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The beach
The beaches in Ecuador are beautiful and empty Hey guys,
So let´s see. It has been a long week.
Forty Canadians showed up this week to work at Planet Drum, the Genesis school with my host brother, and another organization. They are from an organization called Children of Ecuador. A couple of years ago the founder Dave came down and worked at the Genesis School and it changed his life. He went home, started a non profit, and raised tons of money. Along with my host brother they are building a trade college which will bridge the gap between the high school graduates who can not afford to go to a university and end up with low income jobs and the graduates that go on to university. The Canadians that came down here are mostly high school kids with adult chaperones. It has been interesting working with them and seeing how they react to their new environment haha. We have gotten so much work done though! With about 15 Canadians helping us we were able to water at least 2 sites a day. By ourselves it is a struggle to water one site a day! Since they are only in Bahia for 6 days though they wanted
Riding to the beach
Riding in the back of a pick up truck has become my standard form of transportation lately. to work everyday so that meant we didn´t get a weekend haha. Oh well.
The second day the Canadians were here I sprained my ankle running down a trail at one of our sites. It hurt really bad and everyone saw me fall and roll down the hill haha. I am doing a lot better though. It isn´t that swollen anymore or anything. I guess that´s what I get for wearing slip on shoes while working in the forest.
This week I also went to a party at my host brother´s house. It was a party for the Canadians that are high up on the non profit, the board of directors and their families. It was really fun though. My whole host family was there and Clay (coordinator of Planet Drum) went with me. Sandra (my host brother´s wife) made the best meal I have had in Ecuador so far. We had different kinds of empanadas, salads, delicious rice, barbecued chicken, and this dish that is usually only made on Christmas. Along with my host mom´s delicious ahi sauce. Mmmm it was amazing! We even had chocolate cake and ice cream. It was great. I think I ate
more food then anyone else there haha. My host brother Vladir also let me ride his moped around Bahia when the party was winding down. It was so much fun riding the moped by myself and checking out the little city I have come to love so much. During the party Vladir and Sandra talked about how they haven´t had a foreigner come over to their house so often and attend so many family events. It was nice to hear that. I am not sure if they meant it as a good thing haha but I took it to mean that I have become part of their lives while I am here.
Planet Drum also celebrated 4th of July by going down to the beach and having a barbecue. It was fun. We cooked hot dogs on sticks, made a giant bowl of fruit salad, and set off fireworks. The Ecuadorian made fireworks were by far the best haha. It was weird celebrating 4th of July in Ecuador and thinking about everyone celebrating it back home. It was kind of like being at home I guess.
Ummmm, one day after work we went to a honey farm. It
more or less was just a couple bee boxes in a giant field surrounded by even bigger rice fields. It was still fun though and very pretty. We got a little presentation about bee boxes and honey from the farmer. He was a really cool guy. He goes around Manabi and shows people how to make bee boxes out of local materials and cultivate honey. He showed us a couple slideshows and then he showed us a video about a guy who we thought was a bee keeper. It turned out to be a video about a guy with no arms who plays guitar and ends up playing at a church for the pope and a bunch of crying people haha. It was really fun we were all looking at each other like what the heck does this have to do with honey? It turns out he shows this to people when he´s traveling as inspiration. Like if this guy with no arms can play guitar for the pope you can cultivate honey haha. It was a really pretty area though. On the bus ride back to Bahia some guy tried to pickpocket me. I caught him so he didn´t
Shark Point
Apparently there are waves here but there are also sharks. get anything. It was crazy though that has never happened to me before.
Yesterday was the last day with the Canadians. We went to a soy bean farm to work. It was a really pretty farm in a rural town. The farmer gave us a tour of the town and the farm. We planted trees and worked on the trails. I was tired from working 7 days in a row so I mostly played with the kids. There was the cutest little kid with no front teeth and a tiny head haha. For lunch the farmers family cooked up a giant meal for the whole group. There was like 30 of us. It was delicious and we all squeezed into this little home and ate with the family. It was great. Some of the Canadians didn´t want to eat the food so I had to step it up and eat extra haha.
Well that was pretty much my week. Tomorrow night I am leaving for the biggest city in Ecuador, Guayaquil. I am going with Clay and then from there we are going on a camping trip to the cloud forest. We are also going to a somewhat
Bee Farm
That´s the farmer Sebastian and his two sons on the left and Clay on the right. rural area where there are cooperatives making salami, chocolate, and cheese. So that will be delicious. We also might go to a touristy area called Baños where we might do touristy things like swim in the natural hot springs. Whatever we do it is going to be an awesome trip. I have only been on the coast the whole time I have been here and I am anxious to see more of the country. It will also be fun traveling to places off the beaten track. We are going to try and camp the whole time and eat in people´s houses as much as possible. The people living in the mountains are a lot different then the coastal people though and it might not be ok to just ask to eat in someone´s home haha. We will see I guess.
Well that is all for now. I will post again when I return from my camping trip. Pray that I get all of my work done in the short time I have left here.
I love you and miss you guys.
Peace.
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Mom
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Great Blogs
hi honey, Wow what an amazing week huh? I love your blogs! They make me think, laugh, and cry all at the same time! You have amazing writing stills with a wonderful ability to enable the reader to visualize exactly what you are describing. Good job! I was especially glad to hear how much you liked zipping around on a Moped since I may be a tiny reluctant to give up my (oops... I mean your) car now that I've gotten all the sand out of it! Love, mom