mini Christmas beach break

Tuesday we (amy, Claire, Claires friend Nancy and Claires boyfriend Edwin and I ) all piled into Edwins family mini bus and hit the high road. We drove up North to the Esmeraldas and went to a beach  called Same. Edwin used to help run a summer kids camp there so the camp owner let us stay in one of the cabanas which made it all very easy.Only cost about £1.75 a night! Cold water showers though!!! 

Had a lovely couple of days-walked along the beach, swam(ish) in the sea, had 3 meals a day on the beach, drank Coconut water from a freshly cut down Coconut palm tree (macheted a hole and stuck a straw in-very cool!)  and caught up on my sleep. Lovely weather, didn't wear anything with sleeves once!

breakfast on the beach

Same beach

Had a fascinating drive there and back; about 4 hours each way. On the way Edwin gave a lift to his aunt and uncle who live out in the countryside. In true local custom they invited us in which we did. Then we picked fresh Cocoa beans off the trees in the back garden and ate them! Felt a bit like an Umpa-lumpa. Not the Cocoa berries but the actual fruit inside; they're like white triangles and you eat them and the big stone in the middle contains the chocolate cocoa inside them. Then we picked Star fruit and ate them. On the way back today we picked up a family of strangers just because they were on our way! Would never do this alone of course but with Edwin there we do all sorts of random but typically local things like that! Love it. Every week brings loads of "first time ever" moments.

us try ing out  Coconut sweets (told AFTERWARDS that the women make these by chewing then spitting out the coconut!)

Feliz Navidad

First of all let me say a big thank you to everyone who sent me Christmas cards, decorations and parcels. I know sending things here is expensive, long and sometimes difficult. You have no idea how much it meant to me to be able to open the cards and parcels and see that you remembered me and went to the effort to send something! I have never had a simple Christmas card mean so much to me before.

    Christmas came and went. I was away from home, family, friends and church but somehow the world didn't end! Christmas Eve (Bueno Noche) was spent with my host family here. We prayed, shared our past Christmases, played very silly games, gave gifts and ended the night with a traditional festive dinner (chicken&rice like every other meal!) at midnight. Was a lovely time. Christmas Day we did our drama again and then in the evening my boss did a British Christmas dinner. Boxing Day was spent with Amy and Claire doing a mini Brit Christmas day including pudding with Brandy butter yum and the classic "Love Actually."

Amy and the lit pudding!

    I can't say this has been the best Christmas ever but it has been special. I was dreading it but it was good and it has shown me incredible kindness and generosity. People who paid a fortune in posting just so I would get cards and gifts. My boss who cooked Christmas dinner just so I wouldn't be alone on Christmas day and my host family who bought me an extra gift because I "belong" to them. Claire who decorated her flat to make me feel festive and made a whole Brit Christmas for us and my friend Amy who made me a stocking and persuaded someone to sneak into my room at night so I woke up on Christmas Day to find Santa had been!

Elves rock!

After yet another none existent practise session, Saturday saw our little drama group in costume and squashed into a mini bus and on the way to LF. Our arrival caused absolute chaos!!! Hundreds of children poured out of the houses with their mothers and ended up blocking the roads...our bus was mobbed! We spent a hot half hour stuck inside the bus while the crowds were organised and the selected kids were ushered in. I will allow you a moment of believing that we were THAT popular........in actual fact we were mobbed because the families knew we'd give out cake and sweets.

In true Ecuadorian style our main character (Santa Claus) hadn't turned up so we entertained the crowd with songs and games We were introduced as our characters and each one of us had to run into the hall, do a lap of honour and then spend the next 40 minutes leading hordes of children in fun songs with actions! Do you know any fun, Spanish, children's, Christian, Christmas songs? No? Well neither did I or Amy but we didn't let that stop us! We slapped on big grins and madly copied the person next to us (a life saving technique over here!) I am oh so sorry (yeah right!) to say that I was so busy doing stuff that I have no photos of the happy event! You'll have to wait longer before seeing me prance about as an elf.

  The drama itself seemed to go well. LF is chaotic at all times but especially at events. I have been to various events and nobody has ever sat down and listened to a talk, dance or drama but this time they all sat down and stayed silent!!! Absolute miracle. Afterwards we gave out the bags of Christmas sweets in our costumes. For years to come they'll be photos of children looking bewildered next to a random selection of dressed up dolls, elves and Barbie girls.

P.S. The big red circles they painted on my cheeks didn't wash off! I spent the next 2 days with bright red cheeks.

it's better to give than to rececive

Today I rushed(ish) back from Quito to be back in time for lunch.

  

Today our church youth cooked lunch for the Laura Flores families and afterwards we gave each family a parcel of toys and clothes. I am very proud to say all these clothes came from my friends and old school back in Liverpool. Hurrah for Liverpool :)

Laura Flores families (plus me-can you spot me?)

                                               I wish you could have been there to see it!

The mums were so grateful for the clothes especially for the baby clothes we could give them.

modelling the latest "Next" fashion!

Growing up I was always told "it's better to give than to receive". Did you get told that too when you were being difficult? I understand what it means and there have been moments when I agreed with it but..let's be honest...getting a gift is great! Today though was different. Seeing the babies clutching their new (and probably only) toys and hearing the mums discuss their brand new "proper English" clothes I was so happy!

the perfect weekend

I have had an amazing weekend! On Friday night I and the others from our school met up with staff from another special school for a festive dinner.In true Ecuadorian style this was BBQ..yes, that's right people...BBQ in December!

Byron cooking parillada (bbq)

My HUGE plate of meat came with boiled yams, salad and Cola rice. I honestly thought my friends were teasing me but no, we did really eat rice cooked in Coca Cola!

Staff "do"
We finished off the night with our Secret Santa gifts. Over here you describe qualities of your person and everyone guesses who you bought for. Very public! Then we had toasts but each one of us had to say a toast-oh the pressure to be genuine, clever, funny, warm and affectionate all in Spanish!!!!

Yesterday was the missionaries Christmas day. Went up to Quito and joined with the others. Had a gorgeous dinner including turkey, roast potatoes and even a Christmas pudding (God bless my mum and Tescos!)

After lunch we had a special visitor!

Me and Father Christmas YAY!!!

In the afternoon it truly felt like Christmas Day. Had that "I've eaten far too much and can't move" feeling. We all squashed up together on a couple of sofas and played games. Then as it started to get dark we switched on the Christmas tree lights and all sang carols.It should have felt weird or somehow not quite complete as a day but it was truly perfect!

The goodies from England reminded me of my family back home. My Secret Santa gift was just what I needed and showed me I have true friends here who care for me. Being squashed under a small pile of kids made me realise I am surrounded by "family" wherever I am and the perfect day showed me I have a God who loves me and provides silly things like this just because He knows it's what I need.

Operation Christmas part 2

When my mum and Julia visited they brought 2 suitcases of clothes which had been donated. If you can't quite picture what that would like then here is a helpful hint....

  These clothes have been earmarked (by me) for the families in Laura Flores. My boss said they were "my" clothes and therefore my responsibility. So I have spent the last 6 hours wading through a mountain of clothes and toys with our community pastor sorting out gifts of clothing and toys for the needier families in LF.

that horrible stage with clothes sorting when things get messier before they get better!

Yesterday Roderigo&Blanca (pastor&wife) gave out gifts from church and said they were followed around by women and children begging for clothes. This is a community with so much need it's overwhelming. Each parcel contains clothes for the mum and several kids. Some bags provide for a mother in her 30s, her teenage daughters and her daughters children. It's so sad to hear " now that's Ms'  2 kids provided for but what about her? Do you think she'll like this? She's 14."

I cannot thank enough the people who sent all these clothes and toys! The families who dug out old clothes, gave up their own things and the people who actually went out and bought new things specifically for these families. I know you won't be here when the parcels are donated and I know you haven't met these families but I do know them and I will help donate the clothes. Believe me these will be the best gift you'll give this year!

Operation Christmas Child

I've spent the last 23 years buying gifts and making up Christmas shoe boxes. Each year I cram fluffy toys, crayons, soaps and woolly hats into a box and wonder who will receive it. I never thought the day would come when I would be the one unpacking the boxes and distributing the gifts!

wrapping prsents

I usually send these shoe boxes!

Amy and I spent the afternoon rooting through big boxes of goodies and sorting out gifts for the school children. Got filthy dirty but it was quite a success. Amy used her tallness to heave down the boxes, I put on some festive music and the rummaging began....

piles of goodies for each child. Who's been good?

Sounds of Santo at night

Rain falling, tin roof
Crickets sing and cockerels cry,
dogs bark, mosquitos buzz.

A good mornings' work

A few weeks ago our new school ball pool arrived. this meant that Amy and I had to change over therapy rooms. Apart from the gym ball, crash mat and whiteboard I had nothing to shift but Amy had decorated her room and it took her ages to remove, move and re-glue all her pictures etc. I feel bad that my room is so tiny and plain so to this weekend I took steps!

  I've made 2 notice boards and put up photos of the children doing work with me.

Please note pretty lace border!

 

I've made and put up a VERY basic Christmas decoration and got the different textures board up. Hopefully with time I'l be a bit more inspired and do other stuff to make it interesting. Any ideas?

   This morning I did some work with one of our older girls. She is 15 but has the mental age of  a petulant 5 year old. She can recite colours, numbers, words etc but doesn't actually know much at all. Today in our session she was great! She separated out colours with no prompts,

counted to 7 (and seemed to realise it was more than 6), used full words instead of actions, recognised vowels

working on vowels (guessed which picture I did?)

 and finally mastered the intricacies of a star jump!!! I don't know if she was simply in a good mood, she was lucky and guessed everything right or she has miraculously made progress; either way it was a good morning!

After break time some ladies from our church visited and gave out Christmas presents to each child.

Needless to say the children were thrilled!

average advent pancake week

Sometimes my life here is incredibly hard and sometimes I have an amazing time! This week has been a good week.

   On Tuesday Amy and I went to our first rehearsal for the Christmas drama. Last week the woman in charge was desperate for volunteers and everyone was busy staring at the floor and Amy & I caved in during a moment of weakness. We agreed to help out on the proviso that we did not get speaking parts. Sunday and Monday was happily spent picturing ourselves as background shepherds or as a heavenly host. Tuesday quickly shattered these happy illusions!!!! We are doing a sketch about Santa Claus and Amy is bossy&demanding woman and I....am an elf! Not only do we both have large speaking parts but I'm called "Candy" and have to wear a full elf costume. And no you can't see photos! My only solace is that we will perform this on Christmas eve in Laura Flores so I know those poor kids will get at least one laugh this Christmas!

On Thursday my friend Claire invited us round to hers. She baked Christmas cookies and we decorated them (watch this space for photographic evidence before we ate them all) and she made us mulled wine and played a Christmas album. It was soo nice! It felt all festive, definitely the happiest I've been in weeks :0) It was so kind of her, I am incredibly lucky in my friends here.

   Today Amy cooked the refugerio (snack) for our youth service. She decided to make pancakes and introduce Ecuadorians to the joy of lemon&sugar pancakes, yum! I didn't cook but I watched, did the washing up, tested the dodgy ones and even poured out a cup of flour (exhausting work!)

WE piled up the pancakes, tucked a dozen lemons in our handbag and off we went. We decided to splash out on a taxi since it was raining and we didn't want the food to get wet; this idea was rather ruined by the fact that guy with the church key (only 1 copy for entire church) didn't come for half an hour. Did we look weird standing in the rain for 30 mins on the busiest street in the city holding unto a stack of pancakes-yes. Were we bothered? Not at all.

Persuading the locals to try lemon&sugar was a battle...

                                                   but we converted them all!!!

                                                   A triumph for Great Britain.

P.S. Sometimes the "youth" here isn't always all that young ;)

bad day/good day?

 On Friday our school went to a special open day event and it didn't go well. Somehow Amy and I ended up stuck in a hall listening to speeches for 2 hours whilst trying to control our kids. We did not always succeed! One kid ended up on the stage, one boy punched another, 2 kids tried to run away (and into traffic!) and one little girl wet herself. By lunchtime I reeled home ready to hide under my duvet and never leave the house again.

After lunch I wrote a Christmas card to my family. The reality of sending a card as opposed to actually being with my family at Christmas depressed me so much that I just stayed in all afternoon and moped. Amy kindly posted my card off for me and brought me back a card from England. A lady from my church had sent me a Christmas card! It was such a pleasant surprise and the message was so sweet and encouraging that I cried! Realising that sobbing over a Christmas card is a tad foolish I pulled myself together and made a nice pot of tea (tea fixes every crisis!)

  That evening a friend invited me round for dinner. I was still feeling a bit "sensitive" but she lured me out with the offer of a home made Shepherds Pie so off I went. It turns out that Santo Domingo is like every other city in the world; you cannot get a taxi on  a Friday night especially when it's raining! So I walked. All alone, depressed, far from home and in the dark and rain..not a good start to the evening. As I walked I could see all the Christmas trees and lights in the houses I passed. It was night time in December but I wore flip-flops and a tshirt. Far from home but I was meeting a friend who wanted my company. Suddenly I realised I was having a great day!

Happy Christmas

I have done all my Christmas shopping! How impressive is that? Actually, before you get carried away by my brilliant organisational skills I should tell you the whole truth. As I'm away my gift giving is somewhat limited, in fact I am doing a "secret Santa" with other missionaries and that's it. This year I will receive and give only 1 gift! I don't know about you but for me that is weird, only one present?! Our Christmas meal and Secret Santa is on the 17th so on actual Christmas day they'll be no gifts at all!!


  Anyone who knows me will know that I am a Christmas FANATIC. If not stopped by friends and family I start counting down to Christmas in July :) I just love Christmas! I know it can be a really hard time for some people but for me it's magical. Everything is bright, pretty and cheerful and even though it can be stressful I find people are generous and kinder.


  Christmas day goes by so fast so for me Christmas is the whole build up to the big day. Helping my gran decorate her tree, nagging my mum for a Christmas eve gift, picking out gifts for that "difficult" person you know, wrestling the cat away from the baubles, mince pies, Carol concerts and the ever enjoyable festive nag to our church organist to play my favourite carol! This year I won't get any of that.


  No carol concerts, no silly festive earrings, no panto and worse of all no family. 


Each year someone I know teases me about my Christmas earrings (so cool!) and says that Christmas isn't about tinsel and fairy lights. My response is "I know what the real meaning of Christmas is but tinsel makes it better!" Away from fun and fairy lights,church, family and friends I guess this year we'll find out if I really do love the real reason for Christmas.

pompoms + gold medals=Olympics

Quick update on the last 2 weeks;
Cockroaches in the kettle and ants in the teapot.
2 power cuts and a tremor.


and today was our regional Disabled childrens Olympics!

  It was very exciting! We had an army battalion who gave out the medals,We marched round the arena, sang the national and regional anthems and even had an Olympic torch! Local sporting champions escorted the torch around the stadium  and lit the beacon.

Lighting the beacon

  

Our kids were great. Only won 2 races but we got a gold and we cheered for every race :) 

long jump!

Getting ready for the assisted race

Spent all of yesterday making pom-poms and am exhausted from manic pom-pom waving!

ball pools are fun!

Hello again,
                 Right, well I reckon I've depressed you all thoroughly over the last week so on for some cheerful news! Today we unveiled our new ball pool in the school tadaa!

BIG excitement (just the kids obviously!) I never once got into the pool *cough cough* ok maybe once but only because a kid begged me to join in....ok twice then if I'm being honest.

Where's Wally?

To introduce the children to the ball pool I took each child for 10 mins and let them play. They LOVED it :) They particularly loved having balls "rain" down on them.

You should have seen their faces, they were so happy they couldn't stop smiling.

You should have seen their faces, they were so happy they couldn't stop smiling.
One little girl laughed out loud for the first time.

Yesterday was national none child abuse day. To raise awareness I joined a march around Laura Flores and handed out information leaflets on sexual abuse.

As you know LF is our shanty town where I work twice a week. It's built on a rubbish tip and is horrible but is massively over crowded.

 As I've said before only people in the worst situations live in LF. Nobody is there because they want to be there, they are there because they are the poorest and usually seen as worthless. Yesterday was hot and walking round made me so thirsty that I made a comment in passing to a child. They came back 10 minutes later with a drink they had specially bought for me! I know the family and believe me they don't have money to spare. I was so touched by their generosity I wanted to cry.

   I know a few families there and yesterday I was joined by 5 sisters. Gorgeous little girls! They followed me round, holding my hand and skipping along and generally chatting away to me none stop all afternoon. All of them at once was quite exhausting but they were so happy to join in and friendly that I didn't have the heart to shoo them away. As I walked along I read my info sheet and saw this-21.4% of all children and teenagers in Ecuador have been sexually abused. That is a huge and horrifying number.

  I looked down at the sisters and realised statistically one of them may have been abused.

waste of time?

Last night and this morning a youth spoke at the church services. He's 21 and wants to go to China as a missionary. He is passionate and he wants to help the persecuted Chinese Christians. That is great! But...he says that missionaries should only go to places where there is no church or Bibles. Only these places really need help, otherwise we not following Gods' plan and basically we are wasting time. Is this true?

Am I wasting my time?

Have the last 10 months been a total waste of time? What have I achieved? Lets see shall we? Well....
I've managed to catch Typhoid fever (which was theoretically impossible!)
I've made of lots of glittery craft things with kids
I've totally humiliated myself by trying to speak Spanish in public
and I've been to the beach and got spectacularly sunburnt!

Nobody has spoken to me and then suddenly become a Christian. I haven't healed the disabled kids or stopped the poverty stricken children from being poor or abused. Not a single abused woman has left her home and started a fresh life. So what have I been doing? Has my time here been worth anything?

 I thought about what that boy had said and he was right in that this is a good country. Churches exist and aren't persecuted, People aren't beaten or executed for their faith and yes we have plenty of Bibles. But then I also remembered what I've seen and done here. We have Bibles but most people can't read them. The women know the church says they are precious but their boyfriends and husbands tell them they're worthless and beat them. Children are free to go to Sunday school but then their parents prostitute them for money. This country might be free and tolerant but it also has it's problems.

    I haven't given anyone here a new life although I wish I could. I haven't done any miracles and to be honest I sometimes doubt I've even helped a single person but I am trying. Every day I get up, go to work and try to help. Every day I try to show these people how wonderful they are and show them that they are loved by God.

Am I wasting my time?

Am I wasting my time? I don't know but I hope not.

Am I wasting my time? I hope not but I'm going to keep trying my best anyway.

happy ever after...?

Monday night I go to a weekly prayer meeting with the other local Brit missionaries. Plus each month we have our national missionary meeting which involves food, gossip, a lot of teasing and yes some prayer too. It is so good to have time to share with others and be able to ask for help and support. I love you guys; friends, family and random strangers who read this and your support means SO MUCH to me but...sometimes it's good to share with people who are here and share my pain and frustrations.


  The thing is, yes I'm used to having a NO as a response to my prayers but usually it isn't too bad but here it's different. Last week we prayed for a young man with AIDS. His family had thrown him out and he was ill so the local orphanage was caring for him. We prayed and happily he made a miraculous recovery! But this week he went home, his family refused to care for him and today we found out he's died. 6 months ago we prayed for 2 young girls who'd run away from a charity school my friend runs. They were only about 12 tears old and very vulnerable to abuse. We prayed for their safety but they never turned up.


   Each week I pray for these terrible situations; for the sick, abused and lonely. These people desperately need help and it just breaks my heart when there is no happy ever after.

horses, turtle and jellyfish

 My friend Amy has her parents visiting her at the moment. (Ecuador has been full of British parents!) Amy invited me to join her and her parents for a trip away to Purto Lopez and we left early Tuesday morning. On Wednesday Amy and I went horse riding!!! Very scarey (my first time) especially when the man stopped leading my horse and left me alone. How on earth does one brake or steer the thing?! No helmets or anything namby_pamby like that so falling and being seriously injured was quite a concern. We just about managed to survive the experience though ;) Riding along the beach was lovely but my our pleasure was somewhat marred by the agony of riding on a saddle for the first time. Was an interesting afternoon but highly painful! Sitting hasn´t been the same ever since!

  Yesterday we did a day trip to the Isla de Plata (Island of Silver.) Was  a wonderful day. About an hour and a half boat trip to the island.

There we went on a 2 hour walk to see Frigate birds and Blue footed Boobies. Quick pause for all sorts of "I came to Ecuador and saw Boobies& I love boobie! jokes. We saw LOADS of birds and really close up too!

Was fantastic! The island itself is in Winter mode which means no rain. Everything is dry and dead looking. All the trees and bushes are without leaves, the ground is dusty and cracked. The bareness of a European Winter but hot&dry-weird. The Boobies nest on the ground and are very relaxed about visitors. They would nest in the middle of a pathway and we would have to edge nervously past them (they have long and vicious looking beaks!) They´ve just had their nesting season so we saw dozens of little ugly newly hatched chicks. Repulsive but gorgeously cute too. The older chicks were big and covered in thick white fluff making them look like cuddly soft toys (the guides description!)

   After the walk we went back to the boat. A couple on the boat threw their food left overs into the sea. This is disgusting and really annoyed me, I was quietly irritated until I noticed the food attracted turtles! Suddenly we were surrounded by beautiful turtles. My first time of seeing them out in the wild, it was lovely. After this we went snorkelling.

Anyone been snorkelling ? Is it me or did it take you ages to get your breathing right? I know breathing through your mouth sounds easy enough but I swallowed half the ocean before I finally got it right!

   Oh wow, it was stunning!!!! We saw blue&silver fish and loads of Angel type fish. Black with orange stripes and blue tails.

Also some coral. It wasn´t coloured which surprised me but the textures were fascinating. One down side though, there were flocks/herds/crowds of minute jellyfish, each one was the size of a bread crumb but they stung us. Didn´t half hurt, each sting was like being jabbed by a needle. I´ve still got marks on my arms!