So not much has happened since I last wrote, since that was only two days ago but I still have some things to tell you that I have not mentioned yet, that need to be written. I will put up more pics too. So there are so many cool things about Ecuador and then there are some things that could be...altered...a bit. So here we go.
 |
| This is a view of Ecuador from the top of the Basilica |
- I eat RICE EVERY DAY. After this trip, I dont know that I will ever be able to eat it again, unless it is with Beef Tips or Swiss Steak, and that is it.
- DVD's are $1.50. Best day of my life when I found this out, ok maybe not the best, but it was pretty close.
- They have Pan (Bread) stores on every corner and you can get fresh bread whenever you want! They also sell cokes and other stuff there too, but they are called pan stores.
- Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way here. Run like Forrest Gump when you are crossing the street.
- The Ice Cream here ROCKS. Enough said.
- You cant flush toilet paper down the toilet here, you have to put it in the trash, after its been used...SICK. Apparently their plumbing cant handle it.
- Dont drink the water unless you wanna catch a parasite like my friend Katie who has one and she has named him Henry.
- Coke doesnt taste the same, but people drink it like its their last day alive.
- The driving/traffic/drivers here are insane! They cut people off all the time, they honk, and I dont think they believe in blind spots. It is actually quite scary.
- The American places to eat here are the following: Pizza Hut, Domino's, Papa Johns, Sbarro, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. Random right? Definitely. If only Chick Fil A would go international...
- Taxi drivers love to rip Americans aka Gringas off.
- The mountains are A-mazing.
- Dont smile at the men, they get the wrong idea...
- Walmarts dont exist here. Instead they have the Supermaxi and the Megamaxi. Basically a regular walmart and then a superwalmart.
- At parties youre supposed to go around to every person and personally tell them that you have arrived and usually you exchange a cheek to cheek embrace. Personally, I would just rather announce myself right when I walk in the door, takes much less time and effort and reduces the amount of germs passed around...Also at parties, there is no sitting around when the music is going, YOU HAVE TO BE DANCING. No questions asked.
- When you are stopped at a red light, there is usually someone trying to sell something to every car. Anything from gum to toilet paper. Also at red lights there is sometimes entertainment at the front of the line usually a man juggling sticks that are on fire and they are way good. I havent seen one dropped yet. Oh but after they finish their show, they do want money...
- The people here dress like its 40 degrees when really its like 70 or 75...
- They use dollar coins, and 50 cent coins like no other, they would rather have those than paper. Oh and alot of places dont take twenty dollar bills, they only like small change, so you better have those on hand or you're out of luck, they only problem with this is that the ATM's give us twenties...brilliant right?
- IF there are American food products in the store, they are WAY expensive. For example, a jar of JIF peanut butter is around six or seven dollars...not cool. A six pack of twix minis? 7 bucks! Really? However, a bottle of water? 25 cents. Now thats what Im talking about.
- Bargaining is EVERYTHING.
Well that is all I have gathered at this point in time about the culture here. Its way different than the US but its pretty cool. The kids are doing great. Two of the girls that I have become pretty close with are leaving this week and thats pretty sad because they are awesome.
So there are some other sites that we go to each week but they are only a once or twice a week, as opposed to LAS that we go to everyday. We have special kids boys and special kids girls. At the two different sites there are four kids. Four boys and four girls. They all have a handicap of some sort but they are the sweetest. The boys are: Enrique, he cant talk very well but is so sweet and he eats extremely fast. Pablo, doesnt talk very well, he just likes to laugh and he loves picking up things. Carlos can talk he just doesnt like too and he likes to flick people, its not hard or anything, its just a bad habit he picked up and he flicks everyone, even strangers. Edison is the last one and he is the most normal one, he can speak well and everything, he just had a bad childhood so he isnt completely normal but he is awesome.
The girls are: Mariella, who is blind and cant walk and is also mentally handicapped. She is so sweet though. Maria just has a mental handicap, we arent exactly sure what, but she loves to talk and eat and be a girl. She LOVES men too, everytime she sees a man, she yells, HOLA! COMO TE LLAMAS? (Hey, what is your name?!) She likes to play damsel in distress too. Tereisa is mostly deaf so she uses sign language alot but can fend for herself pretty well. Jessica is the last one and she is only eleven, and we dont know exaclty what happened to her either, although we do know that she was born normal but her parents abused her so much when she was a child that she is just permanently damaged. She used to not be able to walk but we have got her walking and she doesnt talk really, she just looks around, she is the cutest thing though. All of them make me smile.
I am talking about this one because I was just assigned to be their site leaders as soon as the site leader now leaves which is soon, so Im just going through training right now, but that means I will be with them every week, and help them and do activities with them so I am excited for that!
Unfortunately, I dont have any pics of the girls yet but Im working on it! Well this is all I have time to write right now but there will be more pictures to come and more interesting facts and field trips that I cannot wait to write about! Love you!
