Saying goodbye and traveling back

Our hermana Loida...

y hermano Christian

It was hard to leave them! The whole family took us to the airport and stayed until after our plane took off. They were behind a metal gate, and we could see them as we walked over to our plane and even as we were on the plane. We miss them!

We had a total of 4 flights, about 40 hours of travel, and 20 hours of layover in New York City!
We took a bus to Newerk Penn Station, a train into NYC, grabbed a map and started walking! We are both wearing our Ecuadorian jerseys so we wouldn't loose each other. :-)

Time Square!!

Central Park!

Thanks to our lovely eye-catching jerseys, we found this guy! His name is Byron and he is from Quito, Ecuador! I invited him to join us in walking around, so he became our tour guide! Laura and I sang him a song we had learned in Ecuador (the ayayayay! song! :-) ), and from there we were able to share the whole Gospel with him! Very unexpected, but very very cool!

Our first time on the Subway! Exciting!

We took the Subway to the World Trade Center

Park Place and Broadway...Monopoly, anyone?

At a park in NYC...this park was used in the movie Hitch! Very pretty! The lanters are even lit with fire!

And thus ends our updates from our Ecuadorian trip! It's almost been three weeks since we left, and I can hardly believe how fast it's gone! We still miss everyone and I would still return at any time if God so lead. Our trip was incredible and we saw God's work in so many different ways! One of the biggest things I learned was that God's divine appointments often don't come when I expect them to, which is really pretty cool. Be available always and keep your eyes open for opportunities that God wants to use! If He can use our little Ayayayay song, He can use anything!

Again, thank you so much for your prayers while we were gone! I'm sure we'll have more blogs like this one in the future! I wonder where God will take us next? I'm excited to find out!

Dios te bendiga!

Jesus te ama!

y

Hasta luego!

Ultimo dias en photos

Corpus Christi!! This is one of the castles that we saw...

before the fireworks were set off...

And this is the castle after the fireworks were set off...

muy chevre, pero muy peligroso tambien!

These are the guys who took us to Corpus Christi...very sweet guys!

Fernando, Pedro, Gabriel, me, and Lucho

Our last weekend we went to the house of Ruth's grandparents!

We walked downtown, walked across a bridge, and we were in Peru!

The next day we went to the city of Machala. We took a boat for a half hour to the island of Jambeli and spent the afternoon on beach. Muy lindo!

This is one of the English classes that we helped with...we miss them!

Here is Laura leading one of our gym classes in warm-ups!

We had a lot of fun with these classes!

Do you see the little white shack in the middle of the picture? That's supposed to be surrounded by grass and there's supposed to be a road right in front of it. Yep, the flood was pretty bad!

This is our beloved family that we miss so much!

Jorge, Mariana, Ruth, Christian, y Loida

Te extraño muchisimo!!!!

Last days...

Hola! It's been well over a week now since our last post, so it's probably about time to update about our last days in Ecuador. I've been putting this off, because posting about our final days means that our time in Ecuador really is over. Not sure that I'm ready to face that realization yet. :-) I don't have any pictures available at the moment, so it looks like there will be another post after this to put all of those on.

Our last week at the Bilingue was spent teaching Phy. Ed. As I mentioned before, one of the gym teacher's wives had a baby. This was their first child and they had been trying for a very very long time, so they were very excited! Giovany asked for a week off from work to spend with his wife and son, but the only way that he could get that time off was if Laura and I would take over his classes! We were put in charge of all of his classes...which consisted of only boys. :-) We had a lot of fun! We were the most nervous about the Septimo class (6th grade), since they are basically our size and we weren't sure how well they would listen. They actually turned out to be our favorite class! We taught them how to play elbow tag, had them run relay races, and then we let them play soccer...and they're pretty much amazing! Very sweet guys! Our most difficult class was the kindergarden boys. Uffda! They are not very good listeners. It didn't help that we don't know very much Spanish. With the younger classes we worked on gymnastics and pyramids. For gymnastics we had a big blue mat and a sort of vault-bouncy-thingy. I forget what it's called. We spent our free hours with Isabel and Miguel Angel with the older English classes. We taught some of Miguel's classes The Hippopotamus Song, which was really fun!

Tuesday night we had the party at our apartment and taught Gabriel, Lucho, Johnny, and Isabel how to play Dutch Blitz! Gabriel and Lucho caught on very fast. It was a fun night spent with close friends. Wednesday night we went to Banos with Angela and Christina Lackey to visit the hot springs. We went back to the Lackey house for supper, played some more Dutch Blitz, and had a good conversation with Pastor Lackey about counseling. He has so much wisdom!

Thursday was a crazy day! In the afternoon we packed all of our stuff, which was sad. Our apartment looked very empty. We went out for ice cream with Ruth for one last date. Walked around the Central for the last time and then headed back to the house. When we had left for our trip to the Central, the river had started flooding a little bit again. We had recieved tons of rain over the last couple weeks. When we got back, the entire road next to the river...the one that we take to the Bilingue and the one that Isabel, Gabriel, and Lucho live on...right around the corner from our house...was completely covered by water. The river flooded soooooo much! It was muy loco! We have pictures of that too that I'll have to get up here later. Gabriel was already in the jungle, so he wasn't there, but Lucho and Isabel slept at the Ulloa's that night since their house was blocked off by water! All of the bedrooms in their house are raised by a step, so I don't think anything got ruined, but I'm not sure about that. On Sunday, every school in Cuenca was canceled. This was very sad for us, because we had been waiting to say good-bye to everyone and take our last pictures on that day. The last thing I said to all of the students was "hasta manana!"...see you tomorrow. Muy triste. Marcelo, the director of the Elementary school, came over and gave us gifts from the Biligue...Panama hats (which are actually made in Ecuador). So sweet! We love them! Mary (head of the English department) came over to say good-bye as well. We took the morning and went over to Luis Paccha's house (Darwin's brother) and helped pack everything up and move it out of their house. There house had quite a bit of water damage. The news came and interviewed Jorge (Ruth's dad). I'm fairly certain that all of us got on the Cuenca news. lol! The flood interupted a lot of our final plans, but I'm glad we were there to help Luis and his family. Said good-bye to Isabel, which was very sad. Claudia came over in the afternoon to say good-bye. She's the secretary at the school and goes to the church as well. So sweet! We miss her a lot! We miss everyone a lot!

The Ulloa's took us to the Cuenca airport at 5:30 p.m. and stayed with us. It was so sad to leave them! Ruth has been a good friend of mine for two years, and who know when we'll see each other again?? Loida and Christian became our little sister and brother. Jorge and Mariana became our family too. The airport was very small and before we knew it we were walking outside to our plane. We heard our names called and there was our family behind the gate waving to us! We could see them from our window on the plane as well. They stayed until our plane took off. So sweet...

Our trip to Guayaquil took...20 minutes...no joking. It was ridiculous! We couldn't believe that it went so fast! We went through quite a bit of hassel at Guayaquil...especially poor Laura. When we went through imigration they asked her tons of questions and it took her a lot longer to get through than it did for me. She was also the lucky person who got picked to be searched. They went through our huge souveneir bag, but thankfully our starfish didn't break. :-) We met a very cool woman from California who is a photo journalist and talked to her for a long time. Our flight finally left at 1 a.m. and we slept on the plane. In Houston we had one hour to get our bags, drop off our bags, get through customs, and make it to our next flight. We both had stuff taken away from our carry-ons. When they say that bottles over 2 oz. are not allowed, they mean it. :-) Made it on our plane just in time and arrived in New Jersey around 12:30.

After a lot of fuss about our bags, we finally left the airport at 3:00 and took a bus to Penn Station, Newerk. From their we took a train to Penn Station NYC. We left the terminal, grabbed a map, and started in the general direction of Time Square. Walked past Madison Square Garden and before we knew it we were at Time Square! We were both wearing our Ecuador jerseys and ran into a guy named Byron. He was from Quito, Ecuador and showed us around NYC! We sang him the Ayayayay song that we learned in Cuenca and from there we were able to share the whole Gospel with him! Muy chevre! Please pray for him!

The trip back to Minnesota on Sunday was uneventful, thankfully. By the time we had finished with four plane rides and 40 or so hours of traveling (including layovers and what-not), we were very ready to be out of airports. Readjusting to life in the U.S. has been a little difficult, but we're making it. I fell in love with Ecuador, made so many good friends, and know that if God opens the door to return someday, I will be gone in a second!

Please continue to pray for the salvation of our friends down there. Especially Byron, Miguel Angel, Mary, Daniella, Patricio, Julie, the students at the school, Gabriel's family, Isabel's family, and Lucho's family. Pray for encouragement in their faith for Isabel, Gabriel, Lucho, Fernanda, Giovany and family, Herman, Jose, Teresa, and the whole church. And pray for God's blessing on the Ulloa family, who's generosity allowed us to spend these past five weeks falling in love with their city and friends.

As I said, I'll get pictures up here of the end of our trip when I get the chance. We'll probably post a summary of our time too...favorite memories and all those fun questions. I'll be taking my youth group to the week long FLY Convention in Colorado this Sunday, so that might not happen for another week or so. We'll see. Thank's so much for all of your prayers, support, and comments while we were gone! We appreciate you all so much!

Dios te bendiga! (God bless you!)
Kari

Not much time left here. ¡Estoy muy triste! We head to Guayaquil on Friday and fly out on Saturday at 1 a.m. Plans for getting to Guayaquil seem to keep changing. At first all of the family were driving with us out there, then we were going to take the bus, then Jorge was going to drive us, and now we think they told us that for some reason the buses and cars can´t get to Guayaquil (my guess would be because we have gotten a lot of rain and the mountain roads are washed out) so we might be buying plane tickets from Cuenca to Guayaquil. We didn´t have a translator this morning, so our interpretation might be off. We´ll find out this afternoon when we can ask Ruth exactly what´s going on. Prayers for wisdom on what would be the best way to leave are appreciated (or that something would happen to stop us from leaving...;-)...chendo...kind of [chendo means ¨just kidding¨]).

Anywho, it´s been a rather eventful past few days. Last Thursday we went to Corpus Christi again with four guys that we´ve become good friends with down here. Corpus Christi is a week long celebration in the Central Park. They have tons of fireworks, hundreds of little hot air baloons that they release each night...called globos, lots and lots of sweets, and half the city of Cuenca, or so it seemed. We had gone the night that it started with Ruth, Isabel, and the guys, but we had so much fun that we wanted to go again. We have never been so close to fireworks before. They have these big towers that they call castles that are all full of fireworks, and they light four of them each night. You can stand as close as you want, and the first time I think we stood a little too close. lol... We took some fun videos of it. They had tons of fuseball tables set up too, and we played many games with the guys. And then my camera got stolen. Yep, my nice didgital camera that I had gotten for my birthday is gone. I was shocked at first and then decided not to let it ruin the night, mourned for it a bit the next day, and now I´m over it...I think. Just material. At least it wasn´t my passport. :-)

On Friday, Ruth, Laura, Mariana (Ruth´s mom), and I hopped on a bus and rode down to the town where Mariana´s parents and most of her family live. It´s right on the boarder of Peru, so we crossed the bridge into it and went shopping. :-) The next day we took the bus again to the city of Machala, which is a costal city. After a half hour boat ride we arrived on the island of Jambali and spent four or five hours on the beach, with only the Pacific Island in view. Twas amazing, to say the least. We headed back to Cuenca in the afternoon and got in around 7:00. Unfortunately, I got myself a little bit burned and a lot dehydrated, so Sunday morning at the breakfast table I fainted. Yep. Nice, huh? Apparently it was scary, but I don´t remember anything but feeling dizzy and waking up on the couch. Yep...lots of adventures. Took it easy that day, and now I feel fine. Last night we had a party at our apartment with the guys who took us to Corpus Christi (Lucho, Gabriel, Johnny) and Isabel. Taught them how to play Dutch Blitz and had a fun night of hanging out. Thus begins our goodbye parties. Again, muy triste.

Giovani´s wife finally went into labor, so today Laura and I are officially gym teachers. And now it´s time to get our first class! Thanks for the prayers everyone! Hopefully we´ll get some more pictures up tomorrow.

Ciao!
Kari

Mas photos : More pictures :-)

Laura with some of the Kindergardeners who always run up, give us hugs, and ask if we´re coming to their class today. We love them!

Roasting Cui...Guinea Pig

Kari, Cui foot, Cui head, Laura

Helping with a drama for the Dia de la Familia...Miguel Angel (one of the English teachers), Kari, Grace, Carina, and Michelle...we´ve had so much fun working with this group!

Mona Lisa!!! Soooo cute! And yes, she is eating a grasshopper.

She likes to sit in our hoodies. She went on the hike through the river in Laura´s and rode home in Kari´s

HAHAHAH! We love this picture! Jessica is trying to hypnotize the chicken and we´re not really sure what Laura was doing to the cat.

One of the women we visited in Nabon, Teresa, and Jessica. Please pray for Teresa! She needs encouragment and relief from pain!

lol...another favorite! Ruth is dressed up as a Cholo and Laura is wearing the authentic Chola outfit that Jessica bought. We all took turns dressing up and learing how to dance Cholo-style.

We went to the Bible Camp that Ruth used to live at and had a fun time chasing llamas. Almost caught the baby too!

Our mode of transportation when we went up the mountain with the Lackey´s! It was SO much fun! Way better than any rollercoaster! :-D You can see the city of Cuenca in the background.

Conquerors of the Andes!

Hey all! I had thought that the last post didn´t work, so I was all prepared to try to recap everything, but lo and behold it saved. That´s a very good thing, since we don´t have much time today. I thought I´d still give a short little update about the past two days, which have been very adventurous, to say the least.

On Thursday Jessica, Laura, and I woke up and caught a taxi at 6:30 a.m. to the bus station. We then took a bus on a two hour ride through the mountains to the town of Nabon, which is where Jessica spent three years when she was a little girl. It was fun to see where she lived and meet a bunch of people that she knew from back then. The town is much poorer than Cuenca is. We don´t really feel like we are in a developing country when we´re in Cuenca because the city is kept so nice, so Nabon had a much different feeling. We got to meet a woman named Teresa who is in her 60s and has been bed ridden for 30 years. She is a Christian and asked us to have people pray for encouragment and for relief of the constant pain that she is in. She was a very sweet woman and Jessica was able to read some passages from the Bible to her and we sang some hymns together. We then spent time with a woman named Rosa who has five children, her husband died one month after getting to the U.S., and her house just fell down. She is living in one room with four of her young children and her mother. Her oldest son is 15 and is working in Cuenca to support the family. Please pray for them as well. Nabon is in a valley as well surrounded by moutains. One of the mounstains that overlooks the city has a cross on it, and we all decided to walk up to it. They have made it quite touresty with stairs and all, but Laura and I decided we had enough of civilization so we avoided the stairs and hiked up the rocks and cliffs. :-) Once we got to the cross, we saw an even taller peak a ways off. Knowing that Jessica loves adventures even more than we did, we asked her if we could continue on hiking and meet her in the town later. She had no hesitations, so off we went to the next peak. When we got there the view was even more astounding. But wouldn´t ya know it - there was a HIGHER peak! So we decided that we would try to get to that one too. Even more breathtaking...if that was possible! But then there was a HIGHER peak and I wanted to go. Laura said no and that we should start heading back. Then I said please with big eyes and she gave in. :-) heheh! At each peak we were still able to see the cross, but by the time we got to the last one it was just barely visable. There was of course higher peaks after that, but by that time we only had 15 minutes to get back to town. We were a little bit late, but Jessica wasn´t worried at all and it was well worth it! How many times do you get to hike in the Andes Mountains after all? Well, this week twice. :-) Anyway, after we got back into town we visited with the only Christian family that is still strong from back when Jessica´s parents had been missionaries there. The whole atmosphere of the house was different and lighter and peaceful. We really enjoyed spending that time with them. Then it was back on the bus for the two hours home. We sat in the back and had quite the conversation with some of the guys back there. It was rather amusing! We got to practice our Spanish a lot that day. We discovered that Laura understands Spanish better than I do because she is such a good observer and I speak Spanish better than Laura does because I´m a doer and probably because I always answer before she gets a chance. :-)

Yesterday morning we helped with a few classes at the Bilingue and then were picked up by the Lackey family (missionary friends down here) and David Olson, Kirsten´s brother. We went up to a mountain near Cuenca to do a little sightseeing and picnic. When we got to the dirt road that would take us up the mountain they stopped the SUV and everyone got out and said that we were going to ride on top of the car. At first we weren´t sure if they were serious, but they were. Pastor Lackey and Mrs. Lackey stayed in the car, but Angela, Rebecca, Christina, David, Laura, and I all hopped up on top and had a rather adventurous ride of bumps, avoiding branches, and staring in awe at the beautiful view. It was SO much fun! Oh, we had Lisa up there too. Her full name is Mona Lisa, which translates to Monkey Lisa. Yep, the Lackey´s have a monkey! She is VERY little. She can sit in your hand she´s so small. She was a little scared of us at first, but then she warmed up. I have pictures of all of this, but I forgot my camera, so I´ll have to post it later. Anywho, when it started raining and the road was getting muddy we went down that mountain and up another to a river where we picniced. Before we ate we decided to do some more hiking, so we hiked down to the river, across the river to an island, and then attempted to cross again. The rocks on the way back across where a little farther apart and a little more slippery, so we all ended up slipping into the river and walking across it in our tennis shoes...except for Laura who walked across in her hiking sandals. Smart girl. :-) It was so much fun though, despite the fact that our feet and pants were all soaking the rest of the day.

We have officially decided a few things. We love hiking. Minnesota doesn´t have enough mountains (or any). I´m moving here for a year after I finish college. :-) We want a monkey and seriously considered bringing one in our carry-on when we come back. We enjoy riding on tops of cars while dodging branches. Yep, that´s it for now. Tonight we´re eating Guinea Pig. And we´re excited! Seriously. We are. Sorry you all can´t join us in our adventures, but I hope you enjoyed reading about them!

Ciao!
Kari

Daily life in Cuenca

Buenos tardes, todos! We are officially into our schedule here, and we love it! We went to church the first time last Sunday, and it was fun, but rather difficult to understand the sermon. Actually, I didn´t catch any of it, which was kind of sad. But Ruth and Jessica are able to translate the main ideas after, so that´s good. Our Español continues to improve, little by little. Monday we started teaching at the Blingue Escuela where Ruth´s dad is the principal. Next Thursday and Friday (I think the 7th and 8th) there is going to be a huge program with the entire elementary school for the Day of the Family. There are 700 or so Elementary students, and we are teaching Kindergarden through 2nd grade a song in English. We haven´t worked with the 3rd or 4th graders at all, since they aren´t doing much in the program this year. We have been helping the 5th and 6th graders as well...we aren´t teaching them the song, but we help the teachers in whatever way we can. One time they were allowed to ask us questions in English and we would answer in English. Their first question: do you have a boyfriend? lol! They are learning about the bones in the body, so Laura was asked to tell all of her stories about fracturing bones and they would have to translate it in Spanish to their teacher. It was pretty funny. Today we taught a whole class by ourselves, which was very fun! There are a few kids from the older classes who are doing a sort of drama for the program. We really enjoy working with them too. There is one class of Kindergardeners (the classes are usually split in three with 40 kids per class) that fell in love with us. When we were leaving their class all of the girls attacked us with hugs and Laura couldn´t get out of the door because she was surrounded by 8 little girls! So cute! Now whenever they see us they come running and give us big hugs and stay by us until either they or we have to leave. We just love them! It´s so fun to enter the school in the morning and have kids yelling our names and saying Buenos Dias! Oh, by the way, the classes each have their separate rooms, but all doors open to the outdoors and the hallways are ourside as well. Very different, but very fun!

School starts at 7:20 and we always leave at 7:05, so our days start pretty early. Class ends at 12:20, we often walk home for lunch, spend a few hours around the table eating a talking, and then head out for afternoon activities. Some days we hang out and play sports with Christian and Loida, Ruth´s younger brother and sister. We love them so much! We like to spend time in the market in the Central and we´ve gotten to know some of the English teachers pretty well. Especially Isabel, who lives just around the corner from us. She is so fun! Next week we´ll be at the school every day, since we´ll be helping with the program and Thursday and Friday. We love being there!

Tomorrow we are going to the town of Nabon with Jessica. It´s about a two hour drive and we leave at 6:30 a.m. It´s going to be fun, but we´re not entirely sure what to expect. On Friday we are going to the school for a couple hours in the morning for a program for the Dia de la Niño...the Day of the Child...they have a lot of celebrations here. :-) Then the Lackey´s, a missionary family here that we know, are going to pick us up and take us hiking on one of the mountains near Cuenca. We´re going to have a picnic and spend some good quality time with them. In the evening we´ll be going to our first Futbol game! Cuenca is ranked 2nd in all of Ecuador, so we´re really really excited about that. Muy emotionada! Not sure what Saturday is going to bring. Sunday is Ruth´s birthday and we´re having Guinea Pig for lunch! It´s considered a delicacy here and it´s kind of pricey...especially since most jobs pay about 200 to 300 dollars a month. We´re excited to try it though! The Ecuadorians laugh at the fact that some Americans have Guinea pigs as pets.

Hmmm, what else would you like to know? There really aren´t many bugs in Cuenca, which we much appreciate. Lots and lots of flowers though, as I´m sure you could tell from our last post.

We usually walk everywhere here, but we´ve gotten to know the bus system as well. I love being able to walk everywhere that we want! I´m definitely going to miss that when we get back to the States. Sometime´s I find myself reading Enlish words with as Spanish words and occasionally I´ll sing the English song we´re teaching with a Spanish accent. We´re teaching Loida and Christian how to play Dutch Blitz, and they are now obsessed with the game. Their favorite English word is Blitz and they´ll often say it random times during the day. Very funny! Family is very tight here and we spend a lot of time around the dinner table. We´re still having difficulty getting in contact with the orphanage, but hopefully we´ll be able to get there next week, if we´re supposed to.

lol...the Internet cafe we´re in right now is playing music from India...how random. We here a lot of popular songs from the US, which always makes us shake our heads. Even the radio here gets English stations.

Well, we best be going for now. Hope all is well back in the States! Thanks for the comments, we love reading them!

Very Ecuadorian

We have had a wonderful week here already, but we can´t believe how fast the time has flown! We are learning a lot about the culture and we´re even picking up more Spanish, per no mucho. We wanted to share some of the interesting cultural differences that we have found.


1. They use spoons for every meal. Forks are only used on special occasions, like Sundays, as we discovered today.

2. Every girl in Cuenca gets her ears pierced when she is 2 days old. Jessica doesn´t have her ears pierced, and they all think it´s strange.


3. When it gets cooler in the evenings, everyone bundles up in sweaters. They fear that they will get sick if they are cold. No one EVER eats anything cold when they are sick, even yogurt is warmed up.


4. As is custom with most developing countries, toilet paper goes in the garbage, not in the toilet. This has been fairly easy to remember...hopefully we´ll be able to reverse this when we get back to the States. :-)


5. The water faucets are opposite from the U.S. in that the hot water is on the right and the cold water is on the left. We still mix this one up.


6. They eat popcorn with their soup. At first this sounds weird, but it´s actually very good! You should try it! Especially with spinich soup...yum!!!

Now for some pictures...okay, many pictures.

Our first outing without our translators!

The door to our apartment will never open for us...

so we call it...

la puerta del diablo!! :)

The toilet paper outside of the stall, better not forget it!

Lucho y Ruth, pray for him


this is for you Ben!

Jessica wanted to save it, it didn´t want to go in the bottle

we ate lunch on top of the mountain

the beautiful view

it hardly looks real!

the road we were driving on!

our food!

Ruth´s Bienvenida

eating popcorn soup

at the market

Ruth´s cousins Jonathan and Priscilla, so cute!

Kari´s group at the mall

Lauras new favorite fruit!

a picture update for you!

Laura and Kari in Cuenca!!!

Welcome Home Ruth!!

The view from the apartment that we´re staying in! Absolutely beautiful!

Isabel (one of the English teachers), Loida (Ruth´s adorable sister!), and Ruth! They are so much fun!

Kari and Laura at the flower market...a dozen roses costs $1...pretty amazing, huh?

Jessica, Laura, and Kari on top of one of the mountains that overlooks the city of Cuenca! We love it here!