Sunday afternoon in the park...

Shopping, Chinese, and Basketball!

Mike and I took a walk to the Recreo mall down the street yesterday. Saturday is the day that everyone goes to the mall. Everyone looks so happy spending time with their families. Family is such an important part of the culture here. The first thing we did when we entered the mall was get some ice cream (of course!) Mike ordered it all by himself! We shared a cone dish with raspberry ice cream and chocolate sauce on top. They have some interesting flavors, and I'm sure by the end of this trip we'll have tried them all! Then we tried getting money out of the ATM with no luck. I sure hope we can get an ATM to work somewhere! After our failed attempt at getting cash, we walked around the mall a bit, and it is huge! We got one of our little world phones activated so that we can make calls within the country in case of emergency. (Our iPhones stay at our homestay.) When you walk in the door, you need to get a ticket, which tells you when it's your turn to be helped. So after waiting a bit, we got everything worked out. After looking in a store for a hat for Mike, we were on our way out, and all of a sudden I hear "Alicia! Alicia!" behind me. I was thinking...this couldn't be me. But I still looked anyway, and sure enough, it was someone calling me! It was Brandon, one of my host brothers from last year! I hadn't had a chance to call them yet to let them know we arrived, since we just got the phone working, but then there they were! What a cool surprise! So Mike got to meet Janeth, Kevin, and Brandon. It turns out that they just moved three weeks ago, so they are no longer hosting volunteers. So next week we will probably visit them at their new place.

Once we walked home, we tried a different ATM with no luck, then walked back to the mall and tried yet again with a different pin, and decided we'd try another day since it still wasn't working. Then we started watching the movie, "God's Not Dead" on Netflix in our room, and then Wilson and Mayra came home from church around 8 with Chinese food for us. It was yummy! I was craving Chinese food before we left Wisconsin, so it hit the spot. Then they told us that they were going to the park to play basketball and soccer. I asked them if they play on a team, and they said no, and invited us! So we went to the park in their car with their niece and nephew and played some basketball, while Wilson played micro-soccer. It was really fun! They get pretty aggressive with basketball! Good thing Mike and I had been practicing our shots with HORSE back in Wisconsin hehe! Mike and I had a lot of fun, and we love that everyone just enjoys life here. Laughing and spending time with each other, and playing outside like kids till pretty late. We didn't get home till about 11:30pm!

Our new digs :)

First day at the market!

Today Mike had his first 2-hour Spanish lesson, and then he met us at the market in Guamani. This is one of my favorite markets, because there is quite a bit of space to play in, and we can also play on a grassy hill. Also, when it's a clear day, you get a great view of the snow-capped Cotopaxi volcano. We'll see if Mike feels up to adding to this blog about his day. From my point-of-view, it looked like he was having a great time with the kids in the market, and they loved him! He was playing frisbee, football, jumprope, etc. with the kiddos. I love singing the songs, playing jumprope, and reading to the kids. They are so precious! There was this one little girl who just wanted to be held all afternoon. I spun her around and taught her the chicken dance, but she really just wanted to be held. The other girls caught on to the dance! Fun times! After eating lunch out near the market with the some of the other volunteers, we headed back to the grassy hill and listened to music and relaxed a bit. There were two kids still hanging out there. Most of them go back to their families who are working in the markets during the lunch hour. I showed the older of the two, Edison, how to make a whistle with a blade of grass. He kind of got the hang of it! The picture below is from this same market last year. Some of the same kids are still coming! Next week school starts, so we'll see how many kids will be attending each day. Oh, and we are not allowed to bring our camera to the markets until the last week of volunteering, so we may not have many pictures with the kids until later. 

We're here and the adventure begins!

I was so blessed to be able to volunteer with the UBECI street children program in Ecuador for a month last summer. I cannot describe the way it felt to work with the little angels, except that I felt my heart smile every time they smiled. I had no idea what to expect, and how amazing it was! The people of Ecuador will have a part of my heart forever. These little ones usually work 10-12 hour days, many of them exposed to poverty, aggression, discrimination, lack of education, machismo, and other problems that hinder healthy growth and development. The street children program gives them a break from work to be kids; it gives them opportunities to have fun and grow and develop so that they are ready for school and to communicate and be productive citizens; most-importantly, it gives them self-confidence and shows them that they're loved and important.

So now the opportunity to volunteer has come about again, and for a longer time, as you probably know! This time my husband Mike and I will be volunteering together in the street children program in Ecuador for about 5 months, then we will head to Cuzco, Perú to volunteer in construction and renovation for 2 months. We have been praying for direction and clarity for this trip; ever since I left Ecuador I felt a calling to return, and most everyone knows that I have not stopped talking about it! This is a big step for us, but we know that this is meant to be. I took a leave of absence from teaching for a year, and Mike took a big leap of faith and left his wonderful job.

So we've been in Quito for 24 hours now! We ended up arriving a day later, since our flight was cancelled out of Chicago on the 26th. So we landed around 11pm last night, and took a taxi to our homestay. Picture this: Mike singing Antonio Banderas "Mariachi me acompaña cuando canto mi canción...ayayayay..." and Enrique Iglesias "Te quiero...mi amor" to the drivers! Too funny! The drivers said that they know songs in English and don't know what they mean too, but decided they weren't going to sing them for us, since we might try to run out of the car.

Tomorrow we start working with the kids in the market! Mike has Spanish class in the morning, and he'll meet up with us in the market in the afternoon. The Spanish classes are 1:1, so he'll learn quickly at his own pace! Today we just had orientation at 2:30 in the afternoon, and in the morning we learned how to get to places nearby. Mike has been catching on really well to Spanish already! I really can't believe it's only been a day. We love our host family already! Our host mom, Mayra, is studying to be a chef and so far we have had some delicious food! We had fresh watermelon juice with our dinner tonight. Yum! Mayra lives with her husband, Wilson, and their two kids, Alison (10) and Josué (4). Their two dogs live on the rooftop! Check out the video of the rooftop view...