English Classes

This past week I began teaching English to two little girls who will be adopted in the very near future to an American family. These girls are so sweet and I love having the 1:1 time with them. Their personalities totally change when they realize they have my full attention and are not competing with 10 other children. To make it even more special, they come up to my apartment. I speak in English the whole time, and one of the girls (6 years old) repeats everything that I say – even though she really has no idea what I am saying. Sometimes she will even start making up her own language. We sing, read, play, and do some activities on the computer. It’s also really great for them to have time together as they will be sisters in the near future. We’re going the full immersion route for 45 minutes each day – we’ll see how much they can pick up in this next month before I leave for the States again!

Baby Books

One of the amazing things about For His Children is how so much attention is given to the little details for each child. When a baby enters FHC, photos are taken from that first day until the day that he leaves with his forever family. When the baby gets his first hair cut, locks of hair are kept and safely placed in an envelope. The clothes that the child arrived in are washed and placed in a plastic bag. For every birthday that the child celebrates with us, the candles and any other mementos are kept. The caregivers write two pages of notes on each child each month. These notes include what the child likes, what he doesn’t like, anything new that he learned that month, etc. Any time a child goes out on a fieldtrip a report is written up about where he went, what he did, what he liked about the field trip. The newspaper from the day that the child is born is purchased and put away for safe keeping. Each child receives an embroidered stuffed animal bear with his name on it. When a child reaches school age, art projects and report cards are kept. Finally the child meets his forever family. Pictures are taken and mementos are kept from that day. Part of my job is compiling all the photos and all these keepsakes to place into a LARGE memory book. Volunteers who are here help to create a scrapbook with the photos that have been taken. The ending result is something quite precious. When the families receive this book they are normally blown away. It is an amazing gift for both the child and the parents. As the child gets older, he is able to look back on his early years at For His Children and piece together some of his past. His parents are able to have many picture of him as he grew throughout his years here. This is a fun (and time consuming!) project, but so worthwhile.

Extreme Response: The Zámbiza Dump

Here's the video from last year - I'm at the very end doing the Frisbee toss!

Every year Extreme Response, another ministry in Quito, hosts Christmas parties around the city for the different organizations that they partner with. One of these organizations is the local dump. Check out the video above to learn more about Extreme Response. I also work alongside one of the leaders of Extreme Response when they host a team of people at For His Children. They are a great organization and have been able to help a lot of people in and around Quito.

This year, my friend Amy and I, were in charge of a bean bag toss. The people had to throw the bags through the holes in a board covered with parrots in order to win a piece of candy. People were lined up all along a fence near the entrance; thousands of people waiting. When they opened the fence, people could go to a crafts table, get a picture with Santa, play any one of the Carnival games, or listen to live music. It is wonderful watching as people ranging from age 1-90 joined in on the fun!

It was great to be part of this for another year!

On Sunday I took two of the girls from the orphanage to the local mall to get ice cream and visit Santa. They had won a contest based on their behavior in the house. They were so adorable! They had on new dresses and every little thing was something new and exciting for them. They loved riding the escalator and the glass elevator. They took pictures of the huge Christmas tree. As we were waiting on line to see Santa, I asked them what they wanted for Christmas. “A gift”, one of them said and “a bag of candy” was the other reply. We got our picture taken with Santa – free of charge and we got a free soda. Coca Cola was sponsoring the event. When they got back to the house they were so excited to tell the Tías about what they saw and did. A wonderful Sunday afternoon!

Driving Course

This was by far one of the most entertaining things I have done in Ecuador. I have been wanting to get my Ecuadorian license to be able to drive around groups when they are here and also to be able to have a little more freedom myself. I signed up for the 8 day intensive course which consisted of 2 hours of driving and 2 hours of theory each day. Every day I would come home with a new story. Just to register for the course, they put you through some simulations and tests. The first day I was driving in downtown Quito. This was my first experience driving a manual car. Let me tell you, Quito is very hilly and there are many obstacles including ignored traffic lights, stray dogs, and pedestrians who were never taught to look both ways before crossing. My instructor decided one day to meet up with a friend while I practiced (by myself) going forward and backward in a parking lot for 20 minutes. Every day after arriving from the driving part, one of my classmates would ask, “so who did you hit today? What did you crash into?” Funny the first day, but after eight days….

My theory class was an experience as well. The professor looked like he was asleep half the time. We watched probably around 40 different video clips of people getting hit by cars or getting in accidents. This is very inspiring for new drivers to see. We also participated in a First Aid class where we witnessed CPR being performed on an actual person. Now ironically after this course, I have been told that the law has changed and you can drive with your American license. Also the vehicle that I was going to be able to drive around in, is being sold. Oh well, it was still a lovely experience. I still need to wait for about another week until I can go take my final test to get the license. I have though successfully driven now by myself around Quito. It was a very proud moment!

Thanksgiving 2011

Well I cooked my first turkey “solita” – see supporting attached documentation. Last year I received a crash course from a friend on the proper Ecuadorian way to prepare a turkey. Included in this technique is a massage for the bird, injections of wine, orange juice and other herbs and spices, and a nice bath. One week before the festivities, a woman who works in the office offered me a turkey that she had in her freezer since last Christmas. After checking on the internet the safeness of eating an almost year old frozen turkey, I happily accepted her offer. For future reference, a turkey is good for up to a year in the freezer. During the injection process, the plastic tip broke off somewhere within the 25 pound turkey. It was never to be found again. My guest list began growing rapidly within the week before Thanksgiving. New neighbors who just arrived to Ecuador, a Swiss couple who are working on planning a subway system for Quito, a girl from the States who is studying Spanish here – altogether I had 26 people, many of who were experiencing Thanksgiving for their first time. We had all the traditional food, minus sweet potatoes and cranberry since you can’t get those here. I had invited people to come over at 3:30. In true Ecuadorian fashion I had some people rolling in at 7:30. By 10:00 I kicked everybody out and went to the airport to pick up a group that was coming to the orphanage to volunteer. It was a really fun day and I am thankful to have many good friends here in Ecuador. New friendships were formed between people who had never met, we had an intense game of Cranium – very interesting to play with non-native English speakers, and had great conversation. If you would like an tips on baking a turkey, I would say that I am now nearly an expert.

Here's the evidence

Yep, I made everybody who was experiencing their first Thanksgiving document the experience.

Adoption

One of our two-year old boys, Mateo, was adopted by a family from Italy. He had previously been assigned to an Ecuadorian family last year, and the adoption fell through. We were anxiously awaiting another family for him. When I was in the States, about a week before returning to Ecuador, I was speaking at a church in Florida. I was asked to do the Children’s Sermon in addition to speaking to the congregation and during that time we specifically prayed for Mateo and that he would be with his forever family soon. When I got back to Ecuador, I met with our psychologist who told me she had great news. Mateo was assigned a family and they would be coming in the next week. That was a fast answer to our prayers! The family will be with him in Ecuador until the end of December completing the legal process. He has an older sister who loves playing with him and who speaks Spanish! Congratulations to a beautiful new family!