Life in the campo...

So far, so good down here... Just to give you an idea of an average weekday:

5:30am--wake up and get dressed
6:10am--out of the house and walk to catch the bus
6:25am--catch our bus (arriving just on time to catch it)
6:45am--get off the bus and walk walk walk
7:25am--arrive at the school in La Rinconada
7:30-9am--teach English
9-10:30am--random activities around the school (setting up a computer lab of donated computers, setting up what will be an eating area, etc)
10:30-11am--serve the kids food provided by the Ministry of Education
11am-12:30pm--teach P.E.
12:30pm--leave the school and hike hike hike
1:05pm--catch the bus after our perfectly timed hike (unless we're running late, then it's a run uphill)
1:25pm--get off the bus to walk back to the house
1:45pm--get back to the house and have lunch

After that it's usually either working on my final papers or journaling for me. Last weekend we went to this laguna that used to be a hacienda but the story says that God saw that the owners didn't give to the poor so to spite them he flooded the place...an interesting way to say "be generous" and the laguna was very beautiful.

I made my first trip to an Ecuadorian doctor last week but I am doing just fine now. All weird noises coming from my stomach have ceased.

In addition to missing everyone at home, I also have the pleasure of missing my Quiteña family. It's crazy how much I feel like I'm missing out on stuff back there.

It's also crazy that I only have a few more weeks here. I'm still not 100% positive I'll be back here next semester because of a number of reasons. It's not that I'm unhappy, I just think that I might be able to help more and in that way benefit more from a different internship...we'll see, of course. No doors open nor shut.

One hightlight: with my new host mom I was passing two little girls on the road and she asked one “Are you Ximenita’s daughter?” and she said “Yes” and so my host mom asked the other one, “And who’s daughter are you?” because she didn’t recognize her (in a community this small that’s odd) and the little one responded, “I’m the daughter of my mom.” It was adorable.

Culinary highlights: snails and sheep intestine. No, not at the same time. Snails were one of my first nights and sheep intestines just today. My new host mom tried to not tell me what it was but it was pretty obvious. And chewy.

I've got to go catch the bus back up to San Clemente but I just wanted to send a hello to all of you out there... more details to come! And pictures, I promise. Love!!!