Ecuador: Check!

SOMEHOW, it's the night before we fly out to Cordoba, Argentina. Where in the world did the last three months of my life go?! When I think about all the things I've done, places I've gone, and people I've met I guess it's a pretty impressive list for just ninety days, but still! In the beginning it seemed like I had FOREVER to be down here, but I'm starting to realize just how fast this year is going to go... And that's not something I'm happy about!


Needless to say, Renae and I have had an awesome last couple of weeks. We got to spend another perfect week in Latacunga with the best group of kids in all of Ecuador (no, not exaggerating). I can't really explain what it is about that place, but the moment we step through the doors we are both immediately filled with so much love and happiness. We know we are needed there, the kids are SO affectionate and deserving, and we love giving every minute of our time to them. Again, I think we left the orphanage gate maybe two times the whole week. The last time we were in the 'Cunga, we were there with our friend Andrea, who spent most of her time

upstairs with the older, more severely special needs kids, while Renae and I hung out with the babies. This time it was just us two, so we decided to divide our time: mornings upstairs, afternoons/evenings downstairs. So we soon had a whole new group of kids to love up on. We got to help with physical therapy every morning, walk laps on laps around the building with Jose Luis, and help feed them lunch. We were 0% wanting to leave by the end of our week there, but the Ecuador time clock was clicking and we still had tons to do!

Somehow we ended up having the best timing ever and were still in Latacunga when Dr. Bob Brunsvold, the guy who set our whole trip in action back in Fargo this summer, came through on his way from Quito to Shell. He picked us up on the side of the road and brought us along on a little leg of his journey. We spent about 24 hours in Shell (you know, right next to where we had just been in Santa Clara the week before... so much traveling!), pigging out on hamburgers and ice cream, listening to Bob's stories, and getting to visit another orphanage, Casa de Fe. It was good to see the inner workings of another site, and to meet more inspiring people and adorable kiddos. And of course getting to hang with one of our favorite guys... if you're out there Bob, thanks for everything! You are always so encouraging and are a huge inspiration for us. We love you!!!

After that it was back up to Quito for another one day stint, this time helping out at a church and school in the slums of the city. We had hoped we would have longer to work with Pastor Fabian and his crew, but like I said, time was ticking. It was an amazing day though, and we are super glad we got to meet everyone and see what Carmen Bajo is all about. We got to help in a pre-kinder class all morning, while the kids made glitter angels and practiced for their Christmas program. I wish I knew how to upload videos on here so you could all see them screaming Feliz Navidad for us at the top of their lungs: unnecessarily loud but still adorable. We spent the rest of the day helping out in the kitchen with the 5 or so lunch ladies. The school feeds about 300 people every day, in one small dining area. It took hours and let me tell you I will never complain about hand washing and drying dishes again, assuming I never have to do it for that many people! But the time was spent in good company, and we are hoping we'll be able to go back and do more work there the next time we're in Ecuador.


That night we took another dreaded night bus back to the coast, to spend Christmas and our last week in Ecuador with the guys who we had become so close with and couldn't imagine leaving the country without seeing again. We were prettyyyy sick of bussing anywhere and everywhere by that time but it was definitely the perfect way to end our time here. Back to the care of the abuelitas, to starting every day with an ocean swim, to knocking mangoes out of the tree to snack on, to making the trek to Bernardo's shack at the edge of town every night to cook, watch movies, and play cards with the guys. We took day trips to the beaches in Ton Supa and Mompiche, spent a day in Bolivar visiting Jonathon’s family, and a night on the island of Portete, where we stayed in tents and spent a few hours in the middle of the night looking for sea turtles. We didn't end up seeing any, but the night was absolutely gorgeous and it was low tide, so still well worth the trip. We spent another day helping out at a Christmas party for all the kids in Bernardo's neighborhood, which is one of the poorer ones in Sua. There was a sack race, egg race, and of course tons of soccer. There was also a game in which the kids had to figure out how to get someone to the top of a huge pole to get the presents down from the top. I should mention that the pole is all greased up so all you do is slide right down it until you can figure out how to stand on top of each others heads to get up there... hilarious to watch, but they got it eventually! Everyone was given candy bags and little presents, and they were SO happy. For the majority of those kids, that day was their whole Christmas.

Renae and I both thought we were going to be pretty homesick for Christmas, since it is about as opposite here as you can possibly get. No snow, just sand. No oven to make cookies, so we settled for dipping animal crackers in frosting. Couldn't find any Harry Potter movies in town, so we watched a crappy recording of the Grinch in Spanish instead. But we did both get to skype our families, went to Spanish church, and got to share Christmas with more people than either of us ever had before. We ate a big lunch out at Jonathon’s house with his family, jamming music as usual and hanging out in the yard in hammocks. For dinner we were invited to eat with the abuelita that owns the hostal, Anita, and her family. It was just her, her husband, their daughter, and Renae and I, but it was super heartwarming that they thought to include us, and we got to try some delicious traditional Ecuadorian desserts. After that we went to spend the night with Bernardo's family, eating even more (we both thought we might puke at some point but that's pretty normal for both of us on Christmas I'd say), and hanging out while the kids lit sparklers. So although it was a very different Christmas than anything we'd experienced before, we went to bed feeling yes very full but also very blessed that we got to spend it with three awesome families. It's amazing how a part of it all each one made us feel. It's more than we could have asked for.

And actually, our whole time here in this country has been more than we could have asked for. I can't even begin to explain how much I've learned in the last three months, or how much my heart has changed. I'm so thankful for every single person I've met, and hope I can hold onto every lesson I've learned.


As for now, I need to try and squeeze in some sleep before heading to the airport at 3:30 a.m. It's going to be a long couple days of traveling, including a 23 hour layover in Santiago, ick! But we're both beyond excited so start off a new part of the adventure- I can't wait to see what it has in store for us. And actually we literally do not have ANY idea what's coming, since we failed to do any research whatsoever on Argentina before today. Where should we stay? What do you mean the Spanish is way faster and harder to understand there? How exactly do we exchange our dollars for pesos without getting scammed? What documents do we even need to be let in? Don't ask us. But guess what, it's all part of the adventure, and we have never once said we're actually that good at traveling. So as usual we'll stumble through it somehow... Bring it on!


Missing this amazing country before I even leave it,

Jenna Flynn

FHC Newsletter Shout-out

The founders of For His Children included a thanks to this year´s volunteers in thier December newsletter. Jenna and I feel so blessed to have experienced this as a part of our journey. Our hearts have grown so much and have changed in the best of ways. It is true what Melinda says: "The rewards are usually beyond our expectations".

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/For-His-Children-Connection---December-2013.html?soid=1112227716753&aid=7FwiOkxvcoo

the JUNGLE

I have to start off by explaining how the end of the cross-country bus trip out here to Santa Clara went...

After blogging, Jenna joined me in a deep sleep (to be clear, by “deep” I mean the most continuous amount of actual sleeping you can get on a bus that's speeding through the jungle, while also making sure that your backpack doesn't get snatched and that you don't fall out of your seat). We woke up, at around 3:30am in a town south of Santa Clara called Puyo, to where we bought our tickets, assuming that was the end of the line for that bus. Actually, the bus we were on was heading through Santa Clara on its trek north, BUT they had sold our unclaimed seats at the Puyo station. The next bus was not rolling through until 7am, and instead of waiting for 3 hours at the vacant station, we thought it would be better to stand. So their we were, standing in the aisle, towering over all of the intelligent Ecuadorians who had paid for their entire over-night trip. Of course, it was a very winding road through the jungle and we had to block everyone's overhead bags from falling on top of us, and, if you're still following the story, it was only about 4am, so naturally they turned the lights off and we were in the pitch black. Santa Clara is a town of only 3,000, and without a terminal, the bus driver dumped us at a little bench on the side of the road at around 5, and drove away. Did

this town for sure have a hostel? Internet? How could we contact the people we were supposed to meet? We couldn't help but crack up over the entire situation. Only us. We waited on the bench until the sun came up to meander through the little rainforest town looking for a place to stay. We found a $15 hostel and immediately passed out. We decided we'd try to figure out a plan after a little much-needed sleep...Yep, that's how we travel. Gracefully.


What we woke up to though, was one of the most gorgeous places either of us has ever been to: a little town nestled in the magnificent Amazon rainforest. We had previously contacted a couple named Isaac and Kirstie who are volunteering with the Peace Corps and were assigned to Santa Clara for their two years. Luckily our hostel owners had wifi and we were able to Skype-call Isaac. (Our back-up plan was to go knocking on doors asking people where the gringos lived, so I'm glad Skype worked out.) We met up with Isaac on his way to his English class with the “bomberos” (firefighters), and he invited us to come along. We obviously said yes, and herein started an amazing week of adventures with Isaac and Kirstie, and the people of Santa Clara. Isaac and Kirstie have been working with the bomberos and a few of the schools in town doing different projects, activities, and various classes. They were very accommodating in letting us come along to help out with their endeavors all week. Isaac brought us to English class with the bomberos, and asked Jenna and I to prepare a dialogue so they could hear a little Midwestern English. (We've heard many times now that Jenna's accent is stronger than mine, and so it provided a little bit of an extra challenge for the beginners.) We also went to the first-aid session and I acted out the part of a victim of a machete accident and was bandaged up by the training firefighter.

With Kirstie, we went along to English club, where we met an amazing group of 6-11 yr olds. We played games to practice the parts of the body, clothing, numbers, and colors. In one game, Kirstie had teams face-off to be the first to name in English what she drew on the whiteboard. The kids loved when Jenna and I faced off, in Spanish of course, and were giving us quick little lessons on all the body parts in Spanish. The second time we went to the club, the kids has a “sorpresa” (surprise) for Jenna and I. They had heard it was my birthday a few weeks back, and prepared a whole surprise party for us. They brought cake, pop, candy, and gave us bracelets and earrings. They also wrapped up a little Spanish-English fairy agenda book for me. Para (To): Rene, De (From): Domenica y su hermana (sister) Melany. Thee sweetest thing that has ever happened to me. They had known us for what, two hours? It was so heartwarming.


We also went to another school to see about weeding the garden Kirstie had started with them. It is a bilingual Spanish-Kichua school, Kichua being the language of the indigenous people form the area. Instead of gardening though, we spent half the day with a class of 6^th and 7^th graders (each teacher has 2 grades due to the lack of funding). They wanted to know our names, where we were from, what the weather was like there, and all kinds of other questions. Then they wanted us to play a game from the states with them. Heads-up 7-up. They had never played before. They dug it. After that, they insisted we sing a song, in the holiday spirit, we sang “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”- in perfect harmony ;). Jenna and I went back to the classroom the next day and brought along paper to make Chinese Fortune Tellers. These they had seen before, and it wasn't so exciting, but we threw in some English words to spice it up. We ended our time with more Heads-up 7-up, and then had to escape when they started ripping out Jenna's hair to keep... If you're blonde and in Ecuador, don't bend down around teenage girls.


Outside our time in the schools, we tried to soak up as much of the nature as we could. One day, the bomberos had a plan to hike to a waterfall in the jungle. As usual, all 4 of us gringos had no idea what to expect. We just put on sunscreen and trail pants and hopped in the police truck. We drove about 30 mins out of town, along winding roads through smaller and smaller villages until we were in the thick of the jungle. The police dropped us off (one decided to join us on our expedition, handgun and all), and the “comandante” (fire chief) immediately broke ahead, swinging his machete to make a path through the trees.

We were literally running at various times to keep up with him during the hour and a half trek in, splashing through rivers and mud puddles and crashing through spider and ant-infested trees. We started noticing that he didn't seem too sure of where this waterfall actually was, and I heard Jimena (also in the bombero English class) asking Isaac how to say “perdida” in English, which is Spanish for LOST. The comandante gave in and decided we should head back out the way we came. The policemen were going to pick us up at 5pm sharp, and we didn't want to risk not being there; no one had a cell signal. We trekked back out and found another river. Apparently this was the one we wanted to originally follow upstream. Weary from rainforest sprints, we were all hesitant to chase after another mythical “waterfall”. We decided to take the chance, though, and, as we were saying for the rest of the day: “Vale la pena”. It was worth it. We finally reached a huge waterfall jutting out from the cliff side into a large pool below. It was breath-taking. We all stripped down and swam under the ice cold, pounding falls. And even after a swim, we made it back to the drop point just in time for the police truck to be pulling up.


Other highlights of the week:

• We cooked the bomberos a huge ceviche dinner (the first time making it on our own) and it turned out great!
  
• We hung out with wild monkeys on the beach and played soccer in a town called Misahualli.
  
• The bomberos fed us some of the typical food of the region: a drink called wayuza, and fish grilled in a leaf called Maeto. ( It was weird to eat it while the poor guy just stared back at you...)
  
• Jimena and her family let us crash at their place one night to save money and we met their pet Agouti (look it up, the things are giant rodents).
  
• On night we were eating chicken-on-a-stick on the curb with our favorite stray dog and were picked up by Jimena and her friend, Anita, and invited over for tea and snacks. We all spent the whole night talking about Ecuadorian life versus that in the states.
  
• Getting schooled by a bunch of kids in a game of soccer.

The only lowlights of the week were: A. That we got destroyed by biting gnats and mosquitoes and are now experiencing something similar to one of the ten plagues of Egypt, and B. That we were hit on by a creepy bus driver and his assistant without a choice but to take the blow until we got to our destination. (I mean the guy was literally trying to search for me on Facebook while weaving the bus through cars and motorcycles along curving roads... No gracias.) Oh and C. The fact that after a few days worth of clothes that had braved jungle humidity our room REEKED. It didn't help that the shower only had ice cold water as well, so showers were few and far between. For those of you who predicted whether or not would reach a whole new level of hippie, barely showering or shaving? ...yea.


Other than that though, and the fact that our legs look like land-mines, our time in Santa Clara was completely amazing. And the people? The most generous and heartwarming bunch I've ever met. It is crazy to me that even though we're the ones who are supposed to be helping, the people of Ecuador never fail to help us! Everyone we met in that town offered to take us on adventures, feed us meals, and put us up for the night. People we had met only minutes before would ask if we could stay longer. Just one more week, por favor! That little jungle town has the most poverty we've seen so far, and yet the people opened up their entire lives to two white girls who showed up out of the blue. I cannot fully explain how humbling it is to experience a generosity like that. I mean, kids that share a tiny shack with their entire extended family threw together a surprise birthday party for girls they had met for a few hours... It makes me think, what kind of life am I living that in all my blessings I would ever even hesitate to give anything to anybody, while these people have so little and give so much? I pray that the humility I am feeling from such love and generosity has the power to influence my heart forever. I don't think either of us were expecting to be so deeply moved by our short time in that town, but we left feeling so blessed by the opportunity to fall in love with the people and their culture. I hope God can keep our hearts and minds wide open, and that He can show us how we can give back to His people who have been so amazing to us along this journey.

As for now, we just got back to the Latacunga orphanage for the week. Hopefully we will have time to recoop after a long trek all over the country, as well as spend a bunch of time with these kids here that we've been missing!


And sorry for such a long blog, it had to happen.


Surviving on bananas,
Renae

The Coastal Adventures Continue

Well, it's about 8:30 on Sunday night, and Renae and I just hopped on a bus for the 9 hour trek over to the rainforest. We're pretty sad our time on the ocean is over, but it could not have been 1% better than it was. Plus, we are SUPER excited to be moving on to the next part of the adventure, and onto an entirely new part of Ecuador as well. I cannot believe how much the culture changes from one part of this country to the next. I'm pumped to see what surprises the rainforest has in store for us. I'm also hoping everyone wasn't serious about how often they eat bugs over there....


Like Renae said, we decided to stay in Sua for one last weekend with the guys, in honor of Jonathan's birthday. We spent the afternoon at his house, eating delicious homemade food and hanging out with his family. They are about the most welcoming people you could meet. The night was spent hanging out at the beach-side bars, jamming to reggae and, like always, trying (and failing) to keep up with the guys' salsa. How does EVERYONE here know how to dance so well? They tell us it's the Latino blood, but I hope that's not the case because that means I'll never catch up. Sunday we had one last lazy day, watching movies and making taco-in-a-bag for the boys. I know it's nowhere near their cooking skills but they loved having U.S. cooking night anyways.

Monday morning proved to be a rough one: I don't think we had realized how much we had fallen into the Sua lifestyle, or how comfortable we were there. The hard goodbye's started with the 3 abuelitas, who had taken SUCH good care of us and made us feel right at home. From there we had to say goodbye to Batido Man, and some of Bernardo's neighbors who we had gotten to know over time. We had one last breakfast feast with Bernardo, Jonathan, and Anthony, said some tearful goodbyes, and hopped on the bus. It would be an understatement to say we've missed them ever since. As usual, we ended up meeting the exact people we were supposed to, and I know the 5 of us will be friends forever, regardless of when we get to see each other again. (Which may or may not be for Christmas!)


Feeling lonely, Renae and I headed to Canoa, a beach town a few hours to the south. The stretch of beach was absolutely gorgeous, and we finally got to use the tent, but other than that the town was a bit disappointing. It's a big tourist town, but as it's currently off season the town was pretty dead. There was a handful of other gringos (white people), but not the travel sort. Mostly it was older couples or families, there for a quiet vacation. Totally fine, but not exactly what we were craving after our lively days in Sua. But then we realized Tuesday was the big Day 50 of the trip, so we decided to adapt to the Canoa lifestyle and spend the day walking the deserted beach, reflecting, and answering a series of questions we came up with for ourselves to answer every 50 days. It may have been just what we needed. Plus we got a laugh out of being the town lunatics (not that it's a new thing): whereas everyone else was sitting around in cute beachy outfits, texting and sipping expensive cocktails, Renae and I would come crawling out of our tent, pitched right in the middle of it all, with our peanut butter and smashed bread in hand. It also may have been a few days since our last showers, oops!


Having had enough of Canoa, we spent the majority of Wednesday bussing down to Puerto Lopez. It took about 5 minutes after hopping off the bus to know we were going to love it there. It is bigger than Sua, and therefore has more to do, but still has a friendly, small-town feel. It is a fishing village, so the bay is always filled with little blue fishing boats, and tons of birds overhead. We found a lively hostal, Turismar, ran by a big Ecuadorian family, and settled right in.


The next day, Thanksgiving, we decided to hike over to Machalilla National Park, which has some of the most gorgeous beaches on the whole coast of Ecuador. We wanted to save some money, and everyone said the walk was super easy, so we hiked the 12 km to the park entrance, down the highway. It took a bit longer than expected (2.5 hours to be exact), and I don't think walking on the same expanse of highway as all the loco drivers around here is actually that safe, but we finally made it. We had to hike another few miles through the park, which was pretty exhausting by then, but it was definitely worth it. The beaches... WOW, way too beautiful. We got to talk with a nice Colombian couple and take in lots of sweet views. But the day's surprises weren't over. We made it to the final beach, Los Frailes, with the plan to swim to our little hearts' content. I'm not sure if we even made it 2 minutes in the water before realizing it was jellyfish central! We both got stung on the legs multiple times, and were soon running back to the sand as fast as we could. So that was pretty painful, but we couldn't help but laugh. What a day. On the bus ride back to town (that's right, no more walking!) we decided to treat ourselves to ceviche, the best seafood ever, for Thanksgiving dinner. But when we went to find some, we found out that all the cevicherias were closed, and wouldn't be open until the next day when the fishermen returned with the week's catch. We were super sad, and told our hostel people about our troubles, just to have them say, “no, let's go buy some fish now and we'll teach you how to make your own!” So we hopped up in the back of a truck with one of their sons, 10 year old Jordan, and went to buy some fillets from one of the family's friends. We set up a little table and some plastic chairs out on the sidewalk, and got to work chopping veggies and slicing the fish. We were super surprised to find out how easy it is to make, and that it only takes about 15 minutes, since all you do is marinate the fish in lime for 5 minutes and throw it all together. So you can all expect some ceviche made by us when we get back! The whole crazy extended family was there helping, including a grouchy old abuela, a son who wanted to know which one of us wanted to date him, and a bunch of kids running around and grabbing food off our plates. So although it wasn't quite a typical Thanksgiving dinner, we were FAR from lonely.


Having discovered that we like settling into a town and getting to know it and its people, rather than moving to a new place every day, we ended up staying in Puerto Lopez for 4 nights, until today. One day we went out on an ocean tour with Wiston, one of the hostel guys, for super cheap since he already had a group going and of course since we were now a part of the family. The group consisted of a couple with dreads from Belgium, two girls from Germany, Wiston, the boat captain, and us. We piled into one of the tiny blue boats, and got to fish out in the ocean, which was super exciting since you catch something about every 4 minutes. Then we boated over to Isla de Salango to snorkel and lay on the beach while Wiston made fresh ceviche from the fish we had caught. It was a perfectly gorgeous day, we got to see a sea lion, a squid, and a bunch of blue footed boobies, and literally for a minute there we were considering if we had actually fallen off the boat, died, and gone to heaven. We spent another day in nearby Montanita, taking in all the travelers and shopping in the street markets. We also made friends with an adorable couple from Florida who manages a coffee shop right on the beach, ate the most delicious fried street vendor food I have ever had (I take back the millions of times I walked by platanos in the grocery store without a second glance, because HOLY they are delicious), and got to work on our salsa some more last night with the locals. So it was a pretty perfect way to spend our last few days on the beach.

The last couple weeks have been so amazing I would say I don't think it can get better from here, but I've said that at least a hundred times before in the last 50 days and end up taking it back every time. So here's to hoping the rainforest is EVEN better than everywhere we've been so far, although right now it seems impossible. I am VERY excited to get back to volunteering though, so assuming we survive this crazy long bus ride across the country, we'll get back to you soon with details of what we end up doing over there, as well as how big the bugs actually are. Gulp!


I also gotta give a birthday shout out to the best mama out there, who turns 50 tomorrow! So everyone make sure and make fun of her old self at least a little bit, since I'm not there to do it myself. Kidding, love you, mom!


Yours truly,

J Fly