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!

Day of the Dead

Today we are celebrating Day of the Dead. The traditional drink is called Colada Morada which is made up of a mixture of fruits and spices. We also eat something called “guaguas de pan”. This is bread that is decorated with the face of a child. The kids at the orphanage made both colada morada and guaguas de pan in school today. My friend Jilly and I enjoyed our colada morada together.

Cuenca: Otra vez

Our roadside restaurant

The Inca Ruins

At the National Park

I took a trip to Cuenca (a beautiful city in Southern Ecuador) with three of the volunteers at FHC. Dina and Rahel are from Germany and Marcus is from Denmark. We spent about 5 days exploring in and around the city. I had been there a couple times before this, so I knew the city pretty well. This was the first time that I got to venture a little more outside the city. On our first full day in Cuenca we visited a national park, Cajas. It was about 1.30 minutes outside of the city. We took public transportation and I loved being able to see the beautiful countryside. We hiked for about 3 hours in Cajas. There are beautiful lakes and mountains. The landscape there was very different from anything that I have experienced. As we were leaving, we were told that the bus comes every 30 minutes to an hour. We decided to start walking back to Cuenca and catch the bus on our way. Well two hours later and with no bus in sight, we stopped at the first sign of civilization that we saw and got some food while we waited for the bus. It finally came about 30 minutes later and we made it safely back to Cuenca. Another exciting adventure was going to some Inca Ruins called Ingapirca. This was 2.30 minutes from Cuenca (each way!). We took advantage of our time on the bus and Rahel taught me German. Ich bin als New York. We didn’t really progress much further than that. Our 5 hour bus ride was rewarded by being able to stay only 1 hr. at the ruins with a Spanish-speaking guide who spoke very softly while we were almost blown off cliffs. It was cold and windy and rather unimpressive, especially since we couldn’t hear anything the guide was saying. We met a guy from Scotland there who is doing a world trip. We met up with him for dessert when we got back to Cuenca along with a girl from Norway who we met in an Austrian café. Our Scottish friend ended up coming over for dinner a week later when he was in Quito. I love that about traveling. You are always meeting new people who have very interesting stories. In the midst of all my new European friends I tried to represent the States well. Some other highlights included attending a free Mozart concert for kids, trying some cuy (guinea pig) and a WHOLE chicken at some roadside restaurant (it’s amazing we didn’t all get sick), and playing foosball at a German café. Apparently that is a popular thing to do in Germany!

Nike 10K

When I got back to Ecuador, my friend had told me about a Nike 10k race in Quito that was happening at the end of October. There were 7,000 people who ran in the race. We got a Nike shirt, towels, food, and a bag – I was very excited about all of this free stuff. The race started at 7 pm – we were told to get there 45 minutes earlier. It was cold waiting for 45 minutes at night with shorts and a t-shirt on. I was surrounded by some very intense runners who were doing all these warm-up exercises. The race started with fireworks being shot up in the sky and we were off. I was excited to run the whole way and finish in just over an hour. It was exciting running with that many people and having a crowd to cheer you on. When I got to the finish line I was supposed to meet up with my friends. I was calling them and trying to find them but they had forgotten their cell phones at home. This automatically made me think that they were dead somewhere. I walked around a huge park for over an hour searching for them. They apparently were feet away from me. They had asked the man at the finish line if I had finished yet. Apparently my chip didn’t register correctly so there was no record of me in the system. So they thought I had died somewhere too- naturally these are our first thoughts. We finally met up at home after a long search. The computer says I did not finish because of my chip issue– very sad. I did however make it on our local news. Some people told me they saw me on TV. I do not have TV, so I can not vouch for that. Anyway it was a great first race to do in Quito. I’m getting ready to run with Diane in the half-marathon in Disney in February. Apparently you get a glass tiara at the end! I’m looking forward to running more races here in Quito in the months ahead!

Jennifer Turn’s 1

Jennifer celebrated her first birthday on October 14. She is now walking by herself and loves bouncing up and down on her legs. She gets a lot of attention as she is only 1 of 2 little girls in the baby house now. She loves going on outings and walking around in the garden outside. Her newest thing is trying to eat the flowers. It is so cool being able to watch all of the kids grow up and share special moments with them.

I’m back to Ecuador after six weeks of being in the States. After a 30 hour plane delay, I made it home on August 17. The trip was a combination of visiting family and friends and doing fundraising for FHC. During the past six weeks, I spoke at five different church services in four different states, two different schools, two Missions Committees, four college classes, and organized an art show. I was also working on redesigning the orphanage’s website – hopefully coming soon which I’ve been saying for the last month now. So it wasn’t really a vacation per say. I also got to visit good college friends and high school friends, and I saw almost every single one of my relatives. Oh and I also survived an earthquake and a hurricane in NY! Some highlights include going running along the Hudson with Jess, a beach picnic dinner with my parents, Krista, Keke, Tim, Diane and kids, swimming in a retirement community with Cara, going bike riding with Diana, going to the Hamptons which included an Indian PowWow with Krista, time in NYC with friends, playing board games with family, and Capt. Dusty’s with Jaclyn and Sarah. The Art Show was a lot of fun. It was hosted at a beautiful apartment in Manhattan and we auctioned off artwork that the kids at FHC had made. Over $5,000 was raised for the orphanage! I'd love to share photos with you, but it looks like I accidentally deleted them!

What I've Learned in a Week

I’ve learned to use a machete

I’ve learned how to play chess

I’ve learned it’s really hard to explain why you can’t be a five year olds mommy when he asks you

I’ve learned how to dance with a 90 year old indigenous man

I’ve learned how it sounds to have my words translated into Quechua

I’ve learned that being from the south is great, “Yes, Ma’am”

I’ve learned to drive stick shift

I’ve learned that there are many generous people in this world

I’ve learned that pine wood is the cheapest wood to buy

I’ve learned that there is a great restaurant that exists in Latacunga

I’ve learned to play Sequence

I’ve learned that God uses people from all different backgrounds and economic levels to touch others’ lives.

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Jennifer has started crawling now! I will put up a video of her newest accomplishment soon!

Sorry, I don't know how to flip it around! You will have to turn your head sideways.

I have decided to stay with For His Children for another year. Over the past couple months I have had countless conversations with friends and strangers about how it’s so right for me to here. I truly feel like God has made it clear that this is where I need to be at least for another year. My job description involves leading international groups and volunteers, the child sponsorship program, as well as fundraising for FHC. I will be doing some traveling in the States throughout the year and speaking at different churches/organizations. I am excited for this opportunity and all of the interesting people I will meet. I will be coming home to NY mid-August and will be in that area for a little over a month. I am excited to spend time with my family and visit some friends. This summer is going to fly by as I have five different teams I am leading as well as many interns. Just in the month of June, we’ve had 12 full-time international interns comes. I organize their schedules and help them plan trips to visit some interesting places in Ecuador. Throughout this summer we will have interns from the US, Canada, Germany, and Denmark. Each intern brings something unique to the orphanage. This week I will have some high school students from Pennsylvania coming for 1 week to help with different work projects and they will do different activities with the kids. It is busy but I really love the work I’m doing here.