Take Me There

Cooking Fanatic

2010-09-21T13:28:00.000-05:00

So, the honeymoon is over and it's on to real life! Pictures of the honeymoon can be found on facebook. Enjoy. Real life so far has consisted of me dropping out of grad school (just didn't feel right once I got there), being the victim of fraud and losing $2,200, job hunting all day every day with my husband, getting called to work in the nursery at church, making couple friends, and cooking lots and lots of good food. Jackson thinks I should start a cooking blog. I'm not sure if I have what it takes. But as of right now, as an unemployed new wife, I have been finding satisfaction in cooking something different and delicious each and every day. This of course makes for one VERY happy husband. That's just a side benefit. I'm still not sure if I do it for him or for me - I happen to LOVE food as well.

Mealtime is definitely an important event in our home. We already have a bit of a routine: I typically get to work in the kitchen throwing ingredients together and assign Jackson tasks like stirring, chopping, and setting the table. He must have picked up some pointers from the cruise ship because he is one professional table setter. He puts our dishes out just-so on top of our placemats, folds our cloth napkins, sets our silverware out precisely, lights the candles, and dims the lights. We're enjoying our candle lit dinners while we can before kiddos come into the picture! Below are some pictures of what we've been feasting on:

These are just frozen breaded fish fillets but I spiced them up by rubbing
a mix of butter, parmesan, and italian spices over the top and then topping
them with tomato slices and mozarella cheese. They were delicious!

Pancakes with Boysenberry Syrup!

Ramen stir-fry. Simple and amazingly tasty! I cooked ramen with less water than it called for,
and cooked veggies (snow peas, green pepper, carrots, onion) in with the hamburger meat.
I threw it all together, added the ramen seasoning, as well as some other spices, soy sauce,
a bit of ketchup, and oila! Cheap, easy, and SO GOOD!

Shrimp Alfredo. I mixed in some red bell pepper and served it with broccoli and a salad.

Pork Chops with a White Whine Mushroom Sauce
Served with Lima Beans and Fried Potatoes

Jackson is REALLY excited, he hasn´t had this
since his mission!

Gnocci/Ñoquis - A potato based pasta served with a red sauce...
I have to brag about the sauce in this, it was the best I´ve ever made!

Brazilian Chicken over Rice served with Chips and Guacamole

Chicken Mozzarella Bake... I LOVE casseroles!
This one had rice, chicken, corn, onion, and red peppers among other things.

Pot Roast with Potatoes/Carrots and Gravy. Served with homemade bread and jam.

So, there's a look into the Calame Kitchen. It's fun and tasty but makes for lots of dishes! Here's a picture of our little kitchen where all of this magic happens:

I Pledge My Allegiance to Craigslist

2010-07-09T12:46:00.000-05:00

So, Jackson and I sat down and had a serious conversation about life plans the other night and decided once and for all to move to Austin. (The week before we had decided once and for all to move to Provo... ) Austin works well with our life and family goals. So, with no furnishings to our name I spent many hours at work this week perusing craigslist for furniture. There were many exchanges of e-mails and pictures. Well, yesterday, I was getting quite tired of searching through the junk (such as ads for "beautiful couch!" that turn out to look 20 years old with sagging cushions), but something pushed me forward. I went back 6 days worth of hundreds of postings and then landed on a gold mine. This guy is moving across the country and is selling his entire apartment furnishings! Even better, all the furniture is under a year old! He offered it all for $750. I promptly texted the guy and set up an appointment for 5 p.m. Definitely worth leaving work early for. I called in the forces and got my dad, brother, Jackson, and my aunt to all bring their vehicles and man-power. I already knew from the pictures that we wanted it all.

Upon arrival I met the guy selling the stuff, James. Really cool guy from the Bronx, graphic designer, amazing artist, former Navy, and presently a government employee. When all was said and done Jackson bargained him down to $650 and check out what was included: Queen size slay bed, box spring, mattress, 2 nightstands, GORGEOUS cream suede couch, dining room table, 2 chairs, books (he had his library up for grabs too so I took away "Home Improvement for Dummies" and "Guide to Personal Finance" figuring those were worthy investments for married life), 4 ft. dresser, washing machine, recliner, Blue Ray DVD player, decorative vases, 3 lamps, TV stand for 52 inch flat screen, coffee table, 2 end tables, and 3 lamps!! We also bought his 42 inch flat screen plasma TV separately because it was half off retail price. Some of this is shown below:

It took hours of taking apart furniture and loading it into the different vehicles, but we succeeded in taking his belongings out right from under him! We have to return for the washing machine, it was the only thing we didn't manage to cram in. The evening was filled with joyous smiles and twirley hugs as Jackson and I gloried in our abundant blessings and felt like we were living in a fairytale as we furnished an entire apartment for about 1/8 of what the stuff was worth.

One thing I love about Jackson is how ready he is to make new friends and get to know strangers. By the end of the night he had invited James over for dinner on Sat. night, volunteering my cooking skills. James accepted the invitation and we plan on a wonderful little party on Saturday night, as a gesture of our gratitude for him providing a huge blessing in our lives!

Rantings Concerning a Certain Pet Peeve

2010-04-30T14:53:00.001-05:00

I have a few pet peeves in my life, as my freshman roommates could certainly attest to. One is un-rinsed dishes. Another is people mispelling others' names. (It's their NAME! Get it right!) And, I realized this week that a MAJOR pet peeve of mine is restroom goers who wash their hands with water. I've seen it more and more lately. It's one thing if it's a little kid doing it, but GROWN ADULTS?? Let's think this through: Anything you touch in a bathroom only adds more germs to your hands. So, 1) Touch faucet to turn on water 2) Rinse hands... for what? Oh yeah, this is the stone age where we think water rinses germs off of hands. 3) Touch paper towel dispener or air dryer to dry our now-infected-even-more-hands!
Let's review the steps of hand washing, shall we? [See Picture on Right]
I like these instructions because it tells you to turn the water off with a towel. I appreciate that.
I struggle to know how to approach this problem. Do I just continue to raise my eyebrows and look in disgust as women skip over the soap dispenser? Do I viciously throw hand sanitizer their way? Oh wait: Freshman year I posted a much-hated sign above the sink that said "Rinse ya'lls Dishes Please!" Maybe I could post a sign above every bathroom sink I frequent that says "Wash your hands with SOAP!" Ugh. I don't think any of those things would work. It is hopeless. May society smarten up and realize that water does not kill germs. Soap does. And if you run your hands under the faucet solely to keep up appearances, shame on you! Your tricks won't work with me. I see your filthy germ-infested hands!

A Societal Blunder

2010-04-20T13:25:00.000-05:00

I have never considered myself to be a feminist. I have a very traditional view of the way things should be, I fully intend on being a stay at home mother with a masters degree. I value womanhood and also value a man's role to lead and provide. However, I had a very strange experience this past weekend that causes me to ponder whether I have a bit of a feminist in me, or whether I have a bit of a pride issue in this regard, or whether niether is true and I am justified in my annoyance. Let me explain:

Saturday afternoon Jackson and I arrive at the Sears Automotive department to pick up my car. As we walked towards the garage area I was mentally preparing myself to shell out $534 for the routine maintenance that had been done on my car. We approach, holding hands. The employee says, "How can I help you sir?" I step forward and say, "Actually, I'm here to pick up my car. The Chevy Cavalier". And he goes on his merry way, trying to help 3 different customers at the same time and Jackson and I stand and wait. I was annoyed inside. Here I was, coming to give them half a grand of MY money, and they didn't even acknowledge me as the customer. They immediately addressed the man. It wasn't his car or his money and I am perfectly capable of getting my car fixed on my own, I have taken care of such matters on my own since I bought it 6 years ago. I pondered my feelings and paid the man who had committed the blunder.

Fast forward 1 hour:

Jackson and I walk into the optometry section of Wal-Mart, holding hands. The Wal-Mart employee says, "How can I help you sir?" Once again I step forward and say, "Actually, I'm here to pick up my contacts. I ordered them 10 days ago and they should have been here by now". The man finds my contacts, apologizes that I was not notified, and I pay and politely go on my way.

30 minutes later:

Jackson and I are at the check out register. Not holding hands. I pay for my purchases. The lady hands my receipt to Jackson. I take it from him.

We walk out of Wal-Mart and I re-play the past 3 incidents to Jackson and ask his thoughts on the matter. Originally, I was approaching the topic from a purely sociological perspective. I was curious as to why those incidences had just happened. It seemed so contrary to this day and age. I mean if I had been the employee and saw a young couple walking towards me I would say something like, "How can I help ya'll?" or, "How can I help you folks?" but I would definitely not assume that the man was my primary customer. As Jackson and I discussed the matter and Jackson thought I was being slightly silly, I became more and more bothered and my purely sociological study progressed to real annoyance.

So I pose the question to the blog-reading community: Am I being silly and getting slightly worked up about nothing? Or am I justified in my annoyance at a modern-day social transgression?

I am a Creator

2010-04-16T17:29:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite talks is by President Uchtdorf and is entitled "Happiness, Your Heritage". In it, President Uchtdorf talks to the women of the church and tells us that "the desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul". I remember listening to this talk in Ecuador and Becky and I couldn't help but nod and express our heartfelt agreement with his explanation of how women find satisfaction and joy out of creating. Yes, I need to express my creative energies or else I begin to be unhappy with life. When I create, it comes in many forms - I sometimes create sound as I play the piano, or I take a ball of yarn and turn it into a crocheted scarf or blanket, or I create a delicious meal from random ingredients, or I take a disorderly or dirty space and clean and organize in order to achieve a pleasing and relaxed space, or sometimes I take everyday moments and travels and take a picture and create a photo book to preserve meaningful memories.

Recently, I have let myself become extremely busy. Between working full time, fulfilling my calling as Institute President, and dating I haven't left any time for myself. This has recently culminated in creating an internal imbalance and I became determined to make time for me again. Yesterday, I experienced my first slow day at work in months. I've finally reached the goals I needed to and can slow down a bit on my appointments. So, with my extra time I spent the day brainstorming and pondering how best to express all of my creative energy that has built up inside of me over the past few months. I considered buying a ukulele. A guy in Austin a couple weeks ago taught me some songs and I caught on really fast. I was pretty much a natural. I also considered taking up guitar again. I resolved to practice the piano more. I resolved to set aside time to work on my photo book. I made plans to make cascarones (confetti filled eggs) for fiesta next week. Eventually, my ponderings and browsing on Amazon and craigslist led me to impulsively buy my first sewing machine!

I spent a solid 20 or 30 minutes researching customer reviews and comparing brands and capabilities and prices and called my mom for a vote of confirmation that my impulsive purchase was acceptable. I decided to invest in a nice one and ended up with a Brother CS6000I 60-Stitch Computerized Free-Arm Sewing Machine with Multiple Stitch Functions. Now I can finally finish my t-shirt quilt and stop having to depend on others in order to use a sewing machine! And after I finish my quilt I will embark on other creative sewing projects. I took a sewing class at BYU. I got a C+. It is the only C I have ever received all through grade school and college. You can imagine the bitter feelings that leaves me with when I even think of sewing. Not only that, but I know full well that it is much more time efficient and cost efficient to buy clothing these days than sew it yourself. However, I feel that sewing is of course necessary for basic mending and acceptable for creating blankets, pajama pants, and skirts. These are the three things I intend on creating. Skirts to the knee are hard to find these days and I'm excited to practice and become more creative with different trims and accessories on them. And I have an extreme LOVE for blankets.

Moral of the story: Don't let creative energies build up inside of you until you consider buying a baby-grand piano, ukulele, guitar, AND sewing machine all in one day!

Check it.

2010-03-11T23:01:00.000-06:00

I also received my acceptance to the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M today.

I have been selected!

2010-03-11T17:16:00.004-06:00

I have been anxiously awaiting an envelope from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT-Austin notifying me of whether I have been selected for admission to pursue my Master of Global Policy Studies. Today, I sat down at my desk after being away for about an hour, and opened up an e-mail from admissions. There it was. My anti-climactic acceptance to their school!

While simply clicking on an e-mail was not nearly as exciting as it would have been to tear open the sealed envelope holding pretty UT Stationary, sure to be filled with exlamation points and positive words of acceptance, I am still thrilled! And, the letter will follow shortly, and perhaps that letter will be filled with exlamation points at the end of some large sum of money that they are offering me to attend their school. That would provide enough excitement to make up for finding out about my acceptance by e-mail.

In other news, I had a very successful interview with A&M and should find out about their decision shortly. I was nervous for the interview, but shouldn't have been. If you get me talking about my professional goals and experiences, I get on a soap box and go on about my passion for international development forever. They were extremely impressed with my field experience and what I'm doing now as well as my expressed enthusiasm. Right now I am still saying that UT is my top choice. But in reality, who really knows. I haven't ever visited either school. I need to visit, attend a few classes, check out the singles wards, and check out the cities. Austin is a REALLY cool city though, so it gets big points for that. I'll keep ya'll posted on what I end up deciding to do!

The Yucatan!

2010-03-06T23:43:00.017-06:00

Here are some highlights from my trip to the Yucatan Peninsula.

Thursday Feb 25:

Flew into Cancun, rented a car and drove down to Playa del Carmen. We spent the evening exploring the endless souvenir shops and ate at a delicious restaurant which had the BEST salsa that I have ever eaten in my life. I made sure to inform the guy who seated us that I whole heartedly approved. I would buy an airline ticket all over again just to go eat that salsa. I also bought a virgin miami beach - a piña colada and strawberry daquiri mixed. The restaurant had a live band and salsa dancing soon ensued.
Our evening ended with a lovely night time walk down the beach.

Friday Feb 26:

We took a ferry over to Cozumel first thing in the morning. The boat rocked a lot on the waves and I got sick. I threw up in a bag. Awesome. Below is me 5 or 10 minutes before I lost it.
I hated that ferry with a passion by the time we docked but I had to get directly onto another boat that took us out to the reef where we would be snorkeling at. I forgot how much I L-O-V-E snorkeling! While snorkeling I saw a large school of fish about 30 feet below me, came within 7 feet of a baracuda, saw some ridiculously large angel fish, and practiced equalizing the pressure in my ears so I could dive down a bit. I have never been able to hold my breath very long under water, but it's amazing how easy it is to forget about your desire to breathe when there is abundant sea life to distract you! I managed to dive down 15 feet. It'd be awesome to dive down the 30 like my tour guide did.

After snorkeling, I went shopping. I walked into a man's store and within 5 seconds of seeing me, he said in Spanish, "Ya'll are Mormon aren't you?" I was shocked. I asked how he knew. He said there was something different about us, we walk differently, we talk differently, there's just something different and it's hard to explain. That was a cool experience. He was very helpful in explaining the symoblism on the Mayan masks I was looking at. I found one I liked and bargained him down from $35 to $25. But, I hadn't shopped around at all and told him I wanted to look a bit before buying it. I went into the next store, with the sole intention of figuring out if $25 was a good deal or not. I found a mask similar in size and workmanship and inquired the price. The sales guy sized me up and said $140. Confused, I asked him if that was American Dollars or Pesos. American. I laughed. I don't even know if I said anything in response, I only remember turning around laughing out loud, genuinely amused, and walked away as he called after me, "Wait! Señorita, how much do you want to pay?" I went directly back to the first guy and told him I'd give him the extra dollar (he very begrudgingly went down to 25 from 26), because I like his customer service. Still laughing that the guy tried to get me for $140 I went on my merry way with a beautiful mask to hang on my wall.

Becky flew in and met us at our hotel that evening. It was a joyous reunion after a 4 month absence. We celebrated by going out to dinner and sharing a seafood platter of fish, squid, shrimp, and octopus. It was delicious!

Saturday Feb 27

We drove out to Tulum and marveled at seeing Mayan ruins for the first time. There is a temple right along the cliffs of the Caribbean and it was incredible. The water is turqouise and took my breath away. After thouroughly exploring the ruins, we spent the afternoon lying on the beach and swimming in the warm, crystal clear waters.

Eventually we booked it on over to Coba to see more ruins, but got there at the exact minute that they stopped letting people enter for the day. Instead we stopped by the lake that my guidebook advised us not to picnic at because of its large crocodile population. We spotted a croc and snapped a few pictures before heading off to Valladolid. Along the way we stopped by a cenote along the road. Cenotes are humongo sink holes that are found throughout the peninsula. Anciently, many were used to make human sacrifices to various gods. The cenotes we visited are rather impressive.

Sunday Feb 28

After exploring the colorful colonial town, we headed off to church. We asked people along the way where the Mormon chapel is located and they consistently pointed us in the same direction. When we finally came to a street corner in a shady neighborhood, all that was there was the Jehovah's Witnesses church. 4 people in a row were under the impression that Jehovah Wintesses and Mormons are the same thing. I found it extremely amusing and then proceeded to hail a taxi to take us directly to church, since we were now going to be late. He drove us across town and took us to the correct building. The picture on the left shows our feelings upon arriving and finding the gates locked and grounds empty. After standing around a bit, confused as to what to do and wondering why nobody was at church, a man came up and told us they were all away at conference. Of course. Stake Conference, which is in a city hours away. There was nothing to be done about church and so we went on our way to Chichen Itza and sang hymns in the car to make up for our missed church attendance.

Chichen Itza was INCREDIBLE. Huge pyramids, observatory, cenote, ball court (think Road to Eldorado) and mayan souvenir venders galore. Here are some pictures of the highlights:

Monday March 1

Everyone but Becky and I flew home. We relocated to The Westin and marveled at our ocean view room with plush white beds. We spent the afternoon at the beach, experiencing Cancun for the first time. Cancun beaches get an A++.

All in all, despite getting conned by the Mexican government, I very much enjoyed my trip! I was most excited about seeing Mayan ruins for the first time but was also blown away by the Caribbean Sea. Yucatan Vacation = Success.

Conned by the Mexican Government

2010-03-02T19:35:00.000-06:00

I will happily tell of my Mexican vacation after this post. But first, I will tell of the nightmare of a time I had getting home.

Becky and I stayed at the southern tip of the Hotel Zone in Cancun on our last night at The Westin - a 4 star resort. We had an ocean view room, feather pillows, and an inredibly white and soft bed. Understandably, it was hard to tear myself away from lying and listening to the crashing waves below and get ready to catch my flight. I had planned on taking the bus to the airport since that is typically the cheapest option. Unfortunately, all of the buses turn around right outside our hotel and head back up north along the hotel zone. The airport however, is located 10 km west of the Westin. Both a city bus driver and hotel employees had informed me that buses do not run to the airport, but I refused to believe it. Turns out, I could in fact take the bus but it would involve taking the bus about 15 km north, then about 5 km west, and then about 20 km south again, basically making an incomplete 3-sided skinny rectangle on the map. This would take, at best, 2 hours. I did not have that sort of time and was therefore obligated to pay the set rate of 270 pesos for a 10 km ride to the airport - or about 6 miles for $22 USD. Annoyed, I walked outside and got in a taxi, already grumpy from skipping breakfast because I refused to pay $7 for a bowl of cereal at the resort.

I arrived at the airport and was pleased to find a relatively short line at the check-in counter. I then proceded to wait for almost an hour as they consistently helped the other 2 lines of "preferred passengers" instead of the ever-growing long line of apparently un-preferred passengers. When I checked in they asked me if I had my immigration form from when I arrived in Mexico. I did not. They sent me to the immigration office. I entered the room, closed the door, and told the man at the desk that I did not have my immigration form and asked what I need to do about that. He asked if I was sure about that because there would be a fine of 525 pesos to give me a new one. My mind flashed back to a couple of days before when I had thrown away a bunch of paper that tends to accumulate when you travel - boarding passes, brochures, maps, etc. and I recalled very clearly looking at that immigration paper, checking to make sure my social and/or passport number wasn't on it, and seeing that it was only my name and b-day I tore it in 3 pieces and dumped it in the trashcan. I told the man I was positive that I did not have that form. Not wanting to pay $43 USD to leave Mexico, I told him it was just a piece of paper and asked if there was anything I could do. He said no, and told me that they would either ask for that form there in Cancun or in Mexico City before I boarded my connection to San Antonio. He then kindly directed me to an ATM outside the door. Unhappily, I stomped over to the ATM (okay, maybe I was only stomping in my heart, I probably just walked dejectedly) and withdrew the money. I paid the guy 525 pesos in cash, took the newly signed form and went on my grumpy and hungry way through security wanting to cry about the cash I'd just forked over first to the taxi and now to an immigration official for a form that nobody told me I needed to keep.

My luck wasn't all bad though. On the flight from Cancun to Mexico City, someone had either a bottle of beer that shattered or a can that exploded in the overhead compartment above me. I was awakened from my slumber as a result of a commotion directly in front of me. It smelled like beer and I noticed that the guy in front of me had something spilled all over his face and clothes. The exploded beer from above had leaked out onto the passenger in front of me and missed me and my stuff by about 6 inches. I felt bad for the guy that was now sticky and smelling of beer but sent up a silent thank-you that it wasn't me.

In Mexico City I was hungry and had 100 pesos left. I wanted food and had about 15 minutes to find some before I boarded my next flight. However, all I could find was perfume, watches, and tequila. As my stomach became increasingly angry at me for not paying the $7 and eating cereal this morning, I finally found a lone food venue. I examined the menu, calculating how to get the most bang for my buck. I finally decided that I would get the most food by buying a hot dog and french fries. I ate them happily, using my ketchup sparingly as they were very stingy with handing it out and then boarded my flight to San Antonio.

I landed in San Antonio, went through customs and was picked up by my mother. Not one person had asked me for that immigration form. And to add to my irritation, upon examination, the back of the form states clearly, "this document and its issuance are free". Looks like I was tricked into contributing $43 to Mexico's fiscal budget for 2010. Or maybe the immigration guy pocketed the cash. Who really knows.

The Vacation Gods Love Me

2010-02-19T15:21:00.001-06:00

Here's why:

1) Becky bought her ticket a bit after I did. Since she's flying out of SLC, it worked better for her to get to Cancun a day after the San Antonio group, and leave a day later as well. I was a bit bummed, and wished there was a way to stay the extra day to have more time to visit with her since we live 1,500 miles apart and all. Well, the other day I received an e-mail saying my flight had been changed. After speaking with a very helpful Indian customer service guy, he informed me that my connection in Mexico City on my return flight had been moved up and I would need to be on the flight from Cancun to Mexico City at 11:20 AM instead of the original 1:45 PM. He asked me if this was okay with me. I very politely told him that I actually was not very happy about it, that I had scheduled my flight in the afternoon for a reason, because I wanted to be able to spend the morning in Cancun, and that I was not pleased at my vacation being cut 2 1/2 hours short. (Hey, I really wasn't pleased. And I saw an opportunity to get a better deal out of the situation). As he attempted to think of a solution that would make me happy, I asked him if there was any way I could just leave a day later, so as to not cut my vacation short. He spoke with the airline, and promptly returned my call. "Yes ma'am, that is not a problem at all". Now I get to crash in Becky's already reserved 4 star resort and we have an extra day to spend at the beach. Thank-you vacation gods.

2) I have only been working at my current position for about 3 1/2 months. Therefore, I have only accrued about 3 days of paid time off (this of course played a large role in my decision to schedule my vacation so that I would only miss 3 days of work). I get paid while on vacation and at that time my PTO will be up to a little over 32 hours, or 4 work days... exactly what I need to cover my extra day at the beach with Becky. Thank-you vacation gods.

3) I have been fretting about the ever increasing costs of checking luggage. I was originally planning on just taking a carry-on sized suitcase and a backpack. It's only 5 days at the beach, no need to haul my entire closet to Mexico. But then I began to think of the complications. I need to bring sunscreen, aloe (because we are sure to get burnt), bug repellant, and 4 days at the beach makes a razor absolutely necessary. I could go out and buy lots of empty 2 oz. bottles and carefully funnel my liquids and gels, but there wasn't much I could do about bug repellant or a razor. And I certainly didn't want to spend my vacation time scouring Mexican grocery stores for silly toiletry items. As I resolved myself to the fact that we would all just have to split the cost of checking one bag and throw all of our deadly-airplane explosive-sunscreen bottles into one bag, I logged on to Mexican airlines to see how much they were going to charge. Upon investigation I discovered that economy class passengers are allowed one FREE checked bag. What? Really? What is this, the stone age? Moral of the story: Mexican airlines can have my business anytime they want. AND... the vacation gods STILL love me.

3 White Girls with Hip Hop moves

2010-02-11T17:49:00.000-06:00

So one of my new year's goals was to make time for exercise again. I know, I'm one of about a billion people who made that resolution. But I'm serious. It was really bothering me and I was becoming unhappy because I need physical activity to keep my life in balance. Thankfully, soon thereafter, my entire work place decided to pursue a similar goal. We suddenly have a "Biggest Loser" contest going (which I am not a part of), and a running group, which plans on running the Komen Race for the Cure this year. We are working out M-Th right after work at the 1/2 mile track near our office. This has been great because I feel safer running at night with a group, and it's directly after work so I don't have the temptation of getting home and not going back out. Well anyway, since it's been rainy and cold this week we have resorted to workout videos in the GED classroom after work. The only workout videos I've ever used are for pilates and yoga, which suits me because any sort of aerobics type activity that involves moving to a rhythm is far too complicated for me.

This is why hip hop abs was so fantastic. I hope you can tell from the cover how great it really was. Cheesy hairdos, cheesy ryhmes, and cheesy smiles. My favorite part was when our IT guy, John, joined us for the workout. In his work clothes.
The whole time I couldn't stop thinking of how great each move would be at the next Institute dance. Bring on that hip hop music, I will blow everyone away with my newly learned hip hop moves that are always carried out awkwardly and off beat. Maybe I'll even be like my boy Shaun T. here in the video and lift my shirt up a little bit and run my fingers over my almost-existant abs to explain how each move is contributing to my 6-pack. I think that would really bring in the dates. We're working out to the video again tonight. I'll let you know when I've learned to dance like Britney Spears and J-Lo. And when I have the body to prove it.

Taking the Opportunity

2010-02-08T17:43:00.000-06:00

1) I am taking the opportunity to utilize my blog. I'm going to take ya'll somewhere, and maybe I'll make next year's 2010 S&M awards. In that same spirit, I believe my blog design needs an overhaul and I don't know the first thing about creating cool blog designs. Any websites ya'll would recommend?

2) I have accepted the opportunity to be the Institute Council President for the San Antonio metro area. This is a regional calling and is a pretty huge deal apparently. Last year we ended enrollment with 480 institute students. With a new semester, we had to start all over. Last I checked we were up to 300, with a goal to get to 600 by the end of the semester. It's an intense calling that is actually a huge blessing. I had a rather large desire to serve a mission but finally got a firm "no" for an answer and was able to let it go and move forward. Soon after I got my "no", I received this calling which allows me to be a missionary constantly. We're making cold calls, I'm visiting different wards and meeting with leaders and getting referrals, my council and I put forth large efforts in fellowshipping and meeting new people each week... besides the fun missionary opportunity, I also get to direct the planning of large activities and have been honored with people referring to me as "President" in place of my first name. It's been rather fun and I look forward to continuing to spread the gospel among young single adults in the area!

3) I was just informed that a case manager position has opened up at work. As I have worked with these kids from the poorest area in the city, I have become extremely frustrated at times. We provide a great program here at Good Samaritan Community Services and it is a really great opportunity for these kids to get an education, get work experience, and receive much needed guidance that for the most part is absent in their homes. Well anyway, I get frustrated as I meet with kids who tell me they can't work because they would lose their Social Security benefits, or kids who take 4 years to get their GED, among lots of other annoying habits. I have developed a desire to have a greater role in their lives and have the opportunity to teach them rather than just provide basic employment support during their internships. For this reason, I have applied for the position and we'll see what happens. If I get the case manager position, I'll be able to have a greater positive influence in these kids' lives, AND get a $2 raise.

4) I took advantage of the opportunity to fly to Cancun for $261. I had been considering it for weeks and when my boyfriend of 2 months broke up with me, it was the last thing I needed to convince myself to take a vacation. I bought my ticket with the hopes that others would want to come to. It was meant to be, now I have 4 friends coming with me! The next 2 weeks can't go by fast enough! I'll be in Mexico February 25 - March1.

It's a long trip alone.

2009-09-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

I successfully traversed the country, making the 24 hour drive back to Utah, alone. There were really good parts actually. I flat out refused to drive through west Texas and New Mexico and so I went through the panhandle and Colorado instead. Instead of ugly desert, my drive was filled with TX farm land, oil rigs, cowboys, herds of buffalo, herds of sheep blocking my road, beautiful sunsets, deserted ghost towns, daisy-lined highways, tree covered mountains and many other picturesque and awe-inspiring scenes. One such scene was a large thunderstorm north of Amarillo that I feared would turn into this:
To my great relief, it didn't. Now I am in Utah. I have one class, which meets for an hour and a half twice a week. I live with Sydney in her parent's basement, in Highland. I appreciate their hospitality greatly.
In other news, I must voice a hearty "AMEN" to Sydney's last identity-crisis post. I am also living in limbo. I feel like I keep taking two steps onto 50 different paths before retreating to the fork in the road over and over again. And you know what? I find that fork in the road quite intimidating so I think I'm just gonna hang out here for awhile.

Directions

2009-08-25T22:06:00.000-05:00

Specifically life directions. Isn't it great how you never know where life will take you? You can plan all you want but when it comes down to it, unexpected opportunities and challenges always interfere with those plans. At least, this has been the case with me.
I am embarking on a new and exciting time in my life and I would like to share it with those who care to read about it. So, I will attempt to catch the reader up in my life so that he/she may understand why I'm heading in the direction I am heading.
This Summer has been a unique one. The first part was filled with traveling: Phoenix, Arches, Portland, Boston, New Hampshire, Maine, NYC and then home to San Antonio for the rest of the Summer. 2 weeks after returning home, I found my dream job, requested an interview, and was hired. I've spent the Summer in San Antonio working full-time for a non-profit called Good Samaritan Community Services. I've had the opportunity to work with at-risk Hispanic youth and have found purpose and joy in my work.
Just last week I returned from attending graduation ceremonies in Provo. Unfortunately, I have to return to complete a 6 week class. This annoys me greatly. I am very content with where I am at and where I am heading and Provo was not in the plans. But, C'est la vie.
After Provo I intend on throwing myself full force into the non-profit world by moving to the D.C. area. I want to work with Latino immigrants and refugees and assist them in achieving educational goals and economic self-sufficiency.
That's my life in a nutshell. As the Summer draws to a close I have been reflecting on the things that I have learned recently. I'd like to share some of these things with you:

1. People are very important. Living for others brings satisfaction, happiness, and joy. Also, strengthening relationships with people (socially speaking, not romantically) provides abundant opportunities to learn and grow. It also puts you in the right place at the right time to be an instrument in God's hands and provides opportunities for Him to bless the lives of others, through you.
2. I thrive off of diversity. Once, in New York, I looked around the metro car and realized I was the only Caucasian aboard. I was in complete bliss. I love being around people of different race, culture, and language. It makes life colorful and interesting and beautiful.
3. While one may learn a substantial amount from books, and I love reading, experience is the greatest teacher of them all. Experience allows one to stretch one's abilities, knowledge, dedication, patience, and willpower to completely new and higher levels. Experience helps to specify and define goals, interests, and talents.
4. I'm an idealist. I suppose I always have been. I remember writing a paper in an 8th grade English class, I talked about wanting to make a positive difference in the world. At that time I thought the only way to do that was to go on some sort of humanitarian trip to Africa or become a teacher. I've thought about how funny it is that I ended up choosing a major, accepting an internship opportunity, and seeking employment that have all placed me in a position to realize that goal. One day earlier this Summer, I was discouraged by job hunting and scoffed at myself. Who in their right mind wants to work in NON-PROFIT and make a living off of it? What was I thinking? It seemed hopeless to be able to do what I wanted and get paid for it. Since then, I've discovered tons of resources and organizations. And I smashed the self-doubt and narrow vision. Hello World and Opportunity.
5. Optimism and confidence go a long ways. I am reminded of a quote from general conference; "Your future is only as bright as your faith". That made a very large impact on me. Also, when I read "Left to Tell", a book written by a Rwandan Holocaust survivor, I learned about how important it is to envision that future. With faith, confidence, hard-work and vision you are the master of your fate.

That's all for now. Until next time!

Last One

2008-11-30T20:59:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, I think that I have decided I'm not very into this whole blog thing. Because this whole trip during my conversations with Becky, I keep saying "Oh, I should write a blog about that" and then I never do. So, had I been a better blogger I would have wrote about the man on the bus who made the bus driver turn down the music so he could talk to us and proceeded to hold a conversation with us while yelling for the whole bus to hear. He was just on for a few minutes, selling something but felt a need to ask us if we are married and to warn us about falling in love with Ecuadorian men and told me my eyes are the color of the sky. It was a wonderfully embarrassing conversation that the entire bus listened to and the girls behind us were getting a kick out of it and laughing up a storm.
I also would have wrote about the old man on the beach last Monday who was selling his little tray of packaged cookies and chips and gum. He danced a jig for us while singing about something or another. He then talked to us and got really excited that we are from the states and told us how he loves talking with people. He then danced another jig and sang a song about how he's traveled all over Ecuador and we are the most beautiful women he's ever seen.
I would also have written about the man we met at the mall who is from Miami and has lived in Ecuador for the past 8 years because he believes the white race is going to be exterminated in the U.S. He turned out to be the most racist man I've ever met and I'm pretty sure he is an apostate who would love to be a polygamist in the Andes mountains. He kept telling Becky and I how beautiful and white we are and that the only beautiful women left in the world are Mormon, that we have a light in our faces. We defended President Monson and kept taking steps back as he took steps forward.
I also would have written about seeing iguanas in the wild for the first time.
And seeing the moon for the first time in Ecuador a few weeks ago. And how I saw 7 stars today and that was a really big deal.
And how I feel like a good teacher and understand the workshop finally.
And how I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Becky and our only American friend, Ethan. It was a huge success.
And how I rode a bike on the route of the waterfalls and saw the tallest waterfall in Ecuador. And I 4-wheeled up a volcano. And I went to the Amazon.
That's all I can think about right now. We lose internet at midnight tonight since it's the end of the month. So this is the last entry from Ecuador. It's been fun. It's been the hardest experience of my life but also possibly the most rewarding. I'm grateful for all of my experiences and I'm glad that Becky and I have become such great friends. I've learned a ton and am excited to get back to the states and get on with life, applying all of the things that I've learned here. So, we are taking off on December 10th and until then we are spending 6 of the next 9 days at the beach. It's gonna be great. So, see ya'll soon!

Take Me Home

2008-11-19T13:10:00.000-06:00

"Country roads, take me home, home...where I belong"... what a great John Denver song. It's not that I don't like Ecuador, nope, it's just that I REALLY REALLY REALLY love home. And with only 20 days left before I'm on a blessed plane bound for home I can't think of much else. In my defense it has been over 7 months since I was home. Over 7 months since I've seen my parents and my little sister, Tara. That's a long time. And I think my cravings for American food are getting the best of me. Mostly, I think I just really miss loved ones. And my own culture. Fall is such a traditional time of year for us, what with all of our holidays and traditions for the changing seasons, and it happens to be my favorite time of year and I'm a bit sad to miss all of it. I was reading the Odyssey recently and came across a quote that I really liked, "I know no sweeter sight on earth than a man's own native country". That may never ring so true to me as it does right now. I never realized how much I love the United States until I left it twice this year. Not that I regret it, it's just that I'm really ready to be done. So, as I cram these last 3 weeks to finish my classes, and as I lose internet access in 11 days, pray for my sanity. I'll be home soon but not soon enough!

Laughing My Way Through Ecuador

2008-11-11T20:58:00.000-06:00

Alright, so I haven't had a chance to write about how my feelings have changed over time about Ecuador. I feel like I owe an apology to the country for not making amends. So, here goes. Once upon a time Becky and Natausha came to Guayaquil, Ecuador. The first 2 1/2 weeks were all fun and games and they felt like tourists and everything was new and crazy and exciting. Then they realized they weren't tourists, but they actually lived there. Then came the month of October when they hated life and wanted nothing more than to get on the next plane back to the states. It was hard living in Guayaquil, it was dirty, hot, and dangerous. Then they both had an emotional breakdown and self pity party on the same day. The next day, they left for Cuenca to get away and take a vacation to stay sane.
Something happened in Cuenca. For me, I found purpose in being in Ecuador. I wrote down all the things that I have learned and personal progress that I've made and realized a lot of good had come from my stay in Ecuador. I confronted my problem of being unhappy and made a conscious decision to change it and prayed for help. Well, Becky and I worked together and we started out just deciding to laugh about everything that bothers us. To make fun of it. So, we began making fun of everything rather than letting it get to us. We apparently laughed about life in Ecuador enough that it took root. Because now we aren't laughing to cover up the fact that we're annoyed. We genuinely laugh. At everything. And we actually like Guayaquil. It doesn't look ugly like it used too. We even though the river looked kind of blue today. I don't want to throw stones at men anymore. Well at least most of the time I don't. And I'm understanding the people and culture more than before. And tonight, I noticed that once again everything fascinates me. It's great. Yeah, we still place our hand over our heart when we pass the airport, but we're enjoying ourselves all the same. I might actually miss this place. I'm growing fond of it. It's been unbelievably fun to laugh almost constantly together, life is good. Ecuador is good. It sure has its problems but somehow I see positive things now. I've adjusted. And I'm excited for all of the memories to make over the next 4 weeks.

Thoughts on the Election

2008-11-05T12:11:00.000-06:00

Alright, I know many people may be kind of tired of all the political talk and speculation but I have a few thoughts to share. Some thoughts that many people probably have not considered. So, Obama won. Typically I believe I tend to favor the Republican side of things, but I am definitely willing to lend a listening ear to the Democrats. I don't think it's necessarily good that Obama won, but I also am not very informed and therefore hesitate to form an opinion because I don't believe in forming them in ignorance. But, regardless of your political orientation here's the fact of the matter: Obama is Democrat, and now the majority lies with the Democrats in both the House and the Senate. I don't know much about politics (something I would like to change in the coming years) but I know enough to realize that this means maybe things will actually change a bit. Maybe bills will get passed. And maybe the government is going to be a bit liberal for my liking over the next 4 years. But you know what? That's okay. I'd like to remind everyone of something: The United States of America is great. It's awesome. It's relatively stable. Our little jumps in the DOW and our gay marriage debates are absolutely nothing compared to the rest of the world. You know what, no matter who won the race it was going to be a controversial outcome and a very unsure future as far as policies go. And maybe Obama isn't going to be everyone's favorite President. But he's not going to re-write the Constitution of our country. And the U.S. military isn't going to come in and overthrow him, only to take power themselves. And this my friends, is more than Ecuador can say. This is more than the majority of countries of this world can say. I love our country more and more each day that I am away from it. We are a blessed people and millions of the world's population envy us. Can you imagine if the U.S. military came in one day and took over the white house?? That just doesn't happen in our country. But it does in others. We are in troubled times, the war in the middle east stinks, the economy could be better, and I wish gay marriage was illegal in every state, but let's not blame the world's problems on one man. Let's give our President a break, whoever he may be. Sure Bush could have done things differently but I also think he got thrown a lot of crap that he just had to work with and try to make it less crappy. Obama is going to be dealing with the same stuff. And one man can not solve the world's problems. But you know what? We still have a dependable Democratic Government and a Constitution inspired of God. What a blessing! So, let's be grateful and happy, shall we?

Oh Ecuador

2008-10-31T09:40:00.000-05:00

This is a collection of random thoughts and experiences in Ecuador that I don't want to forget, it will be updated periodicially...

1. Remember the unmarked hole in the road that I wrote about in the blog about riding the bus? And I wondered how cars miss it? Well they don't. I saw some poor guy with his family in quite the pickle because he had run the corner of his car into that hole.

2. Forget sleeping on picnic tables at rest stops, this truck driver hung a hammock from the bottom of his truck and went to sleep on the side of the road.

3. There's a really popular restaurant that our boss took us to, he used to go there when he was our age. Here's the catch, all workers must be gay/transvestites. Our waiter was first a man but now a woman. Apparently it's been like that from the beginning. But the food was really good!

4. The family vehicle is a motorcycle. You see 1 and 2 years olds on motorcycles all the time with their parents. I think the most I've seen is a mother, father, and 2 kids on the same motorcycle. Although I may have seen 5 people on one once.

5. On our way to Quito we passed a man plowing his field... with Oxen.

6. Our kitchen faucet sounds like a sinking ship.

7. Every couple of days we get attacked by a large army of ants. For this reason our apartment usually has the fresh smell of insect poison. I am 100% sure I will be bringing ants home in my suitcase.

8. 6 liters of water is really heavy to carry for 20 minutes.

9. Orange juice + soy = who does that?? Oh yeah, Columbia apparently.

10. Institute dances are held with the lights on. And everyone dances with only one person the whole night. And you just shuffle your feet in a about a 4 inch radius to the salsa. In a line. It's a very confining feeling. If you start waving your arms or moving your head a lot to the beat, like an American, people stare. Or the guy you're dancing with laughs at you.

11. 8 pieces of bacon costs about $3.

12. The bakeries have cakes and pastries that look like works of art. They look delicious. They are better off as art. Sugar isn't very sweet here, and unfailingly their beautiful desserts are disgusting. Look but don't touch.

13. The tank truck is what I affectionately call the money trucks. They show up at supermarkets, gas stations, malls, businesses... any time money is transferred they have an armed band of about 5 men in uniform with large guns. So when you are buying water at the gas station while this is taking place there is a man with a large gun standing behind the counter, 2 feet from you.

14. Ecuador can never make change for your cash. You pay with a $5 for a $3 purchase and you still have to wait 5 minutes for someone to bring change. Or at markets, they run around to all the neighboring tiendas to change out your $10 or $20 bill. It's so strange.

15. Customer Service isn't a very top priority in these parts.

16. Every ice cream flavor tastes a bit like coconut.

17. Wanna do something really wild and rebellious? ... Brush your teeth with tap water.

18. Iguana roadkill. Enough Said.

19. You know how Americans always try to sneak into meetings and classes if they are late? Ecuadorians come in loudly, and while the teacher is teaching will say "Buenos Dias" to everyone or individually greet people, including the teacher. There is absolutely no shame in interrupting.

20. Another cultural difference: Americans don't like to correct each other. We will just sit silently and think, "I know what they meant", if they say a word wrong while reading, we let them go on. Not Ecuadorians. They will correct you and keep correcting you until you acknowledge your mistake and correct it. And they will argue until a matter is resolved, no matter how small, and how much it does not relate to the main point of the lesson or conversation.

21. You never know when you are going to get hit by a car.

22. I bought a pineapple for 90 cents.

23. There are random men directing parallel parking along the road. They expect to get paid for their services but they usually don't. But the point is, if there's not enough room for your car, the man will just shove the other cars forward or backward to make room for yours! So, if you come back and your car is a few feet from where you left it, that's why.

24. Forget chainsaws, I saw a man cut down a tree down the street from my apartment with a machete! Yeah, the whole tree.

25. When Becky and I see an airplane taking off(we live a mile from the airport so we see a LOT), we almost feel like we should stop and place our hand over our heart as a sign of respect and liberty.

The Tank Truck

2008-10-30T12:57:00.001-05:00

My ode to the tank truck.
Oh tank truck, what pure power you convey,
Your pure green camouflage color leaves me awestruck,
And you undoubtedly keep others at bay.

Those intimidating men with big guns form a strict line,
Which starts at your truck frame with no doors,
And runs inside to where the money lies in it's shrine.
All the while I watch, as your engine roars.

I admire your bullet proof windows,
The guards pacing back and forth, intent on their mission,
And think how they stand ready to deal out deathblows,
And with this, my face goes a bit ashen.

I can't help but want to take a picture,
But a funny feeling of hesitation prevents me,
Gun shot wounds, i just don't think I could endure,
Yep, that would definitely be crummy.

And so I continue thinking,
That maybe an ode to the tank truck will just have to do,
Oh tank truck, you at first seemed so frightning,
But I must admit, I've grown rather fond of you.

Paranoia and Scary Stories

2008-10-28T22:27:00.000-05:00

In honor of Halloween I have decided to dedicate this blog to the happenings of the last couple of days and tell you all of the ways I have learned that I could die in Ecuador. It all started with one big misunderstanding. You see, we have learned the hard way that we are expected to check in with our boss when we are traveling, just so they know where we are because they feel responsible for us. So, when we went to Cuenca we were so proud of ourselves for calling Johnny and letting him know that we had arrived safely and had a hotel room. We have lived on our own for years and this whole having to report to people for our wellbeing is a big step for us. So, we returned from Cuenca and had been in our apartment for no more than 5 minutes, and it was Johnny on the phone. He then proceeded to tell me something about how people were really worried about us, that someone by the name of Fernando had even called SLC and had our Salt Lake people going crazy with worry and that he was getting calls every 5 minutes to see if we had arrived yet. So, just to let us know, they had called SLC, and then he asked about our trip and if we had fun and whatnot. I got off the phone very confused, because for once Johnny didn't even seem worried about us. And so I told Becky the story but we didn't know a Fernando, and who on earth would know to call Mimi in SLC? I was pretty sure I understood Johnny's Spanish, and pretty sure that the story was correct but it didn't make sense and I thought I was going crazy.
Shortly after, our cell phone rang. It was Landes from BYU, wanting to make sure we're alive. We assured him we were and he told us Johnny had called SLC and that everyone was in a frenzy. I was pretty sure Johnny said some guy named Fernando had called SLC and not himself so after getting off the phone w/ Landes I called Johnny back. I told him, "We just talked with Landes from SLC, and we don't understand what happened" and he said, "me neither".
Johnny proceeded to explain that his boss, the area welfare manager, who lives in Bogota, Columbia is in town and started asking about us. Johnny told him we were traveling and so his boss started asking all sorts of questions, where we were, who we were with, how long we were going to be gone, etc. Johnny basically said, they're by themselves but I put them in contact with the employment specialist in Cuenca, and they called when they arrived, and are traveling today. Johnny had to leave the office for a few hours and when he returned his boss had called SLC, extremely worried for our safety for some reason, thinking we were lost to Ecuador. So, we sent lots of e-mails, talked on the phone, and assured our bosses and those in SLC that we are alive and there weren't any problems and we didn't know why Johnny's boss was so worried and had called SLC.
Johnny's boss is named Carlos Fernandez, not Fernando. But between Becky and I, we still affectionately call him Fernando. And he wanted to meet with us this morning. So we went in and had quite the lecture about safety. He explained how if anything happened to us it would be an international crisis for the church and for BYU. He then gave us guidelines, saying we should check in every day when we are traveling, pay a little bit more for a secure hotel, and never take a taxi from the street. Well, our hotel although only $7 a night in Cuenca was plenty secure, and I suppose he doesn't know that we don't actually ever go out after dark because it's not safe, and when we are traveling we are seriously in bed at 9 p.m. But the taxi thing was a new one. This is when we found out about all the ways we could die in Ecuador.
Hermano Fernandez explained that Ecuador has become more dangerous in the last 8 months because of the rise in unemployment, poverty, and government changes. Also, apparently they recently released a whole prison full of people and so there are tons of thieves running loose on the streets. He told us more about a drug we have heard about. We have been advised not to take anything from anyone because there could be a drug on the paper that makes you lose your freewill. He explained that the drug is absorbed through the skin and so you lose your freewill but are still conscience and will do anything you are told, whether this includes sex, robbing a bank, or killing someone. Then, when the drug wears off the victim won't remember a thing. He also talked about taxis and how we could be kidnapped and there was a girl kidnapped recently when she took a taxi to institute and nobody knows what happened to her. Typically girls kidnapped in taxis are either shipped off to Japan for prostitution, or to the FARC (columbian drug lords) for prostitution, or they are killed and their organs are sold.
Well, none of these options sounded attractive and so when we went grocery shopping after our safety lecture, we decided to walk instead of taking the taxi like we usually do. I'm not sure if we did this out of obedience to our leader or out of fear of murder and kidnapping. So, we walked the 20 minutes home laden with heavy bags of milk, fruits, and vegetables. We just about died, it doesn't help that one of Becky's arms is broken. We laughed the whole way as everyone looked at us like we were crazy and as we took like 5 breaks to avoid our arms falling off. We were exhausted when we arrived home but satisfied that we were alive. We decided that maybe Ecuador really is as dangerous as people say, they obviously have a reason to worry. Maybe we have just been protected, we've taken a lot of taxis in our day. And so maybe Hermano Fernandez over reacted with the whole calling SLC thing, but maybe we should also just take the danger more seriously. One thing is for sure, we'll probably never get into another taxi again. We still kind of laugh at the paranoia of the men of Ecuador that have charge over us but at the same time, being lectured for the first time in as long as we can remember, did have some sort of effect on us. I'm not really sure what more we can do to be safe, we're pretty cautious but apparently everyone still thinks we're going to die if we go outside of our house. We're working on convincing them that we really won't.

Prostitutes, Nuns, and Mormons

2008-10-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

What in the world would ever bring these 3 groups of people together into the same room? Well, let me tell you. The Self-Employment workshop, that's what. Yes, that's right, our 2nd week of teaching, we were enlisted to teach in the mornings to this eclectic group, as well as in the evenings at a stake in Guayaquil. Here's the story: Apparently the nuns put on street clothes and go to the sector of the city where the prostitutes are working and then say something along the lines of "Why are you doing this? Don't you want something better? Come with me and we'll put your life back together" or something along those lines. The prostitutes then make the decision to change their life and follow the nuns to the convent where they go through some sort of rehabilitation and faith building program. The nuns contacted LDS Employment Services, wanting to put these ex-prostitutes through the workshop to help them get on their feet and start their own small businesses. I think the idea is to open a hair cutting salon, and the church has agreed to work with them and is even donating something like $5,000 to the cause to buy the lot space for the salon.
So, we taught the group, 2 nuns, something like 4 Mormons, and the rest ex-prostitutes. I hate labeling them like that, but that's what they were. However, they took the workshop and it was a lot of fun teaching them and helping them learn. Some were more enthusiastic than others, but it was definitely an overall success. We recently received news that those participants have since started up their own small business (small business in Ecuador can be anything from a lemonade stand to a mechanical shop), and are now working rather than continuing their previous practices. This is exciting and we hope to receive more details in the future of their successes. I really admire what the nuns are doing, and think it is a wonderful cause to help these women, who have so much potential, realize that they do have other options and they can have happier and more meaningful lives.

Teaching

2008-10-19T19:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm not really in the mood to write a blog. But, I am here to teach and I haven't written anything about my teaching experiences thus far. And it's a Sunday evening in Guayaquil and I've been meaning to catch up on my blog for awhile, mostly because I also have been slacking on journal writing, which means nothing has been getting written down. In the life of Natausha Bennit, this is always a bad sign. For her, writing is therapeutical, and she is really sad when she realizes that here she is in Ecuador and she's not gonna remember anything about it because she is a struggling writer at the moment.
So here goes my try at catching up. I do at least have journal entries from this first week of teaching so most of this will be copy and paste. This is a pretty long entry but it will give you a good look at what it's like to teach.
Our second week in Guayaquil we went to El Cisne to teach. On the drive over, we realized these people are a lot more poor than we though. We were both making an effort to look into the dark windows and doors as we passed and saw that they really have nothing. They cram an entire family into a one room building the size of my living room, with a dirty cement or dirt floor. They are really really poor. Which is why this workshop was even more incredible. The following is a picture of the street the chapel is on.
We showed up to the building and we explained that I would be teaching the taller de autosuficiencia laboral (career workshop) and Becky would be teaching the taler de autoempleo (self employment workshop) and told them to separate and those who wanted the career workshop to follow me. Nobody moved. Turns out they ALL came for the self-employment workshop. That was a shock and not expected. So we adjusted. We moved to the cultural hall to fit all 75 people. (75 people was a shock in and of itself, past interns have talked about how they were lucky to have 10 people show up for a workshop) I was extremely disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to teach my workshop and had no idea what I was going to do for the next 3 hours because I know nothing about the self-employment workshop. Becky also doesn't know much about the workshop but she has at least read the 120 page teacher's manual. So we got started. I helped where I could, asking questions, organizing activities but I felt like I was just kind of there. Becky appreciated the moral support and the few minutes she had to plan what was coming next while I took over for a few minutes. But honestly, I had problems speaking because I was taken so off guard at having to help with this workshop that I had taken in training in 3 hours when it is meant to be 15 hours. I kept tripping over my words, not being able to pronounce anything, making word-choice mistakes, it was ridiculous. I was so annoyed. I know Spanish better than that.
The 2nd and 3rd day were substantially better. In fact I felt like a whole new person on the 2nd day. (September 25, 2008): I was surprised by how many people returned to the workshop. There was a training meeting for bishops and institute teachers tonight so we were missing some but we still had about 60 people. Mimi and Jeff and Robert are going to have a heart attack back in Salt Lake when we e-mail them about this. But everyone was there, dressed nicely, looking crisp and ready to continue. Since we were gone all day I didn't have time to read over the workshop still so I didn't have a clue what was going to happen. But we started and you know what, tonight was so much better than last night, and last night wasn't even bad. But tonight, we had arranged the benches into groups so it was much more organized and for some reason all of a sudden I could speak clearly and wasn't stumbling over any of my words. I was excited to be there. I was helping teach a workshop that I knew nothing about but improvising with the training I had from the other workshop and it was working! And I was understanding the participants, and we got around to them a lot more to talk individually and give one on one feedback. I was able to answer people's questions and offer examples to help them. Becky and I were working together, I was able to contribute some valuable ideas and we just learned as we went.
There are 2 older men who sit on the right side that we just love. They are always so willing to participate. Then there's the women in the first few rows who always nod their heads and I can see that they are learning and gaining from the information we are presenting and the activities they are practicing. And they smile as they learn. And I love it. And the way everyone loves the watermelon cheer that is so silly and yet they requested it twice tonight. The way they look at us and just love us for being there to teach them.
We had a 5 minute break half way through the workshop tonight and as they returned, first we were presented with a liter of red soda. I hate carbonation and soda, but I drank it anyway to show my appreciation. Then shortly after someone brought us each a little container of yogurt they had gone out and bought during break for us. And then I saw another man walk in with a liter of Coca Cola who then saw that we already had a drink and kind of hid it behind his back and didn't end up giving it to us. He shared with some of his neighbors instead. I was actually glad about that because I can't do dark sodas, that would have been hard. I could drink a little cup of the red stuff but coca cola would have been really really hard to get down. But can you believe that? These people are so poor, they have nothing, and yet they go out and spend some of the tiny bit of money they have, on drinks and snacks for us! I was so overwhelmed with love for these people that I just about started to cry.
So the workshop went really well. At the end of the evening many of the participants kissed us good-bye and confirmed that we would meet the next evening at the same time. This is incredible. Hispanics are known for being pretty non-committal people, but here we have 60 of the poorest people in the city, taking time away from work and children to come to this workshop to learn how to better their temporal lives. When we got out of the cultural hall and were getting into our waiting car I just loved the atmosphere. Some of the participants were standing around visiting and there were tons of kids everywhere. I think as the night goes on the kids tend to flock to the church where their parents are in th workshop for 3 hours. I just love how the kids ended up at the church late at night rather than out on the streets getting into trouble. Some teenage boys were on their bikes by our car and said good-bye to us and we said good-bye and then Becky thought that maybe they would like that liter of red soda more than we would. I heartily agreed and so Becky offered it to them and they excitedly took it from her. I added on that the only condition to them having that soda is to make sure and share it with their friends and made them promise to do so. I can't forget the look in their eyes as they looked at us. They were so happy and thrilled that we had just shared with them. And talked with them. We were probably the talk of the streets already, being 2 young American girls in their neighborhood. I doubt that happens too often. I could see the older guy with them, who looked more our age, look at us with deep appreciation for the thing we had just done. Such a small thing, that probably made their night from the way their faces lit up.
The 3rd day (September 26,2008) we went to Cisne for the final workshop. Upon arriving an hermana presented us with a gift, a really cute decorated notebook that she had made. Another presented us with a bracelet in a box with a teddy bear that she had made out of craft materials as well. And Becky just complimented an hermana on her purse saying she liked it and the hermana asked her if she wanted it, and Becky said "oh no, it's just that it's really nice, I like it" or something along those lines. But by the end of the night the hermana emptied her contents out of the purse and gave it to Becky as a gift. Two others told us they have gifts for us and they will bring them to the center. Another sister wants to have us over for lunch to her house, and cook us a traditional meal. Can you believe these people? They have so little but they are willing to give and genuinely appreciate us and what we're doing. They were learning, many thanked us and told us they had never thought of these things before, and were grateful for our sacrifice to come down here and teach them.
Congratulations if you read all of this. Apparently I was a lot better at keeping a journal the first couple of weeks here. But the bottom line is that first week of teaching was pretty amazing. I saw true poverty for the first time and am learning a ton about life and people and love.
The following is a picture from our graduation. We only managed to get about 45 people that stuck around for the picture and whatnot, but it's a good one nonetheless.

A Blessing in Disguise

2008-10-13T23:25:00.001-05:00

Thursday October 9, 2008

Tonight I had a humbling experience that I would like to share. The details of our dinner experience are important to the story so bear with me.
Tonight we headed out to find a restaurant that we read about in Lonely Planet. It didn't look too far on the map so we started walking. It was 7 p.m. As we walked we discovered it was quite a bit further than we expected and we seemed to be heading into a darker part of town where we just saw lots of groups of men on the streets and passed by a few bars. By this point we had come too far to turn back and we did need to eat dinner so, after ducking into a florist shop so we wouldn't have to walk through a large group of men walking towards us, we finally arrived at our destination. The restaurant was empty and a little more than we wanted to pay. So we explored our options at that intersection, mostly pizza places. We ended up at pizza hut where at least the tip and tax was included in the price, which saved us 22% compared to the first place we went to. So, we ordered our food and sat down. Thirty minutes later they brought us our 2 bottles of water. By this time we were getting annoyed because we had been sitting for 30 minutes. After we had our water for about 15 minutes we still didn't have our appetizer of garlic bread. Becky went down to ask what was going on and they said the bread was just coming out of the oven. They brought it up thereafter. We waited some more, and were still very annoyed at having to pay more than $5 for dinner, and for the water which you can't get for free here since you can't drink tap water. Finally, 57 minutes after sitting down they brought us our lasagna and pasta. They both came with 2 garlic breads. We started laughing at the ridiculousness of that because we had ordered an appetizer of the exact same kind of bread and were already stressed about spending money. They had failed to tell us our dinner came with the exact bread we had ordered separately.
Now, the reason we were so upset with the situation is not only because we were tired and annoyed at waiting and spending money but, there is a widely known rule around here that the streets are not safe after 9 p.m. The guidebook even says to take a taxi after 9 even if it's only for 2 blocks. Well, we had taken a taxi last night a very short distance to get home and everything had seemed fine so we figured we could walk home if it was right around 9. I was annoyed at waiting for our food because I preferred to walk home without being robbed or raped. With this in mind we went downstairs to pay and I was proud of myself because I told her we had waited an hour for our food and asked if we could get a discount or something. She said "the thing is, there aren't any discounts". I replied with, "okay, but we waited for an hour, and that's a long time". I was calm but stern and without saying anything she rang up our order, and left off the garlic bread. I felt like it was some under the table deal but didn't feel bad, if it was the U.S they would have given us free bread, free drinks, and probably offered us a free dessert.
So, by this time we are just thankful to be done with Pizza Hut and decide it's just barely 9 p.m. and we can probably manage to get home with our money and our virtue intact. We start walking, quickly and with purpose, avoiding looking at anyone and doing our best to be aware of our surroundings. We stuck to the main roads as much as possible but eventually we had to turn down a longish darkish street that was completely deserted in order to get to our hostal. That didn't seem too good but we kept walking anyway, knowing that the grocery store was up the street a ways and that would be our next safe spot. As we walked I focused on the many prayers that I had said for our safety since we arrived in Quito, and kept a silent one going continuously as well. I thought of how good I have been doing with saying my prayers and reading my scriptures and I hoped that this faith and obedience would be sufficient to get us home.
Well we passed a street and I noticed the next block over I saw some running and yelling going on. I mentioned to Becky that it seemed like something was going on down the street but didn't think too much of it. A few minutes later we came upon a taxi, a family was just getting out. The taxi driver spoke to us out the window and told us there were 3 thieves up ahead and they had just assaulted some men with knives. For this reason police were just barely arriving but the attackers hadn't been caught. The assault had just barely happened and the taxi driver advised us not to keep walking straight. We quickly measured the situation and decided a taxi ride didn't sound too bad after all.
So, we drove past a bit of a ruckus as people scrambled around trying to catch the attackers, the taxi driver stopped and told the police which direction they had just gone, and then took us to our hostal. We thanked him for advising us of the danger and paid him a dollar for the ride. We got out of the car and I was overwhelmed by the realization of what had just happened. If we hadn't have been delayed at pizza hut we would have been walking the exact streets where the assault happened, right about the same time. Those men had assaulted other men with knives, I'd hate to imagine what it would have been like for them to come upon 2 young American girls all by themselves. Our delays had us walking by this taxi driver at the exact moment he was letting a car full of people out, he was stopped and was the only person on the road and was able to not only tell us not to keep walking but was able to get us safely out of the situation as well.
I felt bad for being annoyed and slightly angry at the situation in pizza hut. The delay truly was a blessing. I bet that probably didn't look to good up in Heaven, here Heavenly Father is, delaying us and keeping us out of danger and all we were doing is complaining and thinking that we were being put in danger by having to walk home a bit later. Becky brought up the talk by Elder Holland about there being angels all around us whether we know it or not. We might have had angels with us tonight that we couldn't see, but I know for a fact that taxi driver was our angel tonight as well. I'm so amazed at how Heavenly Father watches out for us and answers our prayers.

Andes Mountains

2008-10-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

With the workshop canceled for the week Becky and I immediately decided there was a definite need to travel. We would have 6 1/2 days until we had to be back for a workshop. And so, the next morning after I got just under 3 hours of sleep I woke up and finished packing and we didn't get ready fast enough for the 6:45 bus but took the 7:30 a.m. one instead. The bus ride started out going through the bleak countryside that surrounds Guayaquil. But then it turned into miles and miles of banana plantations. We even passed a Dole plantation. I saw some but mostly I slept for the first 2 1/2 hours. Once I had caught up on a little bit of sleep I enjoyed watching out the window. It's one of my favorite things to do in life, watch landscape pass by. I wished that I had control of the bus and could stop it about a hundred times to get a good picture from a good angle that wasn't slightly blurry from motion. But, I made due. The banana plantations turned into groves of what looked like giant pineapples. Since the tree looked like a pineapple we assumed they were pineapple trees. There is a strong possibility that that is bad logic.
Slowly, the various tropical fruit plantations turned into tropical jungle covered hills. Then the tropical jungle covered hills turned into towering sharp jungle covered mountains. The bus wound up and around the mountains for hours, climbing higher and higher. The first time I saw the Andes mountains, half covered by clouds, took my breath away. I had no idea our destination was to go inside the clouds. Slowly the bus took the curves, stopped for construction delays, and bounced through pueblo roads. Higher and higher. I couldn't believe it. The views just kept getting better. But eventually I had to stop taking pictures because we were in the clouds and I couldn't see past the side of the road. I decided to ice my broken finger and so I stuck my hand out the window. It worked rather well. Sometimes I even alternated with heat treatment by sitting on my frozen fingers. Mostly I just iced it though. :)
I thought about the people who built the roads and wondered how many died from falling off the cliffs. Seriously. I thought I was going to die just driving on it. The Andes Mountains are incredible. I've never seen anything so sharp and never seen roads that actually climbed to the top of peaks before entering into the Andean highlands. The Highlands were something else. The greenest rolling hills and plains I've ever seen. Like Park City except 25 times better. And lots of indigenous people in traditional dress. By this time I had taken about 180 pictures of the scenery out the window and now that the roads were less windy I stopped trying to take pictures and let myself fall back asleep for a little bit.
To my pleasant surprise we never came down from the mountains. Quito lies in a skinny long valley. The city is fantastic. I already like it 10 times more than Guayaquil. But that's another blog entry. Bottom line of this one is that my first experience with the Andes Mountains was the highlight of my stay in Ecuador thus far. Incredible.

Fish Market

2008-10-13T23:04:00.000-05:00

The Stake Center we went to on Tuesday night was right next door to the big Bahia, or Fish Market. We have heard lots of good things about this market and how you can get 25 crabs for $5 and lots of other great deals. So, since nobody came to the informational meeting, the workshop was canceled for the week and Johnny took us next door for a vital Guayaquil experience.
The market was bustling, cars coming and going constantly and once you walk through the gates you are in a madhouse. A fantastic, entertaining place that makes you smile from all the excitement, but a madhouse nonetheless. And once again when I say you I mean I. So, you walk into the market and your nose is assaulted by the very strong smell of raw, dead fish. The floor has drains throughout the entire market but they can never seem to catch up and so a layer of water covers the cement floor. You are wearing flat white shoes with a white skirt made with lots of swishy material and so you step carefully and hold your skirt in so it doesn't brush against wet buckets of fish or men who are covered in fish guts. Speaking of fish guts, those drains are filled with them, all at different stages of decomposition. Guts, bones, fish heads... some with a steady stream of red bloody water, originating at the chopping blocks. You are much more worried about your white flat shoes after seeing the streams of blood. But, back to the chopping blocks. The chopping blocks are huge surfaces made of tile, I imagine they are extremely unsanitary as they always have fish being chopped on them and as the fish are chopped they are doused with buckets of water to wash off the blood. Behind the chopping blocks are men with big fishing boots up to their knees or higher, with a machete in hand. They are very skilled and slice up the fish faster and more accurately than you've ever seen in your life. Perhaps that's because you've never been to a fish market. Or actually seen someone use a machete. You are entertained. You can't wait to come back with a camera. You know words will never do this place justice. There you see fish that are 4 feet longs and wider around than you are. They also have huge catfish that are about 2 feet long that come from the river. You wander how they eat fish from the river. The river is always brown, with trash floating in it and you can't see past the surface. You silently vow never to eat catfish in Guayaquil. At the same time you vow to come back and buy some fish from the sea. You just saw a man buy an entire bucket of fish for $10. You really like corvina and think it would be a good experience to have to cut the head off yourself and then gut it. For some reason unpleasant things in foreign countries are amusing to you and some of the unpleasant factor is taken away. You also know you have to buy cangrejos (crab). They come in bundles of about 25 and are tied together, still alive. Apparently the only way to buy them is alive. You have to kill them yourself. You don't know about that one. Cutting off the head of an already dead fish is one thing but killing a crab... that's murder. Well okay, not really. But still, you don't like killing things that are larger than a spider. But cangrejos are still a must, after all they're grown in trees around here. Seriously. Once you were driving down the road and Hermano Gomez pointed at some manglares (mangrove) trees and say that those woods are protected because they grow cangrejos. The word in Spanish for grow and raise are the same and so you laugh silently at the thought of growing crabs in trees. In reality, it is a swampy area and the crabs live in the muddy muck. You don't go a day in Guayaquil without someone talking about cangrejos. You think it should be the city's mascot.
Well, anyway that's about all there is to say about the fish market. Pictures and videos will come in the not too distant future. We're going to eat cangrejos at Johnny's house next weekend, it will be my first time to eat crab. I'm excited. We have to learn how to prepare it so we can do it in our house. Bottom line, the fish market was awesome. Ranked right up there with the Iguana Park. Speaking of iguanas, I saw iguana road kill the other day. No joke. I was intrigued. So here in Guayaquil they grow crabs in trees and hit iguanas with cars. Welcome to the strange city in which I live.

Machismo

2008-10-03T01:15:00.000-05:00

Machismo

1. A strong or exaggerated sense of masculinity stressing attributes such as physical courage, virility, domination of women, and aggressiveness.

2. An exaggerated sense of strength or toughness

Machismo is a word used to stereotypically describe the males of Latin America. In many senses it can be an accurate stereotype, and in the next page and a half I will provide the evidence for saying that.

As a disclaimer for this blog entry, this is a stereotype and while there are many men in Latin America who display this personality trait, it is not true of any of the men that I keep company with here. All of the male members of the Church that I have met have been wonderful people and so have the few non-member guys that I've met. So, I in no way direct this blog towards any male that I know personally in Ecuador.

However, I do direct it at all of the insolent, greasy, and disrespectful men who love to stare and gawk and yell and honk and say crude things to Becky and I each and every day. So, I'm going to vent for a little bit.

I don't enjoy walking around here very much. Everyone honks their horn at us, men are always kissing at us or whistling or saying very dirty things, or just blatantly hanging their head out the window and gawking. I got mad on the way to the center the other day because a man did that, I was disgusted with the way he was looking at us. Like we're a piece of meat. These dirty, greasy men who seem to look at us and only see a potential partner in bed. It makes me sick and wish that I could do something to put them in their place. Something more than just completely ignoring them.

Let me tell you about a typical walk to work. We leave our apartment and if we are lucky there aren't any men on our street, but this is a rare treat. Usually there are men in cars and they honk or stare. So we walk to the end of the street and turn the corner. We usually don't have any trouble in the 30 seconds it takes to get to the main road from there. So then we have to cross an intersection and besides more men in cars honking and staring there is a gross old man across the street who is usually waxing a car or something. We have to walk right by him and he unfailingly says many crude things to us, I usually try to tune him out and definitely don't make eye contact but yesterday the word "preciosa" or "precious" stood out from his rambling at our retreating backs. Sometimes I get really mad at this man because the things he says are really out of hand, and he's a rather persistent little bugger. But yesterday I happened to glance at him for once and saw that he is anywhere from 50-60 years old and has about 3 teeth to his name. So, my first instinct was anger and disgust as the taunting word "preciosa" hung in the air but then I found it a little funny. He only has 3 teeth. And has at least 30 years on us. It was so gross and disturbing that I actually laughed a little at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

So anyway, next we cross through a gas station and try not to get killed as all of the cars cut through to beat the red light. Now we are really on the main road and are stuck on it for the next 20-25 minutes as we walk to work. We are subject to an almost continuous honking from the cars that pass by, a mixture of taxi drivers signaling their willingness to pull over and give us a ride, men who honk to signal the same thing but are not taxi drivers, and then there are the men in cars who honk with the sole purpose of expressing their appreciation of our presence on the streets of Guayaquil. With each honk my annoyance grows and I hope to never hear another honk again in my life. Along with the honks the men like to hang their head out the window and literally gawk at us for 10 seconds as they pass by. Others like to yell things and say "hola guapa" or "hola bonita" which are both literally translated as "hello beautiful/pretty" but when said in this manner are disrespectful and unnecessary. But wait, there's more. There's still all the men we walk by on the streets. More stares. More comments. More anger steaming from me. More desires to throw rocks at windshields and maybe at a few heads too. Nevermind, forget the heads, on these men I would throw it wear it counts. So, we walk along the road and come to my favorite part. And when I say favorite I mean it in the "passionately hated" sense of the word. A construction site. Here the sidewalk ends, and not only do we have to endure the cat calls, stares, and whistles from the construction workers , but we are forced onto the street and just pray that we don't get hit by a car, as the impatient cars weave in and out of each other, everyone trying to beat everyone else in the race to the red light up ahead.

Well anyway, you get the idea. Welcome to walking the streets of Guayaquil. A place where countless men evoke the most negative opinions of people that I've ever had in my life. I hate it. I hate being looked at that way. It's violating. It's even more annoying because we never encourage it and are always dressed modestly. I can not even express the disgust I feel, which is sad because I really like going on walks, but not here. Curse men who look at women and fail to recognize that they are daughters of God who have personalities, knowledge, talents, needs, and values. We deserve better. I deserve better.

Overcoming Language Barriers One Kiss at a Time

2008-10-03T00:30:00.000-05:00

So every single person here always asks Becky and I if we have boyfriends. When we say no they get a very shocked look on their face and exclaim "why not?!". I'm not sure what the correct answer to that question is... so let's put it up for discussion. What are some good responses? Feel free to let your creative energies flow and give me something good to work with here. :)

So after we give some awkward lame excuse to explain away our singleness, without fail our inquisitors helpfully say that they know lots and lots of good Ecuadorian boys who would be perfect for us. Hermano Gomez, who drives us to and from our teaching assignments each day suggested his son. An hermana at the workshop last week told me she could e-mail me with lots of options of boys in her area. These are just 2 examples of the many offers we have received. It's quite out of hand. It's strange, it seems to be socially unacceptable for young eligible girls to be single. Honestly.

So Tuesday night we had an informational meeting with the leaders of the stake to explain the workshops. Before the meeting began we were talking with the stake president who asked us the much expected question about our relationship status. After we said no, he told us a couple of stories about American girls who had come to Ecuador in the past and ended up marrying Ecuadorian boys. He starts talking about how it's sometimes hard though, because of cultural differences. We agree and say that the whole language barrier thing can be hard to get through. He shakes his head and says "no, I'm talking more about culture. Different ways of doing things. You don't need language to kiss. You don't need language to eat". We nod and smile and hold our comments for later discussion. The following picture is us with the stake president:

At home Becky and I had a good laugh about that conversation. The thing is, he was completely serious when he said that. We decided we agree whole heartedly. Maybe he's right, you don't need language to kiss after all. Yeah, communication... relationships... definitely don't go together. Food and affection, that's what it's all about.

$3.05

2008-09-19T10:05:00.001-05:00

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?

2008-09-19T10:05:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-17T09:33:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-15T11:19:00.001-05:00

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

2008-09-15T11:18:00.000-05:00

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"

2008-09-15T11:16:00.001-05:00

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

2008-09-15T10:53:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-09-10T23:42:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-09-09T21:22:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-08T22:25:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-07T23:38:00.000-05:00

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.

Action Precedes the Miracle

2008-08-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

It's time to write about what I'll be doing for 3 months in Ecuador. So, to begin with, here's a quote by President Hinckley that has been used more than a few times in training: "A man out of work is of special moment to the Church because, deprived of his inheritance, he is on trial as Job was on trial-for his integrity. As days lengthen into weeks and months and even years of adversity, the hurt grows deeper, and he is sorely tempted to 'curse God and die.' Continued economic dependence breaks him; it humiliates him if he is strong, spoils him if he is weak... He soon becomes the seedbed of discontent, wrong thinking, alien beliefs. The Church cannot home to save a man on Sunday if during the week it is a complacent witness to the crucifixion of his soul..."
So, to counteract this crucifixion of men's souls, the Church has developed an LDS Employment Services program. It began in 1999 and works hand in hand with the Perpetual Education Fund (PEF). As BYU students we will strengthen employment center efforts by training teachers to teach the Career Workshops (WS) so that the work continues even after the interns leave, teach the WS's, help with Resource Development as needed (which means finding/investigating needs and filling them, for example, if a school needs students and one of our participants needs education and skill training we bring the two together, so we will be working a lot to find potential employers in various localities where we give the WS's), and we'll also be supporting the PEF objectives while learning about the principles of welfare and how to serve and lead.
Intern sites are selected according to local need and are approved by the Director for Temporal Affaris, before departure interns complete a week of intensive training in SLC to prepare us for teaching. As a student I will be completing 9 or 12 credit hours of coursework independently, working about 20 hours a week teaching the 12 hour WS (although I have a feeling it's going to be more). Thankfully half of my classes are cultural research classes that will not only allow but in fact force me, to get out of my comfort zone, talk to people, interview them, attend weddings and feasts, find new and interesting cultural differences, and then write about them.
So, here are some statistics that we are up against:

Members
Unemployed: 8%
Under-Employed:19 %
# of Member placements: 65%
Member-Reach: 10.8 %

However, when you take out the U.S and Canada these numbers double. So, 65% of our participants are members and even though we are about to have 312 centers in 48 countries, we only reach 10.8%. 89.2 % of the members of the Church are not taking advantage of the church's resources, for whatever reason. (We were told a story by Gustavo, our trainer, who was in Venezuela 6 weeks ago. He was a Bishop's storehouse and asked how many members are using the storehouse, the answer was about 90. Gustavo was surprised because Venezuela's economy is shot right now and asked why more people didn't come. The response was, "they can't afford the bus fare to get here" What a humbling story).
So, the workshops are a tool individuals can use to break the cycle of self-defeat that typically accompanies unemployment. The model is based on the following points:

Preferred positions are rarely advertised
The best results don't just happen
The methods most people use for job finding are inefficient and slow to yield results

I want to talk about the 3rd point for a moment. So, most people go to the classifieds, websites, and the "now hiring" signs. Here are some more statistics:

Source ........Where People Look ......Where Jobs are Found

Want Ads................65% ................................ 5-15%

Agencies .............. .27%..................................10-20%

Networking .............5% .................................60-80%

Approach companies ...3% ...........................5-15%

So naturally the WS focuses a whole lot on networking. The WS primarily teaches people how to network and contact potential employers. The majority of people with employment needs haven't developed effective job search skills and strategies so the WS helps people identify their resources and interact with those resources effectively. At times we will also find it our opportunity to help people regain their self-worth and self-respect. To help them find value in their various skills and talents and how to market those skills to the professional world. It will be a safe place for participants to come together, set goals, create and follow through with a plan of action, and celebrate each other's successes.
As you can tell I have become converted to this program. I know that it was developed by the Lord's hand. Our trainer, Gustavo, is actually the one who wrote the career workshop, he is the author of the workbooks and teacher's manuals we will be using. He is really good at what he does, he has a way of bringing business and the Lord's work together in a user friendly way. I am terrified of trying to teach these people in Spanish and help them help themselves. I'm also very excited. I know there will be countless miracles and I'm excited to begin this internship in a little over a month. It's going to be the hardest few months of my life but I know it's where I'm supposed to be, I know without a doubt this is what I'm supposed to be doing Fall Semester. The Lord will provide for His people if they but have faith and act on his word, but acting is the keyword.

Making Ammends and the "Why?"

2008-07-14T20:08:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I wasn't very good at the whole blogging thing in Spain. In my defense, between my own journal entries, personal e-mails to friends and family, and posting photos and the explanations that come with it on facebook, I was feeling a bit repetitive. But, have no fear, I am changing my ways. I'm going to try to follow the trend and my friend's good examples and faithfully document the adventure I'm about to embark on. You see, I have an internship with LDS Employment Services in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I will live there for 3 months, all of Fall Semester and teach career workshops while taking independently contracted courses for my Latin American Studies major.
There is so much to tell about this internship and I want to share it all and help ya'll understand how wonderful this program is but it will all come in good time. I don't imagine ya'll have the time or patience to read through a complete and thorough explanation all in one blog entry. So we'll start small. What say ye?
So, let's start with the "why?". I know, I went to Spain, why am I leaving again in the same year? Well, for one thing I didn't get the internship credit I need to graduate when I studied abroad in Spain. And for another, there were vital things that I want from my life experience that were not fulfilled in my study abroad program. Don't get me wrong, I know it was the right thing for me to go and I had a blast. I was able to experience living in a foreign country and trying to get by with an upper-intermediate knowledge of the language. I learned a ton about myself, about people and about the workings of the world that are hard to put into words and Spain is not the point of this new blogging endeavor anyway. But the moral of the story is that Spain was amazing, I learned, I grew, I saw parts of Europe, and skinny dipped in the Mediterranean Sea. My experience was complete. But that was the Spain experience. This is the Ecuador experience.
So, what does the Ecuador experience have to offer that Spain didn't? Well, for one thing I will not be surrounded by 40 Americans all the time with whom despite our best intents, it was far too easy to speak English to one another. In Ecuador I will be living with my one companion, in our own apartment, and attending a local family ward. Rather than hanging out with Americans all the time we will have the opportunity to make friends with the local YSA's and really get involved in the community. Another thing is, Spain was a very self-centered program. It was for my own learning and traveling experience. But, my whole life I've wanted to participate in a program that would allow me to focus on serving others. As a child I used to dream of joining the Peace Corps. Here's my chance to fulfill my dream of going to a 3rd world country and use what talents and knowledge I have been blessed with to bless the lives of others. That's kind of the point of having knowledge and talents, isn't it? Thirdly, I'm a Latin American Studies Major and have never been further south than Tijuana. Definitely doesn't count. As my Senior year at BYU loomed ahead of me I began to wonder what on earth I was going to write my Senior thesis on if I had never even been to Latin America (here on out to be known as LA). There's only so much you can read in books before you just have to go experience it for yourself.
So, when I went to Spain I went with the intention to learn and then take that learning and apply it to serving in LA. I know that may seem cliche but it's true regardless. So here goes Phase 2 of the plan.

Live and Learn

2008-01-15T16:34:00.000-06:00

What a day. Spanish classes started today, it wasn´t too bad the teacher got easier to understand as time went on and I had several successful experiences communicating with Spañiards. I went to Madrid for the first time today, a large group of us went and then split up into smaller groups so we wouldn´t be so conspicuous. We didn´t have a plan or anything but we saw the Puerta del Sol and walked around the calles near there. There are so many shops, we found some good ones tonight and I bought a bag from a souvenir shop. We also stopped at a chocolatería and ate chocolate con churros, it was pretty crazy to get a cup of steaming melted chocolate with a spoon. We needed some milk or water really bad but a cup of water was 2 euros and it just wasn´t worth it. Madrid looks amazing, I´m excited to explore more and learn about all of the different places. We have a ¨Madrid walks¨class where we will have the chance to learn much more about everything. We boarded our train to go back home at 8:30 and 40 minutes later we realized we were on the wrong train. It really wasn´t our fault though, we got on C7 like we were supposed to, but it turns out there are 2 c7´s and one goes in a complete circle before turning into the second one that we should have got on. They really should just name them something different. So an hour and 10 minutes later we ended up back where we started and then finally went on back to Alcalá de Henares. A trip that usually takes half an hour to get back home took us 2 hours and 10 minutes. But now we know.

First Impressions

2008-01-14T16:13:00.000-06:00

I have now been in Alcalá de Henares for 3 full days. I love it. I have already sent out a few e-mails with details of how everything has gone so far so I won´t repeat myself but I will summarize: The plane trip to Spain is very long, the metro is a crazy fun place but you have to keep an eye on your bags, Europe has a thing with boots and there are boot stores everywhere, their traffic is crazy, their cars are all miniatures of the ones in the States, and Alcalá is jam packed full of buildings, people, and cars, and I just don´t know how it all fits between the small calles.
My host family is wonderful, the missionaries told us they are the stronegst family in the ward, they made us feel right at home. I especially enjoy being around Miguel, he is 17 and a real fun kid. He isn´t afraid to tease us and likes to get a reaction out of us. Today Callie closed the door on Fran because she didn´t see him coming through the gate and Miguel exclaimed ¨¡Tu eres mal!¨ (You are a bad person), I like that he´s not serious with us. Today he helped me upload some of his music from his computer so I´m getting a good stash of Spanish music. He really is great.
Today we had our orientation at the Universidad de Alcalá, this year the University is 500 years old. Crazy. The orientation began with a 100 question test to determine our level of Spanish, I lost my concentration at about #80. The thing about everyone speaking Spanish is that it takes immense concentration, you can´t get away with half listening, I have to be looking directly at the speaker and concentrating on every word to get even some of it. We had a city tour today but it was hard to hear our guides over the noise of the city and in a group of 37 students, let alone understand them. So we saw a lot of cool old buildings that I´m sure are important and I want to know why, but I will have to find out later. As we walked through a small walk-way going towards the street from the University buildings we passed a woman squatting on the ground relieving herself and staring at us as we walked by. It was SO strange, I don´t even get it, we´re talking the whole 9 yards, right in front of us. ¡Que extraño!
We did pass a croissantería which was exciting. I love European bread. So the tour was nice, it did give me somewhere to start, hopefully I have time to learn about the significance of all that I saw.
Callie and I took the bus for the first time today, it went over just fine. I´m getting a better sense of direction here. Although this was also the first day we tried to use our keys, there are different keys, one for the gate, one for the front door, and one for the door from the outside to our room. The bus ride was 15 minutes and it took us longer than the ride to get inside the doors of the house. The huge gate door finally opened for us but then we couldn´t get it closed and then the lock fell out and then we shoved it back in and hoped it would be okay and then we stood at the front door for a full 5 minutes, the knob isn´t really a knob, I don´t think it´s supposed to turn and the key just kept turning in circles. It was rediculous and we were laughing so much at the silliness of the situation that it made it even harder to concentrate on the task at hand. But finally we got in the door and I´m just glad nobody was there to witness the fiasco.
We ran into the missionaries 3 or 4 times today, first at our house, then after institute, then they waited at the bus stop with us for 20 minutes and rode the bus with us and then told us how to get to the Plaza (they were on their way to an appointment, not purposefully acting as our guides) and then we ran into them on the plaza like an hour later. There were 8 missionaries in the ward on Sunday, the ward was taken over by Americans. I haven´t been forced to speak much Spanish, everyone speaks English! I´m still hoping Susie will drop the English, I understand her Spanish really well but not Paco´s (her husband).
Every Monday we have a devotional and then Institute and then F.H.E. The Institute teacher, Hermano López is really good, it´s all in Spanish but he´s pretty easy to understand. He gave a really good lesson about recording our life experiences and referenced the talk from President Eyring on recognizing the hand of God in our lives, and stressed the importance of writing everything in a diario. So I don´t feel bad for the detailed blogs. The course will be on the History of the Church in España, I´m pretty excited for it. Tomorrow classes begin, we only have class M-Th which is going to be awesome. We´re going into Madrid tomorrow night, I can´t wait. Spain is so fun, there´s so much to look at and take in!

Primero, SLC y luego Madrid!

2007-12-01T15:50:00.000-06:00

So to prepare for our experience in Madrid we had to take public transportation from Provo to SLC with some fellow study abroad goers. We caught a bus at 7 a.m. in the middle of heavy snow and got to SLC 2 hours later. We visited the Cathedral of the Madaleine which was absolutely beautiful. Kaitlyn asked me to sing "Silent Night" with her in the chapel and so I did, the acoustics were amazing. After admiring the cathedral, and some paying the 50 cents to light a prayer candle (I'm not sure exactly what they are called) and offering a prayer, we went outside to the falling snow. We weren't going to make the train in time to transfer in Sandy so we ventured on to Temple Square and admired the white wonderland.

We went inside the visitor's center to stay warm and then caught the Trax to the bus in Sandy. We missed the bus by about 15 minutes, TRAX was extremely slow on the way back so we waited in the freezing cold for 40 minutes. We talked to fellow bus passengers at the stop and even got them to pose for a picture with us. Our feet were absolutely soaked and cold but it was a fun experience. At least in Madrid we won't wait outside in the snow, and their public transportation is a lot more reliable and efficient. I can't wait for SPAIN!!!