day one thirty five - la ultima

So i'm writing this one last post, post fifty four, a few days after day 135. i am home. since last time i posted i went to the beach, came back, packed, said goodbye, had a ridiculous two-day journey home, cried when i saw my family, and have spent the last two days adjusting to the ridiculous heat here...35-40 degrees i think, and going through culture shock as i adjust to living here in canada once again. I can't say that my life is better in one place or another...life is life. and this is just part of it. i love my life in ecuador...and i love my family and this town. i am looking forward to going back to school for my last year. life is good. but that doesn't mean it's easy. and one thing i've learned on this trip is that if i could CHOOSE between an easy life and a difficult life...i'd take the difficult one. Because the beautiful moments in our life are that much more beautiful and appreciated for all their worth. Because we learn so much more. Because we are forced to trust in our Loving Creator. Because we see the true value of the people around us. Because in the difficult times we are refined by the fire.
This is my last post for this travel blog...for now! I'm sure with many more stories to come. For now i will be posting my random, scattered thoughts on my other blog which you can get to by clicking HERE.
i want to thank everyone who supported me, prayed for me, and read my blogs. I know i will be learning things from this experience for the rest of my life. Missing ecuador already.
Chao! love Daniela

day one twenty nine - vamos a la playa

wow. time could not possibly go by any faster. didn´t i just blog yesterday? I got back from Chimborazo and slept as i said...then all i remember next is getting on a bus with Alicia and Jack to Baños. I like Baños for some reasons...like it´s beautiful, it´s small and cute, there´s tons of stuff to do. But i also don´t like it because it´s SUCH a tourist town and really, if you want to insult me, call me a tourist. I hate the stereotype and the worst part is the stereotype is mostly true of foreigners here...the huge backpacks, MEC clothes, camera at the ready, holding an ice cream cone, and looking very lost and confused. i´ll just take the ice cream thanks.
So Baños. we slept a lot, HA! like our favorite hobby. we laughed a lot. Went horseback riding....for 4 hours! ouch. it looks so comfortable on tv! maybe i just do it wrong but man oh man. im pretty sure we got suckered into a tourist trap when planning on going to a spa for massages. we paid the lady at the tour company because she said she got a ¨discount¨. I never felt right about it and really i think she pulled in a pretty good profit. oh well...still less than 50% the cost of one in canada. and now i know for next time....and i´m warning all of yall!!
It was hard to leave Al and Jack at the bus station on monday when i was returning to Riobamba. Although it still hasn´t really sunk in yet that i may not ever see these amazing girls again. nope. still hasn´t sunk in.
This morning we had our summer tutoring program again...i really dont like missing out on them! the kids are all so much fun. and now...im preparing to leave for the beach for a few days. and i am SO stoked! although...it´s so crazy because when i get back on sunday, it´s goodbye Riobamba, goodbye Ark, goodbye Street Church, and off to Quito. I can hardly believe it. trying to take this all in one day at a time and soak in my last few days here. hopefully i´ll have time to blog once or twice more before i come home.
trusting in God and resting in his peace, Daniela

day one twenty - sueños

sooo saturday night we had street church as usual and it was...una maquina!! so cool!! just hearing people´s hearts and desire to follow Christ. Frejol asked who wanted to go to the jail the next morning to visit and tell people about Jesus and pray with people and hand out soap. The next morning there were maybe ten of us who went. It was unlike anything i could have expected. It was like a whole community in there...with children everywhere and families. I feared at first that these kids lived here but later realized it was visiting day. One of the kids who always comes to street church, i learned has a father in the jail. The lives that these kids have...i cannot even imagine. We passed by the door of the maximum security cell, which...didn´t look so secure to me. This is where the worst of the worst of all of Riobamba go. People were playing soccer and basketball. There was a small church where some of us went to pray and sing songs for whoever cared to listen. These guys in the street church amaze me. These people in the jail are the people who nobody cares about. These are the people that nobody can trust. These are the ¨scum of Riobamba¨...but Blas and Frejol and Naomi and the rest just seemed to know them as friends, nothing else. I saw the love of God in action yesterday. When Blas went up to the small window in the door of maximum security, where noone is allowed to enter, and shake the hands of the guys who knew him by name, and hand them soap...fear just seemed to leave me. Of course being in a jail is never competely safe, but where in the world could be safer than in the will of God?

We were about to leave but for some reason we had to wait for someone, so we went to visit one of their friends...we went into this small room in a door right beside the maximum security cell. There was a guy sitting at a sewing machine, making shoes. Blas, Chuky, and I sat for a while and ate oranges, listened to music, and helped their friend for a while make shoes. I just love random, amazing experiences like this. None of it made sense to me...why was he making shoes here? was he in jail too? im not really a person of many questions though, i just take things as they are. And then i started to laugh. Here he was making shoes with vans and adidas logos..obviously not real, and he was making them in a jail. oh the irony.

at one point i felt all my dreams dying, but being here...it seems God has rekindled my dreams and given me a million more.

just a few more photos of our tutoring program...
Cami holding a small taste of Canada

little Gaby with her masterpiece

in the taxi on the way to the museum

day one eighteen - vaccaciones en la ciudad

in the past one hundred and eighteen days...
i have not eaten any cheddar cheese...or any cheese that resembles real cheese
i have probably eaten more white bread than i have my entire life
i can count the number of times i have worn a seatbelt
i have learned more spanish i ever thought possible in this amount of time
i have met so many amazing people from all over the world
i have changed one hundred and eighteen diapers
i have wiped one hundred and eighteen noses
i have given one hundred and eighteen bottles
i have learned one hundred and eighteen things about myself
i have learned one hundred and eighteen things about God
i have dreamed one hundred and eighteen dreams
...
ok so obviously not that exact number. but who´s counting.
i have also had the priviledge of helping Gaby with a summer tutoring program in our house.
On the first day of our program last week Gaby challenged me to give a presentation on Canada to the kids and their parents....in spanish. i was so nervous...but i did it! After i finished Gaby was so surprised at how much i knew. I surprised myself. Yesterday Gaby wanted me to teach them how to make Canadian food. Seriously..whats canadian food? we dont have salmon here. I bought maple syrup and taught them to make pancakes haha. the cute hats they´re wearing we made with them out of paper.

day one ten - oasis

i know what it feels like to be in the desert. a few times now people have said to me...daniela you are so different now that when you first came here. you look a lot better. you looked so scared and small and pale when you came and now you just seem more full of life.
at first i didn´t realize that i had so much growing and learning to do while i was here. i knew there was a reason i was here, but i guess i didn´t realize that when i came i was still struggling to climb out of the desert. One of the first bible studies we had here was super powerful and Isaac prayed for me and said that God was calling me out of the dry land. Sometimes we´re so used to being in one place we forget we are there.

i think i have a bigger urgency to pull others out of the desert when i have been there myself. Last night a friend and I stumbled across exodus 3:10 and it talks about bringing God´s people out of Egypt. As I started writing this it came to me that riobamba is one of the coldest and driest parts in all of Ecuador. These people need to be called out of the dry land.

where are we calling them to? definitely not paradise. let´s be realistic people...life is tough whether you are following Jesus or not. but i believe life with Jesus is like having our own little oasis in the midst of the desert. There are still storms and heat but the good news is we have water.

day one oh six - VBS.fuego.

i have been in south america for more than one hundred days. that´s like...a big chunk of a year. a couple times now it has hit me...while waiting for a bus, while walking down the street...dude. i´m in ecuador. i´m a long way away from home. but most of the time i just feel like i´m at home here.

last friday was the last day of the vacation bible school at the ark. it went really well and im guessing over 70 kids from the community came.

this is al and jack...every day i awaited anxiously to see their outfits for the day. they never failed to disappoint.i dont know if you can see but jack is wearing two different shoes.

Isaac leading worship


kids waiting in line for the trampoline

last friday night we had a huge bonfire at the ark to say goodbye to Blas´s nephew, Bryan, who was moving back home to spain. And also because Isaac is leaving to Canada in a couple weeks, and also because they just needed to burn a pile of stuff. I bought stuff to make smores and OH MAN it just tasted like home. Like one of the hundreds of fires my family has had on sproat lake. i loved it.
jack, al, and dan just a LITTLE too excited

Isaac...isaac?, stalin, wicho, and al

he spoke me into being, he is the reason my heart beats

day ninety nine - yo soy Tu niña bonita

the other day i asked at a coffee place if they have coffee to go. he put my coffee in a cup with a lid, inside a bag with a spoon and sugar. clearly ecuador hasn´t caught on to this whole ¨coffee to go¨ thing. i think it´s a good thing though. take your time. sit down. enjoy life. drink your coffee. breathe.

day ninety five - quiero aprendar

quick update...last weekend i went on a trip with alicia, blas, his nephew brian, and frejol. We left at about 8 at night. We jumped on a bus to Chunchi (about 3-4 hours away i think) and when we got there i was like...sooo are we looking for a hotel? and Blas says, ¨hotel? oh no, we never stay in hotels, i think i have a friend here. somewhere.¨ ... ummm you think? ¨ya, i talked with her on the phone once. i think she lives up this street¨. anyways it was pretty funny. we found the lady who was super nice, but didn´t have room, so asked a friend if we could stay with him. I think we paid for one meal over 3 days, the people were so nice there. There were a bunch of parties going on which basically consisted of homemade alcohol and bad music. We stayed for some of them in the first town (i always forget the name) but then made our way to Chunchi where Blas´s distant relatives were baptising their kids...Here in the catholic church it´s a very big deal. We went to the reception after and it was seriously like a wedding. that night we heard some music and went to check it out. Some people were setting up for a disco that night but it was only like 8 and no one was there yet. but we didn´t care. we just danced by ourselves like crazy people. sunday we watched argentina school mexico then caught the bus back home.

my prayer for this trip was to be stretched, to learn, and to be...humbled. i prayed that word quietly because i know being humbled is never fun. And man oh man have i ever been humbled...haha as i write it on my blog. looking back in my journal i wrote ¨heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen, show me how to love like you have loved me¨. And that was something i wanted for this trip. I can see how God has been unfolding those things in my life as well as the next lines in the song ¨break my heart for what breaks yours, everything i am for your kingdom´s cause¨. This trip has sparked so many old dreams in my heart and God has given me so many new ones. I am forever learning. I still have over a month left and thinking about it leaves me with mixed emotions. I want it to go by so slowly. I don´t want to leave. But i can. not. wait. to see my family again.
a few things i have learned so far:

love is not an emotion
i can do anything through Christ who gives me strength. anything means anything.
God works ALL things for the good of those who love him. all means all.
kids will never stop asking questions
all people just want to be listened to
out of pain comes beauty SO we can rejoice in our struggles
somehow bull fights are less disturbing to watch than chicken fights
guinea pigs should remain as pets
there is always more to learn
God is always trying to speak to us. always means always. stop for a minute to listen.
we could play it safe and stay on the beach, but you´ll never go anywhere. You could go somewhere and get in the boat but never need to trust in God. Or you could get out of the boat and through your fears and your problems, walk on the sea with your eyes focused on the creator of it all.
you can never drink too much tea
my mom actually does read my blog...

so mom these pictures are for you...my room!


oh and i guess...happy canada day! -daniela

it´s like God is sitting on the edge of his seat, just waiting until we can catch a glimpse of his love for us. ¨there it is!¨ he says. we miss it. but he throws down some more and as it sparkles in our hair and falls to our feet he smiles. ¨my child, if only you knew¨

day eighty eight - running club

Ok so i realized i said stay tuned for pictures from the jungle...so i´ll put up a couple from our trip. But really we just went to the city, Macas by the jungle. it really was a sweet trip though. I really get super lazy with taking photos. i hate packing around my camera. oh the downfalls of great technology. Macas was beautiful. A small city where everyone seems to know everyone. It was SO hot and humid there, my hair curled instantly. It was a nice change from cold Riobamba. I went for a walk at 8 in the morning and it was already hot. and we all went out at night and at 10 it was still hot. It was really really green. It actually reminded me of the island a LOT especially the drive from port to nanaimo. the only thing that seemed different is that there were vines. and way more waterfalls. and our trees are bigger. OK so it was different. but still.

Isaac and Georgina, the Ark´s social worker needed to go there because Isaac used to have a children´s home there which got closed because of lack of funds. The kids were moved to the Ark in Riobamba, so they need to go there often to visit families. this time one of the kids, Mariano, was going home. This is Alicia and Mariano pretending to be tough.


Alicia has been really ambitious and has started running. I love running...I love thinking about running. Man it´s so hard to start once you haven´t run in so long. Well the other day she got Isaac and Frejol and I to go with her and we decided to start a running club. We´re getting shirts. and sweatbands. But this isn´t just any running club. There are other things involved like hopping, skipping, jumping...and parkore. And if you want to join you have to be initiated. or as Alicia calls it...hazed. We´re still figuring out the deets.

I have about 3 more days of relative relaxation before the chaos starts. This weekend some of us are going to this party somewhere...and to hike part of the Inca Trail maybe. As you can see i´m not exactly sure yet. But in July i´m helping Gaby with a summer tutoring program. I´ll be helping her with the English part. I´ll also be helping Zoe with a vacation bible school program at the Ark. There may or may not be a trip to the beach in there too. It´s hard to think of it like this because once july is gone...i´m pretty much coming home.

Learning more about trust daily. Peace, prayer, and contentment.
Daniela (i realized that if i spell my name Daniella here it´s pronounced Dan-ee-ay-ja).
so daniela it is.

day eighty five - mas o menos

God is more beautifully ridiculous than i have ever thought before. Just how interested he is in every small detail. How he likes to give us good things. How he is in control of everything...and likes to make us think we´re making our own decisions but really...he already knew. I thought it was my own decision to come here. And it was in a way. God didn´t tell me to come here he just said it was ok. But he knew. And he had a plan.
Trust means walking forward through your fears, not because you know the outcome because we can´t...but because we know God knows where we´re going and that´s enough for me.
Romans 8:28

day seventy eight - oops

this is definitely the longest i have gone without blogging. which is too bad because so much has been happening. i guess that´s one reason i haven´t been blogging. but i guess it doesn´t really matter. i really have no idea how many people read it anyways, i mostly just do it for myself. i would say i write for my mother´s peace of mind but i don´t think she even reads it haha. ok...first of all our trip to Colombia.

Alicia and I went with Blass, his nephew Brian, and Wilson to Quito to try to renew our visas...pretty much ended up on a wild goose chase to office after office. finally found the right one but it was only open for a couple hours the next morning. we went the next morning after staying at our friends house which was amazing, were waiting in line, and ended up talking to other gringos about visas and figured out we didnt have the right papers, and didn´t have enough time to get the right papers. there was a small loophole...if we could leave the country, when we re-entered Ecuador they may overlook it and just stamp our passports with new visas. We tried it...and long story short it worked. Wilson went with us and we spent many many hours on busses and in taxis, spent the night in Colombia, saw an amazing Cathedral, i ate a waffle that was sent from heaven, and we came back. Travelled for over 12 hours. one of the busses was filled with blackberries. i mean FILLED. no floor space at all. so there we were figuring out how many ways we could eat blackberries...at 4 in the morning. bizarre. i ate something weird in colombia and felt nauseous for the next week.







i moved out of the Ark about a week ago. i think. the move has been good. i still go to the ark every day, or almost every day. but its been great to have more time to hang out with the street church, learn more spanish, and experience family life in riobamba. The family is amazing. Gabby, the daughter, knows english really well and she´s going to be teaching me spanish soon.

yesterday i went to Chambo with Alicia and Wilson. Transportation is so easy here. You can just hop on a bus and go somewhere for 25 cents. transportation is really cheap but everything else seems really expensive. Food costs about the same...but clothes cost like 50-80% more. My jacket was stolen in Colombia so i´ve been trying to find a new one but it´s really expensive here. Anyways, we went to Chambo and lo and behold there´s a full out outdoor/indoor waterpark with waterslides and everything! in the middle of nowhere. seriously. we got there a bit late and it was getting cold but we´re going there another day. We saw a big field and we decided to see if we could find frogs. we didn´t. but the grass was so thick i decided to lay down and have a nap. And alicia and wicho decided to take off their shoes and socks and go romp around in the field. they threw dried poo at me and asked a lady if they could touch her sheep. she said no. then we caught some grasshoppers...then caught a bus back to riobamba (like 20 minutes).
just a typical day with alicia and wicho. When we got back we played Futbol (soccer) with a bunch of guys and Naomi until like 10 at night. it was really great. the world cup is going on...im sure all of Canada has no clue but here it´s huge.

i guess that covers most of the high points. low points...my eyes got the crazy volcano disease again but thankfully this time i knew which eye drops to buy so it went away in a day. the volcano has been pretty quiet lately but will once in a while throw up a huge plume of black smoke and ash. thankfully the ash has mostly stayed away from riobamba. i think it´s about 30 miles away. going to the jungle tomorrow...stay tuned for pictures!!

day sixty three - Tungurahua

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10189244.stm
so the earth has been rumbling and trembling the past couple days, especially today. like every few minutes it sounds like an earthquake. sometimes you can feel it. I don't know if it's been erupting since this afternoon but we can only see it at night. We've been outside watching the lava erupt and pour down the mountain. its so far away we want to drive closer soon to get a better view. haha. i just looked at this bbc website "thousands flee the volcano". it's seriously not like that. the most dangerous part is the ash. people HAVE been getting sick from breathing in the ash.

but ya...pretty darn cool.

day sixty one - it's the volcano's fault

so i guess the news of the day is there's a volcano erupting. now. close. It's pretty sweet actually i only read about these things in school textbooks and now it's coming alive before my eyes. It's very possible it will erupt soon, it's building. It also may calm down. But for now it's spewing ash as far as....who knows but it's getting Riobamba good. today i wiped a piece of ash off Alicia's face and yelled "THERE'S VOLCANO ON YOUR FACE!!". I don't know if it's related but i got pink eye or something nasty. Carmita hooked me up with some junk to fix it up and i think it's getting better. I'd like to blame it on the volcano, i'm blaming everything on it these days. Including the rain. the weather today has been so weird. It cleared up a little so we could see the smoke pouring out of the volcano. I'm going to try to get a photo at night at a low shutter speed so i can see the fire spitting out.
that's all i feel like writing for now. enjoy this blog post because tomorrow i may be buried in lava....no i'm only kidding...the only villages in danger were evacuated. its all good.

day fifty nine - herbalife

Sooo...the past few days are all mixed together in my head. I think it was monday night when we hiked up a mountain at night bringing firewood and a big pot with us so we could have a bonfire at the top of a mountain and make eucalyptus tea. The view was actually unreal, you could see all of Riobamba lit up. It reminded me a lot of the time in Kelowna when a bunch of us hiked up a mountain at night. We prayed and oh ya we brought a guitar too. We sang and then hiked back down the steep mountain which was harder than going up. We got back after 2 that morning so yesterday after the morning shift at 6:30 Glenda told us to go back to bed...thank you! I know we're crazy. high on life. high on Jesus.

Last night and the night before there have been earthquakes at night. It's the first time i've ever felt an earthquake and you could definitley hear it too!! They actually turned out to be tectonic tremors from one of the active volcanoes near here, Tungurahua. This morning there was volcanic ash all over the ground and on the cars, so there were footprints wherever we walked. We're not in danger here if it erupts but the ash is really bad to breathe in, it's like breathing in shards of glass.

Today they were fully staffed at the ark so we were given the day off. It was random to say the least...the three of us volunteers went downtown to go to the post office and i needed to find contact solution (which i finally did thanks Jesus!) and then we ran into Wilson, then later Frejol, then later Vince, their friend from Holland. The day included Alicia and Wilson deciding to get their ears pierced, getting a taxi to some village at the base of a mountain and Alicia riding a horse bareback, hitching a ride in someone's truck, trying to stop the boys from yelling english swear words at gringos, and my favorite...Wilson's stomach was upset and he really wanted this herbalife tea junk. So we're looking for what i was guessing was like a cafe. But we go into this office that looked like a doctors office. It was narrow with a sink and counter on the end, chairs along the side, and a woman behind a desk at the front. We sit down and she makes us this concoction that was like...some kind of warm citrusy stuff. I couldn't stop laughing and making fun of Wilson for bringing us to a doctors office. it was really funny actually. And he kept going on and on about herbalife and showing us the catalogue. I made fun of him for being like a commercial.

Anyways...i'm doing pretty well...trying very hard to stay healthy all the time. It's hard when you're around 80 runny noses all day. Trying to get enough sleep. Next week Alicia and I are heading to Quito because we need to renew our visas. I heard it could be like over 200$ so i'm definitely not looking forward to that.
Dios Ve Vendiga!!
Daniela

day fifty six - purpose

things are beginning to come clear for me. why i am here. i can see now why it was necessary for me to come here before returning to school. the lessons i am learning, the person i am becoming. a few things this trip was never to be about was to make an interesting blog, to take sweet pictures of scenery or tell cute stories of kids. It wasn't to be about a stamp in the passport or checking something off a life list of things to do, and definitely not about credits for an internship for my program. This trip was about stepping out in faith. making a decision for Christ. Stepping into the unknown to have an adventure with my Best Friend and be humbled and learn along the way. That's what it was about from the very beginning.

When i got here i was shocked. It was the first time i had ever travelled anywhere alone and i guess it hit me when i got here that i dont know anyone or anything. the language...everything was foreign to me and i wasn't going to be leaving for another couple months. Honestly i was very much looking forward to going home. the road has been...long. and my heart is getting stronger. the road is longer still and i am blessed by what God is teaching me.

the other day i was having coffee with Alicia and i was explaining my program at school and i was getting all excited and i said "and we get to do a student ministry every week!" and as soon as i said it i laughed. I have always said "have to do a student ministry". and it just came out that i get to. And that is truly how i feel. i am feeling more and more equipped to do God's will for my life. I'm beginning to see that we really can't grow and learn and be stretched and humbled if life is a piece of cake. It's through the hard times we grow. i have a love/hate relationship with my problems in life. My good friend Wilson told me last night: you are bigger than your problems, and God is bigger than you.

I don't know what God has in store for me for the next couple months, but i want it to go slowly because i don't want to miss out on anything, any opportunity. these friendships i have made are going to last. these things God is showing me are forever imprinted on my heart. there's so much more to learn.

day fifty four - calmaraste

they tell me that when i speak spanish i have an indian accent. it makes me really happy.

day fifty three - messenger pigeons

today i got to sleep in and it was glorious. then after the lunch shift alicia and I went into town to meet up with Wilson. He took us to a coffee place he just found. It was downtown behind a bakery. Really out of the way and completely awesome. Later Blass and Bienvenido and Fernando came and we ended up talking with this old man who knew french, spanish, english, and quichua. He was a really interesting guy and when we were about to leave he's like...where's my kiss? to alicia and I. Then Blass took us up these stairs to the top of this park thing that overlooked the south end of Riobamba. I need to go back there soon with my camera, it was amazing. Then we decided to go into the big Catholic church there and see if we could go up into the bell tower. We ended up going down some stairs into the basement that actually was a cemetary where a man and women were collecting human bones in bags. It was....weird. We weren't allowed to go up the bell tower today but maybe another day. Blass of course started talking with one of the monks about Jesus. We were walking back to the center of town and Wilson decides he's going to catch one of the pigeons. He did. And we decided to tie a message to it's foot. Like who does that? apparently us. Alicia wrote her email on it so we're just waiting to see who finds it.

I bought a cell phone today. Mine doesn't work here and especially when i move out it will be much better for safety reasons.

the allans came back today all nicely tanned. Makes me want to go to the beach really bad! We are going to go...if not by ourselves then with the Allans in July when they take the 30 oldest kids at the ark.

oh yea! haha Nacho. Today he was...for lack of a better word...making out with Miley today. He's 2. Miley is almost 2. One of the girls kept trying to stop them but he kept running back to her to kiss her. Or more like eat her mouth. I couldn't stop laughing.

I learned another thing about crying. Last night little Samuel was crying. I heard the supervisor say to the worker in charge of that group of kids say "it's Samuel". She didn't even have to look to see who it was. They know the cries of the kids. God knows our voice. He knows our cry. Our voices are ingrained in his heart. Like the verse:

Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.

it's like...if God knows the stars that well, imagine how much more he knows us. Our names, our cry, everything about us.

forever learning, daniella

day fifty two - cholitas

i dont even know if it's day fifty two, i dont know why i started naming my blog posts like that, its hard to keep up.
so just a few random things...i'm actually starting to get a tan! since it rains so much here and when it is sunny we're usually inside with the babies, it has taken me a while. but you know when other gringos comment that you're dark it's a good sign.
one of the allans daughters came up to visit for a while so their whole family went to the beach for the week. which means it's been a little crazier during the day and a lot quieter in the evenings.
i really need to stop eating bread!! one of my favorites here are cholas, or cholitas. they're little buns with a butter/brown sugar filling and they're amazing.
i'm offically moving out of the ark on june 7th. I'm not too sad about it because i'll probably still be here every day. But i will be staying with one of the supervisors and her daughter closer to town. And i will probably be taking spanish classes with her daughter as well. they have a super cute apartment above an internet cafe which they own. Naomi and I have already been brainstorming how i'm going to help with the street ministry. we're dreaming big! like getting a local music scene going with concerts and stuff. her big dream is to start a record label because there's nothing like that here.
i helped lucy take her first few steps the other day!! she's so cute. she really could do it she just doesnt know it yet.

spanish class today was...interesting. the girl is really sweet but she kept answering her phone and leaving the room to get a new pen and asking me questions about english so in two hours i didn't learn very much. i learn so much more by just hanging out with my friends and asking them questions and copying what they say.
One of my favorite parts about wednesdays is that i get back to the ark around 6:30 when the kids are playing outside for a last minute attempt to burn off their energy. And when i walk in Antony will see me and come running to me to pick him up and he'll start pointing at things he wants to show me like the dog, stitch, or the moon. i love it.

since Zoe has been gone this week with her family we haven't been doing preschool classes and the kids will ask me every day why we're not doing classes, and when we're starting again, it's really cute how much they love it.
i get really excited when i realize i just successfully understood someone and responded. What happens more often though is i will answer someone in english hoping they'll understand, then a couple seconds later remember how to say it in spanish. i am learning!
i've been missing a few things about home. like going to quality foods with my mom. i realize i've been talking a lot about my family lately. they're amazing.

day forty eight - perdidos

really? day forty eight? i can't believe i haven't blogged all week...oops. it's been pretty crazy here and a lot has been going on.
yesterday morning started with preschool for me. they are so funny. we were playing with playdough and Zoe told me before they left i had to frisk their pockets to make sure they didn't take playdough. She said it's happened before haha. I just love it.
Then Alicia and I went to Pelileo for the afternoon. It's a town about an hours bus ride away and is known for it's jeans. I really needed a pair since the babies pee on mine all the time and it's hard to fit in time for laundry. So we shopped for a bit then ate at a little hole in the wall and had fried plantain, potatoes, roasted corn and pork. SO good. then we just walked around for a bit in the sunshine before catching the bus back.
Alicia and I with her new dreads that we've been working on.

patchwork fields...every space is used, even steep hillsides

When walking back to the Ark from the bus we ran into Isaac and a bunch of people who were going to a concert that we wanted to go to. So we planned to go back to the Ark to get permission then catch a taxi to meet up with them. So far so good. The taxi driver knew where the church was and everything but when we got there the gates were locked, there were no cars or people anywhere and the lights were turned off. The driver tried to leave us there but we convinced him to take us to another church with the same name. We saw a couple people we knew there and there was some kind of performance there so we stayed...only to find out Isaac really wasnt there and it wasnt a concert but a church talent show. [side note...we stayed for a minute to watch them perform noah's ark and watched as winnie the pooh marched into the ark, then watched in horror as they sacrificed the little lamb. That child will be scarred for life]. We quickly realized that we didn't really know where we were, we couldn't communicate very well with anyone, we didn't have enough money for another taxi, and we didn't know any phone numbers. So we prayed. We decided people were going to worry and we needed to somehow call someone. So we walked out, hoping to find a phone...and there was one right next door. We found the Allans number in the phonebook and thankfully they were able to call Isaac to come get us. It turns out the concert wasnt that night at all, they were somewhere completely different in a house church. Plan for next week...buy a cellphone. The night was really great though, we ended up at Calamare's house church where we prayed and sang songs for a while, then ended up driving around as usual dropping people off and ended up at the bus stop where that guy and his wife makes the wicked awesome fish soup, encebellados de pascado. It tasted even better this time. We took it with us and so there i was eating soup in the back of a moving truck at 12 in the morning. It was glorious.

Today Alicia and I took some of the older girls for a walk. It was an amazingly beautiful day and it was lots of fun. We walked down the road a bit to an ice cream place called Mickos. They had a courtyard in the back so we just hung out on the grass and ate ice cream. All of them know english pretty well so we've been trying to take advantage of that and get to know them better since we only work with the younger kids.


Other things that have been going on are the Allans have started watching Lost in the evenings, we had an awesome bible study last thursday, Alicia is getting dreads, and a new volunteer came today! Her name is Rachel and she's from England but she's been travelling latin america for 15 months! We've only just met her but I'm already excited to hear more about her adventures.

ciao for now, daniella

day forty three - plans.planes.

Spanish class today went really well! i think it makes a big difference one on one and i'm excited for next week already.

I got to feed Miguel the other day. He is so tiny and precious. He's only a few weeks old.

I don't have too much else to say except when i bought my plane ticket the return date said June 7. As of last night....it now says August 10. Ya i couldn't stand the thought of leaving in a few weeks. There's so much more for me to learn here. June 7 i'll be moving out of the ark somewhere in town. Most likely with one of the supervisors here and her daughter. I'll be taking more spanish classes, volunteering at the ark, and helping out more with the street ministry. There's also a possibility of me teaching english classes to lower the cost of my spanish classes, depending on how much spanish i can learn between now and then.

Zoe found a tape to play in the preschool today...and it was one of the tapes that i listened to as a kid and it brought back so many amazing memories! All i wanted to do today was watch every episode of the Last Chance Detectives. If someone wants to be my best friend for life they can send me a copy of any episode.
Antonio

Ingrid

Maria

Miguelito

Oliver


stoked to be here for another few months!!!!!!
daniella

day forty - spanglish

Last night was street church and as usual it was just great. Alicia and I took a taxi into town this time and we got rearended in one of the many round-a-bouts. that was interesting, it turned out to be not a big deal. then we met up with the others in the park in the town centre and played the guitar and Isaac talked for a bit, which i mostly didn't understand. They have a really sweet tradition here on the night before Mother's Day where people will stand outside their mothers windows and serenade them. So there were trucks parked outside of houses everywhere with people singing into microphones and there was music everywhere. We drove to some of the guys houses and sang to their mothers and it was really great. we didn't end up getting back until 2.

Today was super nice to just sleep in and then go into town with Alicia. We went to the SuperTia where i bought some shoes for 3$ and then walked to the coffee place. We ended up talking for a long time and it was really great. We're sure missing Jessalyn though! We ended up running into Blass on our way back and sat in the park and talked with him for a while.

Just gearing up for another busy week. My Spanglish is pretty good...hoping it will keep turning into more Spanish than English. I wish I could hang out with my mom today! There really will be more pictures soon i promise. Oh. and random fact about Riobamba...if you hear something like an ice cream truck...it's not an ice cream truck. It's the garbage truck, warning people that they're coming and get their garbage out on the road. I get a glimmer of false hope everytime i hear it.

day thirty eight - change

Things are changing a bit around here. The two newborns, Emma and Miguelito were moved from the supervisors room into the baby room so we get to see them everyday now and feed them! they're so tiny.

Yesterday was Thursday and i love thursdays because we have our bible study. i was so tired because we had stayed out late and i woke up at six to wake up the babies and change them. But the bible study was great and then we walked some of the guys down the road where they could get a taxi home. The ditch outside the front gate is almost filled so Isaac can use his truck again more easily but we really have been enjoying walking. So i got back after 12 again and got up at 6 this morning. I'm starting to crash now. I know i need to sleep because i'm getting a cold. They went to the hospital tonight to bring people tea and i really wanted to go but i have to wake up at 6 again tomorrow.

Something came up at home for Jessalyn and she had to leave unexpectedly today. That is a huge change. The dynamic is different now, there being just two of us in the room. She will be missed! i haven't taken any pictures or videos lately but there will be some soon for sure.

day thirty six - quack

last night we walked Frejol home with some of the Allan's kids and some of the older kids at the Ark. Usually Isaac would drive him home but they've been digging up the road to put in new sewage pipes so it's hard to get the vehicles in and out. It was just really good to walk at night (though it was very cold) and talk and hang out.

Today was supposed to be my first real spanish class. The teacher was there and it turns out she's still learning English. She's pretty good but we kept stopping so that we could teach her some English that she didn't know. I was a little frustrated. I'm hoping next week will be better because Alicia and I will be taking separate classes from now on because they finally understood that i really am just at square one and i won't learn much by being taught in spanish.

In preschool today Zoe was reading the kids a book about elephants and Felipe was honestly trying to convince her when the book was done that elephants can fly with their ears. The earnest look on his face was priceless.

tonight after the meeting i went for a walk downtown with isaac, naomi, frejol, cebolla, blass, and rice and his buddy. i always forget his name so i've just been calling him rice or arroz. i usually don't go out at night during the week because i have to wake up so early but i've been wanting to get more involved with the street ministry. Since the road is being dug up there's huge ditches right outside the foundation and we heard a little puppy stuck in the bottom of a big hole. So Cebolla jumped down and threw the puppy up (it was seriously so tiny, like a rat) and then crawled back up. I felt like we were the neighborhood superheros or something. We went to the jail so they could visit some guys there and we bought them some bread and prayed for them. These are the kind of guys that just know everyone and when you see a drunk man on the street you don't keep walking but stop to ask where his house is, if he needs help, and then pray for them and tell them about Jesus. I feel like i'm in the right place. It's also good because i feel i learn the most spanish while hanging out with them. i may be learning more street spanish than proper spanish but i'm ok with that.

day thirty four - Dios es Bueno

I really liked today. And i can't even tell you why specifically except that God is good.
Alicia and I took a long walk to a really good bakery we've been hearing about...we weren't disappointed. One of the staples here is pan (bread). You can find it sold pretty much on every street. they make it in different kinds of buns with cheese or sugar or something in the middle, or croissants. of course, Chris's bread at Mountain View is way better and i miss it! But it's still pretty good here...except it's hard to find whole wheat anything! most things are made with white flour. So anyways we went for our walk and almost got caught in the rain. You leave the house and its 25 degrees and you're thinking you should have put on sunscreen and the next thing you know there's black storm clouds overhead and it starts pouring rain.

these kids are seriously amazing. Jennifer's irresistible dimples, the way Tito never walks but runs or yells or something (note to self to put up a video of Tito soon), the way Georgina's little belly sticks out of her shirt, Geovanny's laugh, Mary's toothless smile, the way the kids look so miserable when they sit on the naughty steps (am i horrible for loving that?), the way Nacho is always missing one shoe, how Romina loves to listen to music, the way the little kids line up on the potties to go pee, when they fall asleep at the table, how i change Oliver and as soon as i put him down he's wet again, when Julissa falls asleep on the potty, how Patty was so excited for preschool today she slipped on the tile floor...i love them.

day thirty three - may?

i can't believe it's may. I completely missed May 1st because i got the flu and i was in bed all day and all last night. i'm feeling a lot better today though, but it's going around the Ark. Jessalyn already had it and we're just hoping Alicia won't get it. I don't get sick a lot, but when i do it hits pretty hard.

Teletuvie went back home to Quito today. This photo is from Cebolla's birthday...I'm not quite sure why he has tape on his nose.
Teletuvie, Blass, and Cebolla


Just getting ready for another busy week. There are two groups here volunteering right now. One group is here for a few days helping with maintenance and there's a family of five that's here for a couple weeks.

real lattes!

daniella

day thirty one - adoption

the other day Elias got adopted. I always have mixed feelings when a child gets adopted. Are the parents going to love them the way they should, are they going to teach them about the love of God, are they going to give up when it gets tough? I feel selfish sometimes in wanting all the kids to stay here, but then i remember that they don't have their own set of parents to tuck them in at night. They don't have parents to run home to at the end of the school day to give them a picture to put on the fridge. Sure, they have a home. And it's a great home. But i tend to forget how different their childhood is compared to how mine was.

ecuador and the culture of ecuador is really growing on me. I wasn't so sure at first if i would have a purpose here. I felt that i would do my time, learn a few lessons, and then go home. But i was wrong. There's a specific reason why I'm here and it's important. I don't know exactly what it looks like yet, but there's something about this place, this culture, these people, that are drawing me in.

please pray for my brother. His back has been really messed up for a while after he hit his head running up the stairs (only my brother could accomplish that). But he's in serious pain and the hospital could only schedule a test for him in a couple months.
probably the smallest lady i've ever seen in my life

hanging out one night downtown riobamba

day thirty - espiritu santo

my first spanish class didn't go so well. The teacher wasn't there so another lady tried to teach Alicia and I grammar but i was so frustrated because I didn't know what she was talking about. But next week we're going to do 2 hours instead, she felt bad the teacher wasn't there. I have never wanted to learn a language so badly. If i could have a superpower...only one...or one wish or anything like that, it would be to know every language in the world.

Every thursday we have a bible study here at the ark. One of the workers here just gave her life to the Lord so it was exciting to see her there. I don't remember how many people usually come but tonight i'm guessing there were around forty or fifty. It was unbelievable. God has really been moving. Well...he's always present of course but I've just really been learning a lot lately about how he IS always here and how we have access to the power of the Holy Spirit. It was his gift to us. We sang worship songs and i've been starting to learn some of them. I crave spanish worship music. I don't want to listen to anything else. Ron gave a talk and then we just prayed and the Holy Spirit fell on the room. I will never forget it.

Today was Cebolla's birthday so he got whipped with a belt 18 times. Happy Birthday Cebolla. One of the kids, Patricio (we all call him Teletuvie) is going back to Quito to live with his family. He has been here a few months, just working, doing odd jobs and selling candy. He has been staying with Blass but he's only 12 so they've been trying to get him to move back with his family. He's going back on Sunday and it will be really sad to see him go.
Lisa left this morning. It's back to 3 volunteers. It's kind of weird, we miss her already!
us with Teletuvie in our favorite coffee place.

I fall more in love with these kids every day. This morning when i went to wake up Romina I almost started crying because she looked so cute in her pajamas. I just picked her up and hugged her and said "i love you i love you i love you!". Some people just love like that naturally, but it's something I've been learning to do. And i'm learning that in the same way, the more i know about God, the more i am able to love him.
Tonight has been a pivotal moment here on my trip in ecuador and in my journey with God.



this video is from last night, our birthday party for Cebolla and goodbye party for Lisa. I look like i'm crying because i probably was. I love these people.