We had a practical Spanish class today and went to Sangolqui market. Getting the bus in Ecuador is always an experience. Once again the bus failed to actually stop so we just had to run and jump. I banged my arm when I nearly fell back out again but I just tell myself that it´s all part of living life to the full.
Sangolqui was so busy and loud it was quite over-whelming. The pavements were packed with hundreds of stalls, even the road was used up. The lack of any free space didn´t seem to stop drivers though which made it interesting!
I´m afraid my bartering skills are pretty much none existant so I didn´t even try to negotiate which is fairly pathetic of me I know but I´ll get there...hopefully..one day...maybe.
In the meantime I still enjoyed myself buying some lovely sunflowers and treating myself to a local biscuit/cake thing called a Melba. Then we walked around a corner and hit the live animal meat market.
I think it would have taken anyone by surprise but since I´m a vegetarian I think it was an even nastier shock for me. There were hundreds of baby chicks in cages, huge hens tied up in bags and guinea-pigs being roughly passed around. I know the animals are going to be slaughtered and eaten so kindness seems pointless but even so; I found it horrible to see live hens all tied up already, chicks and ducklings squashed in cages and guinea-pigs being badly handled and squeaking madly. I don´t think I can have been the only one who was shaken because after that the other students stopped teasing me about being a veggie or about eating guinea-pigs. Good and bad, being here is certainly an experience!
What a week! Nothing much has happened but it´s been a bit difficult for me even so. This week I´ve had 4 young American students join me in my classes which is fun. I´m getting a lot more practise at Speaking Spanish which is great but we get homework which is not so great!
I have discovered a mean streak me and I´m shocked. One of the students has no Spanish at all which in comparison makes me look good. I know it´s horrible of me but I love the fact that he´s no good-it´s such an ego boost for me! How awful am I?! On The bright side though it does show me that I have actually picked up something during the last few weeks which has thoroughly cheered me and my teacher up :)
Earlier on in the week I had an evening on my own in the house which I usually love but this week it was different. I hate to adit it since everyone is so kind to me but I ended up feeling lonely and a little homesick. I hadn´t expected to feel homesick yet so it was a rather nasty shock. When I´d left my sister had smuggled a letter into my suitcase and this week I finally read it to cheer me up. It was lovely and it said it excatly what I needed to hear. "Whatever ups and downs you experience God is with you....keep trusting because He knows what He is doing!" God is so good. That letter was wonderful, it cheered me and made me happy again, it showed me my amazing familys love for me and it reminded me of Gods plans for me. I know there´ll be other times when I´m down (not too many I hope) but I know God will be with me.
Got to be a tourist this week which was fun! On Tuesday we went to Otavalo market. First all to get there we had a beautiful drive through the mountains. Up here we are in the middle of the Andes and they are breathtaking!
Otavalo is a market run by some of the local indian tribes and it´s amazing!!! One of the Americans with us said Otavalo is in a book called "1,000 things to do before you die" and I can well believe it. The sellers are all in their traditional clothes which is lovely and everything they sell is hand-made. The colours are just fantastic-all the goods are rainbow coloured. The colours were so bright they seemed to glow. Not a big surprise but I ended up spending all my money including my money to pay for lunch! I am no good at bartering so I clung unto Ceci and dragged her round with me. I must have looked like such a tourist as I "ooohed" and "Aaahed" at everything and took pictures of all the pretty things ;)
After Otavalo we went to lake Cuicocha which apperently means "Guineapig cove". I got hugely excited but sadly there were not hundreds of guinea-pigs having a swim in the lake as I´d hoped! (bitter dissappointment.) The lake is in a volcanoe crater. I´m told the lake is so deep that scientist haven´t yet found the bottom! After Cuicocha we went to Cotacahi which is a leather town. There they only sell leather. The shops were amazing; they had everything imaginable in leather-saddles, coats, boots, handbags, cigarette lighters, chairs and even books. I´m not a fan of leather but those gorgeous handbags were VERY tempting (it´s a good job I´d spent all my money.)
Today I went to the local food market which was interesting. I did have a nasty experience though when we went to the chicken lady. I´d secretly been hoping that the meat would be already prepared and wrapped up but no such luck of course. She dragged a dead chicken out and chopped off it´s head. And when I say "chopped" I actually mean she sawed at it with a blunt knife. Then she broke the spine and ripped in half and pulled out the guts! By this time I was standing as far back as I politely could. I must have looked horriffied though because the women all looked at my face and laughed!
The fruit&vegetable market was good though. They have so many fruit here! I haven´t even seen most of them and the dictionary doesn´t have a name for most of them. All I can say is they look weird but usually taste great:)
hello,
I have so much to write about I honestly don´t know where to start! I had hoped that once I got out here I would suddenly become mature and organised but that clearly isn´t happening.
Last night I went out to Pizza Hut with the visiting missionaries. I ate far too much which isn´t good. There was one lovely moment though when somebody asked me what work I´d be doing once I went up to S Domingo. I started to tell the guy about our hopes to get a womens refuge up and running. He asked me what I´d do and what we hoped to achieve. As you all know I am not a nurse, lawyer or trained counsellor; my ability to help those poor abused women is limited. Talking about it rekindled my passion- I want to tell those women how amazingly special and unique they are. I want them to know how much God loves them and how He has great plans for them! They need to know this so they can realise how valuabale they are.
As I was talking I suddenly realised that everyone else was listening in. maybe I´d got a bit carried away in what I was saying? I don´t know. What I do know is that this work is fantstic and I´m so happy and priviledged to be here!
This week at the Fundacion there are some American visitors and governors. I think they are here to try and make plans and sort out financing from possible supporters. This means my hosts Bill and Ceci are fairly involved so everything here is very up in the air and our usual routine has gone. We now have our meals up at the guest house with the others. For some reason they find my being English is hilarious!! They keep on making jokes about my "English" (cheek!) and finding my expressions highly amusing. Of course it works both ways! I know it´s seriously immature of me but I can´t help smiling each time they ask for the soda or talk about panty-hose. It makes me feel like I´m watching an American film. Ah bless them!
This afternoon they came to our house for tea and cake. Ceci looked a bit lost so I sorted out the tea cups, kettle, cakes etc. the Americans loved it, they thought it was an original English afternoon tea. I didn´t like to ruin their illusions so I agreed and said we always have afternoon tea at home with crumpets ;)
As to be expected I was at church this morning and also as to be expected I didn´t understand most of it! Yet another chance for me to look holy without actually understanding a word! I did get quite excited when I understood one of the worship songs but since the words were: "celebra cristo celebra. Cristo vive christo vive" I don´t think it was quite such a huge achievement ;) Ah well, plenty of time yet I guess.
The talk was based around Matthew 26:36-46. It´s when Jesus is in the garden of Gesthemane praying and the disciples fall asleep. The preacher showed a tv ad where various people are texting, on the phone etc when driving and cause crashes. The line was "good drivers just drive". He went on to say how this is a lesson for us in life; we mustn´t be distraced by "things." Keep your eyes on God. Stay alert and focussed on God-it is only then that you will be on the right path and make the right choices.
The actual talk was over an hour so he went into a lot more depth but I go lost after that point. I didn´t want to nod off (like last week!) so I kept on re-reading the passage. In my transltion it said that Jesus was sorrowful and afraid. This made me think. Jesus was scared....scared! When you go for an interview or exam you´re scared but there is always the tiny comfort that it will be over soon. Once you start the exam you get into the "moment" and usually are too busy to be scared. Jesus had no such comfort. He was afraid and He knew it would just get worse. What was He facing? The ultimate separation from God,Agonising pain, horribly slow death, parting from family, public degradation and humiliation. These are our worst fears, there can be nothing worse but He faced them. And He faced them alone because His family weren´t there and His friends abandoned Him.
We often feel alone when we´re troubled but usually we do have friends or family around us if we turn to them but Jesus didn´t:
Jesus was alone and scared so what did He do? He prayed!! He turned to God and sought His will.
Big excitement for me today..I went out all alone! I walked to shops, it´s my first time out all by myself. Trying to remember where to go and also trying to blend in and pretend I´m a local-it´s amazing how far 2-3 miles can be ;) I went to the post office and hired a mail box that way I can receive letters and perhaps parcels. You wouldn´t believe the paperwork needed; they even wanted my passport number (why?!) Manage to get an address though:
17-41-0011 casilleros postales
Conocoto
Quito
ECUADOR
I really hope this address works!
Started my Spanish lessons on Wednesday and am struggling along. I´m trying to remember I´ve only had 3 lessons and have never formally learnt another language before so am trying to not get too fed up. Being the only one learning I have no idea what kind of progress I should be making. Ceci gave me a test today to revise what we´d done (how mean is that?!) I´m proud to say I triumphed in the days of the week crossword (hardcore!) and reeled off the months of year but my numbers were not so good (shame!) Figers crossed I still remember everything when classes carry on on Monday...
