Night Shift

Last week we got 3 new volunteers! (woohooo!!!) That means there are now 8 of us volunteers. Wow what a difference 3 people can make. It feels like so many people are here and its so nice! But with all this extra help that means we now start night shift. (duh duh duh...) Oh night shift, I had never done it but I had heard many not so awesome things about it. 

As the weekend approached we all were anxious about out night shift. Mine happened to be on Sunday night. I can't say I was exactly excited about it but I cant say I wasn't dreading it either. I was excited for a new adventure. 

Night shift is exactly as is sounds. You get to work at the orphanage all night long. You get the afternoon before and morning after shifts off though which are nice. So I got Saturday afternoon off. I spent the time sleeping as much as I could to prepare for the night ahead of me. At 5:40pm we get in the car to go to the orphanage, picking up the afternoon shift workers and dropping us night shift workers off. You have one other person with you during night shift. 
When we got there my partner, Ashley, went to uno and I stayed in tres with about 5 kids that were still awake. They were all cozy and clean in their pajamas waiting to go to bed. They were in the playroom watching a movie. As soon as I sat down on the mat they all came up and wanted to sit on my lap. We have rules that we aren't supposed to really hold the kids because they cant get used to always being held. But at this moment I didn't really care. I opened up my lap and arms and let them all cuddle with me. One of the many moment I wish I had more arms and laps. We sat there and watched for about 30 more minutes and then they finally had to join the rest of the kids in bed. They happily grabbed their bottles and I lifted them into their cribs. 
I then went and joined Ashley in uno. It was about 6:45 pm by this time. We just hung out in uno until 9:30 pm. Making bottles, feeding babies, changing diapers and talking. Ashley is one of the new girls so it was fun talking and getting to know her. At 9:30 we went and woke up all the tres kids and changed their diapers. Some then got medicine, and then they all got another bottle with mysterious drink and went back to sleep. Then we went and woke up all the dos kids and did the same thing. Changed diapers, some got medicine, and they all got bottles and went back to sleep. By this time it was about 10pm; Ashleys turn to sleep.
 There are 2 shifts, 10pm-2am and 2am-6am. I volunteered to take the first shift so Ashley slept first. We set up a bed in the dos playroom. Just a mattress with sheets and blankets. She went to sleep and I went back to uno. We did have one worker with us but she went into the nurses office and slept on the bed in there the whole time. So from 10pm-2am it was just me,  5 babies under the age of one month and 2 cute three month olds. Staying up until 2am would have been easy peasy about 3 months ago. But now that my body is exhausted by 9pm here in Ecuador this was no easy task. I brought books, and snacks, and things to try and help me stay awake. The minutes ticked by but with 7 babies in the room there was no time to think about being tired. 
It was very interesting being in the orphanage at night. By interesting I mean pretty scary. haha. I'm kind of a big baby so every noise I heard I thought someone with a gun was breaking in. The orphanage isn't in the best parts of the city and knowing I was the only one awake in the building plus I had all these babies and about 25 other kids sleeping I was taking care of I just prayed nothing bad would happen. And of course nothing did. Everything was just fine and 2am came pretty fast. I then went and woke Ashley up and tried to get some sleep myself. Before I knew it it was 6am and Ashley was waking me up. I then went into uno and we took care of the babies until we waited for the morning shift girls to come and our ride home. 
Whew, we survived our 13 hour shift at the orphanage. We got the morning shift, 5 hours, off to sleep and recuperate and then it was back to work that afternoon. 

One month!

I have about reached my one month mark/halfway point of my time here in Ecuador. I can't believe it. 
Where has the time gone? It has flown by so quickly yet it has given me much. 

I have learned. Like today I learned that I do not go well with vomit.. As one child proceeded to projectile vomit all over me and himself and toys and the floor. All which I was given the pleasure to clean. Give me poopy diapers and snotty noses all day but the whole throw up thing I don't handle very well. Also tons of patience, gratitude, and mothering skills.

I have forgiven. How could I be upset about cleaning vomit of this poor sick chid? How could I stay mad at the child who pushed another kid making him slam his head against the concrete floor causing him to scream and cry for the next hour when all he was trying to do was play? How could I hold a grudge on a child who just threw a tantrum for no reason after they come up behind me and grab my shoulders and peek their head around and say "hola" with the hugest smile on their face. 

I have laughed. When a child fell asleep in the ball pit covered with balls and only his head sticking out.  Or when us volunteers just sit around like a bunch of old ladies talking about the kids and everything they do. 

I have cried. Like when one kid wouldn't eat his soupa. He wouldn't open his mouth. If I got him to open his mouth he would spit it out. If I got him to open his mouth, and swallow it he would gag himself and spit it up. After about 30 minutes and the worker telling me to hurry up I was at my wits end. And then he decided to really gag himself and throw it up all over him and me. (not the same story as before, but again, me and throw up don't mix very well). I had had enough for that day. Gently sat the child down with throw up all over his face and went to the bathroom and cried. Just a small breakdown that every volunteer is bound to face at sometime. 

I have loved. These children, they are killin me. How could someone ever want to abandoned a precious child? These children have stolen a huge piece of my heart. They have showed me some of the most true feelings of love. And I have felt their love surrounding me. 

 It finally hit me that in one month I will have to leave these children that I have sacrificed everything for for these past 2 months. 
I will probably never see them again. I will not know how their future ends up. Will they ever be adopted? Will they live in an orphanage longing for a family their whole life? I do not know but I will have to trust my Heavenly Father that he will take care of them and let them live the best life possible. 
But for now, for the next month, I will not take for granted one minute.
When the day comes that I have to leave I know I will be a devastated wreck, but I will not look back with regrets. Because I will give all I can now to help these children while I am here. 

Here is to another month full of learning, growing, giving and receiving! 

Free Friday at Papallacta

Another wonderful Friday has come and gone. This was probably the best one yet! 

We spent our day at Papallacta. 

Papallacta is a spa and resort with natural hot springs in the middle of the Andes mountain range next to the Amazon River. 

I'll just let some pictures do the talking... 

I can probably honestly say this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. 

We woke up early Friday morning to drive 2 hours. We all decided we wanted to get massages in the morning. You're only in Ecuador once right? Plus I think they were well deserved. It was just like an American spa. Very relaxing and nice. After our massages we went and ate lunch at a restaurant they have overlooking some of the pools. It wasn't the best food I've eaten but it was still good. We then hit the water. 

There was probably about 15 different pool sized hot tubs, all different temperatures, spread throughout the place.We didn't realize we got into the hottest one first. We adventured around all of them but spent most of our time in the first one. 

We had a very nice relaxing time! Just what we needed! 

cooking class

Last night after shift we went to a cooking class. Our leader Bryn takes spanish lessons and through the school they offer different activities so we decided to try out cooking class. We had no idea what to expect but we were excited! 

(volunteers here right now. Karissa, Sarah, Annie, me, Elizabeth)

We walked in and they greeted use very kindly. We went into the small kitchen where they had all he ingredients out and ready for us to put together. We put on our aprons and got to work! 

This was our recipe that we were about to make. Can you read it? Yeah me either. Luckily since it was a school they knew a little bit of english and were able to help us through it. 

Here we are during the preparation with our teacher/chef. 

After all the ingredients were mixed and ready we then had to put it into this leaf and fold it up very carefully. After it was folded they got put into a steamer and cooked for 30 minutes. They then took us into a separate room and explained to us all about the recipe. Its a traditional Ecuadorian appetizer. They read the history in spanish and then read it in english. We then waited for a little and it was all finished cooking. None of us had any idea what is was going to taste like so we were anxious. 

They set up this cute table for us to eat. They said that this food is always served with coffee and tea. I don't think they realized they were teaching a class to a bunch of mormons who don't drink coffee or tea so we kindly rejected. 

Bon Appetit! We were a little nervous to take our first bite not knowing what to expect. As far as my experience has been, I'm not the hugest fan of typical Ecuadorian food. But we were pleasantly surprised. There really isn't an American dish that is similar but if I had to compare it to something I would say it tasted like corn bread. 

It was a fun experience!

welcome baby

17 days old

6 lbs

long spiky brown hair with big brown eyes

found by police in an abandoned house

We welcomed a new baby boy into the orphanage yesterday. I was privileged enough to be working in uno when they brought him in.  Swaddled naked in a blanket from the hospital. Immediately Sor told me to start him a bath.  I bathed his tiny body, clothed him in my favorite sailor outfit, and fed his hungry self for the first time at the beginning of his new life. As I held this precious child of God in my arms I could not hold back the tears. For being only 17 days old I can not imagine what this baby has already been through. And as I think about the life I know he is going to have my heart breaks. 

He will wake up everyday for the first six months of his life in sala uno. Never allowed to leave the room. He will be bathed every morning, fed every two hours, and get as much attention as he can with 8 other babies surrounding him. As soon as he can sit up on his own he will move to sala dos. Where he will sleep and play in separate rooms but thats all he will see. Then he will move up to sala tres a little after his uncelebrated first birthday. He will then be able to go outside. Get a little bit more attention. He will only eat soupa and mysterious drink in a bottle for the first 3 years of his life. If he is lucky the workers will give him fresh fruit or animal crackers as a mid day snack, hopefully the other kids don't steal it out of his hand. Finally when the workers think he is smart enough he will start going to school and move to casas. Where its just every kids fending for themselves. This is the time where if he is a lucky child, he might have a chance of being adopted. If not, then he will forever be alone, and hopefully find a way to make a good life out of the cards he's been dealt. 

I pray everyday that these kids will have a chance at a good life. One full of happiness and love. And I thank my Heavenly Father numerous times a day for all he has given me. 

These children are my heroes. 

A day in my shoes

The best way to describe time here is, days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. Days seem to take sooo long to go by. Especially during that last hour of shift when you have just had it with the crying and fights and the kids are long over due for their nap and you are starving. But then when I look back I can't believe I'm into my third week already. I have been asked a couple times so I am gonna write out exactly how my days Saturday-Thursday go. 

6:15AM: Alarm goes off. Get up so I can have a turn in the bathroom. Get dressed, brush my teeth, pull my hair back in a pony tail. I love not having to get ready here. 

Go downstairs try to find something for breakfast. Usually a hard boiled egg and fruit or something quick and easy. No cold cereal here. Definitely miss that. 

6:40AM: Fransisco picks us up and we drive to the orphanage. 

7:00AM: Arrive at the orphanage. Chang our shoes, put up water bottles, put on aprons. 

7:05AM: Walk into (we'll say I am in Sala dos for the morning) the sala dos room that smells completely like poop. This has got to be the worst part of the whole day. The smell is almost unbearable sometimes. They don't get changed during the night so at least 90% of the kids have poop and pee through all of their clothes and up their backs. But they just have the hugest smiles on their faces and they are so happy to see us it makes it worth it. Usually there is only one person in dos. So I start by taking off all the pajamas of each kid. (Which is a diaper, onsie, long pants, fleece zipper suite, and a sweater. for some reason they think its freezing at night even though its not.) Then I take a child and hand it to a worker to bathe it. Then she hands it back to me. I dry him or her off, put lotion on their whole body, put on diaper, onsie, long sleeve shirt, pants, sweater, and socks. (Mind you I am wearing a short sleeve shirt only and sweating its so hot. Its just cultural here that they affiliate getting sick by being cold. So they never want the kids to be even close to cold) I then take the dressed child and place them in the playroom. I go back and we continue that until each child is done. It usually takes about an hour to go through all of them. 

8:00AM: I have all the kids settled in the playroom so now its time to play, do therapies, wipe noses, change diaper only if they are wet all the way through their clothes or poopy, break up fights, sing songs, do whatever I can to entertain the kids and myself. Sitting in a room about the size of an average bedroom for hours on end can make you pretty creative when it comes to entertaining the kids. 

10:00AM: Soupa time. You take a child, bring them into the kitchen, put on a bib, grab a bowl and scoop soupa into it. Soupa is hard to describe, it pretty much looks like mashed potatoes in soup form. But I have no idea whats in it. Its just soupa. haha. Its gross, I could never eat it. Thats all I know. I then will sit in a plastic kid chair and lay the child in my lap. I then pretty much have to spoon force feed it to them. It usually gets everywhere and its a mess. But its a nice break from sitting in the room. 

10:45AM: All kids are done eating. Back to the playroom we go. More playing, therapies, entertaining, wiping noses, stopping fights, etc.. 

11:30AM: Finally go down for a nap. Put each child in their crib with a bottle. Free at last!! Then I pick out clothes for the next day for dos and tres kids. Then go and clean up playroom and help in Tres until its time to go. 

12:00PM: End of morning shift. Fransisco picks us up. 

12:20PM: Arrive home, wash hands and see whats for lunch. We have a cook that comes everyday but Sunday. Its soo nice to come home to a meal all ready. I am usually starving by this time. Usually its some type of chicken, rice, and vegetables. 

1:00PM: Relax, go on computer, just chill. Sometimes fit in a quick nap. 

2:00PM: Leave for afternoon shift. 

2:20PM: Arrive back at orphanage. (We'll say I'm in sala tres for the afternoon) Go wake up kids from naps. Again so cute and smiley excited for us to get them out. We put the shoes on them then put them in the playroom. 

2:30PM: Playtime, Therapies, break up fights, stop kids from crying, wipe noses, change diapers, entertain. Luckily in tres they are allowed to go outside and play not just have to be in the playroom. So we play in the backyard a lot. Their favorite things are blowing bubbles and reading books so we do a lot of that. 

4:00PM: Soupa time again. For most of the tres kids they can sit by themselves in a chair so it makes it easier. 

4:30PM: Done with soupa. Back to playing and trying to not count down the minutes to bedtime. ha. 

5:15PM:  Put kids in pajamas. Take a child one at a time and take off all clothes except onsie. Feel so bad as you pile the layers on them. Long pants, pajama suit, sweater. Then you clean their face and put lotion on. Then brush their teeth. 

5:30-6:00PM: Second worst time of day. Seriously counting down the minutes. The kids are so tired and grumpy. Getting into everything and crying. As us volunteers try and keep our sanity. 

6:00PM: Finally bedtime! Lay each kid down in their crib with a bottle. Say goodnight and FREEDOM!! done for the day. 

6:30PM: Arrive back home. Try and find something to make for dinner. Hang out, watch movies, relax. 

9:00PM: This is about our average bedtime. Its amazing how exhausted I am by the end of the night. 

Go to sleep to wake up and do it all again! 

My days sure can be hard and long but when I get home and think over the day I feel so rewarded. I think about how I am the one that *Billy took his first steps to. I think about how *Jonny is finally learning how to sit up by himself. I think about their cute faces getting so excited running to greet us and saying hola over and over again as they run into our arms. I think about how smart *Sally is and how she mimics anything you do. Today she was fake sneezing. I sometimes even look at pictures of the kids and miss them and can't wait to go get them from their crib in the morning. haha. They sure are adorable. I am so grateful for my opportunity to be here. I am so glad I am able to love them and try to give them the best life given their circumstances for these two months. 

*Names changed for Ecuadorian privacy law reasons. 

Free Friday #2

Friday!!! What a wonderful day of the week. I sure do love working in the orphanage but it is so nice to have a day off. This free friday sure was an adventure! 

We had a plan of going to Telferiqo this Friday. We were gonna sleep in a little bit and leave at 10am. Well we came across a little problem.... 

We all woke up with lice... 

 There was an outbreak of lice at the orphanage. We tried to be very careful and avoid it but lice is a pesky little thing. Spreads like wild fire. 

So now that you all think I am totally dirty and gross.. haha. 

The lice set our plans back a little. It took a while for us to treat our hair and try and disinfect the house. It was an adventure to say the least. I never in my life thought I would have lice but here I am in a third world country with lice in my hair. Pretty gross, oh well. Hopefully its gone now. 

Finally we were on our way to Teleferiqo at about 1. Teleferiqo is one of the highest ariel lifts in the world. At the bottom they had an amusement park. 

It was very run down looking and old. They only had about 20 workers and then whatever ride had people waiting for it is the ride that that worker would run to to turn on. It was pretty funny to watch. It had basically the same rides that we do in America. We were gonna ride one ride but then decided we didn't want to spend the money. 

Then we continued on to the lift. From the ground the lift didn't look too bad. We were ready to go up. 

After about the first 30 seconds we started freaking out. We didn't know how sturdy this thing was. We didn't know if there were signs saying that it was dangerous but we just couldn't read them cause they were in spanish. We didn't realize what exactly we got ourselves into. We just saw the ground getting farther and farther away. 

We were going up.. 

and up...

and up... 

and up...

Basically it was the longest 8 minutes of our lives. But with the most beautiful views I have ever seen. 

Quito is such a huge and very interesting looking city. I wish the pictures could do justice of how pretty it really was. 

We were happy to finally safely land at the top! 

We were basically at cloud level. Elevation 13,300 feet. I have never been so high up in my life. 

We then went on what we were told would be a 15 minute walk to a horse coral to rent horses to ride. Well at 13,300 feet this was no 15 minute walk. After about 3 steps we couldn't breathe. haha. It was pretty pathetic and funny. We took our time and finally made it to the horses. 

This was no typical American place to go on horse trail ride. The owner handed us a poncho, told us it was $5, and brought us a horse. No waiver signing, instructions, experience required, nothing. We hopped on our horse and off we went. 

To begin with I'm not the biggest fan of riding horses. I just freak myself out and think that it could kill me at any second. So not knowing how trained or what these horses were gonna do quite frankly terrified me. But because of our motto "you are only in Ecuador once" I knew I had to just do it. 

It was just a basic trail ride on top of this mountain. The views were spectacular! The ride lasted for about 30 minutes. My horse did have a few spooks but I didn't get bucked off or hurt so all is well. Definitely glad I did it! 

We then made our hour long slow walk back down to the lift. 

Me and Karissa stopped for one last photo opp. 

The ride down wasn't quite as scary because we knew we were headed down to safety. 

We made it down, caught a taxi, and made it home. 

Then it was time to get ready for Grace's Quinceanera. Grace is the Ecuadorian couple, that runs our company, daughter. She was so kind to invite us volunteers to her party. I was pretty excited. I have never been to a Quinceanera before and what better place then in Ecuador. 

I unfortunately didn't bring my camera with me but it was awesome! There were about 100 people there all for her. She was in a beautiful dress and it was at a beautiful location. There was food, dancing, a slideshow, talks by her parents, candle ceremony, she preformed a dance by herself and with her dad, mariachi band, and lots of fun. It went from 8pm to 2am. Because we had shift the next morning we left at about 11. So sad we had to go but we were exhausted! 

It was such a fun eventful day! 

I love Ecuador!!