El fin de la semana!

While going into the last day in Ecuador, it was scary and unreal! We had NO idea what we were doing that day but had a small idea that in the morning we would get to have some of our neighbors come back and sell their crafts, etc. Gabriel, the leather man, and Idea's mother and sisters came to sell their crafts like belts and journals, as well as bracelets and purses. Wellington and his family came with all their crafts like earrings and bracelets for us to buy. I got 2 pairs of earrings, a couple thread bracelets for friends, a leather bracelet with my roommate's name stamped onto it, and an Ecuadorian cookbook for my mom!

After cleaning the house... mopping all the floors... and packing a bit, we found out we were heading into Guayaquil for the day! We headed into the center of the city, went to the Iguana Park, the cathedral of Guayaquil, and the Malecon (a 2 mile boardwalk along the Guayas river).

Dennis "petting" an Iguana at the Park

Looking down the Malecon from a tower

At the end of the Malecon, one of the volunteers, Tom, told us to look up at the lighthouse at the top of this huge hill... and told us we would be walking to that! (if you look at the previous picture, you can see it way in the distance on the top of the hill).

At the bottom of Santa Ana Hill

It would be 500 steps to the top of Santa Ana Hill and when we finally made it to the top of the lighthouse we got to look over all of Guayaquil and Duran, and could even see the Andes mountains in the distance. It was an amazing sight and absolutely rewarding after climbing all of those stairs... in the heat and humidity. Needless to say, we were gross! 

When we got back to the bottom of the hill, we got yet another surprise....

Annie, Shannon, Nicki, Christine (and Danielle) eating ice cream! Yummm!

ICE CREAM (Penguino)!... which, random fact, has the same logo as Good Humor ice cream product here in the States.

Adventures of Tuesday, March 16

"We went back to Damien house and got to buy crafts from the patients like earrings, bracelets, and peace birds (little fabric sewn stuffed birds with bells on the end). It was so nice to be able to sit down and actually talk individually with both the men and women, minus the language barrier, but just listen to them and be there for them just to share time. It was very nice and all are such happy people that it made it so much easier to feel comfortable. I wish we could spend more time with them but there are just so many places to visit.
In the afternoon we went to an after school program in the other neighborhood (Antonio Jose de Sucre - AJS), called Valdivia with Tom (one of the volunteers from the Arbolito house) and two of the AJS RdC volunteers. It was definitely very different from Semillas but still good. I got to do multiplication tables with los ninos and they were so fast, well I would be too (in English)! We got to do a chista for the kids, which is a sketch about the theme of the week - sportsmanship. It was fun and the kids like it! Also today was our day to COOK! and we made a BOMB dinner of tortillas de papas con queso (potato tortillas with queso) Sooo yummy!"

At Damien house I spent a good amount of time talking with one of the patients who I could not understand at all. I really didn't care about the language barrier, or even the fact that he had a speech problem and no one could understand him,  but he just got to speak and tell stories, and when I did pick up on things, I loved it! Little things like that make me happy and I was just humbled to be there. What else was I going to do with my time!

Making dinner on Tuesday was so much fun, and surprisingly easy, and everyone was very jealous! Tortillas in Ecuador aren't the same as we think in the US! They were just balls of cooked and mashed potatos that we made a whole in before cooking, and put some queso in. We made a "salad" minus the lettuce with lime juice on it for dressing - soooo good! who knew it would be just that easy!

I was surprised during the week of how much onion we ate, mostly for flavor, but it definitely made me like onions more!

Ciao!