Quito Day Festival

Each class participated in a traditional dance of Ecuador. The kids were so cute. You could definitely tell who didn't have Latino blood in them.

Nicolas was very serious about his dancing.

Mikala and her 3 best friends.

Our new dog Cooper

Pictures from Banos

Storage Building for the Orphanage in Shell.

Kyle helping put on the roof to the storage building.

Jamie working on filling in pot holes on the road at the orphanage.

Nicolas and Eric also filling in holes.

Barney, Julie, Eric, Nick and MIkala at a waterfall outside of Rio Negro. It was a beautiful hike into the falls.

Mikala and I on the path to the waterfall.

Matt and Mikala on the same path.

Some of our group at another waterfall called Pilon del diablo (the devil's cauldron).
It is huge and very beautiful.

You can crawl through this path and actually touch the waterfall.

And one more falls. This one we took a ride on the tarabita below. It was pretty fun. It goes right over the falls.

On the tarabita

Sharayah taking the machete to the grass at the orphanage

Mikala working hard

Nicolas loved the machete

I woke up this morning to hearing Mikala singing Santo, Santo, Santo (Holy, Holy, Holy) in the shower. She was singing away and sounded pretty good. How fun.

The $800 New Broken Refrigerator

So we moved into our new home this last week and we had to buy a refrigerator because at the last house it was provided for us (which is really rare). At any rate, we purchased the fridge from a store called Megamaxi and they delivered it on Thursday. We plugged it in on Friday (you have to wait 24 hours) and it never cooled down. We called the store and they said they would send a techno on Monday. We asked, "Can't we just return this and get another?" "No" they replied "We have to send a techno to check it out first." Monday came and went, no techno. Tuesday... no techno. Wednesday the techno finally arrived and said that there was a hole in one of the tubes and all the freon was out. He said he could just solder it and fill it back up with freon, but he had to wait until the next day because he didn't have anything to fix it with. So, Matt called the store again, since it had been a week since we had bought it, and asked if we could just have the fridge replaced being that we didn't spend money to buy a broken refrigerator but a new one and they said, "Sorry no. But we'll give you a free DVD for all your trouble." These are good times.

Lunch

I'm sure everyone has given up on this blog by now. But for those who are still checking... We were invited to lunch after church this last week by a family in our church. It was all in Spanish! We didn't do too bad. We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed getting to know them. We were invited to bring the kids anytime to play and practice our Spanish.

Nicolas' Thoughts on Heaven

Nicolas was asked the other day if he was a Christian. Sandy proceeded to ask, "Have you asked Jesus into your heart?" Nicolas replied, "Yes I'm a Christian." Then he said, "There are three ways to get to heaven." We all turned our attention to him and said, "Really? We thought there was only one way to heaven. Please enlighted us." Nicolas confidently responded, "No there are three. Listen. First you have to confess your sins and ask for forgiveness. Second, you have to believe in Jesus, and then third.... you have to die."

So, Mikala has been throwing up for the past 3 days and it is really weird because she throws up every 12 to 24 hours. Right when I think she must be over it, she does it again. So this evening we took her to the doctor and they are going to run some tests. After the doctor we went to the mall for some food and gave Mikala some Gatorade. After some time, she felt like she was going to throw up so Matt had me run her to the bathroom. The bathroom was divided up into three different rooms which I didn't even pay attention to... one was the women's, one the men's and the other for children. Unfortunately I went straight to the empty one, which, I'm sure you guessed, was the men's. When Mikala finished puking, we walked out and there were 3 men standing at the urinal... oops.

Carnival

From February 6th (Epiphany - the celebration of the wisemen's visit to Jesus) to February 20th (Fat Tuesday - the day before Lent) is the season of Carnival (which some have said comes from the latin words carne (meat) and vale (farewell). Carnival is the Spanish version of the French Mardi Gras. Carnival is celebrated in many Latin American countries and most are similar to the New Orleans version of Mardi Gras, although more elaborate. In Ecuador however, it is very different. Here they do not have parades as much as they do water fighFrom February 6th (Epiphany - celebration of thets. They do have parades in a few towns, but water balloons and water guns and even flour throwing is very popular... especially in the warmer places. We didn't see quite as much in Quito, but every once in awhile I would see a person walking down the street with their shirt soaking wet or white in their hair from flour. I have been asking around for the reason for this tradition and no one really seems to know. I have had a couple of explanations given... a sort of purification ritual of past sins and a mix of the Catholic celebration of Carnival with the Incan celebration of the rainy season. But, for the most part, nobody knows why they do it besides the fact that it is just fun. The two days before lent are actually declared an holiday for Carnival. The kids are out of school and everyone heads to the beach.
We didn't go to the beach, we actually visited Quito Colonial with a couple of our interns. This is a picture of one of the streets in Quito Colonial. This section of the city was built in the 1500's. It is very beautiful.









We also visited the Basilica and the Plaza de Independencia. The Basilica is actually fairly
new... finished in the early 1900's.


















While we were visiting we heard a mass with an electrical guitar and a very out of tune young singer (interesting and somewhat out of place in this beautiful cathedral).









We also were able to climb all throughout the cathedral.


















One can climb up into the clock tower and actually step outside on the ledge. It is crazy!
















The gargoyels on the side of the Basilica are actually creatures found in the Gallapogos and other areas of Ecuador. Their are lizards, pelicans, qui and all sorts of interesting creatures.









When you stand at the alter in the cathedral, you can actually see the panecillo (a statue of the virgen Mary) on the hill top about 5 miles away through this heart window.















We met these boys in the square. They wanted to polish our tennis shoes so they could get some money to buy another squirt gun for Carnival.

New Years Eve

Ecuador celebrates New Year's Eve with gusto. The whole city looks as though it is on fire as fireworks are set off and the "burning of the old man" takes place. They have a few different traditions here... one is the "burning of the old man." About 5 days before New Year's Eve, there are stands all over the place with stuffed dummies and masks that you can purchase for the dummies' head. It is very odd seeing all these fake people on every street corner. The idea is that you buy one of these and fill it full of firecrackers and gasoline and set it on fire at midnight (sounds very similar to something our youth group did back home on the sled hill). It symbolizes burning the old man and starting a new. There are hundreds of thousands of these burning men all throughout the city at midnight... in the streets, on the curbs, vacant lots etc. and no one seems to tend them when they're done... they're just left to burn out.


















Another thing that people do is set off fireworks. And these fireworks aren't just little bottle rockets or little roses that spin on the ground (although they have those too) but these are huge fireworks like the ones they set off the peninsula on fourth of July. Ok maybe they're not quite that big... but similar. And the craziest thing is, fireworks are supposedly illeagal here. Needless to say, we had a blast taking part in these New Year's Eve traditions and thought fondly of Daniel Spicer, Mike and John Herman, Brian Newman and Jason Francis, knowing of their fondness for fireworks and blowing things up.