The orphanage welcomed a new baby a few days ago. She is about 13 days old and absolutely adorable. My friend named her Alejandra.

For the past three weeks, we have been practicing almost every day for the school's open house. Every class performed or did a special presentation, and it was held in a park in the middle of town. Early Saturday morning we loaded up tents, desks, tables, large dolls, poster boards, and more. I played keyboard in a band with a group of students. So, we had planned on playing six different songs in English and in Spanish. We had put in a lot of time practicing these songs. Well we start off the presentation with our first song, and unfortunately that is all we got to play. We didn't have enough power for all of the amps and all the instruments so we couldn't play the other songs. So our performance was a little on the short side.
But the school did an awesome job with different theater presentations, science experiments, technology projects, etc. Here are some pictures from the day.

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High Schoolers doing a science experiement - making a cream for your hands



The kindergarten class did a presentation on community helpers

Some highlights during January

Over the past month, I have been able to be involved in many different ministries and I have had the opportunity to plan some fun events. In the beginning of the month, I had the opportunity to visit the women’s prison here in Quito. Most of the women are in the prison for drug trafficking. They are from all over the world. My friend is involved in playing worship music and leading a Bible study every week. I went one morning and I helped to lead worship for the women. What an awesome experience being with these women as they worshiped so freely and without any reservations. I was also able to spend a short amount of time with a group of college students who were here doing a short terms mission trip. Last minute, I was asked to translate a sermon in front of about 50 people. Well let’s just say I added my own interpretations as I went along.
I have been continuing with the field trips, cooking classes, and English club. The field trips have been a wonderful ministry to the kids. They absolutely love them. Thank you so much to all those people who have helped make the field trips possible.
This past week, was filled with a Spa Day that was planned for the women who work at the orphanage. We did manicures, pedicures, massages, facials, and even cut one woman’s hair. All of the women received a gift bag with soaps and lotions. They were so appreciative and they let us know. The majority of them had never been pampered like that before.Some of these women live in areas with no running water, so they were very thankful.

All the women got a manicure, pedicure, and facial

The gift bags that the women received

Sleepover

This past Friday, I had a sleepover with some of my middle school girls. These girls are great! They are all around twelve or thirteen years old. They have a lot of responsibilities at the orphanage. They are in charge of cooking for twelve people and taking care of the younger kids. It was great letting them just be kids for a night. We ate pizza and made brownie sundaes. We had an intense game of Twister going on, painted nails, made crafts, and watched 3 movies! So despite being a little sleep deprived the next day, it was a great time spent with these awesome girls.

Feliz Ano - 2010

So here in Ecuador they have their own traditions for the New Year. Right after Christmas along the streets of Quito, you see all of these life size dolls and masks. On New Year's Eve they burn the ano viejo (the doll) which is supposed to represent any of the negative things that happened over the past year. So throughout the day on New Year's Eve people burn these dolls. You are then supposed to jump over the burning doll so to have good luck in the next year. My personal favorite was the life sized doll of Michael Jackson. Most families get together to have a turkey dinner and bring in the New Year together. At midnight there are fireworks and people eat 12 grapes and put out empty suitcases in the hopes of traveling often in the year to come. I spent the New Year with an Ecuadorian family at the beach.