Feliz Año! Happy New Year!

Week 16

20th- 26th December 2011

 This week has been full of Christmas fiesta´s and celebrations! The school had its christmas show complete with the selection of the school princess and prince and Carlos´s family partied through the night until 5:30am to loud music to celebrate christmas and ate the pig that we helped select (whilst still alive)! We even managed to have a english christmas dinner on christmas day with Katy, Gill, Victoria and Amy some other missionaries in Santo Domingo.

We where kindly invited along to the staff christmas meal at a parillada restaurant (mixed grill) where they served loads of meat including heart, kidneys and cows udder! Nothing goes to waste out here and whilst we grimace at the thought of eating a cows eye the other teachers on the table raved about how delicious it is and their particular favourite is ´patas´ feet!

Robin perfomed his role well at the school christmas show dressed up as Papa Noel (santa clause) with only one small incident when the teacher managed to glue gun the beard to his scalp! The children all got very excited to see Papa Noel and wanted to sit on his knee and get a sweet off him. The parents were equally delighted as they swrmed round the children like paparazzi blocking the stage off from view as their child came up to perform. Our performance with 5th Basica the oldest students in the school (aged 10-11yrs) singing Jingle Bells and We wish you a merry christmas went very well! All the children rememebered the words and sang loudly. The best bit was that Robin was handed a microphone so everyone could hear his beautiful singing voice. Each class performed a different song or dance and one class even did the nativity play it was chaos but absoloutly fantastic. Best of all where all the amazing and very cute costumes, christmas elves, mini mary´s and shepherds, angels, Bells and presents!

Check out the pictures by clicking on this LINK for our friends photos or this LINK for our photos. 

From each class there was one young boy and girl selected to take part in the schools selection of the princess and prince. It was very cute and slightly strange to watch a pair of 3 yr old´s dressed in big puffy dresses and suites try to strut down the aisle and pose, blowing little kisses to the crowd! But the selection thankfully wasnt by popular vote but by selecting a star of the christmas tree and when they opened it up it said whether they where the princess or not. As it happened Damarsis from 2nd Basica (very intelligent young girl) was eleted princess and Aerial from 5th Basica the prince.

Carlos´s family celebrated Christmas on christmas eve by cooking a big meal for everyone of roast pork and tortilla´s and then spent the rest of the evening dancing, drinking and playing cards. Ceasar had a particular fondness of the microphone and spent most of the evening talking or singing into it! At near midnight all the children bundled into the front room in order to open their christmas presents. Unlike England where adults get presents as well as children in Ecuador it is solely children who get presents and once they hit 15yrs old and are officially an adult they dont get anymore. Also unlike England not that many families can afford to buy christmas gifts for their children including some of the children at the school. But Enoah was absoloutly delighted at her presents and pranced around in her princess tiarra and fluffy shoes jabering away into her fake pink mobile! We received a lovely gift of a traditional idigenous indian wooden mini xylopohone.

Robin is slowly recovering from an overly acidic stomach and possibly amoebic dysantry as well so please continue to pray for his health and mine. Every day people tell us new things that could have caused us to get ill and there is no way of knowing what was the original cause so please pray for our safety whilst eating and drinking. Please also pray we dont get malaria as we have had to stop taking the tablets due to bad reactions to the pills. As we enter this new year please pray for the lives of all the children at the compassion project and school that they wont end up getting into drugs or becoming robbers but that they would be encouraged by the staff and volunteers to achieve the best they can and live God filled lives. Finally as 2012 comes creeping around the corner and our minds drift towards home and our return to old blighty please pray that God will help us find the right jobs upon our return.

Finally a Happy New Year to you all! Lots of love from Ecuador xxx

Other things that have amused us this week:
-  It doesnt sound right but I have to say avocado milkshakes are delicious! We shared one with Freddie this week.
- Eating cows udder and heart at the staff christmas meal. One was very hard and the other very soft!
- Robin pretending to be a ´lobo´ (werewolf) and roaring at the children as all the children from the entire school hid under the stage and screamed everytime he roared.
- Pastor Anibel, Carlos and Reuben barging into our bedroom on christmas eve to pray over Robin´s bad stomach.
- Enoah lying curled up in Robin´s lap sweetly, in her pyjamas until she kicked him in the face!
-Santa Clause coming to visit us all the way out here in Ecuador with some lovely gifts.

Feliz Navidad!! Merry Christmas!!

Week 15

12th -19th December 2011

To all back home in England we love and miss you lots and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As I write this, Christmas is only 2 days away and looking out the window, sadly there is no snow instead its quite humid at about 25 degrees! This week has not been the greatest as I have been poorly with amoebic dysantry and high stomach acidity due to a reaction of the anti-malarial drug Ive been taking but thankfully it all cleared up by the weekend so that I could enjoy the Latin Link missionaries English Christmas dinner!

The meal was highly scrumptious complete with turkey and Danish pears. Robin and I contributed to desserts by creating some eton mess (hand whisking two bowls full of cream is no mean feat)! Much merryment was had with christmas games and carol singing in both English and Spanish (in particular a fantastic round of ´the 12 days of Christmas´ with indiviual solos). Robin donned a santa suite and gave out the secret santa presents much to the delight of 4 year old Philipe. Great practice for friday when he has to be santa for the school.

I didn´t spend that much time in school this week but we both enjoyed one of the little boys (David) singing to us a song which all students sing at the beginning of an English lesson. I have a video of it but the connection is very slow out here so I cant upload it, hopefully i´ll get to soon. Another highlight was helping to teach the 2nd inicial class 4-5 year olds how to count to 4 in English.

By thursday I accompanied Robin and Ceasar on a road trip to visit a local tennis club. Robin even got to hit some balls about! Ceasar also had the task of going to a pig farm and selecting a live pig to be roasted for the family christmas meal on the 24th. In Ecuador people celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and stay up till midnight to exchange gifts and eat a big meal. Thankfully I didn´t choose the pig and instead enjoyed looking at the newly born piglets instead.

On friday we travelled up to Quito for the Christmas meal on saturday. Whilst in Quito we managed to go to the artisiannia market full of beautiful Ecuadorian goods and book ourselves into a jungle trip for the 6th Feb! Very exciting. We have also recieved some post from Ros, Emma Scott, Graham Herbert, Grannibel and Ann Farmer which has been fantastic to read and the chocolate was very much enjoyed!

Please pray for our continuing health (as Robin has now got the stomach acidity reaction as well) and safety. Also please pray for all the children at the compassion project and school who this christmas may not be recieving gifts due to poverty within their families please pray that they will get something to eat and be able to enjoy the day.

Check out the photos by clicking this LINK.

Much festive love to all from Ecuador xxx

Things that have made us chuckle this week:
- Me having to do a poo sample to be tested by a laboratory!
- The joys of living in Ecuador, nits, mosquito bites and intestinal amoebas!
- Robin qualifying from beginner to intermediate level in Spanish.
-Robin attempting to order pizza over the phone in Quito which took 5 attempts as the man on the phone couldn´t get our mobile number right or the cost of the pizza!

An Ecuadorian Wedding!

Week 14

5th- 11th December 2011

This week school has been a mixed bag I managed to make a child cry and we where mauled by thirty children who where extremely over excited to have stylophome in their hands. They mobbed us and took great delight in rubbing our heads with it. On monday I was both greeted and farewelled by one boy´s burps, which was delightful! We are pleased that we are getting to know more of the children´s attitudes and nature´s, they are really quite hardy and often fall over on the concrete floor and pick themselves up and carry on as if nothing happened. Observing PE lessons have often proved hilarious and this week was no exception as the small ones where trying to learn how to do a roley poley through a hoop and all ended up landing on each other and kicking each other!

Robin bumped into an old friend called Freddie this week who use to play football with him and helped construct the Rosa de Sharon Church with the Step team in 2006. Freddie owns a shoes stall at the market and also sells christmas trees (which we where lured in by) he very kindly gave us a christmas tree for the price of a hug such was his delight in seeing Robin!

On thursday I had a very festive day going christmas shopping with Jenny (Carlos´s son Christian´s girlfriend) who helped me haggle and pay the correct prices for things rather than Gringo prices. In the evening I met up with Amy, Victoria and Claire (other missionaries) and we listened to christmas carols, drunk mulled wine and decorated christmas cookies!

We where both very excited about the marriage of Monica and Ricardo on Saturday. It was amazing complete with a Mariachi band and police escort for the bridal party! There were lots of beautiful ´mini bride´ flower girls and Monica´s sisters all looked stunning as well as herself of course! Being an Ecuadorian wedding everyone was crying and very emotional. The bride and grooms first dance turned into a dance remix, there were games involving Ricardo taking a garter off of Monica´s leg and giving it to another single man who had to put it on another single girls leg as the crowd shouted higher higher! But by far the best moment of the evening (other than seeing Monica and Ricardo so happy) was Crazy hour! Crazy hour consists of insane dancing led by a group of scantily clad 15 year olds dragging people up to the floor! No one escaped including Robin and I who deftly tried to follow the dance and ended up bumping into people and facing the wrong way quite alot of the time.

On Sunday we went for another trip to the rio with Carlos´s family but this time we had rubber rings to go down the rapids. Needless to say some of us came home with quite a few bumps and bruises from the pretuding rocks on the rio. Robin enjoyed playing with Enoah in the Rio and we all watched as she fell in head first off of his back! Outside Sandra and Carlos´s house the road was blocked off as the locals where sat out on the street playing street Bingo.

A very fun and eventful week!

Please continue to pray for our health and safety as I am currently unwell with numerous stomach issues and would like to enjoy the Latin Link christmas dinner in Quito on Saturday.

Check out the photos for this week by clicking on this LINK and LINK 2.

Lots of love from Ecuador xxx

Other moments which have made us laugh this week:
-Robin throwing Aerial in the Rio for splashing me and then realising he can´t swim.
- Watching Robin help out with a PE lesson as the children raced in pairs and got upsetwhen they lost.
-Carlos Jnr´s car getting written off as he fell asleep and somehow collided with a horse. (Apologise all animal lovers)

Christmas carols, fiesta´s and food!

Week 13

28th November- 4th December 2011

Please forgive the delayed blogs. I have been unwell with intestinal amoebas and I had a reaction to the doxcyclin anti-malarial I am taking causing my stomach to become mega acidic and rendering me unable to eat. Other than that we are all fine! As I write this on the 15th December we are excited about christmas coming in less than 2 weeks and wish everyone back home a very merry christmass!

At the beginning of this week I was recoverinng from a cold (more illness)! School has been very fun this week as we have been trying to teach a class how to sing ´we wish you a merry christmas´ for the school christmas show on the 23rd of December. Those of you who have had the priviledge of hearing Robin sing may be interested to know that he to will be honing his beautiful singing skills for this event as well! The school is in full christmas swing with tinsel and mini christmas trees decorating the rooms. Unlike England the majority of people in Ecuador celebrate Christmas at midnight on the 24th December and unlike british schools the schools in Santo Domingo will not have any vacations.

We cooked for all of Carlos´s family on thurs 1st December, other than buying way to much pasta, meat, bread and sauce than was needed it went well. After the meal came the usual game of pulling numbers out of the hat to try and get the men to do the washing up unfortunatly it was another blow for the ladies who ended up washing all the plates and utensils outside. Carlos´s family have been and continue to be incredibly generous to us so on sunday we helped Carlos´s son (Ceasar, who lives next door) with some ´Minga´(community work party). We helped clear Ceasar´s garden, essentially mowing/ removing the lawn but using machetes instead of a lawn mower. It was a hot day so afterwards the whole family went on a much needed trip to the rio. Carlos´s family seem to have taken a liking to joking about Mathambero one of the robbers, here is a sample of them:
- Ceasar showing us a picture of all the men of the family with mud on their faces and asking which one is mathambero
-Enoah saying that her sister is a robber and has gone to join Mathambero
- Pati telling Enoah to shut the door not to let Mathambero in. Which sends her flying to the door to slam it shut.

Check out this week´s pictures by clicking on this LINK.

Please pray for our ongoing health and safety this week.

Love from Ecuador xxx

Other moments that have made us laugh this week:
-  Robin dragging two children down the hall as they refused to let go of his leg.
-Robin stripping to his boxers in the middle of a busy market to try on some trousers.
- Rather hilariously we have discovered that Ecuadorians have a deep love of Mr. Bean! This was discovered after Carlos´s family spent most of the day laughing about there favourite bits and watching them on you tube in the evening.

Saca mi punto por favor!

Week 12

21^st- 27^th November 2011

Another busy week! We have traveled to Quito and back for the monthly latin link prayer meeting, worked in the school and gone for a dip in yet another rio! The children have been learning fruit and veg in English and are getting very excited about Christmass as their classroom’s are getting covered in tinsel and decorations. We have officially become the saca mi punto team (pencil sharpener team) amongst the smaller children and the creater of ‘fun’ but educational games for the older children in English lessons. Robin’s favourite is to play a version of splat but using English words.

As usual the children were delightful if a little naughty at times. In p.e this week all the children were learning things about balance by trying to swing a hoop round their bodies or pushing it along the ground. Junior was running wild loving throwing his hoop, in particular at the poor man trying to deliver the clean water bottles to the school.  I have discovered that there is nothing the 3 year olds like better then getting tickled so most of the lunch breaks are spent tickling. Although these children are an absoloute delight they are also the givers of great gifts one of which I have managed to receive ……………….. nits. 

It was great to meet up with everyone in Quito and see how they are all doing.  Unfortunatly I had a stinking cold (along with an itchy head) so we didn’t stay in Quito a long time. 

Sunday our day of rest was interrupted by a trip to a local Rio with Carlos’s family who also brought things for cooking. The rio was fast flowing with rapids and plenty of places to jump in which delighted Robin and terrified me.  Enoah was as keen as always to get into the river and is getting stronger at swimming ……..with her arm bands on. Ceasar, Pati and Christian made a fire and with a huge pan cooked chicken and paticones (fried green bananas) my new Ecuadorian favourite. It was another fantastic day even though the mosquitos took a particular fondness to me!  

Check out our pictures of this week by clicking on this LINK.

This week please pray for our health and safety (boring but essential). Also please pray for continued good relations with Carlos’s family and the teachers and children at the school and compassion project. Finally for lower crime rates in Santo Domingo especially in the barrio’s. 

Mucho Amor de Ecuador xxx

A funny moment this week:

-        -  Ordering  ‘pasta’ with pork for lunch and getting  ‘pata’ a big pig trotter complete with nails intact on my plate. (Pata means foot)

-          -Spending 3 hours in the bathroom removing the nits from my hair!

We have a postal address if anyone wants to send us anything it’s:

Casilla 17-24-351,

Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas,

Ecuador

Always be prepared for your plans to change......

Week 11

14th-20th November 2011

Well this week has certainly been one full of surprises some good and some not so good ! The one thing I will take away from our time in Ecuador is that you never know where a day can take you.  From the pits of despair about having all our photos robbed from us to pure delight swimming in a Rio. This week Carlos’s family have really been a fantastic help to us from cooking us dinner and breakfast to taking us to the supermarket so we can buy some food of our own. 

But let’s step back a second. Before my rather energetic last post just after being mugged we had actually done a few things. On Monday the 14^th we were in school, our first lesson of the day is with 1^st Basica this class is full of lively little characters one of which struggles to sit down for longer than two seconds. I was really proud of robin as he specifically focused his time on this little chap who instead of getting no work done and distracting the whole class, actually managed to  copy the sentence from the board in joined up writing (no mean task when you are 5 years old).  Sometimes it can be a little dis-heartening being a missionary you never feel like you are doing enough or doing something so massively life changing that you know that you have transformed someone’s life forever. But I find that it is in these little helpfull moments when you know that flying half way round the world and taking 6 months out of normal life is worth it. Seeing a child who struggled all morning to write the letter E finally get it, or who can’t understand what a subtraction symbol means compared to addition and finally the light bulb goes on or hearing a three year old master the English word for 1. In previous posts I have been somewhat frustrated at the school and the poverty of the children’s families which has meant they haven’t been pushed or achieved as much as a student in England might have. But it is clear that without this school pupils like Melanie (a little girl who lives in the barrio) would never have attended school and would still be trapped in the cycle of poverty with no basic education. 

I for one am greatful for all the wonderful happy smiling faces of the children this week. If you ever need a cure for getting over the shock of being mugged these little chaps will do it. We went into school the day after being mugged (Wednesday 16^th ) we where greeted by Junior who came bounding up to us to give us a hug and get picked up. That morning we had witnessed a 16 year old boy being taken off by the police, he had been carrying a big knife and was one of the robbers from our attack. It was sad to think that these little children could ever end up in the same situation. 

On Saturday we had a great time at the compassion project helping give out food and hanging out with the older teenagers. The girls kindly took me under their wing and taught me some card games whilst robin played football with the boys.  The children who attend the project all come from the surrounding barrio’s.  The younger boys asked if Robin knew how to fight with a knife, or knew how to fire a gun and where surprised that he didn’t know how to. Violence and crime are so normal to these kids and it was clear to see by looking at the faces of some of the children that they could very easily follow in the footsteps of the robbers and get involved in crime. In that Saturday alone Robin had to break up 3 fights.     

But all is not doom and gloom! We have also had lots of fun this week with an impromptu trip to the rio (river) for a swim with Carlos’s family. Little Enoah (Caesar and Pati’s 2 year old daughter) nearly drowned herself in her eagerness to get into the rio she flung herself in even though she can’t swim. We have also got taken later that day to Katherine and Jonathon’s college fiesta where there was bands playing, dance groups, fireworks and the selection of the school queen (which involved many scantily clad 15 year olds strutting their stuff). On Sunday we got a late night surprise visit by Monica, Ricardo and Priscilla who took us out for an ice cream and to the cinema to see the new twilight film.

Check out our pictures of this week by clicking on this LINK and LINK 2.

Please pray this week for our safety and protection out here and for the children growing up in the barrio’s that they would be able to break out of the cycle of poverty and crime.

Love from Ecuador xxx

Other things that made us chuckle this week:

-        -  Robin going into a pharmacist and being told he has herpes (he doesn’t it was just a cut from a football smacking him in the mouth).

-         - Eating in a restaurant called ‘willys’ ………. Childish I know!

-          -Due to Monica and Ricardo’s impromptu visit I ended up going out wearing my pyjamas to an ice cream parlour and the cinema.

-          -Ceasar, Carlos and Christian’s rigged a number game so that the men could get out of doing the washing up.

A totally crap day!

We got mugged at gun point yesterday.  

We had just finished having lunch at a restaurant literally opposite Carlos and Caesar´s house. In the restaurant was a police man which turned out to be incredibly useful. Across the road is the Church we attend Assemblies de Dios and the area surrounding that side of the road is a Barrio where a few of the poor kids who attend the school live. We finished our meal and started to walk in to the town center ( a way we have walked everyday many many times) we had literally just crossed the road from the restaurant and were about to go round the corner when we got mugged. It all happened very quickly. Firstly I thought someone was pushing past us in a rush but when I turned my head to look there was suddenly a tall black man with a gun pointed at Robin´s head. I let out a involuntary scream of terror! Which I think scared them a bit as they backed off into the road. The gun was still pointed at Robin who was patting down his shorts and showing the robber that he didn´t have a mobile phone on him (which is what the robber was asking for). I turned round and had a small younger chap facing me who just yanked my bag of my shoulder and then they both ran off round the corner. Thankfully a friend of Caesar´s family Kevin who we both know was standing not to far away and saw the whole thing and very kindly took us both back to the restaurant and told the police man everything that had happened and got Caesar and Carlos. Kevin also recognised one of the robbers which is a useful lead. Caesar is good friends with the chief of police for Santo Domingo so they had quite a few police on the case and even a helicopter pretty quickly. But both the black guy and the young chap escaped on a motorbike. We were woken this morning by some police men who had caught the younger chap. It was really quite sad to be honest, he was only 16, his clothes were torn and he looked poor he was sat on the police motorbike in handcuffs. The police had just caught him in the Barrio with a massive knife on his person which just goes to show you never know what these people carry. Now the police have caught him and know who the other black guy is there may be some hope in recovering the usb although not much.

Caesar´s family have been very kind to us and last night took us for something to eat and even got us to drive their new car (I think they wanted to take our minds off of the mugging) and this morning they cooked us a breakfast and invited us over. They are also taking us to the supermarket later on which is where we were heading before the mugging.  We are both fine and neither of us are hurt which is the main thing, we have been told we are very fortunate that they did not hurt us as they could of.

The photos from the week 10 blog will be somewhat reduced as my usb got stolen which had all of the photos on of our time in Ecuador we now only have the ones left on the camera. So there are none of the school or the compassion project or sadly my chickens feet soup!

There is no need to worry, Carlos´s family are being very supportive and we are recovering well from the shock. I have to admit I feel much more wary about just walking down the road but Robin and I are enjoying our time out here and this one blip is not going to stop us from carrying on enjoying our time out here. We love the school, the compassion project, the kids. We are determined to carry on and everyone has supported us really well.

A bit of a low time at the moment but im sure spendng some time with the children at the school will cheer us both up.

If you could please pray for our safety and protection whilst we are out here that would be much appreciated!

Lots of love from both Robin and I
xxx

Back to school!

Week 10

6th- 13th November 2011

A fun packed week of excitable children, english lessons, fat lips and attending two fiesta´s in one day...again!We have more of a structured timetable at school now and help out in most english lessons and pe lessons as well as acting as a general teaching assistant which has helped us in preparing games/ songs/ worksheets for lessons. It has been interesting to see how the children build on the little english learnt aged 2-3 years (currently they are learning the numbers 6 & 7) to the standard of 11year olds (who are learning the names of the planets in the solar system). The folder our dear friend Holly gave us and other resources such as posters and cds have come in vbery useful in the lessons.We are enjoying being of use in the school and becoming better friends with Elizabeth the English teacher who is currently studying at university alongside working at the school. We have tried to help her with her English University work on linguistics but it has flummuxed both Robin and I.

We are also discovering more problems with the children advancing in their educations. The simple lack of a pencil or even pencil sharpener can leave a child sat twiddling their thumbs doing nothing for an entire lesson as they lack the basic equipment to write in their exercise books. The school does not provide pencils, pencil sharpeners or rubbers to the students if they have forgotten theirs or if their parents haven´t bought them any (which apparently is more likely). This has been highly frustrating for both Robin and I to see the children who are capable of working sat doing nothing so we have purchased some much needed items of equipment which we carry at all times in the school. A pencil, pencil sharpener and rubber which gaurantees that the few students who dont have the correct equipment in the lessons we attend can now participate.

On saturday we went to the Compassion project which had 200-300 children attending. They were incredibly friendly and Robin and I spent our time getting mobbed by young children asking us our names and endless questions as we got pulled this and way that. It was great fun as we played versions of football, volley ball and dodgeball in which I got a ball to the face! Bindi also acquired an injury when playing football with the older teenagers as he headed the ball and smacked his face into the back of one of the boys givign himself a fat lip! The children arrive at the compassion project at 8:15 in the morning and recieve breakfast and leave after lunch at rounghly 1pm. It was great to get stuck in and help in handing out the food and both Robin and I left totally exhausted but happy. The most amazing people at the Compassion project are the volunteers some of whom have been working their for the past 10 years giving their time freely to cook and wash up for 300 children every thurs, fri and saturday. No mean feat!

On Sunday we somehow found ourselves attending two fiestas. Carlos´s family where having a bbq complete with dance music and badminton. We were invited to come and it was great to feel part of their family. Carlos´s family have been very welcoming and kind to us here. Pati and Cesar have allowed us to borrow their camera until ours is fixed which has been fantastic as I can finally take some pictures of where we work and what we get up to. Later in the evening we went to Barrio de Naranjos where Robin and the step team had helped build the church. The church held a special service in honour of the step team and Robin returning to see them. It was great to meet Gabriel, Louis and their families. The ladies got rather excited by the fact that Robin has a wife so got me to dress up in the clothes of Quichuan women and declared that I was now a Ecuadorian woman. In the service we met two little girls who where named after Bethany and Kristen from the step team they were very cute! Robin gave a sermon in the church in spanish and got to meet Marianno and the two Pedro´s. We even visited the house the step team stayed in when they were here.

It has been a great week and we are really enjoying our time here in Ecuador. Please pray for inspiration for creating fun and useful games to help the children learn english and for good relationships with the teachers, students and children at the compassion project. Also please pray for our health and safety out here.

Check out pictures of Santo Domingo and the school by clicking on this LINK. (coming soon)
Check out pictures of the Compassion project by clicking on this LINK. (coming soon)
Check out pictures of Carlos´s family fiesta and the fiesta at Barrio de Naranjos by clicking on this LINK.

Lots of love from Ecuador xxx


Other things that brought us laughter this week:
- Never trust chicken soup you never know what part of the chiken you will get! To my delight this week I managed to get chickens feet in my soup complete with nails attached! Needless to say i did not take a nibble on it.
- The lovely children aged 3-4 years who thoroughly enjoyed our pencil sharpeners so much so that as soon as we sharpened them they snapped the nib off so we could sharpen it again!
-Bindi causing two Ecuadorian women to burst into laughter by nearly walking into a young boy who was weeing in the middle of the busy street.
- One of the children asking if I was Robin´s mum!! How old do I look??
- Eating bright blue bubblegum flavoured ice cream which tasted just as nutritious as it looked.
- Getting dressed up a Quichua woman. See pictures of Barrio de Naranjos.

¡Yo quiero ir nadando en el mar!....(I want to go swimming in the sea!)

Week 9

30th October- 5th November

Both the school and compassion project are shut this week for vacation which meant that we had a free week. We decided to spend it wisely at the beach in Puerto Lopez!

Puerto Lopez renowned in Ecuador for its proximity to the island 'Isla de la Plata' (also known as the poor man's galapagos). We had a great week we saw many blue footed boobies, swam with turtles, went snorkelling in a coral reef, saw some humpbacked whales, stumbled across a tarantula, walked in the dry forest, hung out on hammocks at the beach, got burned by the sun, lost a wedding ring, saved a washed up seahorse, spotted many exotic birds and finally bought a new wedding ring for $1.

For the birds lovers we saw many of these blue footed boobies:

Frigate birds, red headed vultures, pelicans, a harpy eagle, ornate hawk eagle, Ecuadorian Trogan, Western white-tailed trogan, collared trogan, a burrowing owl, numerous gauyaquil woodpeckers, lemon- rumped tanager, rufous tailed tyrant, southern beardless tyramulet, a white whiskered puffbird and a black headed toby flycatcher. The most beautiful birds were the red headed woodpeckers:

Also the exotically coloured trogans:

The area surrounding Puerto Lopez is part of the National Parque Machailla and encorporates 3 different types of  enviroment, dry forest, dry cloud forest and dry jungle. Which meant we got to see a lot of wild life!

We arrived on Saturday 29th in the evening after a long 8 hour bus journey but it was worth it when we got up the next day and had breakfast in a rickety bamboo cafe on stilts over looking the pacific ocean. The beach had lots of frigate birds and pelicans looking for their breakfast too. Our first day there was spent on a boat trip to the Isla de la plata, where to our delight we spotted the infamous blue footed booby with it's babies and were priviledged to watch one male do his mating dance to try and woe the lady. Watch these videos LINK 1 and LINK 2. It was the beginning of November but the sun was incredibly strong at 30-35 degrees!  After walking round part of the Island we headed back to the boat to eat our lunch and found to our delight 3 green turtles also having their lunch of some lettuce! Watch this video LINK 3 We then donned our swim suites and went snorkeling in the coral reef where Robin spotted one of the turtles and we got to swim along with him before he disappeared into the ocean. The coral reef was stunning and we got to see lots of beautiful fish such as angel fishes, globo fishes, pirate fish, trumpet fish and trigger fish. Like these:

Unfortunatly my camera which we had paid $65 to fix only worked for ten minutes before disallowing us to take anymore pictures but we did take a few films and a kind Ecuadorian couple took some pictures for us and have posted them on facebook. Check out the photos by clicking on this LINK.

After such an amazing start to the week we were even more delighted on monday when we went on a boat tour to Isla Salango to go fishing and snorkelling and I spotted a whale in the distance. The usual season for humpbacked whales in Puerto Lopez is June- September so we where amazingly blessed to spot two pods of humpbacked whales swimming along in the ocean. We managed to get so close that we could see there white bellies and their backs as they came up to release water and breath. Check out the videos LINK 4 and LINK 5!! After spotting the whales we had an unsuccesful fishing trip as both Robin and I got a bite but both of our strings broke as we tried to wheel the fish in! The snorkeling was good although it was a lot more murky and I had a sudden realisation that this was tiger shark territory and if there where whales about then the sharks could be lurking about waiting for a nibble to! Unfortunatly Robin lost his wedding ring when we went snorkelling and there was absoloutly no chance of finding it again. But he did also find a big bright blue starfish and pick it up and place it on my hand!

After so much adventure we decided to have a day of rest at Los Frailles beach. A beautiful place with clean white sands and aqua coloured water. Check out the video LINK 7 and LINK 8. We caught the bus there and went for a hike through the dry forest (see video). It was incredibly hot, none of the plants looked alive and we kept hearing wierd rustling noises as lizards ran about the place (there are also snakes there but thankfully they remained hidden). Check out the video LINK 6. On the beach there were lots of little orange crabs who timidly would poke their heads out of the sand and make a run for it into the sea but if anyone was going near them they would run as quickly as possible and dive back into their holes in the sand. Watch the VIDEO. We had a great time but I got completely roasted by the sun and turned a lovely shade of luminous pink even with sun cream on (applied several hours later in the day).

Another adventure filled day into the dry jungle of Parque Machailla to a place called Borro de Oro. We got up at 6am to be at the parque by 7 to begin our mamoth 6 hour walk in to the Jungle in search of monkeys and birds. The tour guide who had described the walk as easy and not very long had clearly never been on the tour or was slightly insane as we sweated and climbed up mountains, crossed streams, muddy bogs and tried to climb down hills that were completely parched. Even though I would not recommend going on a 6 hour tek in the jungle with both of your legs covered in sunburn the expereince was rewarding as we got to see lots of plants used for medicinal purposes such as bad stomachs, circulation, fertility, swelling and randomly gonorrhea! We also spotted lots of brightly coloured birds and even some squids and  crabs. Unfortunatly we did not get to see the monkeys, we did hear the howler monkeys and had the joy of smelling and seeing their poo but alas no monkeys! Ou guide tried his best to find us some as he machetied his way through the jungle off the beaten track as Robin and I followed. As we where hacking are way through the jungle our guide spotted a giant tarantula which crossed our path! I was terrified but Robin was fascinated and took this video LINK 9! Apparently it was a jumping tarantula and could be potentially very dangerous. This brought me no comfort as we carried on walking in tarantula infested jungle.

After the high energy adrenaline filled jungle tour the final day of our stay was spent chilling out on hammocks at the beach in puerto lopez drinking delicious fruit milkshakes and reading our books before heading back to Santo Domingo. See video LINK 10.

We had a truly fantastic week! Please pray as we settle back in to school life that we will find ways to be of use to the school in a productive manner.

Mucho amor de Ecuador! xxx

Merengue Bailar!

Week 8

24th October- 29th October 2011

This week, working with the children in the school and compassion project has been the bigget highlight by far. It has also been a somewhat sweaty week as both Robin and myself have visited the gym (which is remarkable as I never attend the gym back home ...... even with a membership)! We have also attended a fiesta for Carlos´s son who has returned home from Spain and gone up to Quito for the monthly prayer meeting.

We are beginning to understand the complexity of the issues surrounding the children´s abilities and there attendence at school. As we have been observing the classes it is clear to see that one class in particular which has the largest number of students is struggling. This week has been exam week for the children and it has been fascinating to see the massive differentiation between some students. In this one particular class there is an incredibly bright intelligent 5 year old girl who sits there and finishes her exams within 15-20 minutes and gets all of the answers correct whereas other students in the class can not even read  or do addition or subtraction so can not answer any questions. Robin and I ended up teaching/ helping the ones who where struggling in their tests so that they could answer the questions. When I asked the teacher why there is such a wide range of abilties she informed me that some children's parents don´t think that education is important so won't send there children into school for weeks at a time leaving massive gaps in their education. No wonder there is such a difference of ability. It was also quite sad to see that those students who came from a poor background or whose parent's didn't support there education as much lacked the equipment necessary for school such as pens, pencils, exercise books etc. Sadly this meant that the students just had to sit in the class and do nothing which obviously caused massive distractions to the others who at the best of times are easily distractable. The children's backgrounds are mixed, some come from well adjusted homes whereas others come from homes with no parents, who live in the local barrio and are incredibly poor. This has meant that some students have alot of issues, attention seeking, anger, apathy and fighting. Although this hasn't stopped them from being very loving towards us. We have deffinitly made some new friends at the school. Robin in particualr has a new friend called David, a 3 year old boy, who spotted Robin leaning over the banister looking down at the play area/ courtyard and shrieked with delight pointing up at him and then came running up the stairs to greet him and get a hug!

We had a baptism of fire at the 'Compassion project' as we sat down and joined the kids to see what they would be doing on thursday afternoon only to discover that we were going to be giving an impromptu english lesson. We managed to wing it teaching them greetings and the alphabet mixed in with some fun and ever so slightly competitive games. The children at the compassion project are full of life, very loud and bubbly with lots of energy to boot. They are also some of the poorest children I have seen. There clothes are often incredibly dirty, wripped and falling apart. It is clear that without the compassion project to go along to, where the children get fed and have some space to do there work and to learn, they would just be hanging around the local barrio municipal with no supervision and possibly getting up to mischief.  Although the impromptu English lesson was scary it was also a great way to break the ice and get chatting to lots of different kids. We hope to build on our relationships with the kids in the next few months.

I know some of you may have been shocked to hear that I have actually attended a gym but I am sane and well and the expereience of attending a females only gym in Ecuador was well worth the small droplets of persperation. The female only gym which as soon as I walked through the door it was clear to see was not a females only gym had posters plastered all over the walls of disgusting overly muscular men doused in baby oil and wearing a tiny thong the women´s posters are not much better! Inspirational I think not! I attended the gym with Monica whose wedding is on the 10th December. We were going to the dance aerobics session which was merengue mixed with zumba. Easy thought I who had attended one english version of a zumba class ........ clearly not, after the instructor came over to me and told me that I danced like I needed the toilet! The instructor himself was somewhat of a character he gave no instructions but instead expected you to follow the leader and spent most of his time looking at himself in the mirror rubbing, thrusting and winking at his own reflection! If you would liek to picture the scene just imagine how the girls dance in the programme 'My big fat gypsy wedding' and you will have some idea.

On friday we headed up to Quito with Katy for the monthly meeting which was being held at Lizzi's apartment. It was great to see everyone and catch up on what had been going on.

The school and compassion project are on holiday this coming week so we are hoping to go to Puerto Lopez the poor man's galapagos for the week.

Please pray for stronger relationships with the children in  the school and compassion project and the staff members. Also for good communication with the english teacher so we know what to prepare for lessons and when they will be.

Other highlights this week:
- Somehow ordering chicken's stomach soup! Pretty gross with bits of intestine floating in the water.
- The wonderful 2 year old grandaughter of Carlos who enjoyed trying to ride the massive rockwheiler dog, pretending to cook seeds and showing me a furniture magazine and pointing out which things she liked. (She is very cute)
-Amy´s parents coming over to visit her and bringing some cadburys chocolate for us to eat!!!

The camera is still broken but I managed to get these pics of the very small 3 year old class LINK

Life in Santo Domingo!

Week 7

17th October- 23rd October 2011

What a week!! We have managed to attend two fiestas in one night, Robin has preached a sermon in Spanish, ive given myself food poisoning, we have visited the Barrio de Naranjos and been greeted/ hugged by many small children!

Work has commenced at our two new projects. Firstly the school which is for children aged 3-10 years and is right in the center of Santo Domingo. In England the school wouldn´t be allowed to be open as it would be classified a 'health and safety nightmare' as the play area consists of a concrete courtyard with uneven dips and the building is still under construction with big iron rods sticking out of the floors and walls. The children are very very sweet and friendly and greet us every day by coming running over and giving us a hug! I fear we are more of a distraction then a help when we enter classrooms! We have been sitting in observing lessons of all the different classes which are again run a tad differntly to England. The children are full of energy and the boys love nothing more than a rough and tumble game of football on the concrete courtyard at break time (often causing a few tears). Robin is very popular with the boys who come running up to him and ram their heads into his groin asking to be picked up or wanting attenion. The older pupils aged 6-8  years have a mixed timetable with maths, PE, language, English and other subjects. It has been really interesting to observe and help the children in their english lessons. PE is not exactly a structured event as the PE teacher places a football in the middle of the courtyard and the whistle is blown and lots of little feet go crazy to kick the ball and sometimes each other. The headmaster Ednaldo has big hopes and dreams of expanding the school so that they can accomodate more children with better facilties. The structure of the school is such that it runs from 7:30- 12:30 am with paying students and then poorer students attend in the afternoon until 2:30pm. Obviously the more paying students the more poorer students can attend.

The Compassion project is completely different as students aged (3-18 years) attend the after school club where they are fed and split into different age categories and attempt to do some homework in reasonable peace and quiet. Our compassion project has 331 children which usually attend on different days except on saturday when they all cram themselves into a not very big building. The building itself consists of a tiny courtyard, one big hall, three very small classrooms, toilets and a kitchen. All of which are concrete! We are yet to attend a saturday where there are 331 children there and experience what surely must be absoloute bedlum! The volunteers who work there are amazing and have helped feed children for the past 10 years. The project is located close to the Barrio Municipal which is well known for its poverty and crime rates. Unbeknown to us the Compassion project offers its students the opportunity to go to University by helping to pay for it. Each one of the 331 children has a sponsor and the students were writing to their sponsors when we were there. The project leader Josia also takes them out on trips to the local pool and arranges football matches for the boys. In this project our work is much more relational getting to know the kids and helping them with their work.

Alongside this we have attended Pastor Ednaldo (the pastor and president of all the ´Assemblies de Dios´churches in Ecuador) birthday party. Which was a very formal affair with all the different churches providing representatives who come and sing a song and present Pastor Ednaldo with a birthday present. We left after 2 hours and went to Monica and Ricardo´s engagement party. Which was an intimate family affair and very beautiful. They both said lots of lovely things about each other and their families and exchanged rings. There was lots of crying.... but tears of joy! Monica is the daughter of Pastor Anibel who Robin along with the step team helped to build his church. Hence why on tuesday night Robin had to give a sermon in Spanish to the congregation. He did pretty well even getting a few amens of agreement. Pastor Anibel and his family have become good friends to us as well as Carlos´s family who have taken us out for a meal and invited us on a trip out to the Rio sometime.

On sunday we attended the assemblies de dios church for the first time, unlike the ´Rosa de Sharon´ church its service is not an hour long but hours long! The women and men were seperated for a bible study on John the baptist and then brought back together for a sermon. After church we went to visit the Barrio de Naranjos where Robin and the Step team worked in their first project. Gabriel and Louis were delighted to see Robin and showed us around the church with the plaque still hanging on the wall with signatures of all the step team. They are going to hold a big reunion on the 13th November which we have been invited back for!

So life is pretty busy in Santo Domingo which is great!
Please pray for help building relationships with the children in the compassion project and school as well as the teachers. Also for my stomach after a good dose of food posioning which knocked me out for 2 days I am only now beginning to eat normally again.

A funny moment this week:
- A load of ants managed to infiltrate the honey bottle, but undettered by this both Carlos and Robin proceeded to pour a load of it into their porridge and eat it.

My camera broke this week so I unfortunatly don´t have any pictures to put up. Thankfully it is being fixed and should be back to working order soon!

Hola Santo Domingo!

Week 6


11th- 16th October 2011


We have made the big move to Santo Domingo this week! Traveling on the incredibly windy road (once known as the most dangerous road in Ecuador). Which is built into the sides of the Andean mountains with nothing between you and eternity! We arrived safely and the difference in the humidity was felt immediatly as we stepped off the bus. Although I think Robin was slightly disappointed as he had been gearing up to expect the constant sweating of a sweltering santo domingo but so far whilst it is warm it has in no way caused me to 'perspire' and much to Robin's shock he even had to wear a jumper in the evenings.

We enjoyed our last few days in Quito before we moved down to Santo Domingo on the 14th October visiting parque metropolitano again and generally relaxing. Unfortunatly we also had a bad experience as Lizzi, our fellow flat mate in Quito and strider, got her bag mugged on our street by two people who pulled up in their car and took everything from her, even her necklace! Thankfully Lizzi was alright and the incident was reported to the police. Nothing of great value was stolen either just her Ecuadorian mobile, $10, her notebook and unfortunatly the house keys. It was a reminder to us all who had grown assured of the relative safety of where we live in Quito that unfortunatly there are people out there who will rob you. When speaking to Miriam, our neighbour downstairs, she informed us that her sister had also got her bag taken from her just outside the house one morning which shows that it doesn't matter what time of day it is.The street we lived on had it´s own gaurd too who use to patrol up and down the street blowing his whistle and generally making his presence known. Lizzi has recovered well and thankfully this hasn't tainted her desire to help out in the hospital.

We are staying at the house of a man called Carlos who Robin stayed with last time here was here in Ecuador with his step team. Whilst we share his house for the lounge and kitchen we have a seperate annex with our own bedroom and bathroom (with hot running water.... I am delighted by this)! Carlos owns a rottweiler called peter who is his gaurd dog but unlike the other slightly insane gaurd dogs which go absoloutly mental as soon as you walk past the gate of their house peter is really quite friendly and enjoys nothing more than a good stroke and ´comida´(food). Whilst Carlos has assured us that he makes a good gaurd dog (once scaring away a robber) he seems very friendly to me. Our new home is 2 secdonds away from our new church 'Assemblies de Dios' and a maximum of 2 minutes walk to the school. It's also in the center of the city making it easy to access anywhere in the city.

On Saturday night we went to Nancy's birthday party (the wife of Pastor Anibel who Robin and his fellow step group helped build his church). It was great to meet all of Pastor Anibel's family and the evening was spent laughing at some of the things the step team got up to here in Santo. After singing 3 different versions of happy birthday and getting invited to Monica's wedding (one of the daughters of Pastor Anibel) we went home exhausted! On Sunday evening we went to ´Iglesia Rosa de Sharon´ where Carlos was preaching. Halfway through the service Pastor Anibel had Robin and I up the front explaining to the congregation about how a group of young people from England came to help build the church and adding on the end how Robin was going to preech at the tuesday evening service! Rather stunned at the prospect of having to preech for a full 20 minutes in Spanish, robin is currently on google translate trying to work out what to say. If it all goes wrong he can just stand their saying 'Dios es bueno, Dios es amor' which translates to 'God is good, God is love'.

Some highlights of this week:
-Managing to fall into a stall filled with plastic toy cows
-Going to the flower market in Santo Domingo where you can get 25 big beautiful roses for $3
- Robin managing to bring  the bus to a constant halt by accidentally leaning on the stop button

We visited the school we will be helping with today and start working their tomorow so please pray that this goes well and that we can build some good relationships with the children and teachers. Also please pray for both our safety and Lizi's in Quito. Finally please pray we settle into life in Santo Domingo as quickly and easily as we did in Quito.

With love from Ecuador xxx

Check out the pictures of what we have been up to by clicking on this LINK

Ecuador 2- England 2

Week 5
4th - 10th October 2011

Buenos dias chicas! Our last week of spanish has been a most enjoyable time. For our last session we went for breakfast together at an indigenous organic chocolate caffe and then for a walk around parque metropolitano. During the week, thanks to Nina's impeccable spanish teaching skills, I have learnt vital words such as 'caca' (poo), 'busta' (boobs) and the phrase 'yo te lamo Robin' (I lick Robin). All incredibly useful in ones day to day discussions! Nina is a fantastic teacher and when trying to teach me phrases to do with illness  went on to act out a patient and doctor scene where she promptly diagnosed my imminent death within a month (apparently with the symptoms I gave her the signs were not good). 

Whilst out on our day trip it turned into a compteition with us 3 brits against the Ecuadorians. The scores where as follows:
1 to the Ecuadorian Spanish teachers for winning the arm wrestles against us Brits. Lizzi vs Nina ( Lizzi won), myself vs Zulma (Zulma won), Robin vs Alex ( Alex ......a girl.....won)!
1 to the Brits who managed to polish off their pancakes, pineapple, and hot chocolate whilst the Ecuadorian team failed leaving Robin much delighted at the prospect of left overs.
1 to the Brits as myself and nina competed in a fast walk/ run down the street after she complained about walking for 20 minutes to the park (this is the first day I haven't seen her wear heels). I won!
1 to the Ecuadorians: my one endearing feature my child size hands were beaten in their tinyness by Nina and Zulma whose hands were ultra small. Robin then classified us all as umpa lumpas making himself willy wonka.

In the cafe I tried hot chocolate con queso (with cheese) and have to say I think in future I will stick to the ususal hot chocolate as it was like finding random lumps of un-melted mozzarella in my drink. Whilst in the park we had great fun in the children's play area which had a slide in the shape of an elephant with a barrel for its body I stuck my head out of the barrel and to my delight was promptly called 'Elefante caca' (i knew that word would come in useful)!

On a more spiritual note we also had our Latin link conference in Cumbaya this weekend and it was great to meet the rest of the team and hear about all of their different projects. It deffinitly sounds as though there is a lot of potential areas to get stuck in and help out at in Santo Domingo with our own teaching project, the compassion project, Orph Aids (an orphanage for children whose parents died of Aids), a disabled school and a womens refuge. We were given talks by Pastor Galo which were really refreshing and encouraging and he welcomed us into Ecuador by washing our feet as a symbolism of Jesus washing the disciples feet and welcoming them. In the afternoons we went for walks and spent time together as a group. One particularly bonding walk was when the sun was so hot the roads were melting (leaving our foot prints in the tarmac) on this walk we got potentially attacked by some geese and deffinitly attacked by a dog which cut half our party off leaving Amy, victoria and Lizzi fearing for their lives. The food was delicious but every meal consisted of the usual 3 carbs diet of potato, rice and pasta! It was a fantastic time of bonding and laughter.

Other moments which have tickled our laughter boxes this week:
- How to send post, Ecuador style. Getting up at 3:45am to give some postcards to a chap who was heading back to England to post for us as post out here is a tad unreliable.
-Looking out the window of the apartment to see two men hanging out there washing absoloutly starkers from the waist down! I've always said the apartment has a great view!
-Getting smacked over the head repeatedly by wet bags and umbrellas whilst travelling on a packed bus.
-Seeing a ecuadorian chocolate sign which read 'snickers can suck on our cacao'. Very clever.
- The shop called 'doggy style'
-The fantastic son of one of the missionaries out here who at 4 years old unashamedly pulled his trousers down and went for a wee with the loo door open allowing all the group a view of his bottom whilst we were being preached to.
- The accomodation at the conference center consisted of simple rooms with single beds so on our 6 month wedding anniversary we slept in seperate beds........ surely not a good sign.

If we could again request your prayers for our accomodation as we have had to post pone our move to Santo Domingo for a week due to lack of accomodation but we have some deffinite leads so hopefully come friday/ Saturday we should be down there.

Mucho amor de Ecuador xxxxx

Look at this weeks photos by clicking on this LINK

Mindo mania!

Week 4

28th- 3rd October 2011

Tuesday to thursday has been a relatively quiet week as we are settled into our routine in Quito. I have managed to make a grown man cry on the bus by accidentally standing on his foot (a bit over the top perhaps it was his latin american flair........ or it could have been the fact that his toes bore the full weight of my body as I am yet to master a bus journey without smacking into someone). On the same bus journey I later managed to sit on a random woman´s lap when I spotted a free chair....... i blame the altitiude.

I was ecstatic this week as I got to make a collage in my spanish lesson of all the things I liked from magazines it brought me back to my school years as I sat there stating ´A mi me gusta el peliqula harry potter y Narnia´. In spanish i am unfortunatly learning irregular verbs and it seems like there are more irregular than regular ones! Robin and Lizi are learning their reflective verbs so there are lots of 'doing' words being flung around our house. On friday our little troup of spanish teachers and learners (Robin, lizi and myself) headed out for our once a week out of the class trip. We went to the Banco Central museum in Quito again we managed to magically go on a trip on a auspicious day. The 30th September is a day of rememberance for the president as last year on that day there was a huge protest with the police and military demanding more pay. The police then captured the president and held him hostage in the Police hospital. In retaliation the military decided it was on the side of the president and his supporters and bust him out of the hospital. Later the president allowed the police and military a pay rise! This year to commemorate his supporters rescuing him he made the museum free to enter and held a big protest filled mainly with idigenous people shouting their support for him (some say they were paid to do it..... who knows)! The museum was highly interesting and there were many interesting artefacts but perhaps the best, in my opinion, was the fertility statues where the male genitalia was nearly twice the size of the person! There were also lots of stories of death rituals in the old tribal days and these amazing jars  which where in the shape of different animals. They would pour water into the jar and swing it from side to side to allow the air to blow over the top and it would create the sound of that animal an amazing tool for capturing animals.

The weekend was when the fun really started! After spanish on friday we headed off to Mindo a tiny city 2 hours away from Quito. Mindo is in the middle of the cloud forest so the temperature is a lot hotter and apparently a lot wetter! We got off the bus and waited to get a taxi in to Mindo central in a torential down pour I had clearly been mistaken in my choice of clothing with white trousers and white shorts in my bag. We stayed in Hostel Cecilia which was right next to a rio and in the morning it was so beautiful with bright floweers and banana trees. We had our breakfast in the open dining area next to the rio where tonnes of humingbirds and other brightly coloured birds where also having their breakfast ( Sprite and a banana). We saw lots of blue grey tangaras and yellow rumped tangaras which are completely black with a belly the colour of a yellow highlighter and a orange bird which we dont know the name of. Mindo is famous for its orchids, butterflies and birds. We started the day of with a bit of canopying (zip linning across the canopy) taking in the full extent of the cloud forest. Whilst zipping across you can see lots of flowers and we even spotted a few vultures (they clearly knew that the tiny harness and clip which supports your entire body weight to a thin cable was bound to end in food at some point). The first zip across was scary with the huge plunge to your death gap beneath you and the floor but the rest where great. We even started to venture out a bit doing the butterfly and superman position (the butterfly involves you going completely upside down with all your limbs spread out and the superman involves you intimately wrapping your legs around the constructers body and leaning forward in a superman pose).

After the adrenaline pumped zip lining we took the tarabita (cable car) across to the other side of the canyon where we walked through the cloud forest to five different waterfalls. I felt like Steve Irwin trapsing through the jungle with nothing but my back pack filled with oreos and crisps to survive on. We waded into the waterfalls which were colder than expected and quite fast flowing getting completely soaked. It started to chuck it down with rain so Robin transforming into Ray Mears started snapping the massive leaves (which where bigger than the length of my body) off the plant and using it as a umbrella........ (so much for take nothing but photos leave nothing but foot prints)! The final waterfall Nambillo had a bigger swimming area so I decided here was my chance for a proper swim, there was no one around except us so i stripped off into my bickini and coyly began my descent into the freezing water when a huge group of tourists came along taking multiple rictures of the waterfall with my big white derriere in all of them! Robin was the first one in but it was hard to swim properly as the current was quite strong and the rocks below looked a tad daunting. Finally exhausted and really quite wet we headed back to the cable car to head home. On the road home we expected to find a taxi or a car to a grab a lift in but alas no we had to walk in the torrential rain for an hour down to the bottom of the mountain before we nabbed a lift.

The afternoon was spent touring round a chocolate factory which had the most fantastic chocloate brownies ever! The chocolate itself was a bit to strong for my likeing at 80% Coco. The sad fact is nothing can beat good old cadbury´s in my mind which is probably 20% coco and 80% sugar. Whilst on the chocolate factory tour we met this great irish couple on their honey moon who kept asking where the chocolate rivers and umper lumpers where!

Now you may be aware of robin´s love of relaxing and lie in´s and we are normally always late for everything but not so on sunday morning! Robin was up at 4am!! What could possibly get robin out of bed at this time in the morning pray tell?? The cock of the rock! Yes, a fantastic red crested bird one of the most famous in Ecuador! We got a taxi up to the mountain and at 5am in the pitch dark with nothing but Robin´s piddly wind up 'eco' torch we headed out into the complete blackness of the cloud forest. Thankfully the taxi driver took pity on us and lent us his head torch. Michaels where are you when we need you! We started down the track of the bird reserve to the lek where the andean cock of the rock does it´s display at 6am. To say it was an easy journey would be a lie with thick thigh deep mud, land slides, sheer cliff drops and the inability to see more than 2 feet in front of you! I got stuck in the mud more times than I can count and had to get yanked free as my foot was so deeply immersed. I also managed to slip in the mud and land my bottom in the friendly squelchy mud which delighted in dirtying my pristine white trousers ( as I said earlier I did not pack the right things for Mindo). Finally the sun started to come out and we could see where we were going. With the clouds and mist resting on the tree topped canopy. The final stint up to the lek was incredibly hard as we were racing to get there in time with a steep mountain to climb covered in slippery mud. I was drenched in sweat! Robin raced ahead whilst Lizz and I trailed behind stripping off as many layers as possible. Whilst Robin was racing ahead he disturbed a monkey in a tree which went racing off as soon as he clapped eyes on Robin. Finally at the lek we could see the cock of the rock doing its display ( a lot of jumping around) and calling to each other. Unfortuantly our camera was not good enough to take a picture of them through the foliage. It looks like this:

Was it worth it? Absoloutly it was amazing to watch! On our way back we went for a little de- tour into the forest and saw loads of different vibrant coloured butterflies and at the reseve headquarters there were numerous types of hummingbirds going crazy for their breakfast sprite! We stopped at a rio for a refreshing dip ( Robin went in whilst I enjoyed wading in my hired wellies) before starting our long trek back. All this before breakfast at 9am. Whilst waiting for the taxi to arrive a bird watcher spotted a toucan in one of the near by trees and we got to have a look through her telescope to see this amazing bird. One of these:

















We were over the moon! After brunch we headed back to Quito bitten to death by mosquitos but happy!

Other hilarious things:
-Funny spanish words which are rude in english such as 'toser' (to cough).
- Funny signs such as 'snob' a food label. For example 'snob jam'.
-The garage called 'the pits'.
- The sandwich shop which in english means 'sandwiches of the colon'.
-Lizzi trying somehow managing to order a taco milkshake!

We are entering into the last stint in Quito and will be moving after this weekend to Santo Domingo. Still no idea about accomodation! Please pray that they find something suitable for a married couple.

Love from Ecuador!

To see our pictures of our fun time in Mindo click on this LINK    and this LINK   and this LINK (perhaps I should take less pictures!)

Photos!!

Check out our photos of our first week in Quito by clicking on this LINK and LINK

Check out our photos of our second week in Quito by clicking on this LINK

Check out our photos of our third week in Quito visiting the basillica and Mital del Mundo by clicking on this LINK

Check out our photos of our third week in Quito visiting Quilatoa by clicking on this LINK

Check out our photos of our third week in Quito visiting Cotopaxi by clicking on this LINK

Dragging a granny up a mountain!

Week 3

21st September - 27th September

It has been a busy week for us over here in Ecuador. We have been to the basillica (risking life and limb on the insane ladders), visited the middle of the earth 'Mitel del Mundo', kayaked in a volcanic lake and climbed up a 5897 meter high mountain to 4800meters! 

The Basillica in the old town of Quito is very beautiful (but not as stunning as Salisbury Cathedral). We climbed up to the bell tower via the rickety spiral staircase and finally up a thin metal ladder which when wearing flip flops was not the safest option but not to fear as a lady managed to climb up in massive killer heels (the extremes of Ecuadorian fashion). You could then walk on a rickety bridge across the length of the Basillica to the central tower where you had to climb up a very thin ladder. For those who are insane enough (Lizi, Robin and I) you could then climb on a ladder which leans out of the building so you are literally climbing on thin air. I then proceeded to panic at the top as to get down you had to put your feet out into the sky of Quito to find the first rung of the ladder. Thankfully Lizzi managed to coax me down. Legs wabbling from the fear and andrenaline I was delighted to touch the ground again. We also went to visit La Compañia a Jesuit church which is covered in 7 tonnes of gold. Quite the sight! Although you have to wonder if the gold would have been better spent elsewhere.

I have attained my first mosquito/ fly bite and after an intial panic that I had manged to pick up a tick in La Carolina park (only to find out it was dried blood) it is now very itchy and red. Spanish lessons continue in their usual manner with many many mistakes! For our spanish class on friday the 23rd of September we went on a trip to the middle of the earth 'Mital del Mundo'. Unbelievably we managed to visit the middle of the equator on the equinox when the sun follows the exact equator line which only happens twice a year (on the 23rd of September and 21st March). Unlike the rest of the year on these two days there are 24 hours in a day usually it´s actually 23 hours and 59 minutes! Therefore at 12 midday for the first time in my life I lost my shadow as the sun was directly above us. This also meant the sun was extremely powerful and it was very hot. The museum had three great tests to prove the power of the equator. The water test when you fill a sink full of water and pull the plug out when the sink sits directly on the middle of the equator the water falls straight out without swirling, if you move the sink to the north or south of the line the water flows out swirling in one direction and another for the south. The egg balancing on a nail test (the name says it all) apparently there is less graviational pull in the middle of the equator so you should be able to balance an egg on a nail. The strength test if you stand to the south of the middle of the equator and get someone to push down on your arms it is harder than when you stand in the middle of the equator again due to gravity. Also rather joyously you also loose 1kg in weight just by stepping onto the middle of the equator. Unfortunatly you do gain it back when you step of it! Due to the weaker amount of gravity at the middle of the equator you balance is effected. When asked to perform a alcohol test (putting one foot infront of the other head back and eyes shut) no one managed to walk in a straight line except Nina one of the spanish teachers who was lunging her way forward. Nina had been 'accidentally' pushed into a cactus earlier by Robin and got a cactus thorn stuck in her arm! Have we mentioned what a great impression we have made on our teachers so far!
We were also shown the delightful process of shrinking heads to be worn around the neck as a necklace! Due to the equinox there was also a music and dance performance by the indigenous people which was great to watch.
 If that was not enough we then went to lake Quilatoa and Cotopaxi mountain at the weekend! We started early at 5am and began our journey to Quilatoa a beautiful luminous blue lake which sits in a dormant volcanoe at 3821 meters up. Our journey to the lake involved steep winding roads up the mountains, spotting several lamas, seeing tones of stray dogs and even a few piglets out sunbathing as well as the amazing mountains surrounding us as we travelled in the valley of the volcanoes. We stopped at Zumbahu where the  indigenous Quechuan people run a market every saturday I purchased a set of alpaca gloves and hat for $4 in preparation for the cold mountainous heights. Arriving at the top of lake Quilatoa is breathtaking its the most exquisit colour´s of blue and completely surrounded by the walls of the volcano. Robin and I climbed down the mountain to the lake below and took a kayak out onto the tranquil lake which looks green up close. Robin later went for a dip in the lake (a very brave move as it was as cold as the english sea in january)! What had been a gloriously sunny day suddenly turned dark and cloudy and it began to rain/ hail. Down at the bottom of the lake our the local people trying to entice visitors to get a mule back up the mountain. I decided to take an old lady up on the offer. Big mistake in my naivety I assumed when she had saddled up two mules I would get on one and she would get on the other. Apparently not! As I traveled on the mule the old lady deffinitly old enough to be my gran walked up the mountain dragging the mule behind her! I was fine if a bit wet from the rain but this old granny was panting and clutching her chest, I thought I was potentially killing her! Somehow I had managed to drag a granny up a mountain. The mule I was on didn´t help matters, acting as a 'donkey on the edge' always preffering to walk on the edges of the sandy (sheer cliff) path and whenever it spotted some shrubbery just off the verge it would lean over to try and eat it! Three times I let out a terrified wimper as it lent over the edge to eat!

The next day we visited Cotopaxi standing at 5897 meters we can normally see it's white capped summit from our apartment in Quito but today it was totally covered in thick white clouds. We stopped to drink some matte coco tea which apparently helps with altitude. It must of worked as neither Robin or I got headache´s or got dizzy. The road up to the car park at 4500meters was more like a dirt track and was incredibly bumpy and the poor minibus had to cross two rivers/ fords as well. Cotopaxi national park is also stunning with no towns in sight for miles nothing but the mountainous valleys and lakes. When we arrived at the car park, which was scattered with snow, we began our ascent up the mountain to the refuge which is 300 meters higher than the car park at 4800meters. It took us an hour to climb up to the refuge using the zig zag technique  to help us rather than attempting to go straight up. I needed to stop every few minutes to catch my breath back. I could hear my heart pounding and as oxygen is pretty thin on mountains it made the task even harder but Robin helped me and together we made it to the top! When at the refuge we spotted a pack of mountain foxes. Robin went over to take a picture of four of them not realising there was one on a rock right behind him looking down at him. We then went across to  the glaciers where those wanting to climb cotopaxi to the summit go and practice. As we traveled to the glaciers we walked through snow that was up to my knees (Bindi´s shin´s). We climbed back down cotopaxi to the car park where we got on mountain bikes and cycled 20km down the mountain to the restaurant for lunch. My bike´s breaks didn´t work which I luckily noticed just before the hairy descent. The bike ride was fantastic! An exhilerating cycle down was very bumpy and we were on our breaks the whole time expecially at the top where it was exceptioanlly. The views were great and Bindi manged to get back to the restaurant first! I of course came last out of our minibus clan. Exhausting but a fantastic weekend even though the clouds never shifted so we could see the summit!!

We are hoping for a more relaxed week this week and will be focusing hard on our spanish lessons!
Please continue to pray for us to be able to pick up the language quickly!

With lots of love from Ecuador xxx

p.s I am hoping to put some pictures up soon!

Nina es feo....... no!! Nina es frio!

Week 2

14th - 20th September

 We are getting into the swing of our spanish lessons with many hilarious mistakes occuring along the way! Robin has managed to call his tutor fat twice by accident, Lizzi has managed to call her tutor old and I have managed to call Nina (Lizzi's tutor) ugly when attempting to say cold. Im sure they love us! We have been on a class excursion to the old town of Quito to Plaza Independencia which is surrounded by La Cathedral and the presidents palace. We even got to go on a tour inside the palace and see the Ecuadorian version of the house of commons.

We have also visited Ottavalo market which is the biggest Latin American market and sells loads of local produce at a reasonable haggling price. The produce is mainly alpaca scalves, blankets, jumpers and ponchos along with lots of beautifully weaved tapestrys full of vibrant colours. There are also some pretty awesome hammocks and hammock chairs! It was our first proper journey out of Quito since we got here and we managed it quite well only getting lost once. On the bus to Ottavalo was the usual human beings plus a ginger kitten and a bull dog puppy in a pink t-shirt. Whilst the market was full of beautiful goods there was also lots of very poor old beggars with barely any teeth asking for money. It seemed so unjust that 'gringos' (foreigners) come to this market with more money in their pockets than these people earn in numerous years whilst these poor old people had to beg for food and clothing. They were so small in stature that the women often reminded me of my momonashraf (my iranian gran).

Whilst at the market we did try are hand at a bit of haggling........... often failing badly at trying to be convincing in our pleas that we only had $10 whilst Robin got his wallet out infront of the vendor clearly showing we had a $20 note. But it did help me practice my spanish asking ¿Caunto cuesta esto? Es ist moi caro! (how much is that? and that is very expensive). We did in the end purchase a few alpaca items and a brightly woven throw for our hideous sofa back home knocking between 25%- 50% off the original vendor price. A succesful day............... although we had to get Lizzi to pay for our bus fair home!

We have also attended our first Latin Link prayer meeting at a fellow latin link missioanries home. There were 11 of us and it was great to meet some of the extended members of latin link in Ecuador. Especially making new friends with three people who are living in Santo domingo de los Colorados where we will be for the next 5 months doing teaching and church work.

On sunday we went to a baptist church which is just down the road from where we are staying. The service was an epic 3 hours with 2 and a half hours of it spent on a sermon! It started well with lots of kissing and greeting and then moved into the worship leader crooning a love song to his wife in front of the whole congregation to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary!

Other random highlights are:
-Seeing a green humming bird right in front of our faces.
- Seeing a massive (almost trantula-esc) dead spider on the pavement. (which means they are out there somewhere, lurking!)
-watching a man juggle machetes whilst balancing a ball on his head.
- seeing a man  breath/ eat fire at a traffic light.
- After 2 failed attemtps last week to find the Quito ultimate frisbee team we have sucesfully tracked them down and Lizzi and Robin played a game with them on tuesday night in la Carolina park. (As i cant catch and care more about my nails breaking, i stayed on the side lines silently cheering)! Lizzi then proceeded to get cramp in the taxi home which made the taxi driver crack up in hysterics. 

We are all feeling much better now so thank you for any prayers said! Please can you pray that we manage to pick up spanish quickly so that we can communicate better with the Ecuadorian people.

With love from Ecuador xxxx

Hola mi nombre es Emma!

Week 1
6th- 13th September

The spanish language study has begun!! I can now offically say what my name is, where I live, how I feel and how old I am as well as the spanish alphabet! Which is pretty much identical to the english alphabet except it has four extra consenants. Robin on the other hand is happily chatting away to taxi drivers and can understanding what things are in a supermarket (which is very useful).
Over the course of our first week in Quito we have expereinced a lot!
- Bus rides on which you must cling for dear life and limb, to a bar or be thrown against the thronging mass of people to keep you upright.
- Women who take high heels very seriously and who have been spotted wearing stilletos whilst walking up mount pichincha which is a vlocano and stands at 4050meters (she was at 3050 meters up).
- An amazing artists fayre at El Ejido park in La Mariscal where there was a mass of young children and a lovely old woman in the middle of the park guarding her sweet stall with a rifle gun.
- A man juggling machetes at some traffic lights.
-A clothes shop specifically designed for dogs.
- Seeing numerous dogs dressed in pink dresses, tutu's and t-shirts.
- Hilarious shop names such as 'the athletes foot', 'A beer and a fight makes a good british night' and 'horny pan' (pan translated is bread).

and many other hilarious anicdotes! Quito is deffinitoly a city in which you can never guess what's going to happen next. Take a leisurely stroll in the La Carolina park for instance, we were just ambling along enjoying the soft grass when a man dressed like a woman with balloons down his top and by his bottom walked past (for a brief second Robin stood still stunned at possibly seeing the largest breasts ever only to realise that the woman was a man and the breasts balloons.... i fear he may of been somewhat dissapointed).

Although there have been numerous hilarious moments in the first week we have also been busy settling into and finding our way around Quito. After queing on three seperate occasions at the Ministry of toursim we finally managed to get out our tourism visas stamped and our Ecuadorian id cards. We have also been enjoying the local food especially the 'almuerzo del dias' (the lunch of the day) which is a 3 course meal consisting of soup, a rice dish with some form of meat, a often random dessert (Ecuador doesn't do desserts) and a drink of fruit juice all for the grand total of $2 the english equivalent of 1.50. Not bad!

We have also gone up the Teleferiqo to Mount Pichincha and attempted to climb up the rest of the volacno. Lizzi and Robin did well but the altitude was to much for me and spotting a rent a horse place catched a lift up the volcano for half an hour on a much needed four legged friend. When I dismounted both Robin and Lizi were tired and dizzy but I surprisingly felt fine! The view from the top of Mount Pochincha onto Quito is stunning the city is literally surrounded by the Andean mountains. When we look out of our apartment windows we can see three snow capped mountains, cotopaxi which stands at 5898m, cayambe which stands at 5700m and papallacta. On saturdays in El Ejido park there is a beautiful artisania market which sells Ecuadorian pieces of art, alpaca scalves, ponchos, throws, hammocks, bags, purse and jewellery. They are all brightly coloured and most are intricately woven.

On Sunday we experienced our first taste of church Ecuadorian style and it was a shock to the system. We went to IEVI a mega church which has 4 services in the morning each lasting a hour and a quarter with a fifteen minute turn around time. As one congregation leave the other comes barging in. The members must make it in within the 15 min turn around otherwise the doors shut. The church itself is very high tech with their own news channel for notices. The worship was loud and funky and people were jumping up and down and clapping. (I felt incredibly british as I clapt conservatively along to the songs). The congregation for each mass is roughly 500 people and it seems pets are welcome to as the man in front of us brought a very adorable puppy along with him. It was a youth service and was actually very informative, although I couldn't undersatand any spanish as they spoke so fast, I did learn from the slides that Quito's population is made up of 45% 0-25 year olds. A massive amount of young people! When walking around you can not fail to notice the huge amount of babies and children there are here compared to England. The service also included a group of break dancers ....... perhaps this should be included in fun church Simon?   

All in all we are settling in well and enjoying the quirks of Ecuador. Please pray for our health as we have all been hit with dodgy stomach's due to the different food out here. I shall hopefully be uploading some photos on here and facebook soon.

Much love to you all from Ecuador xxx