Romar!

I had the opportunity of going to an off sight orphanage about 30 min away from Cuenca. This orphanages motto is no child turned away. As you walk up to the house all the kids come running towards you just wanting to hug you and although they have lice and look like they havent bathed in months you just dont care because these children have nothing and all they want is a hug and to know they are loved. There are about 40 children at this orphanage and that is pretty big compared to the ones we are at everyday. They all pretty much just run around and take care of each other. There is a story about a group that came to give every child a pair of shoes there and one of the boys wouldnt take one because he knew that others needed them more.Although all he had was one pair of worn out shoes. These are the kind of people these kids are! So sweet and just love everyone and the only thing that they want is attention and to be played with. While a few of us were there another Catholic group came to do a activity with the kids. They had face painting and games and cake and it was just a party! Although I have no idea what really went on because I dont speak spanish. It was a great experience to see a really poor orphanage and to realize how much we really have.... like 40 pairs of shoes... Some of the children got ahold of the face paint and decided to paint all over my face! It was fun and such a mess!

                                      And this is how we came out of Remar looking like....

                                           Day out on the town with Jenni!

                                         Jennis bite mark from a little boy in Allegria

Unfortunately I cant put any pictures up of the kids in the orphanages on the internet because it has something to do with the protection of the kids and the government can shut down OSSO because of it soo.... pictures of the kids will be shown once i get home

Another day in Allegria

Today my morning shift was at OSSO´s orphanage in casa Allegria. These kids are between the ages of 10 days to 6 years old. Two days ago a new baby was brought to the orphanage. It is a boy and his mother abandoned him in the hospital. Many times the mothers will sign in under a different name and then leave so that they wont be found. Also at this orphanage is a girl that has cerebral palsy and is in a wheel chair. It is hard managing all these kids when they each have different needs. As we get there we help the worker get the babies dressed and feed them breakfast. This is quite a task and can take us a couple of hours. It is even harder trying to communicate with the workers and children because I speak very little spanish. Today was quite interesting. Two of the little girls are starting to potty train. So we are supposed to put them on the toilet until they go, which they don´t. They will just sit and cry. As I was picking one of the girls up from the little potty she kicked it and her pee went everywhere! I cant not imagine potty training multiple kids at one time. These workers spend so much time at the orphanages and many of the children call them momma. One of the little boys has Autism pretty badly I think and bite my friend Jenni while she was trying to get him inside. She had a hoodie on and it still broke through the skin! It bruised immediately. It is so hard because he does´nt understand what he is being punished for. Although working at the orphanages is hard work, it is also very rewarding. I love teaching the children songs like wheels on the bus, or popcorn popping and them doing the actions with us. Or even when you walk in and they come and give you huge hugs because they dont get that too often. As of right now I have an off so I am going to head out to town! Love and miss you all!

Week one!!

Some of the girls we flew with

 The room we stayed in the first night in Quito (pictures of my living area now are soon to come!)

Some delicious fruit that i do not know the name of

Cuenca

                                               First tour out to town and a stop for ice cream!

                                   Nicole and I at a flower market! They have so many beautiful flowers there if only we had a reason to buy them!

 This room would be called the "hidden door" the vendors on the street let us come up into this room where they have all their inventory. They also give us a discount because they like OSSO

 First dinner out! it is a typical Ecuadorian dinner. rice, chicken, salad and french fries....?

Candice, Nicole and I on our day off

 Some of the girls in my room! left to right: Nicole (roomie), Larissa, Jenni (roomie) Jaydynn and I

                                  This is what we do during our lunch break... nap on my bed!

                      Jaydynn modeling some XL underwear found under one of the girls beds

                                                             The view from the Balcony

 All of the girls that came in may! I have been made communications director and am In charge of framing this picture in the house.

                                                        Jenni and I! LOVE this girl!

                                     Jaydynn braiding my hair after the water decided to stop working in my shower....                         the water here is no bueno!

                                                                    Jaydynn and I

Blessed

I have only been here 4 days and worked in the orpahanges twice but the biggest lesson that I have learned so far is how blessed I am. I take for granted every single day my parents, family and house. Walking into these orphanages and seeing the babies in the cribs not being held by someone who loves them breaks my heart. I have come to learn how important and how much family affects my life and who I am. Work at the orphanages is not easy. It is hard work. I am basically their mother, getting them dressed and fed and playing with them. The orphanage that is run by catholic nuns is very cold, there is not heating and it does not feel like a home. The hardest thing honestly is not being able to understand the children or them to understand me, should have studied more! The way nuns do things so differently from the way I was raised. They are a lot rougher, they feed them sooo much! Probably as much as I eat and they are babies! They are very strict on them finishing their food, if they dont they have to stand on a chair. Its hard seeing that, and seeing the ways they punish them. The other orphanage is run by OSSO and it has a much better spirit there. I have been able to work with the special needs kids and their sweet spirits! Many of the children in the orphanages cant be adopted because their parents wont let them. So they dont want them but they dont want anyone else to have them either. Its messed up and hard to see how selfish people can be. Even though its hard work, I love it! Every child deserves to be loved and held and that is what we are here to do! I just wish I could take them all back to the states with me where we are all so blessed to have all that we do!
Beinosnoches! (SP?) haha im trying to say goodnight! My spanish is no bueno! well love and miss you all! If you would like to get ahold of me email me at kyleeogden@hotmail.com

Arrival in Cuenca Ecuador!

Hola! I am glad to say we have arrived safely in Cuenca! It took us 2 days to get here. We flew into Quito which is the capital of Ecuador and there we stayed the night at the OSSO house there. There are 2 orphanages here in Ecuador one is Cuenca and one in Quito. Quito was a big city, there was graffiti everywhere and run down buildings. The people drive so crazy here we saw a flame thrower in the middle of the street! The next morning we flew to Cuenca at like 7. It was only a 45 min flight and the air port was soo small! When we arrived we were greeted my the Rosarros, the people that live in the house and run OSSO. The house is actually pretty nice. A lot nicer then I was expecting. There are 5 floors. We only use 3 of them. the other 2 are for visitors and project directors. Next door is the other house where the Rosarros live upstairs. on the main floor there is a kitchen where Catalina (the cook) cooks and a computer room and a "family" type room where we have a t.v. So as for today we went and visited 2 of the orphanages, the first one is called "torres" and it is run by catholic nuns. There are babies, toddlers and young children there. They are soo cute! You can definately tell they are in need of us there because a lot of the children went unatteded because of shortage of staff. They were a lot nicer then I expected. The other orpahanage is OSSO's orphanage. There are a lot of special ed kids there, many with cereberal palsy (SP?) and other young kids, probably no more then 2 or 3 years old. I will start my first shift in the orphanages tomorrow at 7. We work until 12 when we go home for lunch until 2. Everyone shuts down and goes home for lunch, it is the biggest meal here unlike dinner in the states. The next shift goes from 2 to 6. We will have a shift off every once in a while when we can go out and do whatever we want. We saw a short part of the city, where we had ice cream!
Some of the things that are definately different from the states....
- You can not flush the toilet paper, so it all goes into a waste basket.. gross I know
- There are fireworks that go off randomly, at first we thought it was gun shots! not quite sure what the reason for the fireworks are yet
-no one stops at stop signs or wears seat belts
- Hollister, AE and Aero are very popular brands here, they are either fake or brought from the states.

Love you all! Here is a short bit of my adventure so far. These kids definately need loving people just to give them hugs. I am so blessed to be born into a family with loving parents.

Audios!!

I leave for Ecuador tomorrow! I have been waiting for this day for a long time it seems so unreal that its actually here. I will be flying out of SLC at 7:00, I have one layover in Houston then to Quito Ecuador where I will be staying the night in one of the OSSO houses there then fly to Cuenca the next day which I am guessing is going to be a very small plane. For the bad news.....I went to  the doctor today to be informed that I have STREP! So I will be traveling across the world sick... just great right? Other then being sick I am looking forward to this experience and cant wait to see what Ecuador brings!

5/12/93

I just celebrated my 19th birthday on Saturday! It was a pretty good birthday. Some of my friends slept over and spent the morning with me then the family went down to City Creek to go to the Cheesecake factory for lunch. Their orange chicken is my favorite there! After we shopped, got some new clothes and a new watch and then headed home where some of my friends took me to Chilis for dinner. Afterwards we went back to my house for redvelvet cake and cookie dough ice cream! My favorite! I can definately say I sure ate good on my birthday! I cant believe i have one more year until I am 20.... holy cow! Here are a few pics of my day :)

Ever since the 7th grade it has been a tradition to go to dinner with these girls for our birthdays!

My mother made me this cake....(yes she does work at a bakery, can you tell? ;))