$3.05

September 18, 2008

This morning, after I found ants in my cereal (which was strange since we keep our cereal in the fridge) we called Ana Miria and asked her if she knew what bus to take to get to Malecon. She said a bus would be dangerous and we should take a taxi. So we did.

So about 10 years ago Guayaquil was a very dangerous, dirty place to visit. But then they had a big clean up project. Now, there is a very strong police presence in the city and Las Piñas, which used to be a big ghetto, is now the biggest tourist attraction of the city. They painted all of the houses different colors, put in stairs, gardens, restaurants, and monuments, with guards on every corner making sure it's safe, and now it's a beautiful place to visit, and you don't feel like someone is going to steal your camera every time you take it out. Although it's nice, I'm pretty sure it's all a facade. I believe there still exists just as much poverty as before, it's just hidden behind painted walls. Admittingly this project probably helped them, as they now have tourists to cater to as they sell their various crafts, foods, and beverages, but they're still living in tiny shacks stacked on top of one another.
So Becky and I were so happy to finally be able to take pictures of Ecuador in peace, and stopped numerous times as we climbed the 400 steps to the top of the hill. It overlooked another hill, one which had not been overhauled to become a tourist district. This hill, the hill of Santa Ana, is what I always imagine communities in South America to look like. Old shacks stacked on top of each other with narrow winding streets, laundry hung out to dry everywhere, and just shouting "poverty" from the roof tops. It was incredible to see. Not incredible in a good way, just in a shocking, "holy cow" kind of incredible. Even so, Becky and I were talking later and decided this probably was the least of it. They had land and walls. I bet they are a lot better off than the squatter communities that we are going to see on the south side of the community.
After sitting in the little catholic church at the top, taking a picture with the lighthouse and cannons, (they used to use the cannons to fight off pirates back in the day), we descended and bought a bottle of water for 30 cents and then stopped and bought some jewelry. We then left the Piñas and walked into the Malecon which is a fenced off landscaped walkway. I really like when we are in fenced in areas, I feel much safer and the atmosphere is much calmer. There were still guards every 50 feet, guarding the area, and that helped too. Being on the equator, the tropical gardens were fantastic. I've seen so many cool plants. We came to a part that reminded me of the river walk back home and then saw "cafe aroma" and looked at the menu. It said $2.50 for lunch which included soup, main course, juice, and dessert. We thought for sure $2.50 couldn't be right, but upon inquiring, it in fact was. So we sat down for lunch, in the shade along the water with a beautiful view of the gardens along the walkway. They brought us soup first, it consisted of squid, octopus, fish, and potato chunks with some delicious seasonings, including cilantro. I was intrigued. It was delicious. I loved it. The octopus in that soup was so much better than the octopus I ate in Seville, Spain. I ate every drop of my soup. They brought out our juice, they had told us it would be jugo de sandias (watermelon juice). We were skeptical, I don't like watermelon flavored anything. But I do love watermelon. So, they brought it out, and it might have been the best juice I've ever drank. It wasn't in fact watermelon flavoring, but the real deal. As if they stuck a watermelon in the blender. And it was slightly frozen. Oh man it was great. The main course consisted of a big scoop of rice, lentils, fried fish, and fried banana slices. This main course held up to par with the rest. The fish had some great seasoning on it. For dessert we had some sort strawberry sherbet/ice cream with strawberry syrup. With a tiny little spoon that looked kind of like a shovel. They billed us, with the tip included and it came to $6.10 for the both of us. $3.05 for a delicious, unique full course lunch, with a beautiful view of the gardens. Amazing.
We continued on our way and ducked into the bathroom to be surprised by a guard who was checking each stall door. We also discovered that you have to buy toilet paper for 5 cents. We only had dimes so we stuck with just rinsing our hands off in the sink which is the main reason we went in anyway.
We continued on our way walking and encountered the gardens that looked like the Amazon jungle and ran into our friend Gabriel. He let me use his hymnbook on Sunday in Gospel Doctrine, and was on his break from work. We talked with him for a long time, I keep being surprised by how Latin people love to talk. He told us some good places to visit in the area, and which bus we could take to get home (we can't afford to pay $3 for a taxi every time we want to go somewhere in the city, so dangerous or not we are taking the bus). He works in a building right next to the iguana park, so we walked with him back to work to visit the park.
The Iguana park is so awesome. Apparently iguanas are know as the mascota of Guayaquil (mascota means "pet"). Gabriel also told us that the area we live in was only built about 20 years ago and before that, it was a forest and there were lots and lots of iguanas in it. Well anyway, they don't call it the iguana park for nothing. It was so awesome. The iguanas were huge, and everywhere. We counted 20 iguanas in one little tree. And they were crawling in the walkways, on the benches, you could feed them leaves, it was so fun. I was like a little kid at the petting zoo. There was one particularly friendly one that crawled into my lap and up the front of me when I sat next to it. This attracted the attention of about 20 people and before I knew it people were gathered around taking pictures of me with this iguana in my lap. I was laughing and didn't quite know how to get it off of me before it crawled onto my head and then a guy came to my rescue by luring it off of my lap with food. That iguana was about 4 feet long, it wasn't a little thing. I have got to return to that park.
We took the bus home. We stood for a long time wondering which crazy bus to take and observed the street vendors, and the stores full of junk that make you sick to look at because why on earth would you spend your money on that crap and how on earth do they make a living doing it, and breathed in the ever polluted air and plugged our ears occasionally when traffic would back up in all directions and a honking fest would begin. We first got on the wrong bus and ended up wasting 25 cents as we got off at the next block. The next one was the correct one and we were surprised when we saw both the University of Guayaquil and a hospital that looked like the most run down buildings you could imagine in the U.S. Well, maybe not that extreme. But still. As we rode the crazy bus I started laughing and told Becky that if we want to go to Quito we'll have the wonderful opportunity of sitting on a bus like that for 8 hours.
We made it home and breathed a sigh of relief when we got off and were on our familiar street. We walked home, thankful to live where we do. A little bit off of the main road with less pollution and much much less noise. Our quiet street void of beggars and dirty stores and honking cars with lots of locks and gates seemed quite a bit better after seeing what it would be like to live anywhere else in the city.
It's kind of weird, I have to distance myself from all that I see out there. All the poverty and unhappy people, it makes me so sad to think of these people born into this community and living and dying in it. All their life sitting in a hot store selling junk, or pushing a cart full of soda to sell on the humid, crowded, polluted, and dirty streets of Guayaquil. Or the poor children in the park selling their gum or mints. Or the indigenous Quechua speaking women with their children, all looking dirty and worn out from life. I can't dwell on it because I've grown up with this idea of charity and been taught my whole life to have charity towards others. I feel like I should do something, but I can't help the masses. And since I can't help them I can't let them get to me. I just have to put up a shield. And then I feel like a heartless person. But I would go crazy if I thought too much about what life is like for each one of those people I saw today. It's too dark.
I thought about this city a lot today as I walked through the beautiful gated tourist district. I turned to Becky and asked, "Can you imagine if all of Guayaquil were like this?" I mean they live on the equator for goodness sake, they can grow beautiful things. They could make their city beautiful. All they need is reconstructed buildings with solid foundations and roofs and walls, a better trash system, purified water to drink, a better traffic system, job discrimination laws, job opportunities period, a non-dictator president with a less corrupted government who doesn't bribe and pocket money, available public education, and morals. Although I believe morals are largely a result of good work and education. Yep, that's all. Just a complete over haul of the city. But they did a rather good job of the tourist district, one step at a time I guess.

Culture Shock?

September 17, 2008

I believe the initial excitement of arriving to Ecuador has worn off. I think I am now going through a bit of culture shock. I have been kind of down today, wondering what on earth I am doing here in Ecuador. A place where the water from your faucet smells like lake. Who needs a vacation anyway? It's like you're playing in the lake every time you take a shower. And a place where you walk the streets and breathe in the fresh smell of bus. No emission tests here. And a place where women and children are nowhere to be seen. I really do think they just stay inside all day. We hardly ever see them out and about if they're not in the business district going or coming from work. And a place where you walk outside of the locked gate to your apartment and see a man with a pistol tucked in the back of his pants. A place where they don't know the definition of driving in straight lines, and don't obey stop signs or lights. And they honk to signal and you better get out of the way because they're coming over whether you are there or not. A place where you would never dream of walking barefoot because of the trash and glass and sewage smelling water on the side of the road. A place where you live in a cage because there are metal guards on all of your windows and doors. A place where your drinking water tastes a bit like plastic. A place where every single person, without fail, tells you to be careful and not carry anything of value when you are outside. So you carry at most, $5 with you and if for some reason you have more, you tuck it inside your shirt, and if you dare take your camera, you tuck it inside your pants and only take it out when you are hidden by a bush.
Really it's not as bad as all of that. And many of those things have been kind of humorous. Although seeing the pistol today was kind of shocking. But really, we had an entire family from downstairs come over to visit us last night. They were very kind and we've now had 10 people go out of their way to visit us and offer their assistance with anything we need. We've met some wonderful people and I really enjoy being with the members my age around here. They have such a light about them. I've never seen anything like it, I swear they glow. I think I'm just very overwhelmed at the fact that I have to teach in Spanish next week and I don't know how I'm going to manage. I hate when people talk to me and I don't understand them because they have such a huge accent or talk really really fast. It's weird how some people here speak at a normal pace and speak very clearly, enunciating beautifully. Others I swear cut off half of every word they say. It's also weird that we can't go outside at night. Tomorrow we are going to go to Malecon, the tourist district. That should make things better, I feel a little confined just walking between home and work each day. We went on a walk today but there wasn't much to see. This is such a strange city. We couldn't find any markets or stores or anything. Just businesses and a few grocery stores. I bet we'll find more of what we're looking for when we get out of this part of town. Although then we run the risk of being outside of the little circle Andres outlined on the map he bought us, the circle that tells us where it's safe for us to walk alone. It's a rather small circle.
Well anyway, I'm sure I'll feel better. It's not really bad or anything. I love to travel and I still like being here. I know I'm supposed to be here. And I also know that it takes about 2 weeks to get adjusted to local accents and get in Spanish mode. I know I will feel much better as we travel to different stakes to teach and get outside of our little walking radius, and when we travel on the weekends and see more of the country. So, no worries. I was just feeling a bit weird today.

A New Constitution

September 16, 2008

On September 28, 2008 there will be a vote to approve the new Constitution of 2008 for Ecuador. Since 1841 there have been 21 new constitutions, the most recent in 1998. This particular constitution, created by the hand of President Correa not only approves gay marriage and abortion, but there's also a sort of bad law of consecration. Let me explain. If you have 2 houses for example, the government would be able to take one, not give any retribution for it, and supposedly give it to the poor. Whether the government actually follows through with that promise is another story. Even if they did, it still wouldn't be right to just take someone's house and not pay them for it. On top of these 3 major changes, 2 people that Becky and I talked with today, Hermana Melendez y Mario who lives below us have told us that the constitution is really just a copy of Venezuela's. Apparently Presidente Correa is in cohorts with the FARR (Columbian drug traffickers), and also Chavez, and naturally is very against the United States.
All over this part of Guayaquil there are signs that say "Guayaquil dice no" (Guayaquil says no), so there is apparently a lot of opposition to this constitution. And yet, I don't think it will matter in the end. The Government only needs 1/3 of the vote to pass it, and Correa has a lot of control over the different branches, they do have legislative and electoral branch but, he controls it. He's pretty much almost a dictator already. And if the Constitution passes he really will be one. I saw some political propaganda today in the newspaper from the government. It's an entire separate section in the newspaper devoted to convincing the general population that the Constitution will save Ecuador and Correa will be their deliverer. But, it's created in comic book form. The entire thing is one big political comic book. It's incredible. And pretty graphic at times as far as violence goes. I didn't have a chance to read it, I skimmed over it, it's really long but it seemed to be saying that Correa wants to decentralize the government, take away some of the power of the military and give it back to the people. He has a lot of socialistic ideas that most likely won't turn out very well.
As we talked with the family that lives below us they told us that any time there is a problem with the president there is major inflation. Becky and I have noticed the high prices just going grocery shopping. We were really surprised because we expected to come to South America and live for $2 a day. In reality the food at the grocery store is just as expensive and may times, more expensive than back home. Mario, the father of the family who visited with us tonight, said that they are paying $1,000 more each month to live than they did last year. That's huge. $12,000 more to live this year than in 2007. How do people do it? I suppose they just don't, which is probably why everyone at the employment center talks about the south side of Guayaquil as if it's another world. I'm interested to see what it's like down there. I have a feeling I'm going to see poverty at it's worst. Already I've seen some beggars that look so much more poor and worse off than the homeless people I see in the United States. These people make me want to cry every time I cross the bridge where they sit with their children in their laps and their hands outstretched, or the old lady who opens her mouth, showing her remaining 3 teeth and stares you down as you pass by. And then I wonder what on earth I'm supposed to do. I can't give everyone my money. And I suppose I am doing my part, I'm here as a volunteer teaching people how to better their temporal lives which in turn will help improve their spiritual lives also. But still, I can't help but wonder what on earth Jesus would do in this situation. He wouldn't pass by these people and ignore them. So do I just look at them sorrowfully and wish I could impart of my substance to each one of them? Do I just pass by and wish I could hold their children and offer some sort of comfort? It tears at my conscience each time I cross this bridge down the street. There are the socially accepted customs of passing by homeless people and ignoring them. You pretend not to notice, because it would be rude to stare and insensitive to acknowledge them but then do nothing to help. There's also the whole safety issue, who knows what these people would do to get your money, blah blah blah. And the whole "it's their own fault they're in this situation" theories. And although in the U.S. maybe one could get away with saying that, I would never look at these Ecuadorians and think "oh, it's their own fault they are poor and their children are dirty, and their clothes ragged, and have lost all light in their eyes". I also don't think it's right to say that in the U.S. because we all have faults and have brought things upon ourselves, just some people have ended up with more public consequences. If it was in fact their fault in the first place. Even so, who are we to say those things?
So, after a slight tangent, I am back to the original question. What would Jesus do if he crossed that bridge? And what on earth am I supposed to do?

Riding the Bus

Sept. 15, 2008

This evening. Becky and I were on our way home from the pool after swimming with our hermana grandmothers. We took a bus down the street, closer to our house. This bus ride was quite the adventure. In fact, it was absolutely crazy. Let me explain a typical bus ride in Guayaquil. The buses drive with the door open and you are lucky to get both feet in the door before they start driving. You are also lucky if they even come to a complete stop, time and time again I saw people get on while it came to an almost stop, and more people getting off while it came to even less of an almost stop. And people stand in the doorway while the bus is driving. The open doorway, mind you. And all the while the bus driver is telling everyone, "hurry up, hurry up". So, you get on, immediately grab onto a metal bar while paying 25 cents, and try your best to avoid being the last one in line so you have less of a chance getting thrown backwards and out the open door. But you're not safe yet. Because now all the seats are full and you are carrying bags from the grocery store. And when I say you, I mean I. So, the bus lurches violently and you stumble and grab onto a bar, while accidentally knocking some poor lady in the head with the bags that are hanging from your wrist, but you don't have time to think to say sorry or even realize it's happened until it's too late because you are clinging for dear life and trying to move forward. All around you cars are driving and honking every 10 seconds, signaling to others that they need to get a move on and they're not starting up fast enough for their liking. So now, you're crammed into the aisle, standing up, getting lurched around, and watching your reflection in the window to make sure no one slips a hand into your backpack. Then a bus is next to you and you're making a turn right next to each other. The buses come within an inch of each other and you really think they're going to hit. You hope they don't, because if you don't get thrown through the open door or the open windows, you will for sure hit your head on something metal, since there isn't one part of the bus that is made of something different. By some miracle you are saved from all 3 of these unattractive options and the buses don't collide. By now you can't help but laugh because you are in a crazy country where everyone honks, steals, and stares at you because you are a young woman from the United States. And you love it all. And even though your wrist hurts, and your broken finger hurts from clinging for dear life, and you've now hit that same poor lady a few more times, this time with your backpack as you get thrown around, you still smile and think of all the things you could write about this experience. And then finally, a seat opens. And you sit down with relief. And then you get off and you are sent on your way, with a banana in hand, compliments of the hermanas. They tell which options you have to take a bus down the street. But it's only 6:30 and even though it's dark, there are lots of people about so you want to walk instead of paying 25 cents more for a bus ride. Because you and your companion are cheap. So you walk. And while walking you push your companion to the side because there is a huge gaping square hole in the street in front of you. And you both almost walk right into it, where you would fall into a deep dark abyss of who knows what. You laugh some more because you really did almost step into it. It's not until later that you wonder what on earth cars driving in the street do. How do they miss it? And then you laugh some more because you still can't believe there was a huge gaping hole in the street that wasn't marked off. And then you stop dead in the middle of the street because there is a cockroach crawling on the curb in front of you. You almost hyperventilate. But you don't. It goes away and you start walking again. And silently give thanks that you have miniature ants in your apartment instead of roaches. Then you go through the 2 bolted gates and 2 locks on your front door to enter your house. Then you lock them all again. Then within 5 minutes the phone is ringing. It's the hermanas. They have been worrying about you and want to make sure you arrived safely. You assure them you did, and there weren't any problems. You hang up and smile at their concern. Then you start dinner which will actually be postponed for 2 hours because Latinos like to talk.

Gadianton Robbers

Sunday September 14, 2008

The hermanas came by for us at 8:30 as promised. We walked to the bus stop and then hopped on for a short ride to the chapel. It costs 25 cents to board the bus. From a distance last night the buses looked like any other bus I've seen. Up close though, I saw that they have got to be at least 20 years old, they are very old looking with lots of metal. Everything you sit on is metal, no plastic seats here. Once again I prayed that I would arrive safely to my destination. In all honesty though, I wasn't that worried at all. It was part of the South American experience. Any time I notice significant differences here, I just smile and figure it's part of the South American experience.
It's kind of ironic that I was looking so forward to church in Spanish because Sacrament was actually mostly in English today. We had visitors. Their chapel is the stake center and is absolutely beautiful, the most beautiful chapel I've ever been in. And they had an amazing tropical flower arrangement up at the podium. The chapel has some strong air conditioning which I thought felt normal but everyone else afterwards said they were so cold and in the succeeding classes everyone opened the windows to let the warm air in. It was kind of humorous. Also, the chapel has a drinking fountain with filtered and treated water. Yay for the church providing good drinking water! Oh, so the visitors were Sister Mary Cook who is in the Young Women General Presidency, Sister Vicki Matzamuki from the Primary General Presidency, and Elder Cook of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. Also, Benjamin de Oro of the Seventy for the South American region was there. Apparently that have been in the area, traveling around South America for the past 9 days doing training. So, they spoke in Sacrament with a translator repeating everything they said in Spanish. So those of us who could understand both languages heard each talk twice. :) It was pretty crazy to have so many leaders ending up in the same ward as us. Hermao Oro spoke last, since he is a native he gave his talk in Spanish and I enjoyed it the most actually. He spoke on the Sacrament and the covenants we make with God and how we can best show our devotion to our Heavenly Father through service.
Well anyway, the rest of church was very good as well. I think I've come to the nicest ward in the entire world. I have never received so many kind words, hugs, kisses, and welcomes in my life. I met so many people I can hardly keep them straight. One hermano came up to us after church and welcomed us and gave us his card saying he's a doctor and if we ever need anything to give him a call. This is actually rather convenient because Becky and I both have broken bones and she needs to get x-rays while she's here. We also met his son Andres, 26 years old, who offered to drive us over to the centro de empleo to show us where it is. So, we crammed into his little car with our 2 mother missionaries and he showed us the centro and then drove us home. People keep asking us where we live and we have to say we don't know because we arrived at 10 last night and haven't seen any of the city yet. When Andres found out we don't have a map of the city, he promised to bring us one first thing in the morning. Upon arriving in front of our house we got out at the same time as an hermana from the barrio. We have member neighbors! I don't remember her name but her daughter is in young women's and is named either Melissa or Michelle. I don't remember. Her son, we had met earlier and is name Humberto and is 25. She was quick to inform us that Humberto is going on a mission when he welcomed Becky with besos, back at church. She was very nice, and told us to feel free to come over any time and call if we ever need anything. Everyone was so willing to show us around and be there if we need anything that I feel very overwhelmed with all of their friendliness. We have 4 names and numbers of friends that we made at church, one of which actually served his mission with Becky in Chile.
At home we discovered a bug problem had appeared while we were at church. They are tiny little things that slightly resemble ants except much smaller and faster. I suppose that's better than being bigger. But they were crawling all over our kitchen counters and all over the packages of our food. Becky proceeded to bang each container on the counter to knock them off and I went behind her with a paper towel, squishing them all. We then put every piece of food in the fridge, including our box of cereal. We're going to go to the supermarket tomorrow and search for some type of bug spray because the problem is pretty bad. It's weird that there was nothing there this morning when we ate breakfast.
But, that's the only negative thing that has happened thus far. And it's not even that big of a deal and would certainly be much less of a big deal if I didn't have this phobia of ants being inside my house.
Well anyway, Guayaquil in the daylight is awesome. We really do live in the nice part of town. It's weird ho some people drive brand new SUV's and cars and others drive really stinkin' old tiny cars that you typically see on TV when South America is depicted. There's a huge gap between people's economic wellbeing apparently. Oh, that reminds me, in Gospel Doctrine, we were talking about the Gadianton Robbers and about the situation of the Lamanites and Nephites in Helaman 6 and 7. Gabriela, the teacher, asked for examples of Gadianton Robbers of our day, here in Guayaquil. The answers of drugs, alcohol, and lots and lots of robbers was given. And then someone said the Government, and everyone agreed as if this was nothing new. Becky and I looked at each other and found that comment to be very interesting. The U.S. government has it's corruptions and annoying politicians, but I would never in my life compare it as an equal to the Gadianton Robbers. Interesting how different that is here.
So, Guayaquil looks like a really fun place, I'm excited to see more of it and travel. I absolutely love the trees around here, there are lots of palm trees and all the other trees have flowers on them! The ones right outside our windows have large orange tropical flowers and I love it. It's warm and humid here but I think it feels wonderful. We'll see if I still feel that way in December when we're in the middle of Summer.
Becky y yo caminamos por las calles después de una siesta. Johnny nos dijo anoche que vivimos 5 cuadras del templo entonces queríamos caminar hasta el templo para verlo. Habíamos caminado por unos minutos cuando vimos la aguja con Moroni. Entonces caminamos en ese dirección hasta vimos el templo encima la colina. Esta en una buena parte de la ciudad. Pero es un poco extraño, porque hay personas muy ricas cerca del templo pero en la misma calle hay personas muy pobres, viviendo en edificios que no están completamente construidos. Había una familia que vive en un edificio sin ventanas, solo tiene grandes espacios en vez de ventanas y algunas partes no tienen paredes ni techos. Hay una mezcla de pobres entre los ricos. También, es diferente que hay guardias para las casas en esta parte. Se sientan en sillas en cada esquina, algunas son profesionales con armas, y otros no.
Hay muchas flores aquí, y saque muchas fotos, quiero tener una colección de fotos de las flores de Ecuador. A mi me encanta Ecuador, estoy emocionada para aprender y observar mucho mas durante los 3 meses próximos.
Translation of last paragraph for reader convenience: After a nap, Becky and I went for awalk. Johnny had told us last night that we live about 5 blocks from the temple so we wanted to walk to it. We had only walked a few minutes when we saw the steeple with Moroni. We walked in that dirrection, following the steeple until we saw the temple sitting on top of a hill. It's in a good part of the city but it's kind of strange because there are really rich people near the temploe, but on the same street there are very poor people, living in unfinished buildings. There was one family living in a partly constructed building without windows, it just had large spaces where the windows should have been. (Pictured on the left)Some parts didn't have a wall or a roof. There's a huge mixture of the poor among the rich. It's also interesting to see guards in front of certain houses. They sit in seats or guard shacks at each corner, some are professional with guns, and others seem to just sit there just to have a presence of a guard being there.
There are lots of flowers here, I took a lot of pictures of them, I want to have a collection of pictures of the flora of Ecuador. I love Ecuador so far, I'm excited for the next 3 months to observe and learn more.

First Impressions

September 13, 2008
As I stepped off the plane, the airport workers welcomed me with "Buenas Noches" . I responded with "Buenas Noches" without even thinking and smiled brightly at being able to speak Spanish again. The anticipation ran high, we couldn't wait to see what Guayaquil was going to be like. From the plane as we landed and saw the cars all over the highways and the McDonalds, it looked like a nice big urban city. Not at all what I expected from a 3rd world country. We stood in line to show our passport and document our arrival, I spoke in Spanish with the official and it went well. We went through customs and then walked through the doors to walk past a long line of people waiting for family and friends. At the end of the line was a couple holding a paper with "BYU" typed across the top and then our names. I'm sure they could have picked us out without us even approaching them though. There we were, two American girls, poor Becky pulling her luggage with one arm in a sling and me with a big backpack on my back, my school bag on my front, and pulling 2 suitcases behind me, trying not to collapse under the weight of it all. Hermano y Hermana Morante welcomed us with hugs and immediately took over half of our luggage to make it more bearable. We stepped out the airport doors and were met with hot humid air. We might melt, as people have told us. We'll see what it's like in the day time. We then continued on to an old tiny red pick-up truck. Obispo Morante (he told us he is also Bishop), explained that he had called for help but his help canceled at the last moment so he borrowed his mother-in-law's truck and made due. Hermana Morante was a wonderful sport and crawled in the cab of the truck to sit with our luggage while Becky and I squished in the front seat. On our drive from the airport to our casa, which is only about 5 or 10 minutes away, he explained a lot of things to us. I followed the majority of it. He was quick to explain that the truck was his mother in law’s and pointed out the Virgin Mary sticker on the windshield. I couldn't locate a seatbelt and he told us not to worry about it. Even so, I couldn't help but notice the wide expanse of a glass windshield in front of my unsecured body, about to enter a South American roadway. I was praying that I wouldn't get thrown through the windshield once we entered traffic. The traffic didn't actually scare me that much, maybe because Spain scared the heck out of me and then I got used to it. Here, from the short ride to our house I noticed that lane markings are interpretive. People don't stay in them, they cut each other off, and sometimes drive right down the middle of the lines. They also have some weird intersections where it's apparent stop signs are more of a suggestion than the law because a car will honk as he approaches the intersection to warn other drivers he is coming through. As we drove it looked more like the South America I was expecting. Lots of palm trees, run down buildings, bars on all the windows and doors, old cars, and cats in the streets. One cat in particular was chasing something on the sidewalk that from my view in the truck looked like a cockroach. This made me very nervous and uneasy.
But, my fears were put aside as we arrived at our house. Obispo Morante explained that we are in the good part of town, and that it is a comfortable apartment and we should be very happy here. As he explained this, we passed a guard outside the complex with a large intimidating looking gun draped across his torso. I wish I knew what kind it was. I'll have to investigate online when I have time and internet access. We passed a hospital that Obispo Morante explained is for the poor, from what I understand, the poor can come and receive treatment without charge. Becky and I may visit that hospital sometime. Obispo Morante explained a bit about the work that we are going to be doing here and how there are two different categories of people here. Those that live in the mountains and those that live in the city. Apparently these two groups of people do not get along very well and there have been a lot of problems in the past bringing them together. Especially since 70% of the workshop participants in the past have bee non-members. He said the situation is improving but is still a work in progress. He also told a story about how recently a young man hit his car while he was in a movie on a Friday night. They called out his license plate number and he went outside and filled out all of the necessary paperwork, it was obviously the guy's fault for hitting a parked car. Well, apparently this young man was a nephew of the judge and by Monday, the judge had all of the paperwork changed and it was now legally Obispo Morante's fault. Oh my. Hello corruption.
Anyway, we get through a metal locked gate, up a narrow cement staircase, open another bolted gate that blocks the front door and then unlock 2 more bolts on the front door and are finally inside. I actually want to count how many locks we went through, it seemed like a lot. And many are seriously just metal bolts that you slide into the wall and I just don't see how anyone could get through all of the metal barriers on all of the doors and windows. I feel pretty secure. It probably helps being on the 2nd floor rather than ground level. Anyway, we walk inside and the apartment far exceeded my expectations. There is tile floor throughout, the entry way leads into the kitchen, and then the dining area and living room are on the right. There are 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a washing machine, and a patio for hanging clothes up to dry outside of the bedroom I chose. The furniture is really nice, it's decorated simply but very nicely, we have a table cloth, bedding, towels, and a TV in each bedroom. The Morantes were so kind and purchased food for us including orange juice, milk, yogurt, cheddar cheese ( I can't imagine how much that costs down here), bottled water, tuna, bread, jam, soup, macaroni and cheese, frozen lasagna and frozen chicken tenders, popcorn, as well as toilet paper, and laundry detergent. They even bought a tube of toothpaste and shampoo in case our luggage didn't all make it here so we would have a way to brush our teeth and wash our hair. It was so much more than we could have ever asked for.
Becky and I chose rooms, mine has a full sized mattress and a very cute sheet set with matching pillowcases. I say sheet set because there isn't a blanket in the house. Apparently it's so warm around here that they are not needed. We are blessed to have an AC unit in the wall of each room. We do not have an internet connection yet, but the option is there. We are going to look into it, because it would be very convenient to have in the house rather than just at the center. Oh, we also have a microwave and a blender! Honestly, this is nicer than the apartments at BYU and it's huge! We are excited to make friends at Institute and have them over.
Obispo Morante explained that this past Monday he still had not been able to find a place for us to live. But he made some phone calls asking for any information, and he found an apartment above a less active lady who has just recently began to return to church. Her son served a mission in Texas and currently attends BYU Hawaii. Apparently the apartment above her was used by BYU nursing students who were here over the Summer, one of which I'm pretty confident was my old roommate who I remember saying she was going to Ecuador with the nursing program. I'm going to ask her about it, it will be kind of funny if she did in fact live here. Well anyway the Morantes went and picked up 2 sister missionaries who are around our mothers' ages and are from Venezuela. They are very nice and are going to be coming by for us at 8:30 in the morning to walk us to church. Everyone was so welcoming. I followed the Spanish most of the time, but I am kind of slow to think of how to respond. It will come though, I'm determined to learn and practice.
Everyone left after a short visit to allow us to settle in and go to sleep. I opened my baggage and found that the top of my big bottle of body wash had somehow come completely off and leaked all out. It could have been a lot worse, luckily I had put a plastic bag over top so the soap only covered other bottles with a small puddle in the bottom of the suitcase. Somehow it missed my clothes and books. So I spent awhile spooning the soap back in with my finger, salvaging as much as I could. I then sorted out clothes to wear in the morning and then brushed my teeth and washed my face finally. After 15 hours of traveling I was very grateful to be able to do this. Johnny told us about 7 times not to drink the tap water because it will make us sick. I think that may be important. So we can wash with the water but never drink it. So, I washed my face in the sink and then used the water from my water bottle to brush my teeth. I'll have to remind myself over and over again for awhile, I keep almost forgetting and have to consciously keep from running my toothbrush under the faucet.
Well, my feet are swollen from traveling, I haven't slept in a bed since 2 a.m. this morning, 21 hours ago, and I have to be up in 7 hours so I'm gonna call it a night. I'm sure I'll have much more to say tomorrow after attending church and seeing part of the city in daylight. I am very excited to be here though, this is going to be a wonderful semester!

"The Water Blends in With the Ocean"

September 13, 2008
These are the awe inspiring comments you say when you have the amount of sleep Becky and I had last night. This particular one came from Becky while flying from Dallas to Miami. My alarm went off at 2:20 a.m. this morning. That has made for a fun day. My eyes were burning and tired but I got up anyway and got ready, The airport shuttle picked us up at 3:45 a.m. and by then we were feeling relatively awake. I don't remember anything from the flight from SLC to Dallas. I slept the whole way. It was a sad moment at 8:30 a.m when I realized it had been 6 hours since I'd gotten out of bed. Once in Dallas I gratefully looked out at the flat green expanse of land, breathed in the thick humid air, and smiled with relief at being in my home state. Man do I miss Texas. Upon exiting the plane we first bought the exact same Texas souvenir t-shirt. It was $9.99 and we couldn't resist. Then we rounded the corner and ran into Dunkin Donuts. Hello breakfast, they definitely convinced us with their 99 cent donuts. In Dallas there was quite a bit of rain but it looked like Hurricane Ike wouldn't hit until a couple of hours after our flight left. We didn't have any problems as far as the weather goes. I called home to make sure my family was still out of harm's way in San Antonio, I'm curious to see how hard they got hit since afternoon flights to San Antonio and Austin were canceled.
We did end up being delayed for quite a while in Dallas as maintenance checked out a tire, I also don't remember much of this as I was sleeping. The whole day has been made up of waking up on a plane, looking out the window for a few minutes, stretching my poor neck, and falling back asleep. I've actually been awake for about 30 minutes now I think and it's the longest I've managed to stay conscious on the plane all day. We arrived very late to Miami, and we half ran to our connecting flight, we arrived 40 minutes after boarding had began. But we got on and I even had time to dig out my carrots and peanut butter which brightened my mood immensely.
Now we are on the plane flying from Miami to Guayaquil. We are flying over the Cayman islands and Panama. Unfortunately the sun went down so I don't see very much of anything. Earlier, I think we did fly over where the Mississippi empties into the Gulf though and that was pretty fun to see from the air. I'm extremely excited to arrive, meet our manager Johnny, and get to my apartment. When we e-mailed Johnny to confirm he would be at the airport to pick us up, he responded telling us they are very excited for our arrival, that our apartment is ready and they had bought us some food. That was very considerate of them to think of buying us food since we would be arriving on a Saturday night. Becky and I are both very excited for church tomorrow. We are slowly creating a list of all the things we want to do while we're in Ecuador. So far the list includes: go to institute, go horseback riding if possible, visit a banana plantation, learn to dance, visit the port and fishing docks, make lots of friends, and volunteer at an orphanage. Well, hopefully we'll land soon in Guayaquil. We've been traveling for 14 hours already and I'm ready to get there already.

Graduation Day Sept. 12, 2008

Today was our tour of welfare square. We were picked up at 7:45 a.m. and began with tours of the dairy, cannery, and DI. I was very impressed with the system the church uses, seeing the behind the scenes work was very humbling. One of the most impacting moments was when they showed us where the ATMIT is made. This is the nutritional supplement that is sent over to places such as Kenya to save children from starving. It's an amazing formula that starving bodies can actually keep down and the nutrients slowly nurse the body to proper health. I don't know how may of you have seen the picture of the 20 lb. 8 year old girl in Kenya and then the same girl 6 months later after eating ATMIT, I had before, but I heard part of the story I had never heard before. First, here is the picture:

Now, apparently it only takes 10 lbs of ATMIT to feed a child for 6 months and it is produced at 50 cents a pound. For only $5 this little girl was fed for 6 months and developed muscles, grew hair on her head, and received light in her eyes. For only $5 she was saved from certain death. After hearing this, I felt a lot better about my meager fast offerings that have been given in the past. Who knew $5 could go so far.
I was very touched by stories such as these and by the time we got to the humanitarian center and watched a short 15 minute video on the humanitarian program of the church, I was crying within 2 minutes. I'm not usually a very emotional person, but this was such a humbling experience. To be reminded of how much the rest of the world needs our help. It's sad that we get caught up in work and school and buying the latest electronic toys and complaining about gas prices that we forget how very rich we are compared to the majority of the rest of the world. It makes me so sad to think of all those people who don't have access to clean water, warm blankets, immunizations, medical care, and a free public education. I really want to get involved in humanitarian organizations when I graduate from BYU and work to reduce poverty. It would be such a rewarding profession and I really want to utilize the skills that I have learned to help bless the lives of others. This opportunity to go to Ecuador and teach career workshops to help people learn how to find and keep better employment makes me so happy. We are teaching them necessary skills that they can use and teach others.
Well anyway, after our tours and a sampling of the dairy's chocolate milk and cheese, along with bakery bread and canned jam, we went on our way to our little graduation ceremony and luncheon. This was held in the conference center media room. So you open the blinds and there's the huge seating area. It was a pretty neat atmosphere and we couldn't help but feel a tiny bit important. So we received our little certificates saying we are now certified instructors of the employment workshops and then we ate a delicious catered lunch where I at the best fruit salad I've ever eaten in my life.
The other night, Becky and I were joking around in our hotel room about applying the concepts we are teaching to dating. We then went a little overboard and came up with an entire mock interview. We made the mistake of giving a little sample of it the other day during training and they insisted we perform in front of everyone at graduation. So, slightly impromptu we finalized ideas and sat down and went through an interview in front of everyone. Unfortunately, I haven't quite developed the talent of keeping a straight face so a few times I found it hard to speak while refraining from laughing. But we had fun with it. So, here's a video of my interview, which we acted out in front of about 20 people including all of our trainers from the church office building, current interns, and past interns.
After graduation we had Mimi take us by Wal-Mart for last minute purchases. First we were impressed by the fact that it had a parking garage. Then we found out it was 2 stories. Then we found out it had an escalator and then not only an escalator for people but an escalator for carts! A few in our group were surprised that we had never seen a Wal-Mart like this, but I've seen a lot of Wal-Marts in my day and none were anything like this one. :)
After Wal-Mart I'm not sure where the rest of my day went. I talked on the phone quite a bit with friends and family, went to dinner, packed a bit, tried to get things to work on my computer, and watched a lot of the weather channel, pretty convinced that we would end up stranded in the Dallas airport because of Hurricane Ike. I knew I had to wake up at around 2 in the morning but I found it hard to be tired as the night went on. I became anxious and excited and adrenaline kicked in from an exhausting week. I finished packing and got to sleep at around midnight.

I've seen fire and I've seen rain.

Okay, well I didn't actually see fire today. But I did see rain. Which turned into a sunny day that I thought would never end. And then it did.
I have a sudden desire to make this entire blog a coherent entry made up of purely song lyrics. Buts it's too late. To apologize. I mean it's almost 11 p.m. and I want to go to bed. You know, lock the door and turn the lights down low, turn some music on that's soft and slow because I aint got no place to go. I really have been thinking about this all day long.
I should stop quoting songs and really write so I can go to sleep for real. Today was significantly better. It felt like Fall. Which made me happy. And I got almost 8 hours of sleep last night even though I woke up at 6 a.m. And I had a really really good hair day. And training was pretty fun. And I got a hold of my professor and have a research topic and he is signing my course contract so I won't lose my scholarship. And I get to go to Provo tomorrow, to get books for the class and turn in my graduation application. Which means I get to see friends again. And go on a picnic. "Aint it good to know you've got a friend". That James Taylor song was playing just then and I thought it fit rather nicely.
I'll talk more about my research topic later. Now it's time to say goodnight. Sleep tight. Close your eyes and I'll close mine. Thank-you Beatles.

I've seen better days.

I wasn't going to write today because I don't have much to say at all except for some complaints about things gone wrong. But, I also didn't feel like writing by hand in my journal and yet felt guilty for not writing a journal entry. So, I hope you don't feel obligated to read my day to day mundane entries, because this will be one. My companion was in Provo for the day getting her elbow checked out so I taught the first part of the workshop by myself. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected it to be, it will be a lot better though when I have a companion to help team teach and when I have more practice speaking. At least I'm communicating clearly.
I had the hardest time staying awake during training today. Although during break Andrew jokingly asked if we could get out 20 minutes early for lunch if he made a basket backwards. I immediately said, "oh, I'll do it too". And proceeded to the free throw line and made the shot backwards. Mike, one of our trainers said he hadn't made the deal with me but with Andrew, I said "fine but if I make it again the deal's with me". So I swished it backwards. And we got out early for lunch. Little did he know I had spent an entire Summer when I was 11 years old learning how to do that very thing. I love when random skills like that come in handy.
After training, the interns and trainers were taken out to dinner to an Italian restaurant in SLC called Buca de Beppo. Very expensive free food for us while sitting around a huge round table with a torso statue of the pope in a glass box as a centerpiece. It was the room of the pope and therefore had photos of popes throughout history, and it had a domed ceiling so the acoustics were a fun toy throughout the night. I ate far more than my share and came to really really like my fellow interns. Too bad we're not all serving together.
I woke up this morning and in the middle of saying my prayer I was struck with inspiration. I figured out a way to bypass this laptop not reading my camera. It involves using my companion's computer to copy the photos onto my jump drive but it will work out fine. So that stress is more or less resolved. But, I have recently been informed that I will lose my hefty non-BYU scholarship if I do not add another class to become a full time student. Not only will this make life extremely difficult in Ecuador because 9 credits along with the workshop teaching is already a very busy schedule, and now it will be 12 credits, but I also have to create an individual course contract with a professor, while I'm in SLC and he is in Provo. I have to determine a research topic and by some miracle obtain the books for it as well as approval all by Friday night. This is extremely stressful and annoying. But, I did play the piano today for the first time since I broke my finger and it went rather well. And I did eat a humongous dinner of pricey Italian food. And We did get home by 7:45 tonight which means I can go to bed by 10. And I can do hard things. So this will work out fine. I think.

El Primer Dia de Entrenamiento

Holy Moly. I am finally back at my hotel room after going for 14 hours straight off of 6 hours of sleep. We had training from 8-5 a.m. with a couple of 15 minute breaks and a nice lunch break. On our first break I won a game of knock-out and was the only girl playing. And I have a broken finger. :) Speaking of broken fingers, take a look at our group of interns: [Insert picture here] So, I am returning about an hour later, after trying to upload said picture and discovering that this little laptop is not reading my camera's USB cord. Ya'll know how important pictures are to me and so you understand that this discovery was of disastrous proportions. After trying everything I could think of, and voicing my frustrations to a patient friend, I gave up. And was too frustrated to continue writing, but I have since cooled off a little bit and am back to finish the race.
So the picture I was going to upload is a picture of me, Becky (my companion), and Jason. Me with a splinted broken finger, Jason on crutches with a messed up ankle, and Becky w/ her arm in a sling from a broken elbow. When we all gathered together today we had a good laugh about our group of cripples, 3/8 interns are broken. What a sight we make.
Well anyway, training got out a little after 5 p.m. and then we had an hour van ride in rush hour traffic, during which I got slightly car sick, to Sandy for dinner and FHE at a trainer's house, Brother Gustavo Estrada. He's actually the one who wrote these workshops for the church. We arrived and there was a beautiful long table set up with Fall decor and the food consisted of BBQ'd ribs, corn on the cob, broccoli salad, rolls, watermelon, and zuchinni chocolate cake. I can definitely get used to that treatment. After dinner we had FHE which was really more training which went longer than I expected. Then we drove back during which time I once again got slightly car sick and arrived at the hotel at around 9:30 p.m.
I haven't felt this exhausted in ages. I still have to plan for my lesson tomorrow, we have to teach the first portion of the workshop in Spanish to everyone tomorrow and I still need to translate some things and definitely practice it all. Becky and I were practicing in the van and my Spanish wasn't quite as rusty as I thought it would be, I feel a lot better about the upcoming teaching in Spanish experience in Ecuador, but not so confident about tomorrow. Becky is feeding me to the dogs, she has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning for her broken elbow and so I will have to teach by myself. Eek. It's past 11 p.m and I will just wake up around 6:30 to go over the materials. If everyday is like this I am going to be a walking zombie by the time I get to Guayaquil. Speaking of which, I am more and more excited to get there with each passing hour.

The Beginning of the End

Welp, here I am sitting on my full-sized bed in U of U guest housing. It was a hard week leading up to this moment. There were so many last minute shopping trips, phone calls to banks, credit card companies, scholarship offices, internship training, a 170 mile round trip to the hospital near Ogden where I could get my immunization for free on base, a visit to a different hospital to visit my grandmother, an yet another visit to a 3rd hospital to get my broken finger x-rayed again, lots of packing and sorting, applying for graduation, and spending time with friends, trying to say hi and good-bye all at once since everyone has just returned to Provo for a new school year, many of whom have recently returned from missions and I was seeing for the first time in 2 years. All of this combined for a busy week that culminated today into one big stress fest for me full of conflicting feelings.
Now that I have myself and my luggage sitting in my hotel room, with training beginning in the morning, I am feeling much better. It's done, I have left Provo. I am officially on my internship. I am still of course nervous and anxious, and at times question my sanity for leaving the country for the 2nd time this year, this time to live in a 3rd world country teaching workshops that people are depending on to help them change their lives for the better, in a language that I only started learning 18 months ago. A one word description of my feelings: Inadequate. But, I know this is where I'm supposed to be and I am going to try to increase my faith and dependence on the Savior, especially as it relates to Him helping my weaknesses become my strengths.
Now for tying in the title of this post. This really is the beginning of the end, I am in my 4th year at BYU. I will walk the stage and participate in graduation ceremonies in April, only 8 months from now, but will actually take my last 6 credits Spring term, officially ending my undergraduate career at the end of June. I'm very excited, especially to see where this internship and the things I learn on it will take me in life. I will have to begin applying for jobs in the real world, upon my return. This is an intimidating and yet exciting prospect. But, I promised myself I would take one thing at a time, so I will refrain from talking about post-graduation plans anymore. I'm just gonna focus on Ecuador right now and worry about the rest when I get back.
It's 11p.m. and I have to wake up at 6 a.m. so I should probably get going. Time flies, I'm gonna be in Guayaquil Saturday night before I know it.