Where to begin...

Sorry it´s been so long since I´ve updated the blog. Last weekend I stayed in Yunguilla. We went to Calacli on Saturday night for the coronation of the city´s "queen", which was basically a big party in the sporting complex that involved lots of music and dancing and went until 3am (we got there at 8pm). We didn´t get home until 4am, and lots of people had brought their young kids with them. Guess there isn´t the same concept of hiring a babysitter here if you want to go out!

 Diogenes, Angelita and Klever (their son who comes to eat at the house, but lives/works at the gate of the community as a guard) 

 A cake from the bakery I worked at last Friday

 Another shot of the community, this time from the school (instead of from the community finca, which is off in the distance)

 Yesterday at the environmental education presentation (unfortunately my camera´s battery died after the opening remarks)

 Cheese that I helped make! A woman and her children make cheese 3 times a week using milk from various community members and the products are sold in the community store.

This week I was able to start working with Yunguilla´s environmental education program. We organized a presentation in which the kids put on a play about the community´s history and environmental problems--I got to play the role of the American neighbor who wanted to illegally buy orchids and exotic animals, haha.

Last Friday, I also got to go into San Antonio and Quito with a couple from the community to work at the bakeries they make cakes for, so that was fun! We also went to the supermarket at the end of the day so I could buy turkey, which I miss dearly (Mom, if you´re wondering what I want to eat the first night I´m home, turkey and stuffing is the answer!). Unfortunately the turkey deli meat I ended up buying was quite flavorless, and I´m not even sure it was turkey because it was labeled "jamon de pavo", or "ham of turkey". The guy at the counter couldn´t really tell me whether it came from a bird or a pig, haha.

We didn´t really celebrate my birthday, but this weekend I´m going to Papallacta, a town with hot springs heated by a nearby volcano, so I´m looking forward to that adventure as an opportunity to celebrate. I´ve been having stomach problems this past week, so hopefully this might help me feel better (although Papallacta is probably going to be colder than Yunguilla because it´s at 3,300m). I´m currently in Quito, where´s it 11 degrees C, or 50 something F. I left Yunguilla at 5:30am this morning--the stars were still out (gorgeous!) and I got to watch the sun rise as I approached Quito by bus. When I got off one of the buses this morning, I had a great view of the snow covered volcano (which I believe is Cotopaxi) in the distance, however unfortunately pulling out my camera on the bus/in the middle of the street wasn´t looking like the best thing to do at the time.
I´ll be spending the night in Papallacta tonight at a hostel, then going back to Yunguilla tomorrow afternoon via a shopping mall in Quito where I hope to see Harry Potter. Fingers crossed that they don´t dub it in Spanish--I want to hear the British accents!

I could go on and on--every day here is an adventure. Almost all of my habits have been reversed: I´ve become accustomed to riding in the back of trucks and on the back of Galindo´s motorbike, which I obviously don´t do in the United States. I also wake up at 6:30am and am normally asleep by 10pm. I shower about every 3 days because there´s only running water in the morning, and this past week, the water heater thing has been broken, so it´s been an ice cold shower--ahhh! The family I´m staying with (Diogenes and Angelita) are super nice, and Diogenes told me last night that I was welcome to stay with them for the last 4 weeks I´m here if the coordinator lets me (normally they move volunteers to a new house every 4 weeks). He also might think I´m a bit crazy because last week I swear I heard rats running around in the ceiling above my room, but when he went up with a ladder to check, he didn´t find anything, but oh well! I plan to travel the next couple of weekends, so I´m looking forward to those adventures as well.

Hope everyone is doing well! A special belated birthday to my Mom :) I was able to send her an e-mail on Tuesday, but just barely--the community was without electricity from about 11am on Tuesday to 10:30am on Wednesday! As I said, it´s always an adventure! xoxo