Volunteer

I'm sorry it's been so long since our last entry. Between writing sponsorship letters and working with the kids our blog entries have fallen behind but we're going to start writing in it more frequently now.

This entry will feature some of the babies...

This is Noemi at 16 months. Pete and I love to play with Noemi because she is always happy. She loves to laugh and loves for us to hold her. She especially likes to be thrown up in the air and caught. Since our arrival, Noemi has learned to walk. It has been such a privilege to watch her go from taking her first steps to now pattering all around. Noemi also loves to swim. I take her to the pool on Thursdays and we have so much fun splashing around together. In the pool, Noemi likes it when I place her on the edge and hold out my hands for her to fall into my arms. We say together (in English), “One, two, three!” and she jumps into my arms laughing the whole time. Noemi is also very cute during snack time. The other day I was feeding her a banana and before she took a bite she would always say, “Yummmm.” Every time! It made Pete and I laugh. We actually videotaped it and we hope to be able to show it soon.

Noemi’s story is very interesting. Noemi’s mother was actually hired as a surrogate for a Columbian family. Noemi’s mother already had three kids, no job, and was living with her mother so she was desperate to make some money. The Columbian family paid her $800 but then they were suddenly called back to Columbia and never came back or tried to contact Noemi’s mother. When Noemi was born, Noemi’s mother couldn’t afford to keep her so that’s how Noemi came to For His Children. She has been with us since she was about a week old. She is a very smart baby and is usually a favorite by all.

This is Andrea at 11 months sitting in Pete's lap. Andrea has the sweetest, little personality. She is very quiet and sometimes timid but she loves to be around people. Andrea especially likes to be with Pete. We recently took her to our house to play, but Andrea wanted to sit in Pete’s lap the whole time. She was so content to just be near him.

Since Andrea is more guarded then the other babies, you truly feel rewarded when she laughs or smiles at you. A few ways to get her to laugh or smile at you is to tickle her. She will laugh so hard when she is tickled that she will go into that “silent laugh” mode. Andrea is one of the more independent babies and seems content to play by herself when we are busy helping with the other babies. In the last month, she has started to walk cautiously but she still prefers to do a butt-scoot-like crawl. She never goes on her hands and knees, rather she scooches her way across the floor. When she gets excited about something she will scooch over to you with gusto so that she is practically using her butt as a trampoline.

Andrea’s story is something out of a movie. A family found a little baby only a few days old in a box on their doorstep on evening. They were afraid to touch her at first because they noticed right away that she had six fingers on her left hand and six toes on her right toe. Finally they called a neighbor (who told them to stop being superstitious) and the neighbor called the police. The police could never find out who left little Andrea there and she came For His Children shortly after. She has had her extra fingers and toes removed now (they were more like nubbins than actual limbs) but she is still very self-conscience bout them. She will not let you touch or see where her scar is on her hands or feet.

Finally, this is Emilia at seven months old. I’m pretty sure Emilia is the happiest, sweetest baby in the whole world. I have only seen her cry once in all my three months here and it was only for a second. I truly believe that Emilia has been blessed by God with one of the best-natured personalities. She is always happy and smiling whether you are holding her or whether she is playing by herself. Recently, I was playing with the babies in their room and Emilia was playing quietly by herself in her crib. The rest of the babies were playing on the floor with me, so I went to Emilia’s crib to have her join us but she looked so happy cooing softly to herself as she played with her stuffed bear that I decided to leave her there. She continued to play in her crib just as happy as could be. I also really like it when I get to play with Emilia in the pool. She gets so excited to be in the water. She loves to splash around, although occasionally she will give herself a good splash in the face which will startle her. As you can see, she is also our most photogenic baby.

Emilia is another baby who was found on a doorstep in a cardboard box only hours after her mother gave birth to her. The family who found her noticed a strange car near their house and they suspect now that it was Emilia’s mother who was making sure that someone found her. The family wanted to keep Emilia but when they called the police, the police told them they’d have to go through the proper adoption methods. So now Emilia is here at FHC and is a healthy, beautiful baby girl.

All three of these babies are very dear to my heart. Please pray for them to find loving, Christian families soon. We will write more soon!

Since this is probably one of our only venting sessions I (Tesha) thought I'd jump on and say one more thing about Ecuador/Ecuadorians that frustrates/confuses us. First, let's think about an every day situation in the United States: You’re at the grocery store. You don't have a cart. You're browsing in the middle of the cereal aisle deciding which one you'd like to have for the next morning's breakfast. While deciding you notice out of the corner of your eye that someone else is moving down your aisle with a shopping cart. You are in the middle of the aisle and the person is looking like they want to pass you so you....
a) Take one step and move out of the way
b) Pretend like you don't see them and continue standing directly in the middle of the aisle as to make it very difficult for them to maneuver their cart around you

Now I may be an optimist but I believe most of us would trouble ourselves to take that extra step so the person with the cart could easily pass. Common courtesy right? Not here in Ecuador. Seriously, it's like all people of all ages have the "I'm not going to move" mentality. It happens to us everywhere...buses, malls, grocery stores, sidewalks… At first we thought that they were just giving us "gringos" a hard time but then we noticed that everyone does it to everyone else no matter what their race or status is.

We're getting used to it now; plus we're getting really good at making ourselves a lot smaller to squeeze by people, but it still one of those things that makes you really appreciate certain common courtesies in Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

We saw this verse in action tonight. Tonight at our English as a Second Language group we met Dario. Dario is a native Ecuadorian but speaks English fluently and works as a teacher like Pete and me. Dario is around our age and we hit it off with him right away because of his easy smile and friendly demeanor. Then we found out that we are neighbors! Dario lives with an American missionary couple right down the street from us. We decided to take a bus home together afterwards and that is when we got to hear Dario's story...

Dario is a real life Compassion International kid from the jungle village of Shell, Ecuador. He was supported by a family from Long Beach, CA until his family no longer needed the help. It was amazing to hear how much love he had for his Compassion family. He told us how he treasured the letters and pictures they sent him, and how he loved to send them his drawings and letters in return. Dario said that it was through his Compassion family that he first learned that love is an action not a word. It struck with him that some family who he had never even met would love him enough to support him to go to school and have clothes and food for his family. Dario's dad left his family when Dario was eight. His dad left behind five children and a wife. Dario said that he always knew that someone loved him because he had a Compassion International dad who always said he loved him and was proud of him.

When Dario turned 18, his mom told him that he had to leave the house and find work. She couldn't support him and his other brothers and sisters. So she gave him all the spare money she had and sent him on his way. He went to the bus station with one backpack, boarded the first bus that came, not knowing where it was going, and ended up in a town called Banos, which is a tourist city in Ecuador. He spoke only a little English but knew a tourist agent from his home town and was able to convince him to give him a job. While Dario was working in Banos, he worked to improve his English by listening to the English Christian radio station in Ecuador called HCJB. At HCJB, as a non-native English listener, you can request written copies of the programs given so that you can follow along, so Dario was one of the thousands of Ecuadorians who got regular emails of the programs from HCJB. He kept in regular contact with the HCJB correspondent named Karen.

After working in Banos for a while, Dario's boss suddenly left town. He owed Dario 2 months pay. Dario didn't know what to do so he decided to try his luck in Quito. He had no where to go once he arrived in Quito so he decided to go to the HCJB headquarters. At HCJB, Dario found Karen's office. He introduced himself to Karen and said this: "I've got nowhere to go but I want to get a job here. I can't pay you rent now, but if you let me stay in your house for 2 weeks and after the 2 weeks I don't have a job you can kick me out." Surprisingly, after speaking to her husband, Karen agreed. What started out as 2 weeks turned into 6 years. Karen and her husband Sam basically adopted Dario as one of their own. He still doesn't have to pay rent and they even paid for him to go to college. Now Dario works for an international volunteer organization called Youth World. He also still goes back to his home town to preach the gospel to the Shawiri Indians.

So the point of this story is that God uses people all the time. Dario wishes so badly that he could contact his Compassion family and to thank them for letting him become more than anyone ever thought he could. Now Dario gives back all the love that was given to him through his ministry outreach program.

Seriously this sounds like something out of Compassion International brochure but this is real life. It goes to show that you never know what kind of a difference you can make in someone's life.
Dario would love to contact the family in California that supported him through Compassion International to let them know how much they meant to him in working his way to a good life, but the branch here in Ecuador won't let him send them a letter. If anyone knows someone at Compassion International in the US who could help Dario contact the family, we'd love for you to contact us so we can help Dario contact the family.

Dario's coming over to our house for dinner tomorrow night. We're excited to have a new friend that we can learn so much from.

(Also we asked his permission to tell his story and he gave it to us gladly).

-Tesha

Ok, Pete tells me it isn't that big of a deal that there are so many words in Spanish that are very very similar. After all, in English we have 'picture' and 'pitcher' (say them out loud). But still, it fascinates me how there are so many similar words in Spanish. I frequently mix them up so I thought I'd share some of them with you and you can imagine the funny sentences I might have said mixing up these words....plus you might learn some new Spanish vocab....
Hombro (shoulder)
Hambre (hungry)
Hombre (man)
(in case you're wondering I have actually said, "I am very man." instead of "i am very hungry" and I have also said, "my man hurts" instead of "my shoulder hurts.")
Llover (rain)
Llorar (cry)
Llenar (to fill)
Llevar (to take)
Llegar (to arrive)
Ok I realize that some of these sound similar and some will not sound that similar but...they can mix you up if you're tired.
Sacar (to take)
Secar (to dry)

Pagar (to pay)
Pegar (to fight)....imagine the possibilities... "I would like to fight you this much...." instead of pay

Sentar (to sit)
Sentir (to feel) ..... I have said "he sits sad."

Another common mistake that we make as Americans (I made it when I was in Argentina) is to say "embarazada" for embarrassed. It actually means "pregnant."

Finally the all time low mistake that didn't happen to me fortunately but happened to friend of mine was to use the word "excitada" for excited. The word "exitada" does mean "excited" but in a more, how shall I put it, bedroom-style way. If you ever want to say "I'm excited" use "emocionada" which doesn't mean emotional, but 'excited' in the non-bedroom sense.

As you can see, the thing about Spanish is that not pronouncing a vowel correctly can really mess up what you're trying to say. In English we can say, ‘necessarily’ or ‘necessarily’ and people can easily decipher what we mean. Looking at some of the words I posted above you can see this is not the case with us and Spanish. Thankfully the people here are very forgiving and most of the time they know what we mean, and we are getting better at our pronunciation.

Several times now after eating a meal at a restaraunt we have been given after-dinner-cough-drop-mints! The first time I (Pete) thought our waitors were playing a prank on the Americans, but by the 3rd and 4th time, I knew something was just weird. Today's lunch was topped off with a "candy" cough drop that was "mint/chlorophyll flavor." CHLOROPHYLL???

Today we went to Mitad del Mundo ("The Center of the World"). It was fun to stand in both hemispheres and make jokes about which way the toilets would flush, which season it was, etc. The Equator is only about 20 minutes ($5 by taxi) from our house.
By the way, if you didn't know, they use the US dollar here, so that is convenient.

We've been doing pretty well on eating Ecuatorian food lately. We actually did have Ecuatorian breakfast our first day, but it was mostly hashbrowns and eggs, but with a different name. Last night Tesha made shrimp Cebiche (not to be confused with Cerviche or Corviche). We ate it with rice as the Tias suggested, but the Tias told Tesha that Cebiche is customarily eaten with popcorn on the side.

Today in Mitad del Mundo for lunch Tesha had Ecuadorian breaded shrimp and I had "Llapingachos a la Fritada." I'm not really sure what part of my meal was classified as Llapingachos, but it was good. Ecuatorians seem to like to eat a wide variety of foods with each meal.
Happy Easter,
Pete

I (Pete) bought some sugar cane at the grocery store after seeing Ecuadorians walking around munching on it and it is my new favorite thing. It's refreshingly quenching and it seems like a good compromise between mothers and children- kinda like Kix cereal, only for after lunch dessert. Mothers can feel like their child is getting apple-like nutrition, while the kids think they are eating sweets.

It's Holy Week (Semana Santa), so there is a lot going on in the historical part of Quito this week. I read in Quito's newspaper that the city is trying to become more known for Semana Santa activities, like other South American capitals. (You may have learned about some of the Hispanic Holy Week traditions, such as the parades (the ones with the tall pointy hats), in high school). On Palm Sunday we walked around the historical center, which was packed with Ecuadorians. We saw about 5 other American (maybe Canadian) couples or groups, and after the first two we decided not to make eye contact with any other Whities to avoid the "hey-we're-both-caucasion" smile.

We've met pretty much all of the children at the orpanage now (I'm still afraid of the babies). We can really tell that all of the children are craving love. A lot of times children we hadn't yet met would run right up to us and hug our legs. A 5-year-old girl, Jessica, who had just woken up from a nap, walked right up to me when I was sitting down on a couch, climbed on to my lap and wrapped herself in my arms.
Also, for some of the kids, we're the first white people they've ever been in close contact with. Today when I was playing with two 4-year-old boys, they poked me all over my face and asked me "te duele" ("does this hurt").

Tesha and I are adjusting well to the altitude (9,300 ft.). We've been doing mini-workouts in our living room. Our health has been really good so far.

-Pete

Today I (Pete) made a new girlfriend. Her name is Evalin and she's 2 1/2 years old. Tesha and I went with the corporation's psycologist to the other FHC orphanage located in the rural town, Latacunga. Evalin came up and hugged me right away and didn't leave my side all day. I taught her how to make a popping sound with her mouth and she taught me that the 'Vaca' that we could see from the playground says "moo."

We met some high school aged female volunteers from Latacunga that Tesha talked with for awhile. We were the first people from the US they had ever talked too, so they were excited to ask Tesha lots of questions and listen to her speak English even though they didn't understand. Tesha introduced herself after we noticed them trying to sneak pictures of us on their cell phones.

This evening we went out to dinner and a movie at La Plaza de Las Americas. It was wonderful to experience a modern commercial center in Quito since we had really only seen the run-down areas of Quito, outside of our gated orphanage, which sits on a hill toward the outskirts of the city. We watched La Familia del Futuro (The Family of the Future) and we understood pretty much all of it. Our Spanish is going to be really good by the end of the year.

-Pete