Arriving in Ecuador was exciting and a nice change from the cool Utah weather, at first. It is pretty hot here but I'm pretty much used to it by now. We get to do our own laundry, brush our teeth with bottled water, and walk around in threes wherever we go.
The culture here is fascinating. Everyone seems really friendly and when you greet eachother you do the little kiss on the cheek thing. I love getting to spend time with the people and get to know them a little bit more. Being here has been a lot of hard work but we also have time for fun things, like shopping for purses!
Some of my favorite times have been in the maternity hospital. I got to help women through their labor - there are no epidurals and a lot of the moms are really young. It's a good experience to see women going through labor the "real" way. I may have been inspired to try it some day.
We built a house on Friday March 15th, one of the best days here so far. We went through the organization called Hogar de Christo. They sell homes to those who live on a dollar a day or less per person in their family. They get a discounted price, help build the house, and often are issued microcredits to help start a business underneath the home. The day had some nice cloud cover so we didn't get burned as much as we could have. The mother who would be moving into the house made us a really yummy lunch of rice, beef and chicken noodle cilantro soup. We all did various jobs such as digging the holes for the poles, nailing the walls together, and lifting the walls up onto the floor. Sometimes the bamboo was so hard that the nails would go flying after a hard hit, and it would take FOREVER to get the nail in. It was actually quite satisfying doing hard work and being able to see the finished result at the end of the day.
One thing we do for the wards around here is put on a health fair. We teach CPR, nutrition, and take a turn "babysitting" for the parents while they learn. I loved my chance to stay with the kids. We made paper airplanes, played la gallina, and learned a fun hand washing song. I've also taught CPR, which mostly consists of me correcting how people do compressions or reminding them to plug the nose when giving breaths. The people here are eager to learn and most take the classes very seriously. We'll be in good hands if we need CPR here in Guayaquil.
We have gone to the beach each Saturday we have been here. The first beach was fun, we played "run and dive into the water while trying to catch a frisbee" and went on a boat ride. The boat drivers let us climb up on the top of the boat and jump off! I jumped twice and then finally plucked up the courage to dive off, it looks a lot higher when you're standing on a rocking, slippery boat top. The second beach had good waves for body surfing and I improved since last time I went to the ocean, which seems like about a year ago. There are people selling home made earrings and necklaces and bracelets. I bough a pair of pretty black ones to wear with the dress I brought. It's nice to take a break from the hard work on the weekend. My tan is coming along slowly, but hopefully by the time I'm back in the US I will have a nice base to work off of.
A very important part of my life here in Guayaquil is Fragollas. It's a yummy ice cream shop right next to the Malecon, a little boardwalk overlooking the river. Fragollas has the best ice cream I've even had in my life. The flavor is amazing and the texture is soft and creamy. We go once a week at least, I've been 4 times and have LOVED it every time. This picture is of a little chocolate dip thing that you can add. They smooth the icecream up the cone and then dip in in the hard shell stuff, only it's probably the best chocolate I've tasted on icecream. I'm thinking about asking the manager what I'd have to do to open one of these babies in provo. SO good.
There is a temple here in Guayaquil about 15 minutes away from our hotel. As you can see it is beautiful. We come here on Wednesday nights for the 7:00 session. Luckily for me they have headphones which translate into English for me. We eat in the cafeteria and can get a decent sized meal, including dessert, for under 2 dollars. The temple workers are all so nice and helpful, speaking slowly so I can understand them. I love feeling the spirit here because even when I can't understand everything, it helps me to know that no matter what language I'm hearing or place I'm in, God loves all his children equally and we are all brothers and sisters.
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