Goodbyes

I cant believe how fast this whole experience has gone. I feel like I was just meeting these sweet kids and girls I serve with and now its time to go home. It was hard saying bye to all the kids, but it was even harder when they knew that you were leaving and wont ever see you again. I was at Casa's one day and putting cute little Carlitos to bed. Carlitos had only been there 3 days prior to this. I hugged him and told him in my broken spanish that I had to go home to the States. He started crying so hard and woulndt let go of me. This was so sad! I cant imagine how hard it is for these kids to lose volunteers, goodbye has a whole different meaning to them because they had to say goodbye to their parents. Im sure he has a fear of being alone and thats what makes it that much harder to leave.
          My last time at Remar I was playing with a girl named Jiovana she is about 9 years old. She was getting my all ready and doing my hair and pretending to put make up on me. They love to do this. She was plucking my eyebrows with her fingers and putting the eyebrow hair on her thumb then she would touch it to my thumb. Not having a clue what she was saying she said some little chant and blew on it. When she let go if it was on my thumb she would be sad but if it was on hers she got all excited as if the wish would come true. She would say things to me and I would just answer "Si" because thats pretty much all I could say. I always got frustrated with the language barrier. Later we went inside to look at some new bunk beds that OSSO had made for them. I was with another volunteer and Jiovana said "is that where you are going to be sleeping?" Linnea answered no those are for you. We have to go back to our home in the states. Jiovana got this sad look on her face and turns to me and says "you promised". Right then it all clicked what she had been wishing for. She wished that I would be her mom. Me not knowing any spanish or what she was really doing answered "Si".. she hugged me and cried. Talk about heart breaking right!?  I have never felt so horrible in my life. All these poor children want are families and someone to love and take care of them. I wish I could give them all the life that I have been given.
           It was almost easier for me to say goodbye to the babies then the older kids that understand you wont be coming back. It is comforting knowing that OSSO will always be there. That there will always be volunteers coming in and loving these kids. We are not just leaving them with nothing.
           Coming into this I had no idea that I would make as good of friends as I have with the girls that I served with. I learned so much and had so much fun with these girls. It was soo hard leaving them. Some of my good friends still had another month there. I am so greatful for this experience and the people I met and the kids that touched my heart. I deffinately have a different outlook on life and what really matters in life.

Pics of the last days of Cuenca

Linnea and I in our matching Ecuador soccer jerseys

                              Last time eating Chatos! (Chocolate covered fruit shiskabobs)

                              One day we decided a few of us were going to have a sleepover in our room. So we pushed our beds together and put a blanket from the top bunk. OSSO has a ton of house rules so were breaking about 5 here. We snuck popcorn up to our room and watched a movie. We fit five of us on two twin sized beds. I did wake up in the middle of the night to Nicole using my shoulder as a pillow. although we didnt get much sleep it was still a ton of fun!

                          Linnea and I with our bowl of fruit and ice cream! Yum!

 Here are some pics of the casa! Starting with my room and roomate Nicole.

    The vanity area where all of us girls got ready. Luckily there was two of these.

                                Distribution! this is where past volunteers leave stuff they dont take home with them and there are also lots of stuff for activities with the kids up here.

                                                       The view from the balcony

                There were 5 floors in the house. This is a view from the top looking down.

                                                                      The kitchen!

                                                        Family room/ interenet room

              Enjoying a banana spilt on the last time out to town before we caught our flight to Quito.

                                                          Our house from outside

                        Linnea and I met this dude in the airport waiting to check into our flight to Quito. He is Ecuadors only gold medalist. They have two and he won both of them in speed walking!

Waterfall field trip & temple trip

Once a month we are able to go on a field trip. The one for this month was the Giron waterfalls! It was about a 2 hour bus ride. When we got to the part of the road that turned into dirt they let us ride on top of the bus! It was super cool and the views were gorgeous! Pictures cant even discribe how pretty this was. Just hills and hills covered in green and little farms. The hike took us about and hour and a half until we got to the waterfalls. The altitude is so much higher then what we are used to back here in Utah so it was kinda hard to breathe but we all made it and had a ton of fun!

I also had to opportunity to be able to go to the Guayakil temple. It was about a 3 hour car ride. We had to drive through the mountains and the view was unbelievable! We could look down into the valley and see clouds like you would in an airplane! Amazing! again pictures dont even do it justice. Felt like we were on top of the world. Once we made it to the temple it was extremely humid! We did baptisms and it was cool because it was in spanish. It was neat to be able to go there and it felt like a little bit of home.

 After we went to an Iguana park. It was just this random park covered in iguanas! I was not brave enough to touch one but some of the girls did.

"When in Ecuador!"

There are many things that one can do in Ecuador that probably wouldnt happen back home! We use this expression a lot around here. So "when in Ecuador"......

Fruit Shishkabobs! They have these stands around town and it is fruit covered in your choice of chocolate and brownies! They are sooo delicious!









For Ninos day there was a parade with performances in the street. I had an off and was out in town and there were all these people crowded around taking pictures. They looked famous so we joined in taking pictures with them! They may possibly be famous.... were still not sure!

There are flower markets full of beautiful flowers! Nicole and I decided to buy us a dozen roses for $6! "When in Ecuador" right!?

 Nicole and I with our roses in our room!

Under the Cathedral there are Catacombs in the basement! It was kinda creepy, we were the only ones down there and it was just a huge hall. I was surprised that the tombs were not very old. They are past priests and some were just from last year.

The statue at the end of the hall.... creepy?

Beautiful stain glass window in the cathederal!

A couple of us went on a city tour of Cuenca! We rode on the top of a double decker bus! It was really fun and cool to see all the buildings and things we havent been to!

                                               The third largest cathedral in South America

                                                The river that flows all through Cuenca

View of all of Cuenca

The bus took us up to Turi, which is a farming community that looks down over Cuenca. It was beautiful up there!

Up on the mountain in Turi is this place where women would tie their hair as a sacrifice. It was really disgusting. There was lots of hair on there along with animal bones and such. We decided to join the tradition and tied our hair along with the others. "When in Ecuador!"

There has been a holiday all week called Corpus Crispy (sp?) anyways it is the celebration of christ and his body or something like that. They had the streets aligned with tables and tables of baked goods! I was seriously mesmorized by it all, it looked so good! So we got a few things to try out and I have to admit... It was not very good. Sure looked delicious but I would take my Sugar Daisy over this any day! It was still fun to walk the streets and experience the culture.

                                                                 Out for Ice cream!

                               Only in Ecuador would you see flag throwing street performers

                                           Jenni, Jaydynn and I at dinner for Annas birthday!

              For Corpus Christy they build these towers that they light on fire along with fireworks. They were really cool but unfortunately we were not able to see them on fire because of curfew....

                                                                Fireworks! Wooo!

The coolest thing ever! The streets were just full of people and groups crowded around street performers and music. There was also fireworks and people lighting of lanterns! It was like a movie moment. The people there look at us like we are some celebrities because they love Americans down here. There were about 12 of us walking the streets and people kept on wanting pictures with us. It was so much fun dancing in the streets with fireworks and lanterns lighting the sky. Now Ecuadorians sure know how to party!

                     Jenni and I lighting off our lantern in the street along with hundreds of others!

As we were trying to find a taxi to take us home we ran into this cute little gelato shop! It was the best thing I have ever had! and even better it was only a dollar!