Last week in Ecuador

Hola!

So the blogs haven’t been coming quite so quick these days. Probably because I stopped traveling and taking pictures. Classes are over. Kristen flew away. I’ve only got 4 days left in this foreign land. It feels like the end. I think I could be ready to go home in 4 days; the thought of la navidad gets me really excited, and Sean coming to visit for New Years. Since last post, what have I been up to? Studying hard for exams, went to a bull fight during Quito’s independence week, been volunteering at Para Sus Niños (an orphanage).

The bull fight was “a cultural experience.” The second we walked through the gates, we could tell that there was a lot of tradition tied to bull fighting in Ecuador. Why is everyone wearing panama hats? Why is everyone drinking wine out of leather satchels? It’s just…tradition. The event reminded me in one way of Elon football games; everyone was dressed up. Take away the Lily Pulitzer and add stiletto leather boots.

Kristen, Lauren, and I were lucky enough to sit by a group of older men who were bull fighting aficionados that were thrilled to enlighten us on the ends and outs of bull fighting. During the whole event, I got a full play-by-play, which I didn’t mind at all. Watching the first bull, out of six, get killed was the hardest, because he was so gosh-darn-cute. You could see that he was panicked and breathing hard. The others were huge, black, muscular, angry bulls, so it wasn’t so bad. The scoring in bullfighting is as follows: one ear means you did alright, two ears means you were great, two ears and a tail is unbelievable, and if you receive nothing it basically means get out of the ring. The day we went was particularly eventful because the revered “Juli” (supposedly one of the best in the world) got nothing both times. And Sebastian Castela performed so well in one of the fights that the he received the highest honor, two fake ears and a tail, and the bulls got to live to see another day. The group of old men had never seen this happen before so it must have been a big deal. Who knows. The bull fighters, toreros, are funny looking to me. Their stance is so erect that they are actually leaning backwards and they were gold jackets and pink spandex.

Que mas? Ever since classes ended I have been spending my days at an orphanage, Para Sus Ninos (PSN). I don’t have much experience with babies or with special needs children so the learning curve has been steep, and wonderful all the same. The orphanage started 20 something years ago by a young married couple from California who went to Ecuador on a church trip, and decided to dedicate the rest of their lives to abandoned Ecuadorian children. Pretty sweet huh? I am very impressed with the facilities: lots of land, beautiful houses, a pool (you never see those in Ecuador), and they even have a pet llama! I was sweeping the sidewalk the other day and right in front of me a llama head popped up out of the bushes, scarred the ba-geezes out of me, but now we’re friends.

PSN is a well-oiled machine that is doing incredible things but the “Tias” (all the women that take care of the kids, means aunt in Spanish) deserve the most credit for all the love, time, and energy they pour into each kid, whilst cleaning, cooking, doing endless loads of laundry.

They have four houses, one for little babies, one for 2-4year olds, one for the kids older than that, and one for special needs kids that are as old as teens. I have spent time in all the houses playing, dancing to Barney songs, feeding them, bathing them, etc. I have spent most of my time with the baby house which I love. All the babes have their own personalities, likes and dislikes, forms of communication and I am slowly learning all that. The littlest one Felipe, not quite crawling yet, has been hard for more because he cries and gives me looks of disgust whenever I got near him. BUT, today I made him giggle. What a great day.

Being in an orphanage can be tough. These kids are cute, reaaal cute. And somehow they got the bad end of the stick and are parentless. The little ones don’t understand, but the older ones do. It’s a tough reality to face as a little kid.

I am really appreciating being at PSN, little tots are just so new to me. I not sure how I am going to be able to just pick up and leave on Sunday, after being there for only a couple weeks.