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