Happy Anniversary!!

 So it is official!!! Me and Kel have been in Ecuador for a full month as of today! I can't believe how fast it has just flown by.... We have had a great time here so far. Despite sickness and a lack of transportation at times. So for this blog I figured I would just throw in some extra pictures that didn't make the cut the first time around.
 Thank you everyone who has been supporting us! We appreciate all of your kind words of encouragement and prayers! We cherish all the messages you send us. They are a healing when we are feeling low.

This was at the airport in Miami. We just got done eating the most delicious chicken I've ever tasted in my life! Maybe a bit of an exaggeration. But it was very very good anyway!

Kourt, this is for you! I know how upset you were that Pingo Po didn't make it on this trip. So while we were wandering through the airport, we spotted him. He's been with me on this journey the whole time! So put a smile on. He's been a comfort to me while I'm in a totally strange and sometimes scary country.

I never got to take pictures from any of my flights before! I've always wanted to, but never had opportunity on all of the short little flights I ever took.

This moment of misery brought to you by "Reality"! For when it dawns on you that there's no way that you are going to keep from burning while in Ecuador!

This, unfortunately, was a little girls t-shirt. Otherwise Kel and I would totally be sporting this look around town!

I think that this is Kel's favorite photo of the entire trip. The people in the background get her laughing every time she looks at it. She didn't know they were back there when she took the photo.

This is one of my favorites! Maxine and Courtz devouring the cake that me and Kel had made. It made me happy that they liked it so much.

Thanks again everyone!! We love you and can't wait to see you all again. It's only two months away now! Ciao Ciao

A Weekend with the Girls

 Well the chicas came and are gone now. We had so much fun while they were here! The first night we got some pizza for dinner which was delicious! And then we headed to the beach off of the main square in Puerto Lopez. It was Kaitlyn's first time swimming in the ocean!!! It was so adorable seeing her reaction. I did not get it recorded. But I'm sure they will be documenting it on their blog manzanameansapple.blogspot.com.
 Friday we all had planned on going for a hike to the sulphur springs in Agua Blanca, but the heat was too intense. So we headed off to Piqueros instead for a nice easy day at the beach. Everyone tested out the mud bath, mostly voluntarily. I didn't get any pictures of that. I'm counting on you girls for the photographic evidence for that experience as well. I have found out that the beach prices are much higher than inland. So I'm really excited about visiting Cuenca and being able to get more for less :)

 We went out in service on Saturday. Sadly this was the only photo taken. Ari was trying to steal my boyfriend Jonathan. It wont work though, we have a deeper connection, lol, jkkk! Ari got a couple return visits for Kel. And Ashley got one for me! Thanks girls! I got to make my first return visit that day with Kaitlyn. It was so exciting!
 After service we headed back to the house in Machalilla and studied for the meeting and hung out on the beach a little bit. Ari and Kaitlyn got to have their first bucket showers! I'm so proud :') haha.Then we went to the meeting. Everyone did an amazing job of participating at the meeting! I was so proud of everyone at that point :)

  Then we all went to Puerto Cayo! There's a family from Australia out of town that let us use their house for the weekend. The house was very spacious! We counted at least 7 bathrooms! There was at least one for each room. Everyone is so hospitable here. It never ceases to amaze me how awesome Jehovah's organization is. And we were directly on the beach much to everyones great joy. Courtz went ahead and had a restaurant stay open for us when we arrived and everyone that likes seafood got "Encocado Camaron or Pescado". It is so delicious!!! And I'm totally in love with Patacones. They are fried plantains. Salted and dunked in "Tomato Sauce" aka ketchup they are super fantastic.

  I do believe that the highlight for me was when we all got to ride on this truck to get to the beach house. There will be video on youtube, lol. I am so easily entertained ;)

The following day we all baked on the beach. It was so beautiful being on the beach. Puerto Cayo is even more aesthetically pleasing than Machalilla or Puerto Lopez to me. I loved it there! We went to a restaurant owned by a brother from Canada called "Con Coco". That was some of the best food I've had here. He had a trampoline in the front yard. So we had to play popcorn. Me, Ashley, and Allison were unpoppable! We suffered through some unbelievably awkward moments to keep hanging on though... lol.

 Then we headed down to see the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous! And not only did we have a sunset, but we also had a full moon! It totally took my breath away. It was uncontrollable the thanks I gave to Jehovah for his wonderful creation.

 We got to swim in the water for a couple more hours. There was so much light from the street lamps and the moon that we could see just fine. Unlike the last time me and Kel tried to swim at night and we couldn't see anything!
 On our way back home we accidentally crashed a going away party. It just so happened to be for the brother that owned the restaurant we had gone to, Pedro. Everyone was playing a very interesting game called "Estrellas", aka "Stars". It looked like it was a lot of fun. Ashley, Ari, Allison, and Stephanie were all brave and played. Me Kel and Kaitlyn stayed on the sidelines and just watched. We were all sunburned, among other things. But I would definitely like to play it under different circumstances. It's like dodge ball on steroids! There were two teams. One team was trying to flip over all the bottle caps on the ground, while the other team was trying to hit the opposing team so that they were out and not able to flip the bottle caps. There were extra rules and such that I could not pick up on. All I got was that you weren't allowed to hit the ball into the street (which didn't stop some from doing that anyway) and you couldn't run with the ball.

 So today we all got up and gathered our things. The girls left. Then after me, Courtz, and Kel watched "A Walk in the Clouds" we finished cleaning. The girls had done almost all of it before they left. So it was super easy to finish. Gracias chicas!
\And now here I am. Totally tuckered out and ready to sleep for a couple of days.

Jammin with Courtz

So we had a fantastically fun night with Courtz. The shrimp were huge! And muy delicioso. Courtz is an amazing singer/guitar player. So we had a jam session. She got me to sing a couple of songs!!!! Crazy. lol. And one time she had me singing over Skype for her friend Bianca. It was super stressful haha. Trying to come out of my shell more though. We were out on the veranda. And we got to see this gorgeous sunset! So many beautiful things here.

Jehovah is such a loving God to give us the joy of sight, taste... I could do without the smell here though. lol. It typically reeks of dying things (seafood, animals, general waste, etc...). Just when I think I'm getting used to it, a gust of wind proves me totally wrong.

Maria's Party

So on Friday little Maria that had caught Dengue Fever had a spur of the moment party on a rooftop nearby. I had been very irresponsible and got myself severly sunburned that day

 So I was not in any mood to dance the night away sweating on top of the gnarly burn I had. But for such a brave little friend, I stuck it out. And I'm so glad that I did. It was so much fun!

She looked so cute in her brand new outfit. You could hardly tell that she had been sick at all!

 The whole congregation was invited. Although, because it was such short notice, not everyone was able to come. So I heard that there might be another one very shortly ;) The love in the congregation here is so beautiful. I was dragged out onto the dance floor three times. My good little cleaning partner from the assembly, Jonathan, was one of my dance partners. He just laughed at me. Then the other two times our friend Stephania tried to teach me some moves. Once I started to feel like I was getting whatever move she was doing she changed it! lol. I was hopelessly lost. Kel was way more into it than I was. Her and our friend Emery (another one from Georgia, US) were having a great time solo dancing together.

 Then... they broke out into the Macarena! So of course Kel and I jumped in for that! There may or may not be photographic evidence of that particular event. I'm not sure where it would show up. It unfortunately would not be on me or Kel's camera...

Agua Blanca

Today was another awesome day in service! We got to go and work an area called "Agua Blanca". A very neat little area down off the beaten path a couple miles. It's very pretty! Not a whole lot of people were home there. But I was getting to know my little sister Daniela better anyway :) She's such a tease! It's hilarious. She's the daughter of the brother that used to be the town drunk. Such encouraging experience! In the picture she's the one second from the right... in case you couldn't guess ;)
 The sister all the way to the right is Liety. She has an amazing story too. She started learning the truth when she was still living with her parents. Her entire family was severly opposed. Her father would threaten to kill her. And when she made the brave decision that she was going to serve Jehovah no matter what, her father pulled a gun on her actually tried to shoot her. But Jehovah provided a protection for her. A brother came by her house just when her father was about to kill her and stopped him. Her father ended up killing himself after that. And in his suicide note, he wrote that the main reason he was killing himself was because she became a witness! It's almost unimaginable some of the things the brothers and sisters have gone through to serve Jehovah! It makes me appreciate everything Jehovah has given me so much more! Also in the picture is Avery (from Georgia) and Jon Carlos (aka JC).

Me and Kel's buddy in the middle is Adonis. He's super cute and absolutely loves his picture being taken! Me and Daniela were messing around with the ties that we found in the backseat of the van. Then JC and Courtz got ahold of one, LOL!

Spanish Lessons

So Kello and I have started our Spanish lessons! Super exciting stuff.
I was so naive about it. I walked in thinking that I was going to know a little bit. I know nothing as I found out on our very first day, Tuesday. Our wonderfully fantastic profesora Paola, started us at the very basics of Spanish... the alphabet. It's so sad to me that I had no clue how the Spanish alphabet was spoken. lol. And then we were distinguishing between masculine and feminine nouns. Super basic stuff, but apparently very necessary for speaking Spanish. Who knew!?! lol.

 Then today we were working on conjugating verbs. Starting out with the regular ones ending in -ar. So I have a ton of homework (tarea) that I have to finish before Tuesday. I love that I have homework again!

Piqueros

From left to right: Anna (from England), Jennifer (Anna's sister), Brooke, Anna, and Kaisa.

 So yesterday Kel and I got to go to the most beautiful beach I've ever seen! The water was so clear that we could see the bottom. Piqueros Patas Azules (Blue-Footed Boobies) was the name of the beach. Everyone calls it Piqueros. We went with a group visiting from... no se, lol. I don't remember. I'll ask Anna later. But it was Kaisa (or however it is spelled) and Anna from Estonia. And Brooke from Washington state. Anna and Kaisa can speak 4 different languages! Russian, Estonian, Spanish, and English. Anna from Estonia is one of the ones in the new Ecuador article in the July study Watchtower. They tried to teach us a Russian card game that seemed like it would be super fun... if we could understand what to do. The rest were Eden, Sarah, Anna (from England), Jennifer, and Courtz.

 While we were on the beach there was a mud bath there. So all of us tried it out. Except for Eden. He wasn't brave enough. Once we were fully covered, we went wandering down the beach. We looked like a bunch of monsters from the Black Lagoon! The employees came over and took pictures of us in the mud bath. We're gonna be famous! We went walking on the rocks and picked up some beautiful shells.

 Apparently a certain kind of shell that could be found on this beach used to be the currency for this area. They had them plastered into the side of the buildings. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of that.

So we got up bright and early this morning for service. Worked with Sarah and Eden. Got to place a couple sets of magazines and then nobody was home after that. There must be something going on today that we gringos don't know about. So we headed in early. But now I have a couple more return visits! The people here stay and listen to whatever you have to say. Even if you're taking forever trying to struggle through their language. They think it's neat to have foreigners in their houses. They think we're 'exotic' lol! Hopefully that will help someone come into the truth.

But today is the day of me and Kel's first spanish lesson!!!! Yay! I can't wait. We have it from 2-4pm. Afterward, we plan on treating ourselves to something sweet or trendy. Not sure yet. I would like to go and see what kind of scarves and dresses they have in town. Also, I've heard that you can get a hammock for about $12. So I'm contemplating getting at least one.

I miss my family and friends. But this place has been very kind and hospitable. I have no regrets about coming. I just wish that everyone could come and have the same wonderful experience that I am. This place is so amazing! Jehovah has definitely blessed our journey here!

Oh! And also, Kel and I will be getting the apartment in Lopez that we wanted. It's available on Friday. So we will be closer to our Spanish lessons and the grocery stores. We'll still live in Machalilla part time. But our main house will be in Lopez. Now we won't have to worry about transport as much. Really excited about it!

Ciao Ciao mi amigos!