A Smorgasbord

Merry almost Christmas! Here is a quick, random, stream of consciousness catch up of the last couple weeks (conversations with me may look similar...)

The first 2 pictures are from the Olimpiadas a couple weeks ago at Nuevo Mundo. Our scholarship students who we tutor in history are pic #2 (1,2,3 everyone say ¨I love trench warfare¨). Each of their classes came up with a dance and a cheer and the rest of us just got to watch and eat carnival food and play volleyball. It was a blast to hang out with those guys all day and all the money raised went to the Fundacion school where I work. That same Saturday we walked to the church for a bingo...and there was no power. So we had the bingo in our yard. It was a blast and felt really nice to be able to give a little something back to the church and the community. Here is a picture of all 200 people in our yard (can you find Brendan?) and one of Jon, Christina, Tierney and I with Yasu and Jose.

Last weekend we went to Bea´s (the daughter of our neighbor Francisca´s) baptism. They took me out to dinner with the family afterwards; we very rarely go out to eat so it was a treat to get a big plate of chicken and patacones out. Sunday I went into Guayaquil with Celso, Tasha, and Cynthia, who works with us at Mundo. We explored the Malecon (boardwalk) del Solado, rented a row boat and got some great seafood. I am determined to try everything here despite the tiny problem that I do not actually like seafood. The ceviches are delicious- a soup with lots of lime, onion, tomato and shrimp, though you can orer it with any kind of seafood (I tried it with conch). I am having ¨caldo de pata¨ for lunch Monday- foot stew, essentially- so openmindedness about food is a must.

My routine lately has been tutoring (aka hanging out and eating good food) in the mornings and teaching at Mundo or going to Semillas in the afternoons. I am on break from my adult classes at John Drury so have enjoyed having the mornings to ¨vagar¨ and hang out with people in the neighborhood.

We had a Christmas party a couple weeks back for our guards and their families. Each house was responsible for some kind of entertainment and, as singing and dancing are not our thing, Arbolito acted out the most popular (and over played) Chritsmas carol, Mi Burrito Sabanero, which sounds like the song that plays on the ride ¨It´s a Small World After All.¨ Brendan and Kipp, the musically talented, took care of the intrumentals while I dressed up as the donkey and carried Christina, pregnant Mary, around while Tierney fed me carrots. That night was the first night of rain so we took the dance party outside (all the Ecuadorians already think we are insane).

Our next Christmas performance (because the first was so good) is on Christmas Eve. I am a shepard and I think the people in charge think we could take our roles a little more seriously; we have nightly practice. I have 2 lines, though I do not think I have mastered them to anyone´s standards. For Christmas day we will visit with the patients of Damien House and then go to Sister Annie´s for dinner. We have a week off after Christmas so are putting together a trip to Vilcabamba (we put Banos on hold, too much volcanic activity) to do some hiking and explore the National Park.

Here is all of us at the baptism. That´s all on this end. I hope you all have a wonderful break and Merry Christmas!