sicky poo

i've been sick for about the last week. i've been trying to just tough it out and keep working and all that jazz but it ain't helpin. i finally decided yesterday morning when i woke up that i was going to stay home rest, go to the doctor and try and get better. i went to the doctor, he told me i just had a cold (which i already knew), gave me a prescription and i was on my way. i came home took the medicine, and have been sitting around. i get to work this afternoon, hopefully it won't be too bad.

this last thursday we went to a city called Guayaquil. it is about 300 miles away, along the coast, and a 30 minute flight. we visited the temple there, it was beautiful. we also visited an iguana park, it was an actual natural habitat for these iguanas! we when out to the pier and walked along. it was so extremely hot! we then went to statue of Jesus, there were about 100 stairs up to it, it was pretty cool. we flew home that night.


























also, a little bit about the house that i'm living in... it's in the nice part of town, and we have a guard, plus a HUGE stone wall surrounding the house plus an electric fence at the top. it's intense!

day dos

well here i am on my second day. it feels as though i've been here for weeks. seriously.

today was my first day in the orphanage, working with the children. it was a different yet amazing experience. the children are just happy to have us there, i had a couple kids that didn't even want to leave my side. so so precious! by law we aren't able to give names, or anything. we could go to jail for it!

also when i got off my shift today we went to the "MegaMaxi", which is like thier wal-mart here. we also went to the mall and ate at a great restaurant. one thing that they constantly warned us of, was the men here. they are seriously creeps, there are some that are nice and not as creepy, but we just don't make eye-contact, smile at them, no kind of jesture to show them we are interested in ANY way.

one thing that i am kind of struggling with is not knowing the language. luckily there are enough girls that speak it well enough that we can get by no problem. they have classes that we can start taking hopefully next week! i really would like to learn more of it. i think that over time it will get better, more understanding than acutally speaking.

that is all for now, i may go to bed soon even though it's only 940. but i'm just exhausted, not sure why, but just exhausted. chao for now!

i'm here! and alive!

so i'm here, in ecuador.
yesterday was a long day of sitting in airports and sitting on planes.
FINALLY we arrived, i was exhausted.

when i arrived at the airport yesterday morning i was able to meet 3 of the 5 girls i would be in quito with. they are so cute, nice, and fun, i'm really really excited to get to spend this time with them! we flew to houston and had a five hour lay over and the two other girls that would be with us met us. the majority of the girls here are from utah, idaho, canada, and las vegas.

we finally arrived in quito about 9 pm (time is only one hour ahead here). we got off the plane and waited in customs for about 30 minutes, finally got my passport stamped, and we walked through the doors into the country, ha, and a bunch of ecuadorians were standing there staring at us, even one man was videoing us. yeah, whatevs. angel, our program director, met us at the airport with our driver, who i don't remember his name. we walked out to the van and a airport worker and our driver crammed all of our luggage into this van, i must say i could never have fit all those suitcases in that small thing. we got in the van, completely knee to knee, sitting toward each other, all trying to speak spanish, i must say we probably sounded really dumb. but i laughed. we drove past many familar businesses, such as dominos, hyundai, kfc, and others.

we finally arrived "home" about 20 minutes later. there were quite a few girls in the house because some are leaving today for the final part of thier trip in the amazon, the girls that have been here for about five weeks, and us. i was shown where my room was, and immediately started to unpack. my roommates were there chatting among themselves, not really paying attention to me, except when they asked if i really was going to be taking all the clothes home at the end of my trip, i was really bothered by this, they were being somewhat inconsiderate. but whatevs, i think i may have been a tad bit sensitive because i hadn't gotten much sleep.

i tried to let it go, called my mom, vented to her, went to bed. woke up this morning, and it's cold. blah. the girls that are already here are making us breakfast! then we have orientation, i'm not sure what else today will consist of, hopefully able to see some of the city! i definitely miss home, A LOT, but i know once i start to work with the children i can emerse myself and not be as homesick.

one week and counting...

One week! ahhh! i'm not counting the day that i actually leave. so a week, ah. i just can't wait. these last couple days at work are dragging on so so slowy, i'm going a tad bit crazy.

i'm not any closer to being ready to go, but i'm ready to get out of utah! tonight will be one of my last nights of dancing for a long time, which will be weird since i dance about one to two times a week.

anyway, just an update!