The Journey Begins....Again

English Classes

2012-01-14T16:31:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-10T16:18:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-06T19:28:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-12-06T19:12:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-01T14:15:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-30T14:03:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-03T12:48:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-11-03T12:41:00.002-04:00

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

2011-11-03T11:36:00.004-04:00

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!

2011-10-29T12:45:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-10-15T12:42:00.001-04:00

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.

2011-09-30T10:32:00.003-04:00

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

2011-07-30T23:26:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-06-25T15:31:00.002-04:00

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.

2011-06-25T15:30:00.000-04:00

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.

Roles

2011-06-25T15:29:00.001-04:00

One of the little baby boys who I brought home from the hospital almost 2 months ago, was in the hospital for a while because they found a mass in his throat and he was having trouble breathing. He had a trach inserted and came home a few weeks ago. He has to be in his own room so that he doesn’t get any infections from the other kids. I laughed to myself the other day as I had scrubs on, complete with a mask and gloves, and was suctioning his trach. Am I qualified for this, probably not! I love all the different roles I get to be in during the day here. Sometimes I’m psychologist; I worked with a family who came with their adopted children who are now teenagers just to visit their birth country. In the course of their visit, we located their birth mother. I worked with preparing the teenagers for this visit. Sometimes I’m social worker; a few weeks ago I went to investigate where a birth family who abandoned their children was living. Sometimes I’m tour guide; leading individuals and groups around the country. Sometimes I’m physical therapist doing different activities and exercises with the kids. Every day is different that contains new experiences.

Some more fun recipes....

2011-06-25T15:20:00.002-04:00

we made some lips with apples,peanut butter, and marshmallows for the teeth

Cooking class continues to be a highpoint for the kids during the week. Every time I see the toddlers throughout the week, they will say, “Tia Jennifer, are we cooking tonight?” After two years of trying out fun recipes we have pretended to eat every insect imaginable and have used food dye, sprinkles, and lot of chocolate to make our recipes more interesting.

Our cooking class has evolved into not only cooking but about 10 minutes of singing too. The 13 kids range in age from 2-6. Some favorites that they have learned this year in English are the peel banana songs, the ants go marching, and the wheels on the bus. The kids are so cute during this time and their attention span is amazing. They stay focused during the whole class. As soon as they see me outside the house coming in for the class (many times with 1 or 2 other volunteers) they start yelling “Tia Jennifer is here!” It’s a highpoint of my week too.

New Babies

2011-05-25T17:31:00.002-04:00

Welcoming Ismael to his new home

In the past two weeks I have gone to the hospital to pick up three different abandoned children to welcome them to the orphanage. I also received a three year old little girl the other day who was brought to our orphanage. Two of the children were in a local hospital and one of the children we had to travel to the border of Columbia, a five hour bus ride with a newborn baby! Today I went with the social worker to pick up a baby girl who will be going to our orphanage in the city of Latacunga. We arrived and the social worker had to rush off to another appointment. I was left with the newborn baby, 3 huge bags of donations, a camera, and important paperwork. I was given very quick instructions of where I needed to go with the baby as well as what to do with the paperwork, etc. I got into a taxi after carrying this huge load, to bring the baby to a clinic for a doctor’s appointment. As we were driving the taxi driver said he couldn’t drive any further because the street was blocked off. So I had to get out of the taxi, carrying all of these things a few blocks until we arrived at the clinic. I then met up with one of the caregivers from Latacunga and I was able to go make copies of all the paperwork. What I thought was just going to be a 1 hour event, turned into a 4 hour event. I love welcoming the new children into our home. It’s really a blessing for them to be placed within this particular orphanage. The care that they receive is truly extraordinary. With so many new children, we are looking for people to sponsor some of these kids. Since I am also in charge of the sponsorship program, please contact me if you think you might want to sponsor one of these kids!
Scrubbing up

Receiving Ismael from his nurse

Rosa Leaves for the US

2011-05-19T16:47:00.003-04:00

After 5 1/2 weeks of being within the country to complete the adoption process, Rosa and her family headed back to the States on Wednesday. Rosa's family's time here has not been easy as they have had to learn how to deal with some of her different negative behavior and communicate with their new 16 year old daughter in a language they don't speak. It is amazing to know that Rosa has a permanent family who is loving and so excited to invite her into their family. Their story is amazing and they have had to overcome many obstacles in order to adopt Rosita. But they have seen God's hand in this whole process and have completely trusted in Him. I brought over some brownies on Tuesday night to celebrate their departure. I love this picture that I got with Rosa. She is looking at the camera and smiling, which is a major miracle in itself! Congratulations to Rosa and her new family!

Galapagos!

2011-05-15T09:29:00.002-04:00

Last week was my big adventure in the Galapagos. I went with my friend Amanda from college and it was a most interesting experience. We landed in Galapagos at the smallest airport I have ever been to. It had one landing strip and everything was outside, covered by a tin roof. We got off the plane and were met by hotness and humidity, it felt great! Our first day was a little rocky as Amanda thought she had Dengue Fever (she just got back from 2 ½ years in Uganda). Her bones ached, her stomach hurt, and she had a fever. She spent most of the first day sleeping back at our hostal, while I went out to explore the surrounding area. I went on quite the lengthy walk to get to an absolutely beautiful beach – white, smooth sand and such blue water! As I was walking (and looking out into the water) I almost tripped on a huge land iguana. After getting back in town, I went to the pharmacy to get Amanda some pills. You don’t need a prescription for anything here in Ecuador. So I had 3 different pharmacists come to try and help me figure out which pill Amanda needed. I left with four different pills after about a 45 minute discussion. The next day Amanda was still not feeling well so we went to the local hospital. We cut the line of about 40 Ecuadorian women and their children and were ushered into the emergency area. As acting translator, I went into the room with Amanda and the doctor told me to look down her throat and observe some weird white bumps while Amanda gagged. She was diagnosed with a bacterial infection. We went back to the pharmacy I visited the nice before, returned our old pills in plastic bags, and were given new ones to help her.

We left for our cruise that day. There were 13 other people on our boat – Australians, Italians, English, Canadian, and Columbians. Our fellow passengers were an interesting lot who made the trip even that more memorable. It was a rather small boat which made for some very interesting travel at night. There was a lot of rocking and pitching back and forth. Being on the top bunk, I held on so I wouldn’t fall out during the night. We got to visit about 5 different islands; all of them offering us a new animal to see. We learned about and saw the Galapagos turtle, sea lions, the blue- footed, red-footed, and masked boobies, the frigate bird, finches, albatross, lava lizards, a whale, and sharks. Every day we got to snorkel and it was amazing what you could see underwater. We swam with the sea lions and sea turtles, saw some huge sting rays, and tons of fish.

I went down into a lava tube cave and got to explore the inside which was pitch black. Our first full day on the boat we visited an area called Post Office Bay. According to the old whalers’ tradition, a letter would be left without a stamp to be taken by the next person passing through who was traveling to the destination of the letter. They have continued with this tradition and now tourists write postcards to be hand delivered to other tourists. I found a postcard addressed to Smithtown which I will take back to NY with me.

It was truly amazing to be able to stand right beside all these animals and sit along the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.

In the Baby House

2011-05-12T15:52:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite parts of the day is helping in the baby room in the morning. I go from 7-9ish some days I stay until 10 or 11 depending on how much help the Tias need. Currently there are 8 babies in the baby house who are split up into two rooms. Here’s a picture from last week with my 5 little guys who I feed and dress. Three of smallest babies, Benjamin, Christian, and Martin, are all about to turn 2 months old. The two older girls on the left are Jennifer and Viviana who are now 7 months old.

Reunion!

2011-05-01T22:01:00.004-04:00

So the last week has been so much fun as I have had two of my best friends (Diana and Amanda) visiting here in Ecuador. Check out my friend Amanda's blog - http://arodabroad.blogspot.com/ to read about all of our fun adventures. She has taken some great pictures of our time together! We are off to the Galapagos on Tuesday!!!!

Rosita's Family

2011-04-20T22:31:00.001-04:00

The last couple weeks have been busy with working with an adoptive family. Rosa is a 16 year old girl with special needs and she has been at our orphanage since she was 3 years old. Rosa’s adoptive family is from Pennsylvania and they have 11 biological children. I have been working with Rosa daily over the past 9 months to build her vocabulary and help control her behaviors. The family arrived last Monday. They do not speak any Spanish and two of their youngest children have Down ’s syndrome. This adoption has been the most interesting so far because of Rosa’s age and special needs. Before meeting Rosa, they were taken into the office to get a complete review of Rosa. All the while, their youngest child who is 9 years old, kept asking, “Time to see Rosa?” I can’t imagine the anxiety and the excitement when these adoptive parents come down and are waiting to meet their child. This couple has been in the process of adopting for 3 years. They saw pictures of Rosa when she was 9 years old in a newsletter and they knew at that point that Rosa was their child. Over the years that followed they tried to save money and really asked God if adopting Rosa was meant to be for them. Rosa was waiting for her new parents with a bouquet of flowers and the photo album that they sent about a month prior to arriving. Over the next few days they followed a strict schedule of monitored time with Rosa. I was with them the entire time in order to translate and just help out with different activities. After just 3 days of being together, the psychologist told them they were ready to take her back to the apartment they are staying at in Quito. It has been a struggle at times for them over the past week because of the language barrier. Little by little she is adjusting to her new family and the family has been learning her routine and her behaviors. Five of their biological children are with them now, so we have been doing some outings around the city. They are hoping to get all her paperwork within one month and then they will be able to return back to the States. I am so excited for Rosa and the new opportunities she will have. Her parents are completely trusting on God as they embark on this new journey.

Los trabajadores sociales

2011-04-01T11:03:00.001-04:00

Today we had a group of social workers come from a nearby hospital for a day of relaxation and just to get to know them and strengthen our ties with them. Just so you all know and can plan accordingly, Social Workers Day is April 8. I was in charge of games which I was told should be played for 1 ½ hrs! I pulled out all old youthgroup games and played them with these social workers who were around 60 years old. I think they rather enjoyed all of the game choices. They spent the entire day at the orphanage, being shown around, eating lunch, etc. But the most entertaining part of the day was our time in the pool. The orphanage has a therapy pool that the kids use every day. Our psychologist decided to lead the group of adults in something called Bio Danza. This is a form of dance in the water. You are not allowed to speak for the duration of the class. You listen to music and then according to the instructions of the teacher you complete certain tasks. It was very difficult to keep it together as we pretended to be fire, stroked the hands of everyone around us, and circled up swaying back and forth. A most interesting experience.

Bio Danza Playing Games: The Human Knot

The hand stroking

Another New Baby

2011-03-31T11:16:00.000-04:00

I went to the hospital today to bring another baby back to FHC. His story was all over the news because his mom had left him in a shoebox in her house. She left a note with him and then disappeared. The owner of the house found the baby, called the police, and he was brought to a local hospital. The news station came to the orphanage and interviewed the Tias (caregivers) as a follow up to the story. His name is Benjamin and we think he is about 15 days old.

Newest Edition

2011-03-21T18:04:00.003-04:00

Here is one of our newest members at FHC, Christian. He is 6 days old!

Making some pizza :)

2011-03-21T18:02:00.001-04:00

I know you are not supposed to have favorites, but this little girl, Nathalia, is one of my favorites. She is four years old. We went a couple weeks ago to make pizza. We had gone to this same place last year with some of the same kids. They absolutely loved making the pizza and picking out all of the ingredients. The taxi ride in itself was an adventure, as the kids excitedly shouted out all the things they saw outside the window.

Just because.....

2011-03-07T21:13:00.003-05:00

Here are some new pictures of Jennifer, just because she is so cute!

Group Leader

2011-03-02T16:55:00.001-05:00

One of my new job descriptions is being in charge of visiting teams that come to the orphanage. The last couple weeks have been my busiest weeks in Ecuador as I have planned and lead two different teams. The first team was a church group from the Boston area. There were 12 people, many of them mothers and daughters and a father and son duo. It was a nice mix of ages with the youngest member being 12 years old and the oldest, late 50s. Currently I have a group of 16 physical therapy students from Northeastern University. They are working on different programs for our special needs children.

In the past couple weeks I have gone on three different field trips with the kids, done 4 different cooking classes, helped with a feeding program at the local dump, lead 3 different city tours, translated physical therapy terms that I don’t even know what they mean in English, did two different school tours, partook in a parade, welcomed and said goodbye to 2 good friends, conducted a scavenger hunt around the city, led a class on how to best barter at the market, and helped with an awesome bonfire. I think I am going to invest in one of those cool umbrellas that the tours guides hold up high when leading groups. Having groups here has let me see and experience new things for which I am very thankful to be a part of. Both of these teams have been such a source of encouragement for me.

I found that I really love spending time with the groups and getting to really know these people. When teams come, the members are open to share with you and eager to help in any way that they can. Their time here looks different depending on the group and the talents that they have, and also the amount of time that they are here with us. Most groups that come down, they play and help care for the children. They will do minor constructions projects around the homes. Let me know if you or somebody you know might be interested in bringing a group down here. It really is a life changing experience for the people who come. I would love to help guide and lead you in your time here!

A cool reunion

2011-03-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

Since being here I have been able to witness new babies come in and many adoptions take place. Just this past Monday, one of our 2 year old boys, Lucas, was adopted by an Ecuadorian family. Last week I got to see something a little different. Jairo, a seven year old, was adopted last year by an American family. I worked with Jairo last year, taking him on field trips and doing cooking class with him. He was adopted last March and his parents decided to take a trip back to Ecuador and the orphanage so that Jairo could visit his old friends and so that his parents could learn more about Ecuadorian culture. It was so great seeing Jairo. He now speaks English fluently and attends a bilingual school to keep up his Spanish. He came running up yelling, “Miss Jennifer!” His parents told me that Jairo always talks about the cooking class that we did together. I’ve gotten to spend some time playing with him over the past week. He is so happy with his parents and so well adjusted. I had them over for dinner. For dessert we made a special recipe together, spiders. We used marshmallows for the body and pasta pieces for the legs and then poured chocolate on top. I am so happy for him and his parents. I asked his parents to talk to the group that was visiting to explain how they decided to adopt an older child and how the adjustment went. During the meeting I was playing with Jairo so I didn’t hear all their answers. But they did explain how they couldn’t imagine their lives without him.

Spa Day - 2011

2011-02-17T20:24:00.002-05:00

Well we brought spa day back again this year for the Tías (caregivers). They loved it last year and have been enjoying it the last couple days that we have been doing it. Tomorrow is our last day. So far we have had 17 women. We should have another 13 tomorrow. It’s great to see the Tías get a break from their normal routine and have some time to relax. The Tías work 24 hour shifts. They start at 8 AM and work until 8 AM the next day. Most times they don’t leave until a little after 9 AM. Many of these women between 1 ½ to 2 hours away and they take multiple buses to get to work. They vary in age from 24-60. Some have been working here for over 10 years. There are mothers and daughters who work here together. The orphanage is an amazing organization and it runs so smoothly in large part to all of these women who put in countless hours for the children. We had requests for haircuts, back massages, and peeling off of face masks. Most of these requests (except for the haircuts) were met. The Tías were able to get a manicure, pedicure, and facial done. They also had some fun snacks to eat! It has been a success thus far!

Swinging

2011-02-17T20:23:00.000-05:00

Everyday Sharon takes two of the special needs kids for some one on one time. Normally they play outside or swing on the swings. The other day I joined in to take part in some swinging action. I forgot how fun it is to swing. Me and one of the teenagers had a contest to see who could swing higher. We ended up with four special needs children and it was so fun seeing them smile and just look relaxed. One of the girls who is often screaming and bites, had a big grin on her face as I would push her really high and run under her swing (aka an underdog). If you are having a bad day, I would suggest going for a swing.

Mindo: Cloud Forest

2011-02-13T20:08:00.001-05:00

This is one of my favorite spots in Ecuador. I have been there four times now. It is nice because it is only a 2 hour bus ride from Quito. As you look out the bus window the scenery changes drastically. You go from being surrounded to mountains and volcanoes to lush vegetation and just greenness everywhere! We are in rainy season right now, which means rain pretty much every day. The cloud (rain) forest was no exception. It rained a lot! I did not have an umbrella or raincoat which made for very soaked clothes. Each time that I have gone I have stayed in the same hostal, which reminds me of a tree house. There are fun hammocks to swing in and the shower has an opening at the top part of the wall which allows for some beautiful viewings of the surrounding area as you shower. I was excited to see that 3 different natives remembered me from the last times I’ve been there (one of them was the owner of the organic chocolate place, you can guess how often I ate there…. The highlight of the trip was an afternoon hike that we took. We walked through the rainforest to visit six different waterfalls. The hike consisted of us tramping through very muddy areas, crossing rivers knee deep with our sneakers on, avoiding fuzzy caterpillars (apparently they are not safe to touch), and crossing wooding cable bridges with many wooden boards missing. It was a fun weekend because I got to spend time with friends from last year who are visiting, friends who live about an hour away, a friend from college, and my roommate. So it was a big group of us and a nice change of pace.