Getting Home

I often walk home from school (and yes, I'm still living 14 blocks from the school), but at times I'll catch the bus, depending on how much I'm taking home, when the bus comes by, etc.  If the bus doesn't come soon after I walk out of the school, I usually can walk home and be only a few blocks from the house before seeing the bus, so it doesn't really get me home much faster, which means the bus takes about 15-20 minutes to drive from the school to my house, mostly because traffic doesn't move all that fast on the streets here (unless you're in a taxi after 9pm and then you fly!) and because the bus stops A LOT to drop off and pick up people.  We have bus stops, but the bus will also pick you up and drop you off apart from the official stops, so there's a lot of stopping and starting.
So Friday I needed to bring home about the equivalent of a ream of paper along with my computer.  We're missing a teacher this week, so I had extra classes and extra papers to grade with less time to do it in, which means that I watched movies and graded most of yesterday!  I left about 5:15 or so, thinking to get home at 5:30, eat something and start grading some papers.  There were some high schoolers hanging out on the corner, after getting out of tutoring, and they were talking about a Pregón, the same type of parade where I dressed up as Shuar last year, but I didn't see anyone else hanging around the corner and ALL of the parades start out by the school, so I didn't think anything of it.  The bus came by within a couple minutes so I got on and sat down.  We started down the road and then, at the most annoying intersection in town, instead of going straight like normal, we turned left.  I looked to the right and there were police blocking the road, so no one could turn right and at the next block over had a ton of people.  I figured it was from the protest that I'd seen earlier that day, the taxi driver that took me back to school after lunch said that they were protesting for something to do with medicine, he didn't know and didn't have too high of an opinion of them, which I've found is pretty common.  Anyway, I just figured that it was the same protest and that they hadn't disbanded yet, which seemed a little odd to me, but not too much so.  So the bus went one block to the west from our normal route, but  then came to the end of that road and we had to go back to the main road, but there again it was blocked from going the normal route (the school's on Amazonas St and I live on Soasti St, one block to the east, with the bus route following Amazonas for a few blocks and then turning onto Soasti, but Soasti was all blocked) and Amazonas was blocked because they tearing up all the streets bit by bit to lay down new pipes for the city's water/sewer system and the street we were on, to the west of Amazonas ended at the bus station, so there was no way for us to continue.  So, the bus turned onto Amazonas heading back to the school and I started to get a little worried, but then the bus turned east, to the road on the other side of Soasti, which gave me hope.  Macas has 3 streets that go the entire length of Macas: Amazonas, Soasti and 24 de Mayo.  Amazonas and Soasti were blocked, but we were going to try 24 de Mayo.  However, we could only get as far as the main Catholic church, before it too was blocked!!  So the bus, again, turns back to the school and I asked the drivers if they weren't going to be able to get closer and they said that there was no way to continue on this side of the airport runway, but they would go down the other side of the runway.  So we go back by school, which is at one end of the runway (my house is about halfway-3/4 down the runway on the other end).  So the bus goes flying down the road with just one other passenger who gets off at the end of the runway, but the bus continues, without turning to go to the other side.  I ask the drivers if they would be able to get to La Loma (my neighborhood) and they said that the would on the other side of the loop, so I hung out on the bus.  We got to the end of the route, by the soccer stadium/track, leftover from the Ecuadorian version of the Olympics (province against province) and just waited.  I began to wonder when, if EVER I was going to get home and debating the benefit of getting off and finding a taxi, since I REALLY didn't want to walk with all that paper in my backpack!  Finally, though, the bus drivers got back on and started the bus up and headed down the road.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the bus headed down the east side of the runway, instead of the west (I live on the east)!  There was hope!! :)  At about 6:15 or so, I got off the bus, at my corner, ready to eat and rest. :)   Not my normal trip home from school, but definitely interesting. :)
It was nice to be able to see the country around here, instead of the usual cityscape.  The school's on the edge of town and I live on the edge of town, but between here and there, is all city, with a couple of empty lots where corn or bananas are grown, but not too much country, it's all houses, cement, cobblestones and telephone wires.  But the other side of the runway isn't developed like this side, it's the poor, newly settled area, so it's mostly wooden houses on large plots of land, with lots of ferns and tall grasses and trees.  So pretty!!  Even though I wanted to get home, I really did need that time in the country.  I don't get enough of that here, although, wherever I go i see almost completely unsettled mountains, so that does help. :)  Ahh, the capabilities of the country to relax me! :)

Shower

Yesterday was one of the secretaries at school's bridal shower.  Well, I suppose it was more of a couple's shower, since both came and the guests were of all ages and both genders.  It was a lot of fun!  I'd never been to an Ecuadorian shower before, so I had no idea what to expect.

It all started Friday afternoon when a couple from church stopped by the school.  The husband is one of the pastors at church and his wife taught the 3yr old preschool class last year at school.  They're also in charge of the Sunday School program, which the couple getting married is involved in.  They came in to give me and a few others the invitation to Patricia and Christian's shower the next day.  That isn't too uncommon, to be invited to something a few days or less before the event so I wasn't too surprised, just happy that I was invited.  It's such a privilege to live here and be a part of people's lives, to see an Ecuador that most North Americans don't get to.  Anyway, on the invitation was a suggestion of something to get them, so there wouldn't be duplicates and mine said disinfectant.  So, on my way home from school I stopped and bought some good stuff that also is supposed to scare away cockroaches and bugs, too.

The shower was supposed to start at 5, but I didn't get there until 10 after, or so and they hadn't started yet, so I didn't feel too bad getting there late. :)  About 5 minutes or so after I got there, we started.  Patricia and Christian, the couple whose shower it was, were upstairs, in another apartment, with the little kids, while Lucia and Klever, the couple throwing the shower told us a couple things before they came down.  Lucia said that one of the activities would be for Patricia to make Christian a salad and a cup of coffee, to show that she can take care of him, but that they were going to make sure the coffee had no sugar, without either of them knowing it, and that Christian would have to eat and drink it all with a smile on his face, to show that he wouldn't hurt Patricia's feelings.  At least, that's how I understood it. :)

They came downstairs and Lucia and Klever's son had a game for us to play.  We all got into a circle and held hands, except for 2, leaving a hole in the circle.  The 2 on either side of the hole had to grab hands, leave the circle, find someone else to fill the hole and go back to their spot, leaving another hole.  Then he was going to randomly start counting down from 10 and when he got to 0, the 2 on either side of the hole would have to pay penance.  It was hilarious!!  People forgot what they were supposed to do, so everyone else was yelling at them to run and find someone and every once in awhile it was 2 guys who had to grab hands, which inspired whistling and catcalls.   We played a few times and then they decided that we  had enough people who would have to pay penance.  The first 2 had to stand and be puppets while half the group went up, 1 at a time, and positioned them however they wanted. :)  The second pair had to dance like ducks, per majority vote of the group while the last pair had to dance a really silly kids song which ended with them stomping their feet, flapping their arms like wings and wiggling their backside like a duck or chicken or something!

Then they had Christian tell the story of how he and Patricia got together, while one lady kept warning the dads in the room to pay attention for when their daughters grow up!  It was probably one of the most amazing stories I've heard, it sounds like it's straight from a fairy tale.  He would come in to town to see her when she got off work, to walk her to the bus, half a block away.  He'd wait with her for the bus and then go back to the country, walking at least a foot away from each other, but that 5 minutes was worth it, to him, to go into town to see her. :)  This was all before they ever dated, then when he actually asked her to date him it was over the phone!  They had everyone laughing so hard!

After that was the traditional dress the bride and groom.  We got toilet paper and tape for her dress, while the guys got newspaper and tape for his tux.  I was amazed at everyone's creativity!  Patricia's dress reminded me of something from the early 1800s, like Pride and Prejudice or something similar.  Then they put toilet paper sashes on a couple of the high school girls and made them the bridesmaids.  Christian's costume was even better, though!  He looked like a cross between an ancient knight and a robot. :)  They even gave him tails in the back, and a pocket in front with a little flower sticking out of it.  They made a hat for him, but I wasn't quite sure what kind it was supposed to be.  At first I thought it was a bandanna, but then it looked a little like a VERY short chef's hat!  Then I saw that they were giving him facial hair.  At first it was just a Hitler mustache, but then that got removed and made into sideburns with a handlebar mustache and then one of the sideburns fell off, so he looked lopsided. :)  After they were all dressed they had a mock wedding ceremony full of jokes and more puppetry.  During the ceremony, a person stood behind each Patricia and Christian, pretending to be their hands.  It reminded me of the skit we used to do at Sonshine about morning routines, or something, where the person behind has to do everything the person in front is supposed to do, without looking.

Later Klever read some comments about matrimony that were supposed to be funny.  Most of them were, but there were a few where everybody just kind of looked at him confused.  The one I remember the best was something like: archeologists make the best husbands because the older you get, the more beautiful you look to him! :)


All in all, it was hilarious and a great time!  I loved the mix of ages, everyone from an 70 something retired missionary to 2 year olds were there, although the kids were mainly playing outside and upstairs, but those of us who were actually attending the party were a mix of a few high schoolers, some of us in our 20s, a few in their 30s and 40s and a few that had to be at least 70 or more!  It was great! :)

Clothing

Walking down the street also is great for people watching!  Some look as if they just came from the jungle, with big rubber boots all muddy, old baggy jeans for the guys and skirts for the ladies, carrying their babies in bright slings, barely holding them on, just tension and a big diaper!  Then after them come people dressed no different than you’d see anywhere in the States, jeans, t-shirt, shorts, etc.  Next to them could be a woman dressed up so much that she looks like she’s going to a fancy restaurant, but is really just getting home from work, wearing her uniform.  And then after that could be someone dressed in their traditional clothing, that hasn’t, as far as I know, changed for centuries.

The first time I saw an indigenous lady in traditional clothing I had the hardest time not staring.  Then the first time I saw an indigenous lady from a different village I again struggled with not staring.  The clothes seem so foreign and exotic at first.  But I soon realized that it's a normal every day thing for many to continue wearing traditional clothing all the time and not just at reenactments, like in the States.  Now, I've gotten used to it and can even tell, to some extent, what region the lady comes from, based on her clothes.  Most of the ladies in town, in traditional clothes, come from the areas around Riobamba and Ambato, in the highlands and wear long black or navy blue wraparound skirts with embroidery on the bottom.  The most amazing part of it though, is the belt they use.  It's a really long strip of brightly embroidered fabric that they just wrap around them a bunch of times, tuck in the end, and that holds up the skirt!  I was slightly shocked the first time I saw a younger lady, around my age, dressed in the traditional skirt with a t-shirt on top and zip-up sweatshirt!  The combination traditional and contemporary seemed odd at first, to me, but appears to be the way they've allowed themselves to "modernize" while still carrying on tradition.  But after seeing them, I was still taken aback when I saw a lady from Otavalo in town.  They're very easy to spot, since they always wear white, lacy embroidered shirts, with a double skirt underneath, at least that's what it appears. :)  It looks like it's a tan skirt underneath with a black one on top.

 I was beginning to think that all of the indigenous people from around Macas had completely assimilated, since the only ones I saw dressing traditionally were from the highlands, until I was getting ready to leave Macas the 2nd year I came down and was at the airport waiting for the plane to land.  The plane was hours late and I looked out the window at the airport, and saw a crowd gathering to meet the incoming plane.  That wasn’t the odd thing, though, but how some were dressed.  It was all men in suits, but over half had yellow and red feathered crowns on their head and were wearing long loops of what looked like beads, but I knew were seeds.  They were looped across their chest, crisscrossing their bodies.   Others just had the seeds.  My friend, who was with me, said that the feathered crowns were for the shamans or heads of the clan.  They were meeting some dignitary, which is why the plane was so late.

Walking

As I sat and looked out my window on a little corner of Paradise, I was trying to think of something to write, since it's been so long and I have so many stories, that at the time I want to share, but as the days go by and I have no time, I forget the details and they're not as interesting anymore.  And then along comes a guy pushing a cart and advertising his wares.  His voice is loud enough that it easily carries up to me, on the second floor, with my windows closed, but I can't understand what he  says.  I look at him and see that in his handcart are coconuts and that he's selling coconut juice.  And it reminds me of my walks home from school.  I don't usually see the handcarts near my house, since it's not a commercial area and they don't really do as good of a business here, but there's many downtown, on nearly every corner, actually.  It got me thinking, too, of the things here, that have become normal to me, but that are anything but in the States, or at least in Salem. :)  So I tried to think of all the things that I've seen here in the past week, when walking home, or taking the bus.

The cobblestone streets at first made me feel as if I were in Europe a hundred years ago, but then I looked up and saw the tangle of electrical wires and realized that I had to be at least in the 20th century. :)

Getting ready for a parade wouldn't be worth it if you couldn't string banners from the bucket of a front loader!

People are dressed in so many different ways, the styles are so much more varied than in the States!  But that's a whole 'nother blog post.

The next block I'll most likely see one or more of my students, yelling "Teacher!!!  Es mi profe!  Mire mami! (It's my teacher!  Look mom!)  Teacher, teacher, hola!!"  Sometimes they'll be walking along with their parents, other times hanging out on the front stoop of the store while waiting with their parents and other times with their head hanging out the car window as their family drives by.  But nearly every single time I'm outside, I see at least one student or parent of a student.

Then I see a flat bed truck with wooden sides and a wooden pole above, running down the middle, sometimes with a tarp over, sometimes not.  I never know what I'll see inside the trucks.  A cow or 2, a horse or 2, even a pig or goats.  But often the trucks will be full of people.  If a trucks empty, people will often pull it over and pay to take them somewhere, if they're going in the right direction.  I was surprised, last week, when I saw a particularly high truck with guys riding in it, well, not in, in, more straddling the sideboards, at least 2 stories off the ground, as if they were riding a giant horse!  Usually they're on the bed of the truck :) but this one must have been full, either that or they felt like being more adventurous than normal!

One day I was sitting on the bus when it pulled over to pick someone up, totally normal, but up walked a boy carrying a chicken.  Now this isn't really abnormal, but this chicken was alive and just tucked under the kid's arm like a football.  It was really hard not to laugh, what with everyone from the States asking me if the buses are anything like the infamous chicken buses of Mexico and Central America.  Up until then I'd seen many things get on the buses, both city and intracity buses, but never anything live, that wasn't human!  People often get on buses carrying huge buckets, sacks of grain, machetes, sugar cane, all sorts of things, but I'd not seen a live animal before!  Still haven't on the buses between cities, just the regular city buses, that really aren't all that different from Salem's city buses. :)




There are dogs all over the place, some confined behind fences, some allowed to roam free and some that are without owners.  A lot of times they band together, especially at night.  I'll often hear them after I'm in bed, all howling together.  So, at first I didn't think anything of the 2 dogs I saw on the sidewalk last Friday.  But then I looked closer.  There was a tan one and a black one, but the black one looked a little weird.  I'd already passed them, so I turned to look again.  No wonder he looked a little funny!  That was no fluffy tail, but a corkscrew pig's tail!  He was a little piglet about the size of a terrier and running around with the dog. :)  I guess he can eat the garbage from the garbage  pails as easily as the dogs do, but it still made me laugh to see.  Then of course, there's the millions of chickens, although not usually in the downtown area, but once you're not in the 3 or 4 blocks of  main downtown, most houses have them. Although, most families keep their chickens behind fences, every once in awhile, they'll be out on an insect hunt, in the streets or sidewalks.

On nearly every block you see someone with a little stand, either stationary or rolling, trying to sell something. Whether it's the man carrying 10 brooms all strapped onto his shoulder, the lady with balloons tied onto a really tall pole, a man with icecream on a platter with a cone stuck on top, the rolling carts selling orange juice, coconut juice or nuts, or the grills set up in front of a restaurant, doorway or just on a corner with fried plantains, grilled plantains, empanadas or meat on a stick, you can nearly find just about anything you want from these roving salesmen.  In fact, I think that might be the only way you can actually buy a book in Macas, aside from the school's bookstore and textbooks.

And that doesn't even take into consideration all of the little stores, each fairly specialized, that line the streets of Macas. :)

Fun and crazy times

It's been pretty busy these past few weeks, with summer school, then getting ready for the school year and now, the first week of classes, so I haven't had much time to do anything other than get home, eat and read a bit before going to sleep.  But here's a bit of what I've been up to. :)  The first one is my friend and I playing around with my hair, it's actually long enough to almost sit on, but we were goofing around and pretended it was short.  The 2nd is the adorable 5 day old son of one of the students at school.  She's made wonderful progress this year, in her attitude (so I hear, I didn't know her at the beginning) and is amazingly mature.  The last is one of my favorites, me riding!!!!  A friend of mine's brother-in-law owns this gorgeous horse and invited me to go riding last Sunday!!!!!  It's amazing how much I'd missed it. :)

Church

Today was quite the interesting day at church.  First of all, I left the house late and there wasn't any taxis for the first few blocks, but I finally saw one that was empty.  Normally it's not a big deal, but leaving the house late and then walking for 20-30 minutes tends to make one REALLY late for church. :)  When I got there there was a group from Canada, doing evangelism in Sucua, a town about 10-30 minutes from here (10 min if you drive your own car, 30 min by bus).  One of the men preached and it was as if I was back at Salem Alliance in my childhood.  We used to joke that the Canadians were taking over the church, since the head pastor, the worship pastor, their wives and all of the high school interns were from Canada. :)  Plus they're from 2 different Alliance churches in Canada, so it was cool to hear someone with a similar background, doesn't happen every day!  They even knew of Salem Alliance, I think, at least they appeared somewhat familiar with it when talking with them afterward.

At the end of  the service, the youth/worship pastor got up and made a few announcements, one of which to let everyone know that the Shuar Bible is now translated and at the end of the month there's going to be a big dedication service for it, in Macuma.  He invited everyone who wants to go to get together and form groups for traveling.  After the service was over, I was talking with a couple who are going with a group of Shuar to the dedication and invited me to go along.  I'd love to go!!!  The entertaining part is that there are only 2 ways to get to Macuma, the fast way and the slow way. :)  The fast way is by a 5 person plane.  The slow way is to take the bus for a couple hours and then walk 3 hours, they're no roads!  Lois, a retired missionary here, was telling us that part of the trail includes crossing rivers on logs and stuff like that.  I think it would be awesome!!  I just have to figure out if the timing will work out.  It's on a Saturday, but it's the Saturday in the middle of getting ready for the school year.  I think it would be absolutely amazing to be able to go! :)  To get to be at the ceremony dedicating the Bible in a new language.  I hope I can work it out.

Then after church, I went out to eat with a couple other "gringos" to a new restaurant.  It has the exact same name as another restaurant in town and serves the same type of foods, but the other place is still open, so I'm not sure what's up.  They're only a couple blocks apart, too, so I kinda doubt that it's a case of franchising or anything, but who knows.  What was really funny was when we got there it was semi full, mostly with Ecuadorians, but there was one table of what looked like gringo tourists.  That still throws me off, since I'm used to being the only blonde person around, it's almost as weird for me to see another blonde, as it is for the Ecuadorians!  I never did figure out if they were from the States or not, though, since I couldn't really hear them speaking, and when I did it was a Spanish with an accent, it wasn't Ecuadorian Spanish, but it didn't have the cadence of a native English speaker, either.  Then about 15 minutes later a group walked up, very obviously tourists, one girl even had an Ecuador guide book!  I'm not quite sure why she had the guide book, though, unless it was for useful phrases, because there's rarely anything on the Amazonian region in the guidebooks, and if there is, it's mostly full of things in the northern jungle, there'd be little to no information on Macas.  Hopefully she figured that out! :)  So, they walked in and were asking for chairs, so that they could all sit around the 1 table that was open.  Then the owner (I assume that's who it was, at least) walked out and had the other group of gringos move their table over (the 2 groups were next to each other).  I assumed they knew each other until I heard someone say, "but we don't know each other".  The guy told them that it didn't matter!  It was sooo hard not to laugh really loudly!! :)  The table next to us only had 1 guy and when he was done, the 2nd group moved over to his table, making me laugh even more.  Those poor people!  At least it provided  me with some amusement at lunch. :)  It was odd though, I think there were more gringos than Ecuadorians there, a first, I would imagine. :)  It's actually getting more common to see whiter people on the streets.  My first year down here, I don't think I saw anyone else, then the 2nd year I came, there were a few.  This year I've seen some, but not too many.  I don't usually see many gringos, unless I'm in Quito or Cuenca.  I probably would when I go to Guayaquil, but I don't hang out in the areas that they go to, so I don't think I have, other than the missionary family at the seminary.

I really need to do better at taking pictures, but I keep forgetting to pull out my camera in class, and I haven't done anything outside of class to take pictures of, maybe this week, I hope! :)

Church

Today was quite the interesting day at church.  First of all, I left the house late and there wasn't any taxis for the first few blocks, but I finally saw one that was empty.  Normally it's not a big deal, but leaving the house late and then walking for 20-30 minutes tends to make one REALLY late for church. :)  When I got there there was a group from Canada, doing evangelism in Sucua, a town about 10-30 minutes from here (10 min if you drive your own car, 30 min by bus).  One of the men preached and it was as if I was back at Salem Alliance in my childhood.  We used to joke that the Canadians were taking over the church, since the head pastor, the worship pastor, their wives and all of the high school interns were from Canada. :)  Plus they're from 2 different Alliance churches in Canada, so it was cool to hear someone with a similar background, doesn't happen every day!  They even knew of Salem Alliance, I think, at least they appeared somewhat familiar with it when talking with them afterward.

At the end of  the service, the youth/worship pastor got up and made a few announcements, one of which to let everyone know that the Shuar Bible is now translated and at the end of the month there's going to be a big dedication service for it, in Macuma.  He invited everyone who wants to go to get together and form groups for traveling.  After the service was over, I was talking with a couple who are going with a group of Shuar to the dedication and invited me to go along.  I'd love to go!!!  The entertaining part is that there are only 2 ways to get to Macuma, the fast way and the slow way. :)  The fast way is by a 5 person plane.  The slow way is to take the bus for a couple hours and then walk 3 hours, they're no roads!  Lois, a retired missionary here, was telling us that part of the trail includes crossing rivers on logs and stuff like that.  I think it would be awesome!!  I just have to figure out if the timing will work out.  It's on a Saturday, but it's the Saturday in the middle of getting ready for the school year.  I think it would be absolutely amazing to be able to go! :)  To get to be at the ceremony dedicating the Bible in a new language.  I hope I can work it out.

Then after church, I went out to eat with a couple other "gringos" to a new restaurant.  It has the exact same name as another restaurant in town and serves the same type of foods, but the other place is still open, so I'm not sure what's up.  They're only a couple blocks apart, too, so I kinda doubt that it's a case of franchising or anything, but who knows.  What was really funny was when we got there it was semi full, mostly with Ecuadorians, but there was one table of what looked like gringo tourists.  That still throws me off, since I'm used to being the only blonde person around, it's almost as weird for me to see another blonde, as it is for the Ecuadorians!  I never did figure out if they were from the States or not, though, since I couldn't really hear them speaking, and when I did it was a Spanish with an accent, it wasn't Ecuadorian Spanish, but it didn't have the cadence of a native English speaker, either.  Then about 15 minutes later a group walked up, very obviously tourists, one girl even had an Ecuador guide book!  I'm not quite sure why she had the guide book, though, unless it was for useful phrases, because there's rarely anything on the Amazonian region in the guidebooks, and if there is, it's mostly full of things in the northern jungle, there'd be little to no information on Macas.  Hopefully she figured that out! :)  So, they walked in and were asking for chairs, so that they could all sit around the 1 table that was open.  Then the owner (I assume that's who it was, at least) walked out and had the other group of gringos move their table over (the 2 groups were next to each other).  I assumed they knew each other until I heard someone say, "but we don't know each other".  The guy told them that it didn't matter!  It was sooo hard not to laugh really loudly!! :)  The table next to us only had 1 guy and when he was done, the 2nd group moved over to his table, making me laugh even more.  Those poor people!  At least it provided  me with some amusement at lunch. :)  It was odd though, I think there were more gringos than Ecuadorians there, a first, I would imagine. :)  It's actually getting more common to see whiter people on the streets.  My first year down here, I don't think I saw anyone else, then the 2nd year I came, there were a few.  This year I've seen some, but not too many.  I don't usually see many gringos, unless I'm in Quito or Cuenca.  I probably would when I go to Guayaquil, but I don't hang out in the areas that they go to, so I don't think I have, other than the missionary family at the seminary.

I really need to do better at taking pictures, but I keep forgetting to pull out my camera in class, and I haven't done anything outside of class to take pictures of, maybe this week, I hope! :)

Summer school

The first 2 times I came here, I taught the littlest kids' class and had a ton of fun with them, playing and teaching them English.  I loved it and it only helped to reinforce my love of teaching little kids.  So, then I move here and everything gets turned upside down! :)  I started out the year, like any other year, teaching the little kids, although older than I'd had in the States and really enjoyed it.  They were a ton of fun and apart from making me want to pull my hair out from their seeming lack of ability to sit still and listen :) they amazed  me with their ability to learn English from just 40 minutes 4 times a week.  Then, in the third trimester, the schedule changed and I added a class a week for the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th grades!!  It scared me, the idea of teaching junior high and high school, but it was surprisingly enjoyable.  I really appreciated being able to get to know the high schoolers better, they turned out to be really neat to hang out with. :)  Last spring when we were talking about this year's summer school plans, we realized that there weren't any groups coming down and that we wouldn't be able to do the normal Vacational Bible School/English classes like normal.  We were trying to figure out what we would do, if anything and decided to leveling classes to help the lower kids catch up.  Well, that wasn't really so necessary with the younger kids, so it turned out to only be the older kids, junior high and high school age.  Whenever I've been put with a class or group of kids, I've ALWAYS been assigned the youngest group.  Well, this year, I'm with the OLDEST kids, the teenagers who are sophomore/junior age. :)  Slight difference from years' past!!  I was looking forward to the class, only because I already knew who the students would be, having taught the majority during the last trimester of the school year.  I wasn't too sure, though, how well they'd do at learning English, since they're the ones during the school year to not try too hard in class, or do homework or really seem to care, for the most part.  They're sweet kids and fun to talk to, but never really seemed to take school all that seriously, so I had my doubts as to how they'd do with an accelerated English course.  In the 3 days that I've taught them, they've surpassed my expectations by far!!  The first day, at first, they didn't seem to know anything, or remember much from during the school year or the past, but after the first hour or 2, the light bulbs started clicking on and they were getting it! :)  It was an awesome feeling, to watch them figure out what I was teaching them.  One student even told the administrator that she finally understood English for the first time and today several of the girls were asking me why I couldn't teach them during the school year.  I told them that I was going to teach the little ones and so one girl asked me to treat her like I do the little kids, so I started goofing around with her, teasing her. :)  We all started laughing and thus ended recess.  I think what I enjoy the most about teaching them is that, we can joke around and have fun and they allow it, but are mature enough (for the most part!) to settle down when necessary and pay attention.  The younger kids aren't able to do that.  If I joke around with them, they take that as meaning that they don't have to take me seriously.  My goofing around with them comes in the form of coming up with educational games for them or doing things that throw them off, such as messing with the calendar and moving the dates around, that sort of thing.  I love doing it and it's a ton of fun, but I also really enjoy the way I'm able to relate to the teenagers.  It's been a lot of fun finding out about this other side of me! :)  Now, I just need to get pictures.
Here's some pictures I took while in Oregon. :)  Oregon visit and some that I took when I went to the jungle with the administrators of Emanuel trip to the selva

Reentry

It was hard to come back to Ecuador, for the first time ever, I find myself missing family and friends in the States!  Not that I didn't actually miss people before, but it wasn't much different than when I lived in a different area of the country from them, now I'm much more aware of them not being close by.  It's an odd feeling, and I suppose I should figure out what it means! :)  Coming back wasn't all that hard, other than missing people (and NOT wanting to leave my nephew!!!), I slipped back into life here, as if I hadn't been gone.  In some ways it felt as if I had been gone a really long time and in other ways, as if I hadn't been gone at all.  Other than the fact that there's more humidity here, I wasn't noticing that much difference, I know a lot of people everywhere I go, both here, in Macas, and in Oregon (case in point, I went to the mall in Salem with my grandma and saw at least 10 people that I knew and/or was related to, without planning, I can do the same thing walking down the street here!).  I can cook at both places, talk with people, etc.  Then I got online this morning and was reading some friends and cousins' blogs and heard something out the window.  Reason number one why living in Ecuador is different than living in Oregon:  it's the annual festivities celebrating the anniversary of the virgin's appearance here (at least I'm pretty certain that's what's going on) and so they have a parade.  There's a parade for practically everything here, which is fun, since I love parades, although most are really little or the not so interesting civic parades when all the students and teachers dress up in their formal uniform and then the police and military parade behind the students.  The folkloric parades are MUCH more interesting!! :)  The parade going on right outside my window, right now, is made up of people from every single parish in the country!!!  At least that's what it appears to be. :)  I could be wrong, it's possible a few parrishes are missing, but the ones that ARE here, are certainly from all over, there's some from Quito (7-8 hrs by bus), Guayaquil (10-12 hrs by bus), Loja (10-12 hrs by bus, I think) and everywhere else, too.  Each group has a banner with a saying, either from a Catholic father, or a verse from the Bible, a picture of the virgin, and where they come from.  Each group also has it's own uniform, usually the same t-shirt and baseball cap (think youth group mission trips at the airport ready to leave) and singing a different song from the other groups.  It's amazing the devotion that people show towards the virgin here; it makes me wonder what they would be like if they turned that devotion towards Jesus!  People are incredibly devoted, but it makes me sad that they're putting their devotion into a person, granted a person who (if it really was a manifestation of the virgin Mary, they never actually say that it's Mary, just a virgin) helped change the world by giving birth to Jesus, but she's still human, not God.  Why worship the created, when we can worship the Creator?  He's more powerful!  The parade definitely reminds me why I'm here, to show people about Mary's Son, Jesus, she was His mom, but He's God! :)  Definitely different than in Oregon (of course, that might have something to do with the fact that it's one of the least churched states in the country, at least that's what I've heard), oh and it's really green here, too.  Maybe I should send some pictures of the green to my mom, she's been missing it. :)

Summer

It's been my plan these past couple months to write on here more often, however, as soon as I make that plan, I end up writing even less!!  It probably has nothing to do with the fact that the end of the year is super busy, I was testing kids for next year and teaching high school, along with elementary.  I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I decided to write more often. ;)  Oh, and while I was doing all of that, I was attempting to process the fact that I would fly back to Oregon for a couple weeks!!! :)  When I did think about it, I was excited to see my nephew and to get to warmer weather.  (You'd think, living on the equator, in the jungle that I'd have warm weather, but lately it's been in the 70s and rainy during the day and 60s or lower at night)  So, of course, as I was planning what to pack and where on the plane, I decided on a sleeveless shirt and jeans, along with a sweatshirt, thinking that would cover me for about any weather.  Well, imagine my surprise, as we get ready to land, the pilot comes on and says it's 55 and rainy in Portland!!!  What's up with that?!  I had just taken off my sweatshirt, since it'd gotten cold on the plane, so it goes back on and I get off, to be met by a hug from my grandma and my sister handing over my 5 month old nephew!!!!  He's absolutely adorable and there's only been 1 day so far that I haven't seen him and hung out with my sister.  We're taking him all sorts of places, today we headed out to Canyonview Camp, where we all went to day camp, through our church, and I also worked out at the horse camp.  Soooo many memories and places to take pictures and introduce him to. :)   All in all, I'd say he's pretty cute and we should probably keep him around!!! :)