The first week.

Before I came my friend Hillary that was here last year told me "You are gonna cry harder and pray more than you ever have in your life" 

I didn't believe her. How can going and working in an orphanage be so hard? I was so excited for my adventure. I thought getting out of Provo for a little was gonna be so nice. I was gonna come play with cute babies and life would be grand. 

"I never said it was going to be easy, I only said it was going to be worth it" 

I think thats the best way to describe it. 

Holy cow this is hard work! 

Its not easy waking up at 6 am every morning, or changing nasty poopy diapers with your hand, or handling 9 screaming two year olds at once, or keeping 8 newborns happy, or having a child cough and sneeze nasty soupa in your face, or dealing with 8 six month olds with pink eye and trying to avoid getting it yourself, or not understanding anything anyone says to you, or getting used to Ecuadorian food, or being in a different country for the first time, or missing your friends and family. 

But when you walk in that orphanage in the morning and you go wake up the kids and they all greet you with the biggest smiles saying "hola mama" it makes it all worth it.

A couple of us volunteers were sitting in a room the other night talking. We were sharing experiences about why we wanted to come and what we've gained so far.

We then started talking about how hard this does get but how much we love these kids. It's often easy to forget when we are there that we aren't just at a daycare. We are these kids mother figures. They don't have anyone else. That is what makes this all worth it. Knowing that these kids have no one else but me to change their poopy diapers, wipe their snotty nose, and give them love. 

I am learning and growing more as a person each day. 

I will forever be grateful for my experience here. 

I can do hard things!! 

Free Friday

Every Friday we have the day off. Usually its a day to travel around Ecuador and just relax. It was much needed after this stressful first week. 

We decided we didn't want to do anything to extreme because we wanted to just hang out and rest. 

We went to the Artesian which is a market. 

It felt very Amazing Race like. haha. I got a couple cute things.

It was just a ton of little shops that basically all had the same thing. We had to bargain to try and find the best prices. Because we are white they always say a higher price because they think we have tons of money.  

My friend Karissa finally got here last night! I'm so excited to have her here. We bought these cute pants at the Artesian. 

(Please excuse the way we look. We aren't trying to impress anyone here in Ecuador.) 

I sure do love living here and seeing their culture. So different but so similar. 

Feliz Navidad!

When I was preparing to come here I knew I wanted to be here for Christmas. I wanted to have a different experience. I wanted to be able to forget myself and serve others. But when I would tell people I was coming here for Christmas many thought I was crazy. Why in the world would I choose not to spend Christmas with my family opening lots of presents and enjoying yearly traditions?! Well with Christmas almost all said and done, I would never change my decision for the world. I have had one of the best Christmases ever. One that I will never forget. 

It all started on Christmas Eve. They gave us all the morning shift off. We decided we were gonna do a secret santa gift exchange between the 6 of us volunteers, Bryn and Sean, and the Chicaiza family. (they are our other set of "bosses". They are an Ecuadorian LDS couple that live with us with their 3 kids; Grace, Jared, and Maibe) So we went shopping in the morning for a gift for the name we drew. The store we went to was called SuperMaxi. Its pretty much just like Target. We got home had lunch then went to afternoon shift. After shift we had a potluck dinner. We all made a dish that our own family makes for Christmas. It was fun to eat all the different food and hear all different types of traditions. 

After dinner we made a Yule Log. I don't know where this originated from but we thought it would be fun. We all wrote down wishes on a piece of paper and then we burned the log in the fireplace. 

While the fire was burning we sat around and read Christmas stories. The stories Christmas Orange and I Will Keep You Warm definitely touched our hearts since they are about orphans. I would encourage you to read them. 

After our Yule Log burned we wrapped presents to bring the kids at SVP in the morning. We were so excited to bring them to the kids. I think I know how it feels to be Santa Clause now! We then went to midnight mass at a local Catholic church. Don't know where this idea came from either but it was great fun. If only I knew what they were saying the whole time. 

We had a beautiful foggy Christmas Eve night. 

Christmas morning was an early one. We had to make it to morning shift by 7. We got up at 6 and had a delicious breakfast of breakfast casserole and monkey bread. 

Bryn made these cute stockings for everyone. They were full of candy and treats then we wrote something nice about each person on a piece of paper and put it in their stocking. 

We got to the orphanage and we so excited to wake up the kids. They didn't exactly know what was going on but it was still fun. I spent my morning in Sala Dos wiping lots of runny noses, breaking up fights, changing poopy diapers, and entertaining children. Great fun. Then we gave all the kids presents. They mostly just loved the wrapping paper and bows. They gave us the afternoon off so we said Feliz Navidad for probably the 10000 time and were on our way. We came back to the house and had lunch and gave out our secret santa gifts. It was so nice. Even though we only spent $5 on gifts it was so meaningful. We all got one gift and it was great. Thats all we needed. Before we gave our gift we said something nice about the person. I sure do love the people here! 

The other volunteers and I. Niaby, me, Susan, Brooke, Annie, and Elizabeth. 

We then gathered up a ton of stuff that people have donated and went to pass it out to a poor community. This was the highlight of my Christmas. 

This is just a small glimpse of what their surroundings looked like. 

All the kids got into a line to get some presents that we brought. 

Very quickly it turned into mad chaos. 

Here are some people enjoying their new things after it was all done. 

We handed out toys, clothes, books, toothbrushes, and soap. It was amazing to see how humble and grateful these people were. Every single one said gracious and made sure that everyone was getting something. I was amazed to see how excited they were about the bars of soap. It was like a bar of gold to them. When we left the other volunteers and I were just in awe. We could not believe what kind of poverty these people were in and how we just take the littlest of things for granted, like a bar of soap. It definitely opened my eyes and made me grateful for what I have. That is all I wanted for Christmas this year and I am so glad that I got it. Yes I missed my family and opening presents and all that jazz but this, giving serving and forgetting yourself, is what Christmas is to me. 

My first shift

To give you all a little background.. We work at an orphanage called SVP. Its a catholic Orphanage run by Nun’s. And man, They are saints!! 

In the orphanage there are 3 “salas” or rooms. Sala Uno.. Which is kids ages newborns to about 6 months. Sala dos..Which is kids ages six months to about a year. And then Sala Tres.. Which is about a year to two years. When there are more volunteers we go to different orphanage sites too but since we are low on numbers right now we give all our time to SVP. 

There are morning and afternoon shifts. Each 4 hours long. One volunteer in sala uno and dos and then two volunteers in sala tres per shift. And right now there are only 5 of us volunteers so we are definitely kept busy. 

There are about 8 kids in sala uno, 8 kids in sala dos, and about 11 in sala tres. So yes, that is one volunteer with 8 newborns. One volunteer with 8 one year olds. And two volunteers with 11 screaming, fighting, not yet walking two year olds. This aint easy work.  

So my first shift yesterday was in Sala Tres. We get there at about 2 o clock and we go in and get them from their naps. We then take a child, put their shoes and socks, set them in the playroom and then repeat until each child is complete. Then it’s play/therapy time. Since they are in an orphanage they are pretty behind. Like I said earlier, some of these 2 year olds don’t even know how to walk or crawl yet. So we do different physical therapies with them to try and help them catch up. 

Since its Christmas time the orphanage community has been throwing fiestas. Basically its like a huge chaotic birthday party. There are jump houses, cotton candy, soda, treats, clowns.. you name it. It was interesting though because all the adults were dressed up like it was Halloween. They were princesses, mickey mouse, and other extravagant costumes. It was awesome. So me and the other volunteer were told to take 6 of the Tres kids to this fiesta across the street. Two of the kids could walk and then the rest couldn’t. So we were each holding two kids while trying to hold the hand and contain the walking child. Its chaos! Definitely a sight to see. So we get there and all these adults come up to us wanting to hold and take the children. The kids are so loved. Then it started raining so we had to gather all of the 6 children who were scattered among the park and bring them back to the orphanage. We get back to the orphanage play with them a little more and then its soupa time. This is their dinner. We have to take each child and pin them down in our laps and then spoon force feed them this huge bowl of soup. Its nasty. But its how they do things here. After each child is fed we play some more. Then we brush each childs teeth, change their clothes into pajamas lay them in their cribs with a bottle and we are finally finished for the night. Whew!!! 

Mind you, I’m in Ecuador, they don’t speak english here. All while doing this I have no idea what people are trying tell me to do or no way to communicate. The children don’t even know english. I by natural habit start talking to everyone in english and then it takes me a second to realize that they know no english! I wish I could explain better how weird this is. Learning Spanish is definitely on my list of things to do asap.

By the end of the night I was completely exhausted. But so happy. I already love these children and people so much. 

Funny story: So last night we decided to watch a Christmas movie. So we put on the Grinch in the living room and me and 4 other girls watched it. Well we were so exhausted about halfway through we all fell asleep. Sean, our boss, is a major jokester. He love playing pranks and scaring us. Well last night while we were all asleep on the couches Sean decided to get a package of fireworks and light them right in front of our faces on the living room floor. I don’t think I have ever been so scared in my life. We all let out a pretty big scream and Sean had a very good laugh. After my heart stopped pounding and I came to my senses I thought it was pretty funny myself. Thats just the kind of fun we have here. When in America would you ever let off fireworks in your living room? Only in Ecuador. 

I made it!

I survived my first day!!! 

Its so unreal. After all this time of waiting I cant believe im finally here! It is wonderful! I dont think ive stopped smiling since I walked off the plane. 

I started off my journey at 4am saturday morning. Or should I say 10pm friday night. I don’t think I slept a minute that night. Its was like sleeping the night before Christmas x10. Flew from Salt Lake to Houston. 5 hour layover in Houston. Then flew from Houston to Quito. I arrived in Quito at 10:40 pm. A very uneventful 14 hour travel day. 

I did want to go up to every single person on the plane though and ask what they were doing flying to Quito. Cause what average American just flies to Ecuador? I wanted to know all there stories. Especially the cute family with 5 kids under the age of 11. Unfortunately, I never got brave enough to ask.

So when I walked off the plane I was a little nervous. Here I am, all by myself, this 19 year old blonde american who has never left the United States before, in Quito Ecuador and I don’t know a lick of Spanish. It was scary. The airport was so good though and had everything pretty clear of where I needed to go. I got my bags and I was off. 

I was told that the project directors of OSSO (Bryn and Sean, they are a cute LDS American couple that lives in the house with us. They are pretty much our bosses) were gonna be there to pick me up so I just needed to look for them. Well my plane got in a little early so they weren’t there right away. I wasn’t too worried cause I knew they would be there so I just stepped back and watched everything going on around me. I have got to say this was pretty awesome. I have been in a lot of airports before but I have never seen people so excited to see their friends and family come off the plane. There were huge groups of people with flowers, and balloons, and treat baskets everywhere. They were so excited to be together. 

And then there were begging women with children. They had baskets full of candy and gum and then a very sickly looking child strapped to their back. They came up and literally shook a box of tic tacs in my face, said something in spanish and kept pointing to the kids. And they would not leave me alone! I kept shaking my head and saying no but that did not stop them. Then there was about 12 year old girls doing the same thing. And then even younger kids just asking for money. I wish I would have recorded it or taken a picture. It was nothing like I have ever experienced or seen before. No I did not give them money but my heart does go out to them, especially the poor kids. 

Sean showed up and we left for the house. I got in at about 11 pm so everyone was already asleep. I said a quick hello to my new roommates and hopped into bed. 

The next morning I didnt have a shift so I decided to go to church with a couple people. If you thought regular church was boring, try not understanding a word anyone says. ha! But it was a good experience. The spirit was strong and it was great to see that the church is the same no matter where you go! 

We got back, had lunch and I finished un packing. 

Then I had my first shift...

I promise I will post more pictures later on. But here is a picture of the house I'm living in! 

PS: this blog will probably be very wordy. Not only am I writing this so all of you can here what I'm doing but I am wiring this for me so I can look back and remember all my memories.

Number One!

So this is my first blog post ever! Pretty exciting.

I started this blog mainly as a place to write my adventures in Ecuador so my friends and family can see what I'll be up to. And then when I return I hopefully will keep it up.

In exactly 8 days I will be on a plane headed to Quito, Ecuador.

I am going with an organization called Orphanage Support Services. Or OSSO for short. There I will be working in an orphanage and basically just caring for and loving kids all day long. These poor kids have been abandoned by their parents for numerous different reasons so I get the privilege of stepping in and acting as their mother for 2 months. To say I am excited is an understatement. 

I found out about this program through my friend and roommate Hillary. She went in 2011 for 4 months and just raved on and on about it. I have always wanted to do some sort of serve abroad so as I talked more about it with her I decided to seriously look into it. Then I decided that this was for me and signed up as quickly as possible. 

http://youtu.be/Li9Yvgg-DtQ

In this link you will find a short video about the organization and more about it. 

I can't wait for the adventure ahead of me!!