Missions

So, as you know i went to Ecuador for 2 weeks. one week of medical mission work and the other week of just vacation. it was so amazing and has made me miss it so much. the minute i stepped off the plane i felt like i was back home. all the random things that i had forgotten about living there came rushing back, like how i couldn't just drink the water for fear of acquiring vichos, or how crossing the street becomes a sporting event rather than a simple action, what with all the darting and dodging of cars. or how an accepted mode of transportation is piling as many people as you can into the back of a pick-up truck. one event that happened right before i left was when my friend was dropping me off somewhere in the city and he took my on the back of his motorcycle... while talking on his cell phone...and running red lights...and driving on the sidewalk! all while passing a police officer! seriously, only in Ecuador could someone get away with this. but don't worry mom, i was wearing a helmet.

The week of medical work was awesome though, it always is. we went to the same city that we have been going to the last 4 years and many of the same communities that we have gone to before but every year is so different from the last. there are certain things that you can count on, how everyone will have A)Vichos (parasites), B)Scabies C)Ringworm and D)will want vitamins. that being the case we know that our biggest supplies will be vermox and vitamins along with creams for the scabies and ringworm. it's how the people will react to us that is so unpredictable. the number of hearts that were touched can't be counted, our lives were changed by them even more than theirs were changed by us. and it's always good, especially now during lent, to be reminded how many things in life aren't really necessary. like this woman here, this is her whole entire house. that's it. that's her bed, her kitchen, her "living" area...everything. and chances are she doesn't live alone. i am always so humbled when i see how much of the rest of the world lives and then think about how much i "think" i need. obviously we can all get by with just a little less than we already have.

there were so many children who touched my heart while i was there, i didn't want to leave the country (and almost wasn't able to!). i would really like to be able to go back in the next few years, after i get the proper nursing experience, and then get our clinic up and running. when i was working with operation smile and i got to help with that it was so awesome to see these lives changed and that's what our clinic is trying to become. we've got almost everything we need to start operating we're just lacking a few key things such as money, supplies ...and nurses. that last one was brought up more than once to me...i wonder what they could be thinking? actually that's not true they flat out asked me to stay, not even go back to the US to pack up my stuff, just stay. i was even promised a hudband, that was an awkward moment.

in other news, the heat is stuck on in my apartment and it is now a whopping 90 degrees. i have been wearing my bathing suit with all the windows open as a way of compensating and i seem to be losing the battle.

Escape from Ecuador

ok, so i actually was working on this blog before and then my computer froze and it erased everything. so as a matter of principal i refused to retype my work, however, i realize now that you may perhaps be wondering what became of me.

well i'm alive and back in the USA!

just barely though. turns out when i went to the country they entered me under my missionary visa (i used to live there hence the visa) they neglected to tell me this though. here i thought i was happily traveling as any other american citizen when in truth i wasn't, i was being slowly drawn deeper and deeper into their deceitful web of bureaucracy and red tape.

To explain the situation that exists in Ecuador would take far to long, but basically when someone living in Ecuador, either a national or an ex-pat, or someone living there with a visa, would like to leave, they then need to take their censo (ecuadorian id card) and their permiso de salir (small piece of paper valid for one year, costing aproximately $12 when obtained illegally through a travel agent as i had done, that states the holder of said paper is allowed to leave the country) with them to the airport. at the airport they pass through the immigration line, show their valid passport, their censo, and their permiso de salir, and then are waived through.

to get back to my story, it was saturday night and i was back at the airport for my second attempt to leave the country. this time i was making excellent progress as i had my ticket and there was no delay in tonights flight. i felt as though it would be smooth sailing from then on. i was wrong.

i had gotten to the airport a bit later than the recommended time and so, was the last person in all the lines. there i was, standing in front of the immigration officer. i hand him my passport completely unaware that there could be any kind of problem, after all i was an american citizen. that american passport is like a golden ticket when traveling in and out of countries. then suddenly the officer turns to me and asks if i speak spanish, i tell him some, and he says to me while holding up my visa "where is your censo, where is your permiso de salir?" and i tell in, in bad but completely understandable terms, i do not have them because i was only here for 2 weeks on a medical mission trip.

he then tells me "you can't leave ecuador"

WHAT?!?! i think he must be joking, or at the very least looking for some kind of bribe, but he calls another officer over to verify the fact with them that since i have an ecuadorian visa that is still valid i need to have my censo and permiso to leave the country

i think, that's it, i know how hard it was to get those papers in the first place, a task to difficult to be attempted twice, especially now that i wasn't even living in the country. i might as well start looking for an apartment and resign to the fact that i was going to have to live here forever. then i decided to call my ecuadorian friend in one last desperate attempt to leave. so i call and i frantically tell him "THEY WON'T LET ME LEAVE!!!" and then had the cell phone over to the immigration police.

i don't know what exactly was said but in the end my friend put his mother-in -law, who evidentally knows importnant people in the immigration world, on the phone and whatever she said was persuasive enough for the officer to hand me back my passport, tell me i was in huge trouble if i tell anyone about this, and then waives me through.

so i made it back, got back on sunday and then monday morning was back at work. today was laundry/taxes day and i'm proud to say that i got both accomplished. i know from previous experience that it's not a good idea to let clothes that had been previously worn in humid weather while riding a donkey through knee deep mud sit in a closed suitcase for too long.

STILL in Guatamala

Ok, so as much as i do love Ecaudor the past 24 hours have been a little trying to my soul. i was supposed to leave this beautious country last night at 9.55 pm however there was some kind of delay and the flight was rescheduled to fly out at 2 am. i felt it was in my best interest to go stay with my friends rather than to hang out at the airport for the next 6 hours waiting for a flight which may, or may not, ever leave. once arriving at the aforementioned friends home i then contacted a representitive of the airline to see if it would be possible to either switch my flight to another day or get a better idea of when the fly would truly be leaving Quito. this representive informed me that there was no space on any flights until tuesday at the earliest so i decided that i would just fly out that night whenever my flight was supposed to leave. i asked this kind man if he would find out for me why the flight was delayed and when exactly it was going to leave. he put me on hold for an eternity and then came back to tell me that there were mechanical problems in atlanta and the plane had not even taken off from atlanta and so it would be delayed until at least 4 am maybe 5. he did tell me that i should call at 1am just to check and then last minute he says ´let me write a note on your itinerary just so that in case the flight does leave then they will know that i advised you to wait where you are until 1 and then call´
well i set my alarm for 1 am and call at the appropriate time only to find out that my flight was leaving in half an hour sin yo! i nearly had a heart attack. they told me the only thing i could do was call their 1-800 number in the morning and reschedule a flight. keep in mind they told me everything was booked through tuesday. well this morning i did call and spoke with a woman who was none to gracious and told me that i would have to purchase another flight becuase i was not at the airport. i explained to her that i was advised to stay where i was by a representative of THEIR airline. she then says ´well fine, what´s your name and i will look up your booking´ i gave her my name and she put me on hold for an even longer time than the first guy and she finally comes back and says oh so sweetly, ´you´re all set to fly out tonight, have a great flight´
i accredit the ease of all this to te multiple rosaries i was saying before i went to bed, this is one of those times where i can clearly see the hand of God working in my life!
so i will post again once i return to the where all computers have apostrophe buttons and quotation marks and i will share my photos and the many stories i have from my few weeks here.

Guatamala Times

I do apologize to everyone, evidentally i need to explore the links i post, i never saw anything truly offensive (other than a full grown man in green tights) but i didn{t investigate further, hence the deletions of his link. i am currently still in guatamala so i need to go, i will post some less offensive material shortly, i promise.

Never Never Land

i was sent this link quite some years ago by my favorite cousin, how she found it i have no idea, and in cases like these probably best not to ask. but however it was, she kindly then forwarded it on to me. and now i in turn feel that it's only right to share the peter pan man with those of you who have not yet met him. there's many excellent pictures and apparently he creates music as well. i haven't been able to listen to any as my computer is not allowing me to, and i don't know enough about computers to know if it's mine computer or his that's not functioning correctly.

in other news, i leave tomorrow for Ecuador. i'll be gone for 2 weeks but i'm sure i'll have plenty of stories on my return. i promised my manager at work that i would kind of journal my medical mission trip so that they could print it up in a newsletter at the hospital. makes me feel a little like a nerd or a suck-up. but i'm hoping if i do this then it will make it easier to gather supplies from the hospital throughout the year to send down to Ecuador later on.

that said i still need to pack, currently i have everything piled on the floor of my bedroom. now i need to sort through that and decide what actually should be packed and what should not. i mean, i know what i need for the week we're out in the jungle but then what? my friend and i haven't even decided where we're going after we get back to Quito so i don't know what kind of clothes to bring. and i don't want to be that girl that brings her entire closet for a 1 week visit. although to be honest, i am that girl. and i should probably clean my apartment before i leave too. and i have some last minute things to buy, like i want to bring cartoon band aids down with me for the kids because it really sucks to have to get a shot but if you can put an Elmo band aid on it after it somehow makes everything alright. and trust me, even Guatemalan children in third world countries feel the same way.

things that make me smile

it's just so beautiful.

Auto Repair 101

So this is how i fix cars. i don't even remember how long ago it was when i first discovered there was something wrong with my windshield wiper but i know it didn't take me long to "fix" it. i suppose the only thing that would have been better than wrapping a rag around the piece that's broken would have been to duct tape it. maybe next time.

i had a great weekend in Pittsburgh, lot's of family time. it was awesome. funny how you don't realize what words you use a lot until there's a small child around you at all times to mimic what you say. seems our family uses the word "awesome" quite a bit. i suppose it's better than many other words.

i've been checking my cousin Doug's blog a lot lately, he's on a motorcycle trip basically across the world. he started in Seattle and he's going to end in Argentina, i linked his blog so you can let him explain it better if you like. but i've been seeing all his pictures and it is making me miss Ecuador. i love South America and all it's randomness and craziness. i'm going back down for a short trip in a few weeks which i'm really excited about. i'll be on a medical mission trip for the first week and then myself and my friend who lived with me down there, are going to go on vacation basically. i haven't decided where we're going to go or what we're going to do, my only stipulation is that it has to be warm. (i know that sounds ridiculous seeing as we are going to the equator but it's actually very chilly in the mountains) if we had more time i'd say Galapagos, more time and more $$. it's insanely expensive to get out to the islands for someone who's not Ecuadorian and then there's all the rest that you have to pay for, when all i really want to do is get an awesome tan.

it's time to go get ready for work now, only 2 more night shifts to go till sometime in April. it's not that i don't like night shift, it can be fun. but it just throws your entire life off. i still have no idea when i should eat and how long i should sleep. and i always have to psych myself up for the night, convince myself that this shift is going to be awesome, and awesome it shall be.