'm not in a part of the world where there are seasons, so my body waiting for it to get cold to tell me that it's getting close to Christmas didn't happen this year.  I can walk outside in a tee shirt and Monday was swimming in the river!  Yesterday I drove with the administrator and his wife to Cuenca to visit his family.  Since I have no family in Ecuador, they invited me to join them for Christmas.  It was very entertaining traveling with 2 little boys, a 5 year old and a 3 year old!  Of course they slept much of the way, but when they were awake, life was NOT boring. :)  I love hanging out with those two, so I had a lot of fun with them in the car.  Today, instead of running around shopping and baking, I went with their family to some Incan ruins about an hour from Cuenca, called Ingapirca.  I loved it there!!!  It was built a little bit before the Conquistadores came to Ecuador, right after the Incas conquered the people here in Cuenca.  Such a difference from Salem, where the oldest buildings were built in the late 1800s!  I took far more pictures than I needed to, but the countryside was soooo pretty and I loved the ruins that I kept taking pictures of things I saw, so I'll add as many pictures as I can and when I get back to Macas, I'll put more pictures on Facebook and link to it.  The first couple are of our drive to Cuenca and then after that from Ingapirca.

Christmas program

I realized anew, last night, how truly blessed I am to have the privilege of teaching at Emanuel.  Last night was the annual Christmas program, so very different from the Winter concerts schools I've taught at have had in the past.  For starters the theme was Dios al mundo amó (God so Loved the World), which coming from my experience in public schools in the States, as an incredible difference that we were now allowed to talk about God and the true reason we all celebrate Christmas, but the fact that it was an outreach to the community made it even more incredible, in my mind.  Every single child (well, at least those who showed up, which was nearly all of them) had a part in the program, from the little not-even-3yrs old preschoolers, all the way up to the teenagers.  Some kids danced, some sang, some acted, some recited and some played instruments, but all kids had a chance to do something in the program. The drama that the high schoolers put on was really good, especially considering they only had just over a month to practice for it.  It was entitled "The daughter of the king" and was about a king and queen who were celebrating the birth of a prince and in the process forgetting about their daughter.  The princess got jealous and decided to run away to show everyone that she shouldn't be forgotten.  She got kidnapped by some evil gang in the forest (Robin Hood and his men gone bad).  The king sent some soldiers to rescue her, but all except one were killed.  The king then decided to send the remaining soldier back to the gang, this time carrying the infant prince, in hopes that the gang would respect the new life and send the princess back.  The gang accidentally kill the baby prince, but as a result forget about the princess.  This allows her to escape back to her parents with her brother.  The last scene brings her home, weeping in shame for having caused the events that lead to the death of the newborn prince.  Her father, the king, says that was the baby's reason for being, to bring about peace in the kingdom, just like God sent His son to take our place in death, to bring peace on earth.  I enjoyed the message and thought that it was a different take on helping people understand the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, although I have to admit, I enjoyed the funny parts at the beginning more so. :)  Some of the high schoolers are already really good actors and it was fun to watch a different side of these kids that I see every day.

Random

Since I've been bad about writing on here, I've got all sorts of random stories and thoughts, so here's a few.

Beauty
Last week one of the vice-principals invited me to visit a little village over an hour from Macas, where she used to live, called Pablo IV. We got on the bus at 8am and I got a great view of the amazing countryside here. As we were driving along, it hit me that I'm extremely blessed to be surrounded by such beauty. Alongside the road are innumerable banana/plantain trees, tall trees that look like they could reach the sky, tall grasses, ferns of all shapes and sizes, and the amazing fruit plants that grow wild here. The diversity still astounds me and I can't get over it. I love seeing this one kind of plant, it looks like fan-shaped grass, with a tall stalk that divides itself and kind of falls over. It's so different from the plants back in the Willamette Valley that it fascinates me. The amazing part of all this is the weather. All of these plants were shining brightly under a deep blue sky, with the sun overhead. As we got closer to the village, we could see Sangay, the closest volcano to Macas, getting bigger and bigger. It's nearly a perfect triangle and when it's a clear day in Macas, everyone tries to take a picture of it, it's gorgeous, but this time I could see it without any effort at all!

Pablo IV
It was fun to be able to visit a small town/village and meet Maria's friends. I think what made the most impression on me, though, was the church we went to Saturday night. Pablo IV doesn't even have it's own Evangelical church, but there's one in a smaller community about 20 minutes outside the town. We weren't planning on going to church until the leader (too small to have a pastor) showed up in his truck to give us a ride. We bumped along on the dirt/rock road for 15-20 minutes, picking up some guys, along the side of the road, who wanted a ride in the back of the truck (very common here, since not too many people have cars, and a way for people to bless others). We got to the place where we were going to have the service and I realized that it was someone's house. We met in the living room, a tiny room with benches on 3 sides and a tv stand on the 4th. The 2 guys started setting up a microphone and sound system. I couldn't figure out why on earth they would want a sound system in such a small, cement-block room. Once the service started, I understood; they broadcast the service to the area, so that people can listen in, even if they're too scared or proud to attend in person, they can still learn from it. Maria introduced me as a missionary to the leader who then proceeded to ask if I would be able to share with the group. For those who've known me since high school/college, this is a very amusing request. I don't do well speaking in front of people anywhere near my age! However, I couldn't refuse, so I said that I could share my testimony. Before he invited me up front, he asked if I would be willing to share my name with them, so that they could put me on their prayer list. It was so very humbling to hear a small group of people from a little tiny village, in the jungles of Ecuador, pray for me, living in a relatively civilized city, with nearly all of the modern comforts of anywhere in the world! Throughout the night people kept showing up, until there was a grand total of about 14 in the room. As I was sitting there, I was reminded that this was how the entire church started, a small group of people meeting in a small room in someone's house. From that little beginning, God changed the world! It was a very different style of worship from what I was used to, much more Pentacostal, but I still felt extremely privileged to be allowed to be a part of it, even for just one night.

Students
People keep asking me how school is going and I tell them that it's going well. The truth is, I love all of my classes! Of course, some of them drive me more crazy than others, others are learning faster than others, but all are fun, in their own way. Unfortunately, I don't have too many pictures of the students because when I'm with them, I'm usually too busy teaching to take pictures, so I've been accused by April, my sister, that I'm just playing here, when in reality, the majority of my day is with my students! :) The 3 year old class continues to amaze me with how far they've come from the first day. Looking back at my lesson plans, the first week was "console crying 3 year olds". Now they can listen to a story in English, they've started singing along to Jesus Loves Me, they color (sometimes even in the lines) and can tell me a couple colors in English! The 4 year olds have really picked up on colors and family members and love The Wheels on the Bus, I think I'm going to try to incorporate that song into every theme. :) So far we've done school and family members, we'll see what else I can tie into it! My first grade classes are always entertaining, but they've gotten to the point in understanding English where I don't have to give any part of the instructions for the activity in Spanish anymore! I just demonstrate while saying the English directions and then ask what they're supposed to do and they know it! :) The second graders are my most challenging class, it's the largest class and the one with the most new students to the school (well, aside from the preschool), so several of the kids are still figuring out what school's for and how to behave in a classroom. But even with all of that, they're learning the alphabet and vocabulary and also continue to amaze me with what they remember. The third graders are probably my most fun class, aside from the 3 year olds, because they're learning to read in English and so can do much more than the others. Class isn't all about pictures, but words, too (and I love words!). For the Christmas program, the 2nd and 3rd graders are going to sing Away in the Manger, in English, so we've been working on learning the words in those 2 classes. The first time I sang it with them, I wrote the words on the board, drawing pictures for some of the words, so that they would have an idea of what the song was about. Before I even finished writing the first line, I heard about half the class trying to read the words aloud and doing a decent job of it! Today, a bunch of the third graders said the song was too hard to learn and I told them that I was planning on having the words printed up for them to read while singing. The relief on their faces was hilarious! I love that I can use the written word to help them understand what we're doing. :)

That's all that I can think of at the moment, although I know I have more stories, they just aren't coming to mind, so I'll link to some pictures from Facebook for people to look at from Thanksgiving and my trip to Cuenca with Ivonne. :)
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129523&id=517974210&l=105d7b7d35

Cuenca

One of my good friends, in Macas, invited me to go to Cuenca with her and her husband for the weekend. I had been wanting to go, so that I could buy a modem for my computer, the only way to have internet at home, since the waiting list for a home phone is several years long. I was able to get the modem Saturday (how I'm able to post, since I'm still in Cuenca and on my own laptop!) and then today, Sunday was for playing. :) Ivonne's brother had gotten tickets for Cuenca's soccer game, finals against Quito, so we all went along. Unfortunately, we got to the stadium too late to get seats, but were able to find a spot along the fence, so we were able to see the game pretty well. I enjoyed my first ever soccer game. I'd seen games on TV before, rather inevitable in Latin America, but never in person. The game is much more entertaining in person, although, I still enjoy watching the other people's reactions about as much as I enjoy the game itself. Then, we went and watched a movie in the theater, a rarity, since Macas doesn't have a movie theater. And tonight I go back to my little town on the edge of the jungle. :) I love visiting Cuenca, it's an amazing city, with Incan ruins, buildings hundreds of years old and thousands or millions of red roofs and adobe walls all over, but it's too big for me to live in. For living in a place, I much prefer a smaller town, like Macas. Well, I was going to post pictures, but for some reason it won't let me right now, so once again, I'm without pictures! Hopefully soon.

Rain Forest

Life has, as always, been entertaining here in Macas. About 3 weeks ago, we started having blackouts, when all the electricity would be shut off in town. Last week it was more frequent and this week it's happened every day. Now, the question isn't IF the electricity will go off, but WHEN. The entire county is in the same boat, with rolling blackouts by city in each province. The problem is that nearly all of Ecuador's electricity is produced from 1 or 2 hydroelectric dams. That doesn't sound so bad when thinking about all the rain forest in Ecuador, but the dams are actually in the mountains, which is suffering a tremendous drought (think the levels of the Santiam going into Detroit Lake in the winter and you have an idea of what it looks like directly behind the main hydroelectric dam). Even here, on the edge of the Amazonian rain forest, we've been having unusually warm, dry weather. Everyone keeps telling me that the weather isn't normal, that usually it's colder and rains every day. This last Sunday was the first time it was cool and rained in probably several weeks. So far, this week, the weather's been cooler and rainy (I even had my fleece on this morning!) :) Please pray that it keeps up, that it keeps raining and starts raining in the mountains!!! Any Oregonian who wishes to send the rain away, I know where it can go. :)

It's been rather entertaining, though, when the lights go out. The other night the electricity was out from 7pm-11pm so my roommate and I lit a few candles and sat around and talked in the dark until after we normally go to bed! It's also an adventure to get any work done when the electricity's cut in the afternoon, since my office is also the library and in what is essentially like a basement room, with only a little window in the back of the room next door. Since the walls only go half way up in the back, it allows a little light in, so I'll sit in the back and work or go upstairs, hauling everything upstairs and the down again. From what I understand, this will continue for another couple months, and hopefully by then, the rains will be back and there'll be enough water in the rivers to produce more electricity!