They have the most amazing assortment of fruits here. We have been brave and tried a few of them. This one looks like a hairy strawberry, but I believe it is actually called an achutilla. You pop it open and slurp out the insides, which look kind of like a big, skinned grape with a big seed in the middle. They were actually really good.

From the Coast to the Mountains

I left Guayaquil, which is on the coast of Ecuador, on Saturday and flew to Quito, which is about 10,000 feet up in the Andes mountains. It is a huge change from Guayaquil. It is much cooler and less humid here. I am loving it. And it is so beautiful! More pictures of the gorgeous mountains to come.

New Friends from Ecuador

Our new friends, Jonathan and Steven, who we met at church, gave us a tour of the Malecon last Sunday. It was really fun to walk around the city with people our age who are from here. Yay for new friends!

My Fun Activities in the Community

We spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in elementary schools in the poor communities measuring kids. My job is basically to make small children cry. I'm pretty good at it. This is Beth, Shea, Natalie, and I getting set up to poke fingers and test the kids for anemia.
After we took all the measurements, we had to spend FOREVER putting together all of the data so that Cassidy could present it this week. We were all very glad to have this project done.
I didn't make any kids cry on this day. That was kind of refreshing. I checked heights, weights, teeth and hair. I got to see my first real live lice nits! I was a little bit itchy afterwards.
Say Ah! You wouldn't believe the state of these kids' teeth. Some of them are literally rotted down to the gums. I am definitely not tough enough to be a poor Ecuadorian child.

Cuenca!

Yesterday, we drove about 10,000 feet up into the mountains to a city called Cuenca. It is a city with a lot of European influence, so it is very different from Guayaquil. The scenery was some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Definitely a day I will never forget.

Yes, those are guinea pigs. Here they call it Qui, and we walked all over Cuenca trying to find some. It wasn't so much the idea of eating guinea pig that grossed me out as the very unsanitary conditions it was cooked in. I didn't actually eat any, but I did watch how they get these things onto the spits so they can cook them over the fire. Seriously disgusting.

The flower market was amazing! They have gorgeous flowers in Ecuador, which is one of the biggest flower exporters in the world. I was pretty much in heaven. Look at the adorable Ecuadorian lady!

This photo is of Incapirga, the ruins of one of the main centers of the Incan empire. The ruins are a couple of hours from Cuenca.

We did a service project on Friday and helped build a house for this family. We, along with the help of some skilled Ecuadorian workers, built this whole house in just a few hours. I helped haul materials through the sharp, scratchy, scorpion-infested grass. After that was done, my most important functions were handing people things and playing with the adorable little boys who were going to live in the house.

This is my friend, Kaila, who is a third grader at one of the schools I visited to do health screenings this week. She took it on herself to be my nurse's assistant. She would bring the kids in, sit them down, and explain to them in Spanish what they needed to do. Then she would make them turn their head away while I poked their finger. At the end, she gave them a piece of candy. She was so cute!

A little Sunday afternoon stroll...

View from the top! Sorry this story is backwards, but I can't seem to get the pictures in the right order. Sometimes I am technologically challenged.

At the end of the Malecon, there are 444 individually numbered stairs that lead to a lighthouse at the top. For some silly reason, we chose to make the climb during the hottest part of the afternoon. This is us at the halfway point.

A Message from Ecuador for My Best Friend

Feliz Dia de la Madre Mom! Thank you for everything you do. You are always there for me through everything, and you really are my best friend in the whole world. Te Amo!

Octopus anyone?

Octopus ceviche. I tried one bite, and it was not my favorite. Octopus is a little on the chewy side. Ceviche, which often has shrimp rather than octopus, is a very traditional Ecuadorian soup made with lime juice and seafood, which is often raw. This was cooked. Raw octopus would be even worse.

La Playa!

We spent today on the beach at Salinas, which is kind of a tourist city. It was really fun to play in the warm ocean. The only problem with visiting the beach on the equator was that I got completely fried by the sun.

Just like home!

This house even has a white picket fence! No matter how poor you are, you can still make your house clean and pretty. These people do the best they can with what they have.

Many of them paint their houses to make them brighter and more attractive. This is where my sister, Katy would live in this town. The house is bright green, although that didn't completely come across in the picture.

Some Similarities to our community...

This may be a poor community, but they have many things in common with us. For example, people still have flowers to make their yards more beautiful...

Un Dia en la Comunidad

This is basically what the houses look like in the communities we are going into on the outskirts of the city. Dirt streets, no running water, no indoor plumbing. Most of the houses are built on stilts because there is a major problem with flooding in the rainy season. There are still swamps everywhere. Not exactly the kind of place where most of us would want to place our summer homes.

Temple Night!

This was one of the most amazing experiences I have had so far here in Ecuador. We spent our Thursday night at the Guayaquil temple. The temple is a beautiful, clean, peaceful refuge from the dirty, smelly, suffering city. I was very grateful to be able to spend an evening there.

May 7th

Visiting some kids playing behind the school where I was taking measurements of children. They aren't so different from American children. They have fun with the things that are available to them. In this case, it was building things out of bamboo.

May 5th

I helped teach handwashing at an event put on by the hospital. Some of the local nursing students came to visit. It should be fairly easy to pick out the Americans. We are the ones that stand a full head taller than everyone else.

Bird's eye view of Guayaquil and the Malecon. The Malecon is a 5-mile path along the river with lots of things to do for families and good security, so it is safe. It is on the Rio Guayas, which is the main river here. It flows different directions depending on the tide because we are so close to the ocean.

Katelin and I in front of the gorgeous cathedral across the street from the iguana park. I have seen a number of beautiful cathedrals here in Guayaquil. There were lots of little children begging in this area. It made me very grateful for what I have and sad that I couldn't do something to help all of them.

After church today, we went to the iguana park located a few blocks from our hotel. There are iguanas everywhere. I'm not going to lie. They are just a little bit creepy. They don't seem aggressive though.

Katelin and I at Parque Historico. That is the River Daule and the city of Guayaquil in the background.

For one of our activities today, we went to el Parque Historica Guayaquil. It was an absolutely beautiful tropical park full of Ecuadorian plants, wildlife, and displays of typical Ecuadorian life.

Happy Birthday to Me! We celebrated my birthday with delicious muffins at the Salt Lake Airport while we were waiting for our airplane. My wonderful friends also made me a beautiful birthday crown.