My New Take on Fun

Just so you all know, I have been here seven weeks and it has been a long time since I blogged, so I figured its time. (What a random sentance). So every six weeks the groups rotate here, so last week we got a new group of girls and they have really livened things up around here. One girl in particular, named Stephanie, is probably the funniest girl I have ever met. For example, last night she decided that we were going to play card games. That sounded pretty good to all of us so we all readied ourselves in a circle for some intense playing. Aaaaaannnnd....she busted out ¨Go Fish¨ and ¨Old Maid¨. For serious, we spent hours playing these games that I have not played since I was a youngster. Great games, really. If you are bored, I recommend it.

Tonight´s game of choice was jumprope. Right in the middle of our bedroom floor (they don´t believe in carpet here) we had a jump-a-thon. Double Dutch, remember that? Super fun.

The best of all though, is that Ecuador has a sweet tradition that is called ¨Carnival¨ that lasts the entire month of February. What happens is random strangers dump water on other random strangers in the street and call it good. So we have seen a little of this action going on, but we have never as yet participated. So tonight my friend Danika had a brilliant idea that we should get the girls that we live with as they came home from a later shift. We live in the perfect house to do this, so we gathered water balloons, buckets, and such to chuck on them as they arrived home. Let me just describe this to you...we live in a hotel that is like multi leveled...well anyway, there is a roof that overlooks the road. In order to get into the house, we have to buzz and someone has to let us in. So as the girls buzzed, no one let them in, and we threw the bucket of water on them and then continued with water balloons. Soon it turned into a full on water fight with the entire Chicaiza family involved (the family we live with), our driver, some random passerbys...ect. I´m just not so sure the owner of the hotel or the people in there really appreciated us running across the roof a million times and using their hose that was up there to drench whoever was in sight. It was ridiculously fun though, and thats what counts, right?

It´s Official

I went to a real live tea party today!

We had plans to go to a soccer game tonight and everyone was super excited because, as you all know, soccer is huge in South America. In my preparation for the soccer night, I looked like a slob. I put on my Braves t-shirt that Ronnie so kindly gave me for Christmas and threw my hair up (oh wait, I do that every day...) before heading off to my afternoon shift. I had the hospital this afternoon with my baby and it ends one hour after everything else, so we were planning on having the van pick me up on the way to the game. I was prepared.

As I jumped into the van and greeted everyone, I was shocked to see that everyone had put makeup on and were wearing their nicest jeans. They all looked around nervously for who was going to break the news to me. Finally someone piped up that they Angel had ¨forgotten¨ to tell us that we were invited to tea tonight with some super rich ladies who are benefactors of one of our orphanages, so we were going there instead of to the game. Okay, fair enough.

Turns out that we did indeed have tea with the richest 5 ladies in Ecuador with a super nice mansion. I felt so out of place and extremely awkward because of my get-up. And who knew that when they said we were going to tea, they meant that we were really going to tea? I mean, who does that? This tea party was complete with a china set, crumpets, little sandwiches, and some really nasty tea that one of the ladies had kindly made from a tree in her kitchen. When the lady walked by with the teapot after our first round and asked who wanted more, we all sat there in awkward silence, so I took one for the team and volunteered to have a second cup. The entire thing was hysterical for all of us because we didn´t stop fighting over who had to drink whose tea and who had to finish off the sandwiches (the winner ate seven) and who had the most sugar in their tea (pretty sure I won that one).

Gonna cross that one off my to-do list. yay.

oh...ps...yes thats a sunburn.

My love has deepened...

....for Coke.
Since everyone seems to be bringing up food randomly, I thought I would mention to you all that I have an absolute sickening addiction to the coke that is found here in Ecuador. I´m pretty sure that we did not try this kind while we were at the coke factory. It kind of tastes like Tab, but I am not going to lie to you, I think it might be better than the coke in the US (Ok Ok, it IS better than the coke in the United States...) The greatest thing about it is that it comes in 3 liter bottles that we buy at the corner store for $1. My friend Eric is just as addicted as me, so we buy these bottles every few days and go through them like water. The first time I realized that I had had a liter and a half in one night, I was kind of frightened, but now I have come to terms with it. The funny thing is, we are started to convert people who claim they are ¨pepsi fans¨. The last time we went to the store, two people were like , ¨oh and uh...could you pick me up a 3 liter as well?¨
Coke is a universal way to unite people. That´s all there is to it.