4-wheeling, lunch, love & fun

Last day in Guayaquil. We were all scheduled to go to a final meeting with Hogar de Cristo to talk with them about the things we found in screening the kids and just do a wrap-up. We had an opening meeting with them though our first day here and it was interesting, but I really didn’t feel like we ALL needed to be there for it, so when my professor, Cheryl, asked me if I wanted to go out into the community with her again and do some more interviews I was totally on board.
We met some amazing women. One of the women was just SO excited about being a mom. She already had two children, but she was just still so excited and euphoric about the whole thing. It was really just an incredible experience getting to hear her talk about everything. She didn’t say anything particularly new or fascinating, but the sense of sheer enchantment with being a mom in her voice was contagious. Okay now I sound cheesy, I will stop now.

Wilson, one of the guys from Hogar de Cristo came to pick us up from the subcentro after the meeting at the office was done. Two of the boys from the group were with him and I wondered, “why did they come out? That’s weird.” As it turned out, they had convinced Wilson to take us all digging a little bit on our way back to the office in the ambulance (aka Land Rover). It was super fun. I’m so glad that sometimes boys don’t ever seem to grow up.
We met up with the rest of the group and headed back into town to meet with the Junta because they were providing a lunch for us. It was at a really nice restaurant right off the Malecón (the boardwalk). They had Spanish Tortilla on their menu and so I ordered it as my appetizer. But it was bad news. It definitely was not as good as Hermana Moreno’s or anyone else’s in Spain for that matter and actually made me more homesick for Spain than anything. Oh well. I guess I will just have to go back and visit! ;) Anybody up for a fun run to Spain?
After lunch we went home to blog, pack, and relax! For our final evening in Guayaquil, we got batidos (smoothies) at a little corner fruit shop and played love-odometer. This is basically a glorified game of MASH with playing cards. We had fun predicting each other’s future lives (husband, number of kids, wealth, etc.) and having girl talk. I love all the girls here. We seriously have so much fun together. Here’s the fortune telling crew with one of our awesome instructors- Cheryl.
The night was spent packing up all our gear, although we did have a little fun. Allie had a random idea earlier in the week to make a movie like we were Spiderman scaling the wall because our elevator had an open side that would pass by while we were going up. Anyway, we decided we should definitely make these videos we had talked about. We were exhausted and delirious so this probably was a lot funnier to us than it will be to you but enjoy!

Okay I am now seriously questioning my reasoning and sanity in putting out this incredibly embarrassing video of myself, but hopefully it will at least lighten someone's day or at least let you know that there are people in the world more easily entertained than you.

If you want another taste, you can check out Allie's Spiderman vid at http://alliejoyce.blogspot.com/2009/05/today-was-little-bittersweet.html