October 1, 2008

So the sugar cookies my counterpart and I made on Sunday were a huge hit. Everyone loved them and thought the sprinkles were pretty cool (they don’t have sprinkles here… at least cool shaped sprinkles). The charla (btw… charla means a talk or discussion) went pretty well… despite a few mishaps. First, we couldn’t get into the building where we were supposed to hold the charla. Then the speakers for the film we were going to show didn’t work. My counterpart had to quickly run around town looking for speakers while I entertained everyone by trying to explain the rules for the game ‘Human Knot’ in my flawed Spanish. Eventually they got it.

After the movie we had to answer some questions and then I tried to pep everyone up by explaining another game. Once again, I made a fool of myself. Oh well, at least I am becoming memorable!

On Sunday, Ecuador also voted to accept the new Constitution. Mostly everyone was happy.

Monday I had to myself so I went to the shopping mall to use the free WIFI to talk to my parents and then went to Machala to pick up another fabulous package from my fabulous mother. It was very exciting!

Tuesday morning I had a meeting with a group of community leaders. The president of the junta called it because he wants to form a network between us. I have to admit, I didn’t understand much that was going on and my mind kinda drifted off to some place where people speak English. The result of the meeting, however, was that we are going to form a network between us leaders in the community, we are meeting again next week, and we are going to have a cultural night at the end of October. I am excited about the cultural night. My counterpart also wants me to teach the youth how to make my exotic sugar cookies and other types of goodies so that the can sell them for a fundraiser. I told her that if it had to do with baking, I was her girl!

In the afternoon we had Adventura de la Vida. We wanted to take the children to the water plant, but when we arrived there was no one there to show us around. While we waited outside the gate I happened to have brought along some of the temporary tattoos my mother had sent me. I pulled them out and they more-than entertained the children while we tried to convince the guy at the gate to let us in. By the time we realized that we were definitely not getting in, half of the children had at least a dozen tattoos all over their arms, faces, chests, and hands. I felt a little concerned about returning them to their parents in such a state, but oh well. It is nothing a little soap and water can’t fix.