Promised Pictures- well, at least some!

So EFY is always an experience...here are some of the pictures to prove it! That is, if we really needed pictures. I think the craziness of efy is pretty much assumed by everyone!

Catching Up

So I know I haven't posted on here in quite some time. I had finished Ecuador, but thanks to the "encouragement" of my extended family I am at it again. For those of you who don't know, I have been working as the EFY health counselor for the past 2 months. This mostly includes handing out the band-aids and Advil, but the kids often will hit you with something out of the blue. It makes my job quite interesting. The greatest part about it is that I also get to have the spiritual aspect of the efy program and I have teaching opportunities all the time. This year was crazy in many different ways. I was able to work in California for half of the summer. It was great, but at one point the entire city of Goleta was on fire, and yes, that is where we were with 400 youth. We had the wonderful opportunity to have our meetings outside while it was raining ash on us. I have to admit, lights out was very easy that week due to the fact that we had no power. It was probably one of the most depressing things to tell all the efy kids that they would not be having Pizza night because the entire city had no power. Instead we bought out K-mart in the makings for PB&J sandwiches and granola bars!
I also had the amazing opportunity to work a week in Nauvoo! We only had 187 participants and it was an awesome week! We took everyone through the temple to do baptisms and in two days those awesome youth did 13oo names! You really can't compare the experience of having your daily scripture study on the lawn in front of the temple. We were also able to take everyone through Carthage jail. The group that I was with decided to take the time we had in the jail to sing "Praise to the Man." They were a stellar bunch of kids and it was an emotional experience for all of us! I'll put up some pictures as soon as I can, and I promise to try and do better with keeping up.
Unfortunately my Mom is going to have to take over the site because I am leaving on a mission in October! I have the wonderful opportunity to go to Portugal for a year and half and I can not wait!

Home Sweet Home

Well, I am once again in the USA! I never understood those stories of people kissing the ground when they returned home until I walked back onto American soil. While I still have never actually kissed the ground, I understand a little bit better the feeling behind the action. There are some things that I am so thankful to have again! Of course that is not to say that our last couple days in Ecuador were without their quota of adventure. We were able to experience the stereotypical money issues that tend to happen in South America. Our liaison disappeared with a family emergency the day before we were supposed to leave. Later that night we were informed that our drivers had not been paid and would not take us to the airport until they received their money- of course we had been told by our liaison that it was already taken care of. To this day I don't know if the drivers were just attempting to take advantage of us and get paid twice or if our liaison had run off with all of the money. Luckily we only had to make one phone call to the Junta organization and all of a sudden everything was taken care of. I must admit I felt a bit like I was working for the mob. I have to appreciate how easy everything was with our Junta connections. In the end all we had to do was pay $40 to get out of the country. Three of us also had the pleasure of an all expenses paid trip around the less desirable portions of the airport. We were called from the gate and escorted across the tarmac (in the rain no less) to where the security guards were happily pulling everything out of our carefully packed bags. As we were standing there, they proceeded to give a slightly awkward preview of all of our luggage by spreading it out along the tarmac for all of the other guards and some passengers. We were also searched by the drug dogs; all the while being assured that this was strictly routine. It was quite the experience. So, as a wrap up I have included my own David Letterman style top 10 lists. I hope they make everyone laugh as much as I enjoy the memories. If you want more specifics on the stories-you will have to ask!

Top 10 things I'll miss from Ecuador

1. Being told I’m beautiful multiple times walking down the street
2. Cheap prices!
3. bargaining for everything
4. chifles/ Mango suckers
5. pineapple / any fresh fruit every day
6. having a maid/ chauffeur
   
7. being able to work with the community
8. all drugs being OTC
9. kissing is an acceptable greeting
10. salsa dancing/Latin music

Top 10 things I won’t miss from Ecuador

1. Giant rats/bugs
2. Little kids begging
3. GI issues
4. no air conditioning
5. clinicals every day!
6. drinking Coke
   
7. only bottled water
8. CPR classes!!!
   
9. no fresh veggies
10. have to go places in groups of 3

Top 10 funny moments from Ecuador

1. Paige accidentally hitting on our waiter
2. Negrito?... Dos Negritos???
3. hearing "We didn't start the fire" (Billy Joel) on Ecuadorian radio
4. seeing our teachers Latin dancing
5. "A ver todos..." with the Gias
6. 12 people in the back of the Ambulance
7. David "teaching" Spanish to the gringas
8. Giving each other shots when we were sick
9. "You have beautiful eyes- because that's all that is visible"
10. The worm

All in all this was one of the most fantastic experiences of my life and I am so grateful for the chance that I had to participate. I learned so much from the people there! The intent was for us to serve them, but I was served so much more by the people there than I could ever give back. I think I will always love the Ecuadorian people and I know that I am a better person because of this experience. I hope that one day everyone has the opportunity to have an experience that means as much to them as this has meant to me. Thank you so much to all of you who have been keeping me going with your emails and I can't wait to get back in touch with all of you!

The most memorable Memorial Day ever!

Today was probably my favorite day of the whole trip as far as fun is concerned. It is a holiday, so we decided to take one too! The day started off way to early for most of us with a kindly meant wake up call at 5:30 by our Ecuadorian contact. It was highly ineffective in our apartment since none of us got up till 6:10. No fear, we were on the bus in plenty of time, we were not even last! So we drove about 3 hours outside of Quito to the Cloud Forest, which is a beautiful rain forest up here in the middle of the Andes mountains. It was quite cold this morning, so we were all huddled on the bus attempting to sleep. I'm sure someone got pictures of it, but it wasn't me, probably a good thing! After taking our bus across rivers, very iffy bridges and crazy roads we were taken in the back of trucks to a cable car of sorts that took us across a large ravine so that we could hike. We sang the Indiana Jones theme song and decided that we didn't have to see the movie because we were living the story. I promise we make the Disney ride look like a kid on a tricycle! I've posted the video, and I know we are all in different keys-please ignore that! It was a lot of fun and then we got to hike to several waterfalls! Waterfalls are my absolute favorite thing that you can find in nature, followed closely by stars, but waterfalls are first. I was in heaven today-except for the part that we were hiking through some very steep, very muddy trails. Add that to the high altitude, the lack of sleep, lack of food for the day and the fact that we are already all sore- it was quite the challenge for the day. Luckily we got back out before it started the daily afternoon thunderstorm! Of course the best part of the day is that we took a tour of the canopy level of the forest. In order to do this we had to travel by a series of 13 zip lines all around the forest! It was so much fun, and was totally worth the 15 dollars. We even got to do some of them upsidown and such. It was the coolest thing to be soaring above the trees all around the rain forest for about an hour and a half. We then had to get back to Quito which included fording more rivers, more hiking and a long bus ride, but it was a great day! We were in the forest for almost 12 hours and I definitely think that it was the best day of our whole trip as far as things related to us. I am very glad to have all the experiences and clinicals have been amazing, but today was so much fun that we all needed desperately after the past 3 weeks of lots of hard work!

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard.”

Despite the fact that I can hardly believe it, our time here in Guayaquil has come to a close. I am actually very sad to be leaving the people here. I have had such amazing experiences getting to know all of them and having the opportunity to serve. I also feel like I am just getting to the point where I can understand what most of them are saying! I guess life is like that. As soon as you start to adjust to things, Heavenly Father decides that you are not allowed to get comfortable. That is how we grow in all aspects, but it is still sad sometimes. I definitely miss many things when they change, but I am thankful for the lessons that I learn with each new experience. I think the people here are actually going to miss us just a little bit as well. This morning I taught CPR at the Psych hospital, and it was definitely an experience. First of all we had some technical difficulties with the video- so we got to do it all on our own. On top of that there was a guy who was following me around with a video camera to get everything that I said. I was slightly ashamed because my spanish is horrible, and i'm sure that if the American Heart Association saw our teaching sessions all of our certifications would be revoked! It was fun to work with all the little nuns, they all wanted to take pictures too. I guess I am slightly disappointed because they all wear white, not black. Oh well. Later we had lunch with the head honchos from the Junta and it was really fun. They seemed to be genuinely sad that we were leaving even though I'm sure we were probably more trouble than help. Our entire afternoon was spent going part to party to say goodbye to everyone. David's Mom threw us a huge pool party and closed the restaurant in order to feed us. It was really nice of her, but we had all eaten so much already that we were forcing ourselves to eat so that we would not offend her. That night the church had a YSA dance, which was also very fun. Dances are quite different here, they are all reggaton and salsa dancing...needless to say we all had a great time and are quite sad to be leaving!

"The more fun you have, the greater your value to yourself and to your society."

So we have been having more fun! This was our last week of clinicals and has been crazy busy, but we still find time to enjoy ourselves! This past Saturday we went to the rain forest Cerro Blanco and hiked for a couple of hours. Then we went canoing down the river in Porto Hondo and had a grand time. The water was kinda dirty, okay really dirty, so we didn't go in but it was still fun. We then ended up the day by going to a Music Festival. It was really fun, and I am even starting to really understand the majority of what is said to me. Mostly I know everyone likes the pictures so here are some more from when we climbed the lighthouse and other such stuff:

“I figure you have the same chance of winning the lottery whether you play or not.”

Guess what! We are working in the hospitals that are sponsored by El Junta de Beneficencia de Guayaquil. This is a massive organization that runs 4 hospitals throughout the city as well as schools and many other things. Only about 35% of the costs of the hospitals and their 65,000 employees are covered through payments by the patients. The other money comes from the national lottery. That is right, the lottery pays for the countries health care. No one is turned away from care and all fees are prorated based on the financial capabilities of the patient. What a cool organization!!! We had a big meeting with all the head or the organization and he told us everything that they are working on. It was really cool and we even met in the council room. We had the little microphones and everything at our chairs. I almost felt like I should be in the UN or something!
Well, the hospital is quite different from anything that you see in the states. For starters, it is absolutely huge! I've heard two different numbers, but the general consensus is that there are 1,000 beds in the general hospital. It is crazy and the medical staff are the most creative people I have ever met. I never knew there were so many uses of a latex glove. We were joking that the main text of med school must be 1001 ways to use your gloves. Unfortunately on your hands seems to have been left out on this publication. We have come up with a couple ways of own own!
Another great opportunity we have had is to teach about 100 BLS classes. I have demonstrated CPR so many times that everyone should feel very safe around me knowing that I could save your life! We taught a bunch of the civil leaders the other day and it was really fun. We even made into the paper again. Everywhere we go everyone wants to take pictures with us. I think it must have something to do with the fact that they don't see blonde hair or blue eyes very often. Of course I also never thought I would say that I feel very tall, but it is the case down here. It also helps that we have somewhat become the PR campaign for the church. I can hardly believe that we are in our last week in Guayaquil! Time has flown by so quickly. I will be glad to get back to you all, but it is sad to be done. I am very happy to be able to talk to everyone again soon. I miss keeping up with all of your lives!