A Little Bit of In Between

Hello All, hope you're doing great! I don't have much time to write, so I wanted to just give a little overview of the last week and what coming up soon:
The outreach in La Bota went great last week. We had 115 kids come. We played a few games, painted faces, sang some songs (I played one called "Estas Aqui" and the children sang along), had a gospel message, and gave sandwiches and drink to all the kids ( we ran out part way through and had to go down the hill to by more bread and ham). We even had a clown--they are alot more popular here than in the States. Honestly, they have always given me the creeps, but he did a good job of leading the kids in games and singing so I guess it was ok ;). On Saturday afternoon I hung out with Daysi and her friend Andre (she is 20 years old and studying to be a Obstetrician) and in the night I practiced the song "De Tal Manera" with David, Daysi, Margarita, and Alexandra--all freinds from church. We then played it at church on Sunday morning-one time with all of us and the other with just me (plus five year old Matias who absolutely loves singing and ran up to sing with me) playing and singing along with the congregation. I should mention a little about Matias...

As I may have described before, Matias is the 5 year old son of Monolo Andrango (Susana's son) and Maria Dolores Andrango who live in an apartment built onto the home in which I am staying. Everytime I see Matias he ask "Puedes tocar tu guitarra?" meaning: "Can you play your guitar." He usually lets me play a couple songs then louds me with compliments and asks if he can play and sing to. He plays (all though he knows no chords or notes) left handed, so he turns the guitar upside down and backwards and strums with all his might. While is guitar playing ability is still yet to come (I'm confident he will be far better than me someday), he has a unique ability to belt out songs relatively on key, remember words for a ton of different songs, and is not shy about singing in front of others. Remember he is five years old--I could hardly read and was as timid as a mouse when I was that old.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Pintag to watch the Ecuador-Peru soccer game at a restaurant owned by friends of Patti and Alex. Pintag is about half an hour from Sanguaquil (I'm probably spelling it wrong) where Patti, Alex, Melanie, Gabrel, and Samuelito live. Pintag is also where we went for the bullfight. Ecuador won 2-1 (I think that was the score). Spent the night on Sunday in Sanguaquil and on Monday came back to Quito and helped run some errands around the city. I also started driving a little on Monday which as you can image is both terrifying and thrilling at the same time.
Tuesday did some more errands and bought general admission tickets for the Ecuador vs Argentina game on Wednesday night. Also we went to the school of Anahi (one of Susana's grandaughter's and daughter to Sonya and Govanni) to celebrate her 8th birthday. We had presents for each of the 12 kids in her class, food, cake, games and singing (I was asked to sing so I played James Taylor's "Handy Man," the song "Hallelujah" from the Shrek soundtrack--which I wrote some new words to and had the kids along with the hallelujah part, and "Happy Birthday" of course) Wednesday morning we drove to Sanguaquil and made tacos with Patti (I made the guacamoli) and then headed to the stadium to meet up with Daysi's friend Juan Pablo to watch the game.

Juan Pablo was a little getting there because of traffic, so we ended up not getting seats, but had a great view from the top of the stands where we stood for the entire game. We came to the game loaded with sunblock, in t-shirts, with sunglasses, and hoping not to get burned. As soon as we found our standing spot squished in between other unfortunate fans, we looked up to see the North sky extremely black (it was 2 oclock). While the sun was still on us for the next few minutes, we slowly watched the rain come towards us over the city. Needless to say, it ended up raining from about 2:30 until after the 4 oclock game was over. At several points we were able to hide under the end of a gigantic flag (about or more than 400 feet long) that was spread across our section of the stands as people jump and danced and cheered underneath it. In the three weeks I have been here, this was the first time it had rained for any extended period of time and instead of getting sunburned we shivered through the game and ran home to take lukewarm showers. But, Ecuador won 2-0 against Argentina which made the game very exciting. This was really import for Ecuador if they want to make it to the world cup next year in South Africa. The next qualifing game is in October against Columbia. Most likely Argentina will still make it, but Ecuador is veying for a spot in the top 4 in South America.

On Thursday I helped Nelson move dirt and rocks on the little piece of land in La Bota for more than 3 hours. It started raining about 5 minutes after we started and never stopped. At one point it was hailing and raining so hard that we hid under the over hang of the roof of a neighboring home. In the midst of the hail (probably a little bitter than M&Ms) I little boy-probably about 5 years old--with his sister on his back (probably about 2 years old) came trudging up the steep hill from the main street and passed us under the edge of the roof. Its hard to put this site into words, but the emotion and endurance displayed in the character of this little boy something I'll never forget.
After laboring for several hours with a little bit of help from a few African-Ecuadorian children that threw some rocks with us, we had leveled three large piles of dirt and rock (it seemed like millions of rocks) into one smaller and more flat surface (kind of like a stage). Our shoes and gloves where as black as the dirt and we had also dug a canal to make a small river (which we affectionately called Rio Bota) to channel the water off the property and into the street which falls at about a 60 degree angle below horizontal.

Today we finished up sorting through the stockpiles of medicine and supplies for the upcoming project by taking out the expired medices and putting the rest into different bins or bags labeled: Surgery, Gastric, Respiratory, Gynocology, Pharmacy, Health Education, Dental, Eye Glasses, etc. In the afternoon we went to Nelsons apartment and helped sort through donated shoes, clothes, stuffed animals, bags, and toys for the sale they we are going to do in La Bota tomorrow. We are going to sell everything for a very small amount and the proceeds will go towards the future plans to build a builing for classes, a cafeteria, church services, etc on the property that they own in La Bota. This is going to cost them a lot more money than they have so they are raising support and work on developing a restourant to sell (I forget exactly what it is called) a milk and corn drink and empinadas.

I also sent a Father's Day postcard to my Dad, today so I hope that gets to him on time ;)

Tomorrow most of the 62 participants will be arriving for the Banos project. We will be between the airport and the Hostal Carolina from 6 until 2 or 3 in the morning. Sunday morning, after the Ecuadorian's vote--they are obligated to unless they would like to pay 45 dollars--and the participants eat breakfast, we will start the 3 hour trip through the Andes to Banos. I was asked to look out for a 16 year old boy that is coming without his parents (he apparently speaks Spanish and wants to be a Neurosergeon) and to work with Doctor Harr Jang (the American director for the trip) as a helper and translator if needed. I will probably end up doing a bunch of other things that I don't know about yet.

In other news, (yes I broke my promise not to write so much--sorry;) ) I have been reading Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and have just gotten to the point where they reach Rivendel. It is a such a fun read and reminds me of when I was younger and my mother (whom I love very much) read it outloud do me by the fire in our home.
I've got some pictures, but I haven't had time to put them up yet...after the project hopefully. Today I could see about five sets(some with up to three peaks) of snow capped peaks from the roof.
Got to go to bed now, we've got to get up early to got to La Bota, then back home, then to Sanguaquil (an hour away) to celebrate Father's Day (a week early because Susana, Daysi, Me, and Govanni will be on the project on Father's Day), and go to the airport, sleep a couple hours, then get the volunteers ready to head to Banos. Fun!
Hope you're all doing great!