Right at the cusp of el comienzo de las clases!

It is my fourth week in Ecuador, and that actually makes me kind of sad. There are some things about Ecuador that don’t quite enchant me, of course. I actually hit a turning point of sorts yesterday: The weather now just feels like an endless hot summer instead of a welcome break from the cold (though mind you, I still prefer the heat!), and the whistles and catcalls are no longer amusing (or at least they weren’t yesterday). I love to walk outside, and would prefer that to a gym any day, and when I need to run errands it is much easier to walk than to pay for a taxi. However, at certain times of the day this isn’t very safe, and at most times, it’s just annoying. There is a lot of security around my neighborhood, so I don’t really worry, but yesterday it got really old. As I said, it was already hotter than usual, which meant the walk was a little harder than usual. I had to walk to Mi Comisariato, the grocery store, to buy sunscreen, but I didn’t bring quite enough money with me, so I apologetically said, “Voy regresar (I am going to return),” and stalked back to the house. There’s this group of middle-aged men who live close to me who have seen me and stared at me once before, and yesterday they recognized me and started calling out how beautiful I was in both English and Spanish. I kept stomping along, knowing that I would have to walk by them at least one more time, grabbed more dinero, marched right past them to a chorus of hissing, bought my bloqueador, and took a different way home.

However, in spite of all of that, I am worried that I am falling in love—with the city, that is, not a person. At times I have thought that the traveling life would be terrific, since choir tour is one of my favorite feelings in the whole world, but I have a feeling that two years in each country or state would definitely get old. I like each place I have lived way too much! It will be hard enough to leave Morris, and it has already been hard enough to leave Morris! I am going to start applying for jobs this weekend, and I’m definitely freaking out a little bit! I still have no idea where I’m going to be at the end of August! Of course, it’s incredible to know that God could take me anywhere and that He’s watching out for me, but the uncertainty is still unnerving, as well. Anyway, I really like Guayaquil, just as I was hoping I would. My Spanish really is getting better, and I’ve met some very cool people. Everywhere I go I find people who are encouraging and friendly, some who speak English, and some who love Jesus, which is the best!



Well, I left off last week right before I left for the beaches, so I guess I’ll start there and tell you all a bit about my week! We left for Salinas late on Thursday afternoon, and got to the little house we were borrowing from a friend sometime later in the evening. I went with Miriam, Anamaria, and Lili, three teachers from the pre-escolar at Colegio Americano, and Miriam’s daughter Camila, who is in Dino’s ESL class. Anita had gone with us to Malecón 2000 downtown during my first week here, so it was nice to have people I knew. Anita and Lili are both close to my age, and since they graduated from Colegio Americano, they speak pretty good English. Camila attends the German school, but she knows enough English to get by, probably just a touch more than my Spanish. I had been told that I would have to pay for food while we were there, so I took quite a bit of money, though I was hoping that we wouldn’t be eating out all weekend. I was happy to find out that we were planning to buy groceries and cook at the house. Much more fun and more economical! The house was very dusty and musty, so we cleaned and swept, then grocery shopped and ate supper, and went to bed in the cleaner of the two bedrooms. It was very crowded, but we didn’t want to take the time to clean the other room!



The next day we went up la Ruta del Sol along the coast and hit about five beaches for various lengths of time: Ayangue, Montañita, Puerto Lopez, Las Nuñez, and another random one where we stopped to take pictures in the sunset!



I really enjoyed Montañita, which is full of surfers and gringo tourists, because the town had a fun feel to it and it was fun to watch the surfers. Since we were there on a Friday, it wasn’t as crowded as usual, either. It was late morning when we were there, so the water was a tiny bit cold, but I liked it. We stopped at a very cool church, which I believe was called “El Santuario de la Virgen de Olón.” There is a great overlook of the beach, and I don’t have any pictures yet, but I’ll get some from Anita and add them later. We tried to go into a national park quite a ways up the coast after that, but we decided not to because “la gringa” cost ten dollars more than anyone else since I was a tourist! Then we headed a little ways south to Puerto Lopez, which I loved because the water was really warm, but we didn’t stay there long because the sand was so hot and everyone who wasn’t swimming was miserable. The last beach we swam in was Las Nuñez, which was a private beach by a house that belonged to a friend of Miriam. That was amazing—there were horses running in the water, and they were gorgeous.



While we were there, I started writing stuff in the sand and just kept writing and writing and writing. Here are just a few of those pictures. Most of them were names of people I missed; I promise I’m not homesick!



After that we headed back south, and after supper that night we went to the house of Lili’s boyfriend’s family in Salinas, but after my long day I was too tired to understand a word, and I didn’t even figure out what anyone’s name was. In my experience so far, ecuatorianos are not super good at introductions, so if I ever want to find out anyone’s name, I need to ask directly, which I am kind of shy about, because then whoever is talking to me takes off with the Spanish and leaves me behind! I found out later that Lili’s boyfriend is Enrique “Kike” and his friend who was there is Lyonel, but everyone calls him “Tampico.”





On Saturday we slept a bit later, and then after lunch we drove to Punta Santinela, a private club where Kike’s dad has an apartment, and we went with Kike, Tampico, and two of their other friends, Richard and Andre. All of them went to Colegio Americano, too, so it was fun to hear them tell stories, though none of them spoke English to me! The club was great, though—there we had not only a beach but a pool, a hot tub, a volleyball court, and a little menagerie with monkeys and macaws! Very nice! It’s all about who you know in Ecuador! We were there for the whole afternoon, and then we drove back to Salinas for supper and got ready for una fiesta cumpleaños for another alumnus from Colegio. We dropped Camila off at a friend’s house and then sat at our little place and watched part of The Doubt as we waited for the party to start. It was interesting; I guess I’ll have to finish it someday.



The party was at the house of the man who was having the birthday, and they had a DJ with huge speakers set up on one side of their little courtyard and good tacos. It was a family party, and when we saw the kids there we thought we should have just kept Camila, so eventually Miriam and Anita went to pick her up, and one of the guys, Juank, taught me a few “moves,” basically just waving my hands from side to side. Apparently there is a stereotype that white girls can’t dance down in Ecuador, too! Then the party really got started, and a clown, a cat, a mime, and a woman on stilts came out and got everyone to dance. I enjoyed it; it was the best exercise I’d gotten since… I don’t know when! But then later on, after things had died down again, I told Anita that we had to keep dancing so that we wouldn’t fall asleep, and she told me I needed to dance with Andre, one of the guys from the beach, who is seventeen and just graduated from Colegio Americano. He was a bit hesitant at first, but I'm pretty sure he ended up drinking a tiny bit too much, because he got more and more affectionate as the night went on. Eventually he found out that I am six years older than him, but I don’t think it changed anything for him! : ) I always felt very safe, though, because I had friends around and his big brother was watching us the whole time… and laughing. Very kind of him, don’t you think? Miriam and Cami had already gone home hours before, and I was relieved when Lili and Anita decided to leave, since it was ridiculously late! Oh dear. I was so relieved to find out for sure from Lili that Andre had already graduated from Colegio, since it would have been a bit awkward otherwise. Definitely one of the most interesting things that has happened to me so far here, but it was fun.



The next day we dropped Cami off at a friend’s again and just Miriam, Anamaria, Lili, and I went to Salinas, the same beach that I went to my first full day in Ecuador. I don’t care for that beach as much, because it is very crowded, but of course it is crowded because it is so nice, which is the way it works at beaches, of course! Then we picked up Camila and finally headed home to Guayaquil, all obviously exhausted! I was very good to do something for the weekend, though, especially since Mariana was in Bógota. Mariana had a wonderful time at her conference, and she has been feeling much better this week. Elvia left for Orlando yesterday, so I’ll miss her, but now I’m getting much busier, since regular classes are starting in less than a week!

The only other thing that I've done this week is go to Lili's birthday party. It was really fun, and the food was so good! There was a good crowd there, and Lili's house is beautiful. Most of her friends are alumni from Colegio, so most of them speak some English, even though most of them don't get to practice much. I had some real fun conversations with Gaby and Alejandro, who were very nice! And it was fun to see both Lili and Anita again. We were all still really tired from la playa!



I’m so excited to actually be student teaching for real! Today I spent most of the morning working on my unit plan with my cooperating teacher, Philip, which made me very nerdily excited, and I also met many more of the teachers. My mom sent Girl Scout cookies down with me for my cooperating teachers, and they were a hit. I decided to give Philip his today before they melted into a puddle of caramel and chocolate, and then he offered one to Liam, a teacher from Minnesota (Rochester, to be precise) who has the room next to ours. Then a funny thing happened: Alicia and Kat, two of the teachers from the primaria, were having coffee and cookies, and Alicia said that they were kind of like Girl Scout cookies, but Kat had never had them, because she is from Canada. Alicia was trying to describe how amazing Samoas are when Liam sat down near them and said, “By the way, Christina brought Philip Girl Scout Samoas.” Alicia thought he was kidding, but he hadn’t even overheard any of their conversation! God must have wanted Kat to try Samoas today, because they both ran over to my room as soon as they heard! : ) I also met a teacher from the Netherlands, Willa, who knows nine different languages! That would be amazing, but I can’t imagine it! Richard, one the Americans is about my parents’ age, and he’s full of interesting fun facts and banter. If you want to meet some interesting and fun people, find people who work at an international school!





It’s been great getting to know the teachers, but I am especially excited to meet my students! I loved the students in Dino’s class, though, and I’m going to miss those who don’t normally attend Colegio. One of the girls, Amarilis, gave me a friendship (amigo) necklace this week, and she wore her half every day, so I made sure that I did, too! She was so sweet, and though her English was not as good as that of some of the kids, she peppered me with questions, and fortunately her friend Arianne knew more English and kind of translated for us when we needed help! They were a nice group of kids, but they weren’t my class like the primer curso students will be.



I have many more things that I could say, but I think I’ll close for now and leave it for later. Oh, but I can't forget to add a picture of one of our iguanas! Pray for everyone living around the flooding by the Red River, because it sounds pretty ridiculous and dangerous this year. The whole area seems to be shut down right now. Also just pray for the new school year at Colegio, for the teachers, the students, and the administration, that everything would go as it should, whatever that means! Philip and I don’t really have a class schedule yet, which is pretty normal here, because they don’t finalize the sections until tests are given on Wednesday morning, and primer curso is especially up in the air, since it is their first year in the secundaria. Pray that I would glorify God in every way, through my words (no matter how few they might be on some occasions), through my actions, and through my teaching. Let me know how I can pray for any of you, as well! God bless! Chao! Christina

Las similaridades y las differencias

There are many things in Ecuador that are different than the things I experience at home, but there are also many similarities, and I am continually surprised by both. I thought I might as well catalogue a few of them for you, so that you get an idea of my life here. Part of the reason I am doing this is because I really have done nothing since I wrote my last entry. My cold knocked me out pretty well for a few days, and since then I have just been going to Colegio, coming home, writing and reading for the afternoon, eating supper, and visiting with Mariana, Kiko, and whoever is over in the evening. I am also including pictures from Colegio Americano, though I know I will take many more soon. I know many of you were curious to learn more about the school, so I will pass along more of what I know so far.



For a few interesting similarities, Ecuadorians drive on the right side of the road, use the American dollar, like to go on vacation, watch a lot of TV, use e-mail to keep in touch with family and friends, and go by our seasons, even though they are in the southern hemisphere. I get rather confused about that, because this is still Colegio Americano’s summer term, but the ecuatorianos say that this is their winter, and their winter just happens to be a tiny bit hotter in Guayaquil than their summer. In my host home, I can take hot showers every morning, a luxury that I often haven’t had in the U.S. and was not necessarily expecting here. The supermercados are very similar to those at home, so I haven’t found shopping to be very difficult. Since I grew up close to a large city, living in Guayaquil isn’t very strange to me. I love to walk, and I am getting more confident with both my directions and safety on my walks. And no one needs to comment on my sense of direction—I’m not doing that badly at all finding my way around. There are security guards everywhere, so I feel pretty safe, though I am a bit nervous about getting in over my head with Spanish, obviously. I also met a woman who was half-Norwegian and came to supper last night. It was a weird experience, because I kept looking at her and thinking that she was just going to start speaking English, and she looked so familiar, making me think I was home in Minnesota. Once we were done with supper, everyone started talking about traveling, and she mentioned that her dad was from Norway, at which moment everything I had been thinking made sense! My host family also goes to church every week, which I appreciate, since that is very important to me.



I have had some really interesting conversations about faith with my host family, and especially with Kiko’s sister, Elvia, who is very sweet and friendly. She and I have very fun Spanglish conversations, since her English is just a little bit better than my Spanish. She has a deep faith, and she loves traveling and spending time with people. Unfortunately, this love is going to take her away from me, since she is going to the United States for a month, and she is leaving next week! I will miss having her to talk with! Of course, the family is Catholic, and I think there is only one Lutheran church in all the huge city of Guayaquil, which by the way has about three million people! Today I told Gregoria, one of the custodians at Colegio Americano, that I am Lutheran, and she asked me suspiciously if I believed in God. There really are not very many Lutherans in the world outside of my neighborhood and northern Europe! I went to mass again with Mariana and Kiko last week, but the next weekend I am home, I am determined to find one of the churches that I’ve been searching the internet for! It’s been good going to mass, but combining the unfamiliar liturgy and Spanish together makes for a very confused Christina! I have struggled to understand anything the priest is saying, actually, and I had chalked it up to the Ecuadorian accent, but Elvia just told me tonight that their padre is from Spain, which would explain a lot, since both weeks church has made me think that I'm not as far along on my Spanish as I had thought!



As for differences, they use the metric system and the Celsius temperature scale, they don’t usually have air conditioning, times on stores are posted in military time, and obviously, most of them speak Spanish as their first language. I brushed up on some of my metric conversions last week to tell Maria, the maid, how tall I am and what the temperature was in Minnesota. Like much of Latin America, drinking the tap water is not recommended, so we either boil the water or use a big dispenser. I do brush my teeth with the water, though, and I haven’t had any problems. The water does not taste strange at all, but I’ll stick with the filtered water for drinking, I think. They also eat very differently, not only traditional Ecuadorian foods, but with an emphasis on different parts of the meal. At nearly every meal, drinks are not on the table until each person individually gets their own, usually when they are done with most of their food. They also do not eat that many fruits and vegetables, though they are very inexpensive here. Elvia tells me that meat used to be cheaper here, too, and that most Ecuadorians eat much more of that than anything else. When the price of meat started to rise, people started complaining of a food shortage, but only because they don’t really consider vegetables to be food. I have started to like vegetables much more the last few years, so every time we have a big vegetable dish I take at least two helpings.



Right now, I am actually missing cookies the most. I may have to bake some soon! People here also seem to exercise less than people in the United States, and that’s saying a lot considering how little I myself usually exercise! I have a feeling that I will probably exercise more while I am here than while I am in the States as a reaction toward the inactivity I see here. One final difference that is true for many other countries is that many more people have servants here, since labor is much cheaper and there are very different ideas about social classes. Mariana and Kiko employ Maria, who has been working for them for eighteen years, and her 29-year-old daughter Karina. They are both very friendly and capable, and since they don’t speak any English, they make me practice my Spanish more. Because of my middle class American worldview, having servants seems a bit off to me, but down here it’s just a way of life. It makes me rather bored sometimes, since I really don’t have anything I can do around the house usually, but there are obviously nice parts to that.



English class has its moments, though it is very obvious that both teachers and students are very excited to be done with the summer term, though they will hopping right into the normal school year, so it will not be much of a relief! Dino will be going back to just coordinating the technology on campus, though, so he is particularly excited to be done for the summer. I’ve gotten to know the kids much better, and I know how to say and spell all their names. I’ve talked much more to the “quiet kids” this week, since Arturo’s little group is always in a little huddle. Oh, cliques. Arturo has been late even more this week; yesterday he was four hours late for class, which I didn’t think was possible. We start class every day some time after eight, take a little break at nine, take a lunch break at eleven, and then get out at one. And yes, Arturo showed up on Tuesday at noon! The three girls that don’t hang out with Arturo have been talking with me quite a bit the last three days, which has been really fun. We talked about movies today. On Monday when I got back into the classroom after break, I put my head down on the desk, not even thinking about how weird it was that the lights were off. Very quickly, I started hearing weird squeaking noises from the front of the room, and when I looked up at Dino’s desk, I saw a small figure with a baseball cap hiding underneath and realized it was Pablo! I said, “Hey Pablo,” and he was very disappointed that he hadn’t scared me. I told him I could go out and let him try his luck with someone more skittish, but he lost heart and gave up. He’s a cutie. His dad works at the school.



Camila’s mom works at the school as well, and when Mariana was getting ready to go to a conference in Bógota, Colombia, where she will be until Saturday, she asked Camila’s mother if I could go with them to the beach and spare myself from boredom, so I’m headed to the beach once again, this time for a long weekend. I’m not sure who is going, except for Camila’s family and Anamaria, the kinder teacher who went with us to Malecón 2000 last week. I’m really excited to get to know more of the teachers, and excited to be going back to the beach, though it may be very crowded, since it is one of the last weekends before school starts. Sorry I haven’t taken any iguana pictures yet! I’ll do that soon!



Thank you so much, those of you who have been praying! My Spanish really is getting better, though my diccionario is going to be pretty worn-out by the end of my time here. Please pray that Mariana would be safe in Bógota, and that she would enjoy herself, even though she is still not feeling totally healthy from her illness the last few weeks. Pray that I would find new ways to bless the people here. I have been pretty bored this last week, since I have no class preparation time yet and nothing really to do in the evenings, so I want to find ways to spend my time that help others, in addition to just keeping me from going insane! There is only so much crocheting and scrapbooking that I can handle, and I could fit only so much in my suitcases in the first place.
I love you all! I pray that you all have a blessed week!

Finally at Colegio Americano!

Greetings! I am now in my second week in Guayaquil, and have a new blog address, because something has happened to the domain I had been using. Using blogspot is better anyway, because it’s easier to figure out how to include pictures, even though making them look nice is my next challenge! Everything is still going well here, except that I have a nasty head cold that just started yesterday. It’s been quite a while since I felt so sick, though it’s just the same congestion cold that I usually get in the summers in Minnesota. It’s hard for me to keep moving from hot, humid air outside to dry, cold air in the classroom. I hope it doesn’t last long, and since I should have plenty of time to rest this weekend, I expect to get better quickly! However, I’d love your prayers for this, along with everything else going on!





I’ll just pick up where I left off last week. On Friday, Mari Ani, Beth, and I went with Rosa and Anamaria, two teachers from Colegio Americano, to Malecón 2000, a walk downtown by the Guayas River. Rosa and Anamaria teach five-year-olds and four-year-olds, and they are both very friendly and speak English well. Rosa drove downtown, and then we walked for a while until we came upon a little blue tour truck and found out that a ride and a tour would be only a dollar for each of us. Of course, this was if we wanted a tour in Spanish; a tour in English would have been five for each of us, if I remember right. We were fine with the Spanish, though, because we had plenty of translators. Malecón 2000 has several museums, some really sweet fountains, playgrounds, a few restaurants, and a statue of the famous Simon Bolivar shaking hands with San Martin. If you don’t know much about South America, just know that Simon Bolivar is a big deal. Much of South American money is called bolivars, the country of Bolivia is named after him, and there are statues and tributes all over the place. He negotiated and worked for independence of many South American countries. We also ate at a restaurant there, and though I liked the food I got, we had to wait a ridiculously long time. Beth and I told each other later that we had both expected to pass out before the food came, since we were pretty tired from all the running around we had been doing! Then Rosa took us to the market to do some shopping, since it was one of Mari Ani and Beth’s last chances to get souvenirs. I bought a dress for ten dollars, and a postcard. I have plenty of time to shop, so I’m pacing myself! We wound up our big afternoon at the mall, browsing through a few stores and getting smoothies in the food court.





Mari Ani is very close with many of her classmates from high school still, and whenever one of them comes back to Guayaquil to visit everyone who still lives in the city gets together for a party. Friday was the night, and Mari Ani brought both Beth and me, which was very good, since most of Mari Ani’s friends aren’t very comfortable with their English. The name of the game was karaoke at her friend Alejandra’s apartment. About ten of Mari Ani’s classmates came, and most of them brought significant others. A few of them are married, and two of them have kids, so pictures were shown all around. I sang two songs: “All My Lovin’” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” I wasn’t quite brave enough to sing in Spanish! The pitches weren’t very good, since I didn’t get to pick a key, but it was still fun. One of Mari Ani’s classmates told everyone he started falling in love with me during the second song, but, alas, I never figured out his name. So much for that!



The night went pretty late, and we were very ready for bed by the time we got home, especially because Kiko wanted to take us early the next morning to climb the famed 400 steps to get the bird’s eye view of the city. We didn’t end up leaving very early, but we did make the hike, which wasn’t bad at all, even though we were disappointed to find out that there were 444 steps, not 400. False advertising… There were some really fun gift shops and art galleries on the way up, and very cool places to take pictures. Both Mari Ani and Beth were art majors, so they kept taking pictures that they were planning to paint when they got home. I wish I could paint. When we got home, we found the relatives in the middle of a crab dinner, complete with wooden boards and hammers to crack the crabs. Mariana was upstairs resting, since she had not been feeling well since the beach. She also doesn’t do too well in the air conditioning, and we were quite chilly in the condo in Salinas. I probably have the same thing that she had, though I hope not, since she’s still not feeling her best. Anyway, the crab was a very fun experience. I mainly grew up eating imitation crab meat, which is definitely not as good as the real stuff, and of course it just feels good to pound the daylights out of a helpless dead animal. I kept trying to get the little cousin, Waikeng, to talk with me, but he kept acting shy, though he obviously isn’t! That night I went to mass with Mari Ani and her aunts, who are super sweet ladies. I was encouraged and definitely had communion with God there, but the combination of not being Catholic and not speaking Spanish fluently made it a little difficult. I was able to follow along with the lessons very easily, since I could read them in the bulletin while they were being read in front, and I already was familiar with all the passages, but I got very little out of the homily! On the walk back, we visited with Mari Ani’s godmother Marisol and her friend Klaus, who were both very nice, and then we had pizza when we got back to the house, and two of Mari Ani’s classmates came to hang out with her on her last night in Guayaquil. I went to bed kind of early that night, after saying goodbye to Beth and Mari Ani.





I just relaxed on Sunday, and waited impatiently for my first day at Colegio Americano on Monday. The next morning Mariana and I left the house at 7:45, and Mariana took me to the office of the Director’s Secretary, Sandra, so that I could wait for Billy Dwyer, the director of the English Academy, to tell me where I should be. He just told me about all the teachers and told me that I could decide where I wanted to be, so I decided to sit in on Dino’s class. Dino is an Ecuadorian who used to teach computer science until he became the general director of technology at the school, and now he just teaches summer classes. His English is excellent, and Billy told me that he was the most experienced teacher working in the academy, so I thought he would be a good person to observe. He has ten students in his class, three boys and seven girls, who are all between twelve and seventeen years old. A few of them actually attend Colegio Americano, but some of them are just enrolled for the summer program. I really like them, even though they are all rich kids, so they’re kind of spoiled. One particularly troublesome and adorable muchacho, Arturo, is trying hard to drive Dino crazy. He comes late every day, and he either talks or plays with his cell phone all the time. I wondered at first if he was just acting up because I was visiting, but before I even asked, Dino said that Arturo seemed to be behaving better than usual. Like I said, he is very cute. The ornery ones often are. Four of the girls are his best friends, so they do whatever he tells them to, and the other five students are all very quiet. I wish I had more time to get to know them all. I’m not even down in Ecuador that long, and I will only be with the English Academy for one more week.

It’s also been very fun to explore the campus. It is quite sprawling, with many long, shed-like buildings making up the secondary school, a partially enclosed larger building for the primary school, and several colorful little buildings for the preschool. I also saw my first iguana up close. Guayaquil is full of iguanas, but I had only seen one from inside a restaurant until yesterday. I was walking through the campus when I saw a funny looking lump on the ground, and when I saw the eyes and the back, I thought at first that it was a huge dead fish or a statue. Then I think it moved, and I realized what it was. I was just proud that I didn’t scream or show my surprise too dramatically, though I don’t think anyone was watching me. I’m definitely not used to seeing huge lizards crawling around on the loose! One of the nicest buildings on campus is the library, which excites me quite a bit. I looked around there a little bit today, but I have a great deal of exploring yet to do.

I also met my cooperating teacher, Philip Dixon, on Monday. We went out for lunch and discussed some ideas and made some plans, which was very exciting for me. Philip is quite young; he graduated from college with his English BA from a university in New York, and then started working as a reading coach in Colorado with Americorps, which was when he realized that he enjoyed teaching. He got his license through an alternative program in the schools out there, and then decided to move down to South America to teach. He’s only been at Colegio Americano since last August, but I think he’s enjoyed it pretty well so far. He’s been working on his Spanish since he got down here, and it’s coming along “poco a poco” (little by little). We talked about a new reading program he wants to implement with some ELL (English language learner) novels that he found, about plans he has to incorporate time on the computers, and about what my focus might be during my time that I take over his classes. I need to be teaching every class for at least three weeks, but more is better, so hopefully that will work with his plan. Because the students are ELLs, we are trying to figure out how much we can expect from them writing-wise, and we thought that we would start out writing narratives, so I will probably teach a unit on writing short stories, with interspersed time to read, to work on grammar, and to write blogs and journals. It’s pretty exciting! We’ll be starting the school year on March 30th, and our students are in primer curso, the first grade of secondary school, which is somewhere in between our sixth graders and seventh graders. I can’t wait!

That’s about it so far. Mariana and I are taking it easy this weekend, since we are both not feeling very well, and Kiko is on a work trip in Chile this week. He works as a mechanic for Bosch, and they just had their annual meeting for South America. He will be back on Saturday. Pray that he would stay safe. Pray for Mariana’s health, because she still doesn’t know the real cause of her sickness, and she is supposed to leave for an education convention in Bógota on Wednesday. Pray also for my Spanish. It’s really a little bit harder than I expected, because of how long it has been since I spoke it, because the Ecuadorian accent is a little bit harder to me to decipher than others, and because I never knew that much to begin with. Pray for my sister Julia’s plans to go to Russia with the East European Missions Network this summer. She is in the thick of fund-raising, and is kind of nervous about that. I would love to hear from you! I pray you are all doing well! I'll put up pictures of the school and the iguanas soon! God bless, Christina

A tourist week!

Well, after a delayed departure from Moorhead, a terrific afternoon seeing friends and meeting with my student teaching supervisor in Morris, and a wonderful weekend hanging out with my family, going to my friend Molly’s birthday party, and seeing my church family, I left for Ecuador on Monday morning, taking off from Minneapolis-St. Paul International at 6:00 AM. I visited with a few people on the trip, including a Latina woman on her way to Megalin and a friendly man from Ecuador named Roberto, but mostly I crocheted, listened to music, and watched movies during my flight. Most airports now also have free wireless internet, so I used part of my long layover in Orlando to send some messages and look up flight information. I arrived in Ecuador at 10:30 or so, and after a quick trip through immigration, I met Mariana, my hostess who directs the preschool at Colegio Americano, the school where I will be teaching. It looked like the whole city was lined up to meet me, and I am wondering if the aeropuerto is always like that! Mariana and her husband, Kiko, spotted me right away, and we went out into the rain to load my suitcases into the car. I found out on the drive to the house that they had just gotten home from a family wedding in Lima, Peru, and that their daughter was visiting from Florida with a friend. When we got back to the house I met their daughter Mari Ani and her friend Beth, and then I had a cup of tea and went to bed, with a promised trip to the beach sweetening my sleep.



I found out the next morning that we were really taking a trip to the beach, and spending the night in a condo in Salinas. We went with relatives, and their cousin’s boyfriend offered us the use of his family’s condo, which was wonderful. It was a little crazy to go on a trip so quickly after I arrived, but that seems to be the norm for the Camchongs, my host family. I had guessed because of their name that they are Asian, and it is true, they have Chinese heritage, though both of them grew up in Ecuador. They are Catholic, and I think I will be going to mass with them this weekend. I need to start looking into churches here. Mariana and Kiko have four children, and all of them live in Florida. Mari Ani is a few years older than me, and works as a graphic designer in Orlando. Her parents’ house is full of her art, and I think it is very beautiful. Her friend Beth was also an art major, but she has been thinking about going back to school for something else. Right now she is celebrating her freedom by going to South America, as she is between jobs and waiting for her boyfriend to graduate from law school. They have both been very fun to spend time with, and have definitely eased my transition, since Mari Ani speaks flawless English and Beth does not even speak Spanish.



We spent a day on the beach in Salinas, and while we enjoyed ourselves, the water was very cold and the weather cloudy. All three of us from the States managed to get a bit sunburned in spite of the clouds, however. After being in the cold weather up north, I couldn’t force myself to get out of the sun, though I did wear sunscreen and thus barely got red. We went out on a big “banana” that was pulled by a speedboat for a few minutes, and we swam a bit, but we mainly just lay out on the beach. Since we were all so tired from traveling, many of us dozed off a few times. We were with Savia, her daughter Puiyen, Puiyen’s boyfriend Fernando, their cousin Gary, and his son Waikeng. We ate at a little café for lunch, went to a fancy buffet for supper, and then drove back to the condo. We also stopped at Hotel Punto Carnesas to have café and jugo and watch the sunset, though it was too cloudy to really see that. It is one of the family’s favorite spots up in that direction.
The next day we went to the beach in Ayangue, which I liked a lot better, partly because the weather was better, and partly because the beach wasn’t as crowded. The food at the beach restaurant was also excellent, and it was really fun to go there because the family is friends with the owner. I sunned myself for a little while, but since the water was so much nicer Beth and I were out in the ocean much more, and we swam out to a little beach full of seashells and dug around there for a while. I also enjoyed the unique features of salt water when I decided to see how easy it would be to just float, and I think I could have lain like that for hours. Unfortunately, since we had longer to drive than we had the day before, we couldn’t stay in Ayangue very long, so we left to start the drive home. Once we made it home I started unpacking, since I hadn’t really had a chance to settle in at all, and then we ate supper with the relatives before they left to go home, and on the way out Puiyen gave me a brochure all about Guayaquil, which I still need to look at more. I also learned how to get on their wireless internet, and spent way too much time on facebook, as usual.





Today we have been taking it easy, and this afternoon Mari Ani’s friend Alejandra drove us to el Parque Historico, a very cool park with lots of animals and historical information about Guayaquil. There is an ecological zone which is basically a zoo, a section with historical preserved or reproduced houses, and gardens, though we didn’t make it through the whole park, because we got a late start. I also got to meet Alejandra’s baby, Pablo, who was very relaxed at first, but then got cranky in the hot sun on the way home. He was fascinated by my tongue when I started flicking it in and out of my mouth, so I did that for all I was worth for about five minutes! We had supper pretty late, and now I’m just relaxing and playing with my pictures. I also started reading The First Days of School, a book about teaching by Harry Wong, which I got for Christmas after all of my professors told me how helpful it would be. Most of the things that I’ve read so far I’ve heard before, but it’s good to be reminded to be teachable and flexible, because both of those can be challenging for me! I really want to be a good teacher, and I pray that this time in Ecuador will prepare me.




Pray for my host family, that they would be blessed in every way and be drawn closer to God. Pray for Beth, Mariana’s friend, also, that God would give her peace and hope as she tries to make big decisions, and that she would trust Him. Pray for my cooperating teachers, Mr. Dwyer and Mr. Dixon, and for my future students. Pray that I would learn what I need to during the rest of my downtime this week so that I will be ready to start teaching on Monday. Most of all, pray that I would take every opportunity to serve others and to speak the name of Jesus. So many people are praying for me and supporting me, both financially and emotionally, which challenges me and reminds me that I’m not only here to fulfill requirements for graduation, but also to follow God’s call. It is so sweet to trust Him and follow Him! That sounds really cheesy, but it’s true. Truth is cheesy sometimes, I’ve found. I pray you are all doing well! Love, Christina

Dear long-suffering readers

I am very impressed with anyone who has read the majority of more than one of my posts! I am sorry for how much they probably ramble on, but I've loved writing them. I was planning to journal every night of my internship, but that definitely fell by the wayside, so I am rather proud that I have kept this up every week, and hope to do so in Ecuador, though it may get a bit more difficult!I officially have one full day left in Fargo-Moorhead, so my time is pretty much done! I have really enjoyed living up here, and have occasionally wondered what it would be like to try the place out, since so many of my Bible School classmates come up here. I especially need to thank George and Sharon. I don't think they have looked at my blog yet, but let me say that they have been fantastic hosts and temporary "parents" to me. My real parents have been thankful several times that George and Sharon have taken such good care of me. I hope that they can all meet each other someday. Maybe at Bear Trap Ranch? My parents were there for camp before I was born, and George and Sharon used to live there, so it would be a great place for them to meet up, I think. I am hoping to get back there someday as well!



I really have enjoyed the conversations I have had with George, and believe me there have been plenty. He has really challenged me to think through my opinions and to look at life differently. Most of you probably don't realize that George has only one arm, because I haven't mentioned it. He went through two rounds of sarcoma less than ten years ago, and doctors decided to combat it the second time by amputating his arm. The cancer has not returned as of this writing, but whether it ever does or not, George really exemplifies a faith-filled life, and he has followed God through some crazy times. He and Sharon are just so real and so... real. That's the best way to describe them, I guess. Sharon is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met! She is a tremendous cook, a hard worker, a loving mom, and very, um, thrifty! : ) Those are all qualities I enjoy about her. She talks to at least one of her four kids every day, and she works as the deli manager at Hornbacher's grocery store in West Village and comes home with hilarious stories. I will miss them both when I leave!



Let's see, since last Tuesday, I spent some time on MSUM's campus and went to Elise's Bible study on Wednesday, which was really fun, because we had a good crowd and had some good fellowship time in addition to a good discussion of the Scripture. We also had cookies, which is always exciting! Those Parsley girls sure know how to have company!Then I went to bed, anxious for my sister Julia to come visit me for her winter break from Crown College. Unfortunately, my car, which I had left when I was at home and which she was going to return to me, had been acting kind of strangely, so she took it to the mechanic. He found nothing wrong, and I am happy to say that it is still behaving after the water pump leak was fixed right before Julia picked it up the first time. Though nothing was wrong, she was delayed a bit, so I had to wait for her a bit longer than I was planning to. George was also gone at a staff conference, so I had a good portion of the day to fritter away, though I had originally had big plans, as usual. Julia got to George and Sharon's at about 5:00, and George got there a little after she did. After supper we had three of her Bible School classmates over for ice cream! I had been able to spend a bit of time with all of these girls while I had been here, and it was fun to see them again! Carmen, Sam, and Sarah are quite incredible women, actually!



Julia cuddled with me that night in my little room, and then she got up with me at 3:30 to deliver the paper, which rocked! It was much more fun to deliver with company, and then I had someone to take pictures of me while I bagged, because my carrying colleagues are usually too busy bagging their own papers, and I wanted to commemorate that part of my internship! : ) We slept in the next morning, and then we went to MSUM to meet Julia Olsen for lunch at the Union! It was really fun to meet with her, even though she was getting sick, so she was pretty worn out. I left to give plasma and give Julia and Julia time to catch up, and when I returned, Elise and Julia, my sister, were still visiting in the basement of the Union. We soon went over to the Parsley pad to hang out and see wedding stuff that Leesy was working on, and I put salt in my coffee and the acidity didn't bother me as much as usual! It sounds funny, but Will from Bear Trap told me that the salt somehow neutralizes the acid, which I guess makes sense. Next time I get a hankering for coffee, we'll have to see if it was a fluke.

After a few hours Julia and I left to leave some time to get some work done back at George and Sharon's. I needed to do some reading--my dad asked me to read "Why History Matters," an essay by Ted Byfield that every teacher should read, apparently. It talked about John Dewey and the radical agenda he tried to push in North American schools. It was really interesting, and I definitely had to think through my education at UMM to compare some of the ideas I had studied to his philosophy. Julia was working on her support letter for this summer--for those of you who don't know, my sister is planning to go to Russia to an English language camp with East European Missions Network, and she would love your prayers and your support! Let me know if you're interested in finding out more about her trip. She's very excited about it!

The next day Julia left to visit our friend Katie Schram up at UND, and I don't even remember what I did, besides the normal facebook and e-mail time and random reading and talking with George. Julia came back through early that evening and then headed back home so that she could go to church the next day. That night, George, Sharon, and I watched "Fireproof," which was a very good movie. I would recommend it to anybody. I definitely laughed, and though I didn't cry, I did get misty-eyed. It was worthwhile. For my last Sunday, I decided to go to Triumph West once more, and I brought Kelly Welch with me, so that we could hang out one more time, since this week was going to be kind of hectic for her. Carmen and Elise sat with us, and I was surprised to find out that the team from the church who had gone to Ecuador in January was sharing! It was perfect timing, since I had heard about the trip my second Sunday up here. Pastor Vern talked about how a Christian's strength comes from abiding in the Father, which is always a good reminder for me to rest in Him. Then Kelly came home and ate lunch with George and me, but since she had so much work to do, I brought her home pretty quickly. On my way home, I visited Zandbroz, a variety store downtown that I had been told to visit. It was... full of variety, I guess. It was definitely a yuppie kind of place.I spent the rest of the day making cookies for Bible study, more or less, which was fun but exhausting.

Yesterday I was feeling a head cold coming on, so I was lame and didn't really do anything that I didn't have to, and we went to Bible study in the evening and met with Ashlie. She is such a fantastic girl, and I am so glad we finally got to know each other. We are two years apart in school, so we had mutual friends that went to Bible school with both of us, but we had never talked before this. She is so sweet and friendly, and you can tell that she loves Jesus and people a lot! Today the only thing out of the ordinary that I did was go to West Acres Mall with my friend Amanda Krogsrud and her son Zach, which was very fun! Zach is three and he's just adorable. I haven't seen him since he was less than six months old, so it was time to catch up! Then I walked briskly around the mall for a few minutes for some exercise before I headed home.



Tomorrow is my last day delivering papers. (sniff, sniff) Just kidding! It's been a good run. I haven't made too many mistakes, I don't think! Pray for the Christians at MSUM, once again, just that their passion for Jesus would be evident and that their classmates would be drawn to that. Also pray for George and Sharon; they have been such a blessing to me! Lastly, pray for my preparations and my journey to Ecuador. Probably the next time I will be writing I will already have arrived! I would love to talk to you before I leave, so get in touch with me if you can, as communication will be more difficult once I get down there! I love you all! God bless!Christina