So my time here is quicly coming to a close... only 6 weeks left!! I´ve finally reached the point that I feared I would never reach...closure. It´s been a busy few months, thankfully, though not too busy to watch 6 episodes of Grey´s Anatomy last night. Thank goodness for pirated DVDs!! (And, seriously, this one was literally taped off the television with the commercials poorly edited out. But I don´t care. Patrick Dempsey is BEAUTIFUL.) Anyhow, so an explanation for the pics... First, these are some of my kids from the Albergue, at one of the girl´s quinceañera party. They´re usually quite timid and won´t let me take pictures, but how can you say no when you´re in a freaking wedding dress?!? It was quite the ordeal, including the presentation of pink shoes, makeup, dancing, icebreakers, and lots of rice (to eat, there was no throwing).

The church is one of the oldest in Loja (I went on a picture-taking spree around town today, taking advantage of an almost-cloud-free day.).

The next is of some friends at an orchestra concert...we sat in a box...very exciting.

The beach at Mompiche taken from our cabaña. Very beautiful and tranquilo, but we got eaten alive by some kind of bug in the hammocks.

The original artist of a painting I ordered in Loja. How fun is it to have an original without being a millionaire?!? Next location: my wall in the US.

I swear this is not a common practice and that I am not responsible for tying up my youth group members. We had an outing and they played capture the flag, and, well, these girls didn´t fare so well. No cuys were harmed in the playing of this game.

This is a picture of some of my Red Cross kids at the teleferico of Loja, which is a building that was built by the last mayor to house a machine that people could ride to the top of the mountain to check out amazing views of the valley. However, it was never finished, but you can hike up the hill and get the same effect. Good governing right there...

The last mayor also started an AMAZING recycling program. This picture is of the building where the organic trash goes (orange peels, egg shells, etc.), is sorted to take out the other crap people throw in with it, and then used to make worm beds and produce fertilizer. Impressive.

This is the building where they hand-sort all of Loja´s trash so that everything that can be recycled is. It is then funded by the sale of these recyclable products to companies who can use them. Maybe that´s why we´re considered one of the most ecological cities in the world (if only we could get people to stop throwing their trash on the streets and crapping in the rivers!).

Some of the girls in a municipal school where I taught sex ed (scary, I know).

A vies of my beautiful city... (we´re not in Kansas anymore!)

An orchestra concert.

The president of the women´s group in San Pedro de Vilcabamba taught me how to make paper. Turns out I did kind of know how, but didn´t add banana tree fibers. What was I thinking?!

I wish I had a blender like this for coffee drinks and margaritas...

A ¨comida típica¨ at Parque Jipiro with my crazy jóvenes.

A little break from the rainy season to Catamayo, where we played on the playground equipment. Seems like they built this park complex and just left the machinery to use as toys. Dad should be proud.

One of my jóvenes leading an icebreaker with a group of unruly boys during a sex ed workshop. That´s all for now. See you all soon!!

Galapagos...

So, I made it to the Galapagos. And back. Hardly any sunburn. For those of you who are unawares, the Galapagos Islands are west of Ecuador lying about the equator. They were/are created by volcanic spurts in the oceanic plate, which moves east at about a centimeter per year, which is what creates the archipalego, instead of just one big island. I visited 4 of the islands: Isabela, Santa Cruz, Baltra, and San Cristobal. Pics are better than writing...

Yesterday I had the grand pleasure of serving as a judge for the Miss High School pageant. Ooh la la!! So, I showed up, after a morning of food poisoning, looking as ¨guapa¨ (lovely) as possible, as instructed. After being instructed to close the game of spider solitaire that I was playing before the event started, I even behaved myself well. :) (if they can´t start an event on time...it was 50 minutes late...why can´t I play a harmless computer game?) I´m not really sure if I did a good job or not, but I acted to the best of my abilities. After deciding which of the 6 girls had the most elegance and could walk across the stage without tripping over herself, I even had the pleasure of 14 different dance groups shaking their rears in my face. Teenage rear, mind you. But, I survived, and the dance teams were actually quite good, and the one that I thought should win did. Not so with the girls, but at least I can tell a good dance team when I see it. Mind you, the winners not only processed with a human model of the locally revered ¨Virgen del Cisne¨ (virgin of the swans), but they did tango, with multiple lifts. Quite impressive.

This is not my only pageant lately, either. Two weeks ago I attended the crowning of the Reina de la Cruz Roja (Miss Red Cross). Yes, they have queens of everything. It was a nice event, though, planned well by my youth group, and we had fun dancing at the end. It won the inpunctual award, though, by starting 2 hours late. Good job.

Congrats to my friend Gaby in Cuenca, who recently opened her own cafe/bar. All of us Lojanos went up to help inaugurate it, and had an awesome time.

That´s it from me...heading to the Galapagos tomorrow!!

So I crashed my first wedding. Maybe not technically, since I had actually met the mother of the groom, and my friend called and got permission for me to attend...I really wanted to experience an Ecuadorian wedding, so hopefully that´s not a crime. :)

It was a city wedding, not campo, and not poor, so it was very similar to US weddings. I attended mass (my grandparents will be proud), which few invitees do...most just show up for the party (don´t you sometimes wish that was socially acceptable in the US?). The ¨damas¨, or bridesmaids, were both young, maybe 16, and dressed in knee-length peach cocktail dresses, and the maid of honor was the bride´s younger sister, wearing a red, yes, red, knee-length dress. Interesting. The guys were in normal tuxes. The bride´s dress was similar to US styles, but of the 80s, maybe. Way too many poofs and ruffles for me, and, poor girl, the train fell off when she got to the front. No worries, it was quickly reattached for her. After an hour or so of listening to the priest admonish them to have babies...not 2, but 10 (seriously), they were wed. Then, they took pictures with everyone waiting in the cathedral. It does make it easier to round up family, but still. Then, we blew bubbles on them, and some threw rice (against the priest´s orders) as they walked down the aisle of the church.

At the reception, which was in a nice room in a nearby high school, the bride and groom arrived about 9:15, the padrino (godfather) gave a speech (not too long by Ecua standards), and then they called up all the single girls. I, of course, professed to having a husband for the night. They had them choose numbers and the winners received a little box with a garter in it. I hear that at some receptions the groom puts it on the girl, and the crowd cheers him on to go higher and higher. Yeah, too bad I missed out on that scandal. They called the single guys up and pinned a rose on the lucky winner. The bride´s bouquet went to her sister as a sign of her love and devotion, or something like that. At about 11 we finally got to eat, which was yummy, and then the dancing began. They even had a live singer do a couple of songs. But, with the regaeton and cumbia ringing in my ears from the ginormous speakers in a small room, and the lack of attractive, over-5-foot-tall men, I headed home about 12:30.

Weddings always make me think about marriage...it´s such an odd institution, really. Stuck with the same person for the rest of my life?!? That just doesn´t seem natural. Nor does the idea of having 10 kids. Guess I´ll never be a good Catholic. Did you know that women on birth control aren´t allowed to take communion? Interesting. Anyway, it either takes a lot of guts or naivete to take the plunge of marriage vows. Good luck to all of you who fall into that category. Me, I think I´ll remain single for awhile...

I need a tshirt like this...how awesome that they´ve printed a Star Wars shirt in Spanish pronunciation?!? (yes, that´s how it´s pronounced here) (No, I have nothing better to do but to take pictures of random people´s tshirts.) So, I actually have been semi-productive. The General Consul of the US visited Loja last week (he lives in Guayaquil) and had a round table discussion with my jovenes. It went really well, despite one random girl showing up and trying to attack him on the US´s trade policies. The rest of my kids had a great time, and hopefully have a better image of the US. And, maybe they´ll believe him that I´m not a spy.

Dayana, a friend of mine, came in to teach my girls some makeup tips...I learned a lot, too! Not that I wear makeup here very often...

Other than that, life´s good... I´ve been doing some HIV-AIDS forums with my Red Cross youth group at some of the colegios (high schools) in town. I have become an ¨expert¨ in a lot of unexpected topics since arriving here. Loja will be getting 6 new volunteers in the April group, and they came to visit last week. It´s awesome to have some new faces down here, but I will still miss the people who are leaving ya mismo (soon).

So it happened...I finally got robbed in Ecuador...I´ll spare you the details, but I did want to share what a joy it is to file a police report... :) So, first, I attempt to find the well-hidden police office in a residential neighborhood, finally manage to find it after an hour of wondering around, but they tell me that I have to go to the other office which is in the centro where I had previously been. Interesting, since that´s where I´ve filed a police report before. So, I get to the other police office, cold and sniveling (it´s relatively cold here...50 degrees...but when you´re outside a lot and there´s no heating, it´s not as warm as you´d like to think), and a nice man tells me that I have to go to another office, buy a $3 piece of paper, then go to another office and have some pre-law university student write my statement, and then come back to him. So, after the throng of cops, working hard, of course, let me in to the desk to buy my precious paper, I make it over to the other office. I had to wait a bit, because there were no TYPEWRITERS available at the moment. They were very nice, though, and recorded my statement. I then made copies of this statement, and my passport, and returned to the other office where the first guy was. He proceded to re-write my statement on an actual computer and print it on the back of my copies. Of course, it came with about 3 stamps and 5 signatures, per copy. So, I´m now officially robbed and can get new documents. In case you´re worried, I´m only out about $25, and 3 hours of sanity.

Moral of the story: Don´t get robbed in Latin America. Or anywhere, really.

I´ve decided that Carnaval is not a holiday, but a season that lasts for about a month, kind of like Christmas. The beauty of Christmas, though, is that no one throws water balloons at you in the street. I´m all about a good water fight (or flour, eggs, seasonings, corn starch, etc), as long as I´m dressed, prepared, equally armed, and a willing participant. Next weekend will probably involve those conditions, so my jóvenes better beware. People ask me why we don´t celebrate carnaval in the US. I tell them there are three reasons:

1. People don´t typically walk around in the streets (except in large cities and/or downtowns).

2. We would freeze to death. It´s February, for the love of God.

3. Someone would either sue you or shoot you for throwing a random water balloon at them.

Ooh, and a fourth I just thought of...employers would not typically give people 2-3 days off for a water fight.

I went to a bar the other night that had live music...they were playing American rock...when´s the last time you heard ¨Sweet Home Alabama¨ sung by an Ecuadorian? It was good fun.

I was accused of being lazy for not updating my blog, which I realize is probably true, since the last entry was September. So, I´ll try to think of something interesting to write about...

I´m back in Loja after 2 weeks at home for Grandma´s funeral. The people here have been very supportive and sympathetic, which I definitely appreciate. They probably think it´s odd that I´m not wearing all black, which is traditional for at least a month after the death of a close family member. But, mourning will not bring her back, and I choose to be happy for her...we could all hope to die as well as she did.

On to happier subjects... So, for Christmas I met up with the fam in Cancun...it was like being in the US! And, somehow, more expensive. It was great to see them, swim in the blue waters of the Caribbean, eat yummy food, and talk about them in Spanish with the Mexicanos. The boys and I went snorkeling and sea-dooing, and we all almost died in the ocean, but we´re good drivers, so we survived. And, the boys stuck together and left me with a guy from a different group...turns out he´s a gynecologist. Guess he´s used to having women straddle him... (though I drove on the way back from snorkeling!) Anywho... After the fam left I headed to Wal-Mart and Sam´s to hang with the locals and then shipped off to Panama the next day. Panama City is dirty, hot, and crowded, and I don´t recommend it to anyone. That being said, I did visit the Panama Canal (quite impressive...they´re building new locks, though, to conserve water), the old Panama City ruins that were destroyed in 1671 by pirates, and a causeway build from the rocks taken to build the canal. I had a McDonald´s sundae on Christmas, which was also very exciting. Then, I watched 6 hours of tv in my hotel room, since the streets were dead and it wasn´t safe for me to be out after dark...I don´t recommend it, really.

Upon finally returning to Ecuador I headed out to Tena to go white-water rafting, level IV, which was amazing...I had to bail ship once and got dumped out once, leaving some nice bruises on my tailbone and parasites in my belly. The Amazon is absolutely beautiful, though!! Then, in case that just wasn´t enough, I went with my friend Rese out to Atacames, a beach on the northern coast. It was totally packed, but lots of fun and with good seafood (coconut shrimp...yummy...). Then, 17 hours on a bus later, I returned to Loja.

That´s enough typing for now... I´ll try to update within the next 4 months. :)

Okay, so being consistent in blog-world is not my forte. Nor is gettig up early. I got up at 12:30 today and managed to leave at the bright hour of 3:45. pm. I know, I know, I´m a slacker. But, technically it´s a holiday (even though it´s not here, but I still get it because I work for the US government), and I didn´t have a lot to do, so getting out of bed just was not that appealing to me. But, life is good.

Now that the brutal winter and it´s 65 degree temperatures has waned, it´s back to the balmy 78 that I´m used to. Yesterday it hit me as I was running on a secluded road as the sun set over the mountains and the cows stared at me as I sang at the top of my lungs with my ipod, that my life is pretty darn good. True, my house has been water-free for a week (it´s really lovely when you´re sick, or have dirty laundry and dishes, or want to wash your hands. Please write your local water municipality and thank them for their consistently amazing service.), and this computer is so slow that it won´t upload my tiny pictures, and sometimes I still don´t understand what´s going on, but for the most part, I cannot complain about the Ecua life. Oh, except for the chicken heads in my soup. The other day I won the bonus prize and got not one head in my soup, no, no, no, but two. I dissected one of them, it was lovely. I did not eat the soup. (see picture.)

Last week my kids sponsored a music festival for the ¨month of youth¨ and despite only 2 days of advertising, 300-400 people showed up! I was so excited for them and their success!

Hmm, in other news, I taught my little kids how to make friendship bracelets, and they´re now addicted. They´ll still succumb to my cheesy construction paper crafts, but they beg me constantly for more thread. I´m a very stingy thread distributor.

Last month I trained some of my Red Cross kids to teach sex ed, including STIs and HIV-AIDS. They then taught my 9-13 year olds, which was quite entertaining. We´re hoping to go into some of the barrios (neighborhoods) around Loja to teach the same class. The picture here is of my boys who learned how to put condoms on bananas. They were pretty proud of their accomplishment and freaked out about the slimy latex.

A few weeks ago I visted Piura, Peru with my friend Paul and ended up hanging out with one of the mission groups there. The poverty in that area is amazing...makes Loja look like Beverly Hills. The people are so full of life and spirit, though. They were so kind to all of the gringos, many of whom sponsor families there by sending $25 a month, which purchases basic food staples such as rice and milk. The barrios where I helped distribute the food baskets consisted of homes made of bamboo and woven straw. The very wealthy of the barrios had cement floors and maybe bricks. I had a great time hanging out with the kitchen staff at the church, who I think were entertained by a Spanish-speaking gringo and my odd stories. And, I bought some killer pottery for the price of $2-3 per piece. Maybe I´ll sell them at home and make a great profit. The pictures are of Paul, a girl from the mission group, and two of the girls from Paul´s parents´ hosted family, who are super-sweet. We went on a boat ride to see the sea lions, and this is the small monkey that some of the teenage boys had in Piura during their one month stay. I thought it was going to die the last day, but seemed to be making a bold comeback.

This is a picture from a hike I took with my kids. Somehow, the 60 of them, ages 5-13, managed to walk about 8 miles in one morning. I´m not sure why they planned such a thing or what they were thinking, but the little buggers didn´t even use up all their energy and were still wild when we got back!

This is from a large advertisement on the side of the store. In case you can´t see the photo well, it´s of suicide-bomber-Barbie, complete with tnt tied around her waist and a detonator in her hand. Who made this up? And, what

on earth compelled them to put it on the side of a supermarket?!? This is not a militant country!

So, that´s the end of my summary of Ecua-life for today. Hope you all enjoyed your 3 day Labor Day weekend!

Most exciting find of the day: a quarter on the ground (that´s big money, man!)

Saddest sight of the day: a man who looked to be around 60 years old pulling a seriously heavy cart...that´s why God made horses and mules

Best new fashion statement: grizzly man wearing a plaid flannel shirt with a girly baby tee on top. Or, the little boy at the center wearing an ¨Active Girl¨ shirt. I didn´t have the heart to tell him.

Weather: Drizzly, still.

That´s about it for the day. Just wanted to share.

9:05 a.m. CST...the streets are nearly empty, and the only trucks and taxis that zoom past bear Ecuadorian flags. An Ecuadorian just walked past me. That has happened ONCE in the past year. The blare of the Ecuadorian futból announcer on tv can be heard all around. Even the market activity has ceased...carts of green bananas still on the stem await their destiny unattended. And, a lot of people are wearing yellow, myself included. It is no other event than the 3rd match of the World Cup. Ecuador has only qualified once before for the tournament, so each game has caused the world to stop turning. Even when we´re not playing, 90% of the men are glued to the tv, watching other matches. The other 10% wish that that´s what they´re doing. I´m going to watch the game at the Centro with my kids, and their faces are already painted, and they´re glued to the screen with hope and anticipation...Alemanía (Germany) is a big match...determining 1st and 2nd place as both teams have already qualified to advance. Of all the people in the world, I would estimate that 13 million people predict a win for Ecuador (12 million citizens, 1 million cinderella hopefuls), and the rest already have Germany in pen. The Centro has ceased all activities for the next 2 hours...no capenter´s workshop, no crafts, no homework, no playing, only watching the game. The teachers, male and female alike, are screaming at their team to ¨corre, corre¨ (run, run!) as well as other instructions that will surely be heard from the other side of the Atlantic. But, alas, their shouts are in vain. There are to be no victory dances for GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLs, as Alemanía hath defeated the great Ecuador 3-0. But, no matter, we´re moving on to play England on Sunday. That should be an equally easy game, but with more stress, since a loss means we´re out.

So, besides the World Cup, there are a few other things going on in my corner of the world. My youth group is planning a 3 week day camp for 14-17 year olds, with everything from cooking (led by none other than myself) to HIV-AIDS. My Red Cross group is slowly moving along, and I´m hoping to nudge them in the direction of teaching HIV-AIDS classes to various neighborhood groups in the area. We´ll see how that works. My little kids are good and enjoying an amazing box of craft supplies donated by the Heart and Home Community Family Club in Tulsa. They´re eagerly awaiting summer vacation (school´s out at the end of June) when they can bother their Centro teachers all day long instead of just half the day. :) And, this weekend I made paper (well, recycled paper), though it´s still sitting in wet sheets on my floor because it´s been raining and cloudy here. Hopefully we´ll have sun sometime soon and I can dry them out. Who knows if they´ll actually be usable or not. If nothing else, putting soggy paper in my blender was cool, so I´m happy.

For any future volunteers who may visit my blog, be sure to check out the Yahoo group PeaceCorps2, where there's lots of discussion on what to bring and I've also posted a packing list. Good luck!

I'm chillin' in Quito for a Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) meeting, and taking care of mid-service medical stuff, too. It's all very exciting.

More musings later...

Sight of the day: A woman with a pink tank top and white pants. Except, her tank top was tucked into her pants, which were buttoned, but not zipped, and pulled up to her ¨empire-waist¨ line (right below her bust). It was quite the fashion statement. I´m pretty sure that I never want to say whatever it was that she was trying to say.

I made cookies with my kids yesterday and today...you´d think I was teaching them how to make gold! They had never made cookies before, so it was quite the experience for them. They listen so much better when I can threaten them with withholding food.

Not much else going on. Lots of rain this week. Maybe that means I can take a shower without it being ice cold because there isn´t enough to get the hot water heater to click on. It usually switches back and forth, which makes for quite the pleasant showering experience. If I shower at 1 a.m. when no one else is awake I can usually take a full, hot shower. Daytime showers just don´t happen anymore. I think I´ll use that as my excuse for not running...

So I paid attention to the various asundry whistles and hollers that men make when I walk by. In the 20 minute walk to the grocery store, here´s what I got:

3 Hisses

1 kissing sound

1 ¨beautiful¨

1 ¨mamacita eres linda¨ (mamacita...how does that translate? eres linda=you are pretty)

1 whistle

1 ¨suquita¨ (little light-haired girl)

And just think what it would´ve been if I had been wearing a skirt...or the rain jacket that they seem to love for some odd reason...

Went to an opera last night...just an intermedio by Pergolesi, but decently done. It was nice to hear real singing again!! Then, we went to a club where a friend was playing percussion with a Rumba band, which was really incredible.

Random musing...why do they have people sweeping the streets here with giant brooms? Half the time they leave the trash and sweep up dirt. As if there will ever be an end to the dirt on the streets. I just do not understand.

Today I´ve been completely unproductive, but I blame the amoebas that have given me a headache, too-low temperature, and just overall lack of energy, not to mention a tormented stomach. But, oh well, I´ll get rid of them soon enough. I´m heading off soon to teach a group of parents about values and how to teach them to their children. I´m clearly not the expert in this, so I´ll be doing the silly games and the social worker will do the talking. After that, I will bake the cinnamon rolls I so lovingly prepared, and then watch a movie or perhaps go out. I lead such a stressful life.

So, I crowded into a truck with 11 of my landlady´s family members and headed to Catamayo, which is an hour away, for a lovely excursion. We left 2 hours late, of course, but eventually made it to our destination, complete with stove, gas tank, lots of raw meat, and other various asundry items. We chilled in the swimming pool, complete with water slide and lots of men in speedos (they should definitely be banned), and then ate lunch about 4:00. It took a good 3 hours to make, and I thought my stomach was going to eat itself, but good news, it didn´t. We had yuca, onion-tomato-pepper salad, fried plantain, and fritada, which is hunks of pork that are fried. Super healthy. Sadly, I am the only shameful person who could not finish the MOUNTAIN of food on my plate. We vegged in the sun for a bit, and then headed home to make empanadas. I am not good at making empanadas. And, I could not eat the 3 that they tried to feed me. Seriously, how fat do they want me to be?!? It´s really nice having a family here that I can hang out with when I want, but not live with. Today I did nothing. Well, I did hand-wash laundry, but that´s really about it. How will I ever work 40 hours, or, gasp, 40+ hours, when I get home?!?

So, about 10:00 last night I´m planning on cozying up in bed, putting in a movie, and sewing on my curtains. I know, an exciting evening. But, the reggaeton had already started from downstairs, and going on last weekend´s experience of listening to it and having it vibrate my apartment until 3 a.m., I decided to ask them to turn it down. Come to find out, it´s not the scalawags from the 2nd floor, but my dueña (landlady) right below me. So, I go in, because they don´t hear my knocking and the door´s already open, and ask them to turn it down. Yeah, they´re having a party because it´s my dueña´s birthday. First of all, imagine a 55-60 year old woman having a dance party for her birthday that doesn´t start until 10 p.m., and then how bad I felt for asking, and then, how they convinced me to stay and drink peach wine. So, I do, and end up dancing with them until 2 a.m., mostly with the drunk uncle while everyone else watches. It´s awesome. Really. I also chatted with the aunts and the dueña, who all inform me that they want their kids to marry foreigners, and they can´t imagine how some beautiful German girl who lived here at some point in history would marry an ugly Ecuadorian. I heard this story repeatedly. So, anyway, I finally manage to escape at about 2 a.m. when the peach wine (which I had to continue drinking in order to tolerate dancing with the uncle) had done its deed and made me quite groggy. They even turned the music down for me, and the pounding of the rain helped wash out what was left. So, I happily crawl into bed.

At 2:45, 18-year-old cousin comes knocking on my door, obviously having drunk a few too many whiskey and waters (they mix whiskey with carbonated water. really. it´s not good.), and starts chatting with me as if we ran into each other on the street at 2:45 p.m. instead of the middle of the night while I´m trying to sleep in my apartment. Surely the pajamas and darkness gave it away, but whatever. He asks me how old I think he is, which his mother has already told me, of course, and I try to emphasize how old I am, having finished university and had a regular job. He continues to ask me if I have a novio, and I tell him I do, but he asks me if I have one in Loja, because my said novio obviously doesn´t matter if he´s not close. I tell him I can´t handle 2 novios. So, I eventually get him to go away by giving him my cell phone number (probably a bad move, but I can always ignore text messages; I can´t ignore the kid who´s my brother´s age standing in my doorway trying to ask me out), and crawl back into bed.

But, claro, my night is not to end yet. Drunk uncle, who is really drunk comes knocking on my door to tell me that my shirt had fallen off the line and was getting soaked. First of all, why was he on my floor, second of all, the blue and silver-sparkly sweater that wouldn´t reach my belly button if it tried is not mine. So, I keep my door open barely a crack as he tries to convince me to come join them again because he has yet another bottle of whiskey. As appealing as that is, I repeatedly decline, and finally, in-love-with-me cousin comes to my rescue and hauls drunk uncle downstairs. At this point, the music is again vibrating my room, but i don´t care anymore and with the help of my blessed earplugs manage to eventually fall asleep after laughing at my very odd life. Oh, and I´m going with the whole big family on an outing to Catamayo tomorrow, which should prove to be entertaining. It´s good to hang out with a family, though! If only I can convince them that I´m not marrying someone my littlest brother´s age and keep uncle away from the whiskey, I´ll be fine.

I went to a soccer game today; Liga de Loja versus Ibara. I think we won...I missed the first 10 minutes, and of what I saw, it was 2-1, but everyone was yelling at our own team, anyway, so maybe not. I did enjoy a lovely yogoso (remember those frozen popcicle stick things in the plastic that we ate as kids? They have them with frozen yogurt...and only $.10. Can´t beat it) and fried bananas (like homemade potato chips...YUM). Not the same as fair food, but decent, and much cheaper. I brushed up on my Spanish curse words, though, thanks to a lovely gentleman sitting not too far away.

So, I´m off to try and find an NCAA game on tv. I really have no idea if I´ll be successful, but I am seriously on basketball withdrawal!

So, Saturday I went to ¨Mission Milagro¨ (Mission Miracle), sponsored by the various local governments and the government of Venezuela. So, Sr. Chavez is paying for an unlimited number of cataract surgery patients to fly to Caracas for the surgery. All of the potential candidates were prescreened in the past several weeks, and all of them (I´d say about 500) had to come Saturday to be screened by 4 Venezuelan doctors. So, after waiting in a 500-person line for several hours, having their blood pressure and sugar checked, and waiting yet more time in line, I think they actually got to see the doctors, who as of 12:00 weren´t there (the people were in line by 8:00. My guess is that most of the people were there for a good 8 hours, 99% of which was spent in a line. However, I might have considered it for a free trip to Caracas, and I suppose a surgery that would allow me to see would also be a plus. It just says a lot for the tolerance of people here to stand in line for a basic health care need because it´s not available to them otherwise. My question was why they couldn´t just bring the surgery equipment and doctors here and save $100,000 (or however much it costs to fly 400 people to Caracas and put them up for 3 days), and it´s because Venezuela wants to build popularity with the general public...I can honestly say that if someone gave me surgery and a vacation, I´d like them, too. Oil money is a beautiful thing.

Hmmm...not much else going on. I´m heading to Riobamba for our 6 month re-connect conference with Peace Corps this evening. I love 9 hour overnight busrides. Should be fun.

So, Saturday I went to ¨Mission Milagro¨ (Mission Miracle), sponsored by the various local governments and the government of Venezuela. So, Sr. Chavez is paying for an unlimited number of cataract surgery patients to fly to Caracas for the surgery. All of the potential candidates were prescreened in the past several weeks, and all of them (I´d say about 500) had to come Saturday to be screened by 4 Venezuelan doctors. So, after waiting in a 500-person line for several hours, having their blood pressure and sugar checked, and waiting yet more time in line, I think they actually got to see the doctors, who as of 12:00 weren´t there (the people were in line by 8:00. My guess is that most of the people were there for a good 8 hours, 99% of which was spent in a line. However, I might have considered it for a free trip to Caracas, and I suppose a surgery that would allow me to see would also be a plus. It just says a lot for the tolerance of people here to stand in line for a basic health care need because it´s not available to them otherwise. My question was why they couldn´t just bring the surgery equipment and doctors here and save $100,000 (or however much it costs to fly 400 people to Caracas and put them up for 3 days), and it´s because Venezuela wants to build popularity with the general public...I can honestly say that if someone gave me surgery and a vacation, I´d like them, too. Oil money is a beautiful thing.

Hmmm...not much else going on. I´m heading to Riobamba for our 6 month re-connect conference with Peace Corps this evening. I love 9 hour overnight busrides. Should be fun.

So I haven´t written in awhile. Oops! So, let me start with Carnaval, possibly the worst holiday I´ve ever experienced. For about 6 weeks before the actual event, random people throw water balloons, shoot water guns, and just dump water on whoever they so desire. Please remember that I walk everywhere. Water balloons can hurt. Especially on the back of the head. Bratty kids. So, the actual weekend of Carnaval wasn´t so bad, because I spent it in Ambato and Baños, where water balloons are banned, though I got shot repeatedly with karaoke, which is spray foam, very similar to silly string. This is all well and good unless it gets into your eyes, ears, or mouth, at which point it´s less than pleasant. Ambato had it´s festival of fruits and flowers while we were there, which meant that the streets were packed until 5 a.m. with people drinking and spraying each other with foam and flour (luckily I missed becoming a human cake). Mind you, they started drinking at 9 a.m., so they were bien borracho (really drunk). There was a lot of pee in the streets (New Orleans has nothing on us), and people passed out on the sidewalks. Good times. We (we being myself and 8 volunteers from World Teach, ISIC, and the British Consulate, oh, and a few Ecuadorians), however, did not party with the other locos, but wandered through the festivals, visited the malls, and went to a friend´s house.

Monday of Carnaval (Feb. 27) has to be the epitome of all Ecua-days. We went white water rafting in Baños, and were supposed to be there at 8:30. We left at 9:45, of course. When we finally got there and managed to cram into wetsuits that didn´t fit all that well (the lines on my legs lasted for hours it was so tight), we had training. The two Spanish-speakers who started at the front of the boat couldn´t get the directions right, so me and Adrian, from Ireland, got to be the leads. Good times. The water was pretty high, and there were some awesome rapids, for being only level 3. Adrian fell out at one point, but he didn´t die and we pulled him back in. We were supposed to return at 2:30 or 3:00, which means that we pulled in at 5:00, of course, after driving through a war zone of water balloons that we feared were about to break the van windows. Oh, and the van had to be push started every time. I love this country. We grabbed a chocolate chip cookie at what must be the only restaurant here that makes them, and then ran by the hostel to get our belongings. One of the girls had to wait in line at the ATM, so we headed to a place that had amazing hot dogs, french fries, and burgers...you wouldn´t think they´re hard to make, but you´d be surprised at what you sometimes get here. So, we get to the bus station, looking for a bus back to Ambato, and see a line of about 200 people, which we just knew was where we´d have to wait, and it was, until a bus came by and said it was going to Ambato, at which point a bunch of people mob-rushed it and got on, including ourselves. The only difference with gringos is that we don´t push people holding infants. It´s just not nice. So, we get to Ambato in 2 hours (normally a 45 min. ride), get a taxi to the bus terminal to buy our tickets in advance for Loja, and then on to Adrian´s flat to pick up tickets and apply more deoderant before going to the Carlos Vives concert (mind you, we still haven´t showered from rafting). The concert was awesome, though quite chilly. We ended the night at a small bar that served awesome hot, fruity wine. YUM!!

So, yes, that is Carnaval.

In other news, I spoke with the Red Cross today and I´m going to start supporting them with charlas and capacitacion classes, which should be cool. My jóvenes group at the Patronato is still working out details for what it wants in its own house, which it should hopefully have in a couple of months. My niños at the Centro are still doing well, and I think I actually like some of the little buggers. One of the kids recently put his name and mine in a heart with ¨friends forever¨. I think he has a crush... We´re also doing workshops twice a month with the parents at the centro, and so far they´re going really well. People here are really used to being lectured at, so when we come in with non-formal education (games, groupwork, etc), they really like it. Tomorrow´s was cancelled, though, because the directora broke her leg on a bus stair.

On to past events, like Christmas... Adrian and I went to Montañitas, which is a gorgeous spot of surfing beach with lots of gringos, which means lots of good food...yeah! I then met Mom and Dad in Quito, with the diplomatic pass, of course, and we had an awesome time. We visited the ¨mitad del mundo¨, which is a monument on the equator, and then headed to Loja on a lovely 5:45 a.m. flight (the only one all day). We went to Vilcabamba, though they were a bit bored there. I guess I´ve gotten really used to just hanging out and doing nothing...home could be a real shock! We then headed to Baños and went on a tour of the 6 waterfalls that are on the road down into the Amazon, which are all absolutely gorgeous. At one point they stick a harness on you and you go down a massive ladder and repel around the side of the rock where you can see a rock formation that looks like the face of the devil. Mom and Dad opted out on that little adventure...

In home news, congratulations to Rebecca on her engagement and Kim on her new little one!!

Alright, off to eat leftover curry...I made it for lunch today. See you in May!

So I have now made a real impact on the lives of Ecuadorians. In true American fashion, I have taught them how to become more rotund. I have taught them the art of cake-baking. I know that my efforts have not been in vain, because one of the participants told me she made a cake on her own over the weekend...I´m a miracle worker!!! Actually, I was quite proud that someone actually made one on their own, though they´re not as obsessive as we are with desserts, so I´m not worrying about raising the average BMI. I´ve been offering workshops on various things to groups of moms while their kids are in preschool. So far I´ve been with 4 different communities and we´ve made quite a few cakes, learned how to decorate them, and made various Christmas decorations. I actually think that the biggest gains are in the moms actually socializing and in the encouragement to be creative (though most just like to copy the example). Today I even made all of the moms write something on the cake with icing (with the assistance of a Ziploc bag with a hole in the corner). One of the older ladies was so intimidated, but eventually provided a lovely yellow border. So, no one can say that I´m not saving the world... :)

On my list of things to be thankful for I´ve added rain (due to 3 weeks of dryness that has brought me a lovely face rash type thing) and parasites (despite eating pretty much whatever I want, I´ve lost 3 pounds) and biscuits and gravy. YUM. Maybe I´ll teach the moms how to make that, too. :)

Today I was officially welcomed into the ranks of the Ecuadorians due to my ability to copy the world´s easiest dance step. I definitely got a good leg workout, though.

So, just 2 weeks and 4 days of work before I head to the beach for Christmas!! Yeah!! Then, even better, Mom and Dad are coming to visit for about a week...I am SOOOO excited!! Then, only 4 1/2 months until I visit home...not that I´m counting, or anything, but the idea of being on American soil and drinking tap water is quite exciting.

Also, I´ve lost my luckiness at Bingo...I sat through THREE HOURS worth of number calling in a small school desk (think 1800s) and got nada. Alas. At least it was good practice for my numbers, right?

So we ended up having a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with friends here in Loja...turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes loaded with cream and butter, apple pie, and of course, a Chandi cheesecake! The next day we headed to a waterpark about an hour away and enjoyed a lovely day in the sun. Yes, Mom, I wore sunscreen, though I have the best tan ever for late November!! Nothing like going down a waterslide instead of fighting mall traffic.

And, I have a new addiction...mangoes. They´re in season here, so they´re cheap and SUPER yummy. And, it hasn´t rained in a couple of weeks, which means the dirt and dust are CRAZY. So, I´m covered in a layer of filth, and there´s no water because it hasn´t rained. Lovely.

I have managed to lead two semi-successful cake-baking classes with mom´s groups, which is cool. Yesterday we made a chocolate cake that didn´t want to leave the pan, and had a weird consistency (too much sugar, I think), and a carrot cake. Today we made strawberry cake and they learned how to decorate a cake on a chocolate cake I had made (to make sure my recipe wasn´t wacked, which it wasn´t). Friday I´ll lead another group with chocolate cake. Good thing I walk 10 miles a day or I´d be gaining weight like crazy! (well, tal vez not...we do share each cake with about 40 people!). Tomorrow we´re making Christmas decorations. I´m not sure how I became the expert in any of these things, but it´s fun working with the moms and teaching them new things. They were quite fascinated with my measuring spoons and cups...I don´t think any of them had ever seen them before, ratherless used them.

I think my first series of post-Christmas charlas will be about how to walk on a sidewalk without making others angry who may happen to want to walk faster than 1 mile per hour (i.e. gringos). It translates to their driving, too...as if I´m supposed to be able to know that the giant truck is going to turn if it has no turn signal...though he can see me standing there since the 2 cars in front of him did the same thing, and he keeps going. Traffic here annoys me. I think I´ll start a pedestrian-rights movement. However, with all the people on foot (walking 1 mph at best), the cars would never be able to go anywhere. Funny thing is, most of the people driving around town only needed to go 2 blocks, anyway (I walk a mile each way to work every day), but they drive to show that they own a car. Status symbol over exercise, I guess.

I suppose I´m done with my ranting for the evening. More to follow, I´m sure. :)

So it´s officially Thanksgiving, though you definitely can´t tell down here! The only benefit is that I get a free day and can actually run errands because everything´s open. Trying to explain why I should have the day off was difficult, though the official memo from the Embassy was helpful. :) There is no turkey to be found here, though I´m told that that´s what they eat for Christmas. So, I´m just hanging out for the day, though tomorrow other PCVs will be in town for a bbq and then on to a water park. Not my typical Thanksgiving plans, but such goes life.

So, I´m needing to run errands on Thanksgiving because I´ve been so busy all week! The Early Childhood development program, FODI, has officially started, and I´ve been spending my afternoons in various dusty barrios (neighborhoods) on the outskirts of Loja, organizing various workshops. Next week I´ll be teaching two classes on how to make and decorate cakes (I´ve never met women who just plain, flat, didn´t know how to make cakes!), and a class on making Christmas decorations and cards. There are 18 facilitators working with 1100 kids, which means I´ll have quite a few moms to work with, as well. Crazy times!

Last week was the Independence of Loja (which used to be its own country), which meant THREE separate parades on 3 separate days...one with various children´s groups, one with every single jr. high and high school kid in the area, marching with bad drumming and their school uniforms, and then on Friday the military parade passed by my house. One short parade at 6:30 a.m. (grr), and the other at 9:30. One of the families across the street occasionally clapped, and I thought of the reception that our military men and women would have if they were to have such a parade. And, of course I thought of all the military personnel who couldn´t be in a parade because they´re fighting overseas, or those who won´t be returning. It was a happy moment for them, but very sobering for me.

Random observations here... boys believe that it is okay to use the restroom wherever they would like...one of my kids just stopped in the middle of the street to relieve himself in the gutter, and while playing with preschool kids last week, one of the boys just pulled his pants down in the middle of the game and took care of business. Lovely. And, I feel more like a Peace Corps Volunteer now that I´ve taught a class that has a sheep bleating outside of the classroom.

My kids recently finished their second batch of letters to send to their pen pals in Tulsa, along with Christmas ornament strawberries. And, my kids all know how to sew...how many 7 year old boys do you know who can even thread a needle?!? Very impressive. I´m becoming quite the craft queen, between our paper mache jack-o-lanterns (which ended up being hats for most of the boys), handprint turkeys (I couldn´t neglect Turkey Day!), and stuffed strawberry Christmas ornaments.

I´m super-stoked that Mom and Dad are coming to visit for New Year´s! I´ll probably spend Christmas on the beach with other PCVs, which continues the trend of non-traditional, odd holidays. It should be cold and snowing! So, I´ll whip out a rendition of ¨I´ll Be Home for Christmas¨ and ¨I´m Dreaming of a White Christmas¨, and teach the songs to my kids, who still think that anything said or sung in English is just funny.

I´ve also had a lovely time adapting to odd Latin American diseases, which my nurses affirm are just part of living here, and there´s nothing that can be done. I´ve had a rash on my face, weird stuff on my lips, and various stomach gurgles for about 6 weeks. Lovely, I know.

Anyway, I´m off to make a cheesecake for tomorrow´s dinner (some things never change!). I wish you all the best! Do some early-morning shopping for me tomorrow!

Other things in Loja... I actually went to a REAL classical music concert Wednesday night. I was afraid I´d be musically deprived for 2 years! The orchestra was really good, and played a Handel (ah, the days of singing the Messiah) and a Haydn. Two college choirs joined them for 3 pieces by Latin American composers that were not so very good, but not hideous, either. In honor of the Virgen del Cisne (which is basically a doll-type figure that lives most of the year about 70km away in Cisne, thus the name, and takes care of all the folks around here), they have a 3 week fair, complete with rides, fried foods (darned if I could find a corndog or cheese on a stick...I love those things!), and merchants. Oh, and I actually found a church that I like down here...it´s protestant, not psycho, and has songs from a projector...yeah! I´ve also somehow acquired the position of Emergency Cluster Coordinator for the month, until the real one returns from the states in Oct. After that, I´m the alternate. They had a test of the emergency system this week, which meant that I had to try and contact about 15 volunteers, most of whom live out in the boonies and are really difficult to contact. For most of them, I had to leave a message with their neighbor or counterpart organization, which is always fun with my semi-decent Spanish. Two weeks ago Paul came into town...it was so good to see a familiar face! We went to Vilcabamba for the weekend and enjoyed speaking English and vegging. So, yeah, this is my life...see you all in May!

So I´ve been in Loja for 2 weeks now, and things are going pretty well. September 8 was the festival of the Virgen del Cisne, which involved a lot of fireworks that frequently fell into the crowd (or shot straight into the crowd), which gave the show a whole new twist...you don´t watch for enjoyment; you watch to not get burned. It´s been nice to be able to cook for myself...there has been quite a bit of salsa involved, and no rice. :) My kids at the center have their good and bad days, but I´ll hopefully get used to working with kids (age 5-11), which is definitely NOT my forte. In the afternoons I work with a youth group, which is a lot of fun. We started an Engligh class on Tuesdays, which is a nice way to get to hang out with them without trying to be accomplishing something in a meeting (though the goal is still to teach them English, as well). Um, yeah, not much else going on here. I found a great running trail, which makes me happy, and a fun resort town about 40 min away where I can get an awesome shower and a massage (not together). Have a good one!

So good news...everyone can send me mail that I don't have to wait four weeks to receive! My new, permanent (well, that's the plan...for 2 years, at least) address is:

Chandi Wagner

Casilla 11-01-216

Loja, Loja

Ecuador

South America

My cell phone number (yes, I have a cell phone...who would've expected that in the Peace Corps?!?) is 593-9-101-8466.

And, in other news, I'm officially a volunteer! We had our swearing-in ceremony this morning at the ambassador's house...mucho fun. And, I got to wash my hands with warm water and flush the toilet paper....ah, the little things we miss.