Ants, ants and more ants...

Ormigas..aka ants.
The people here are so generous with their gifts and are always bringing by fresh fruit and different foods to try. One of my neighbors brought by a giant papaya, and I cut it up to share with my host family. After about 30 minutes, we had finished the papaya, and I was collecting the plates to take them back into the kitchen. When I returned, I was shocked to find thousands and thousands of ants taking over the kitchen. Apperantly, I had left a little bit of the papaya juice behind on the counter and the ants were able to detect the sugar. Ahhhh! My host mom and I had to pull out the bug spray and get rid of all the invaders. I am so carefull now to make sure not even a single crum is left behind.

Feliz Cumpleanos a ti! I went to my neighbor´s daughts birthday party last week. It was very similar to little kid birthday parties in the US. Jumbaliah´s 1st Birthday!

(No matter how many pictures I took, I could never get a photo of her smiling)

The Peace Corps staff came to visit my site last week, so it is custom in the rural communities to kill a chicken to serve to the guests. My host family tried to get me to do the honors, but I luckily got out of it by offering to make a fruit salad to go on the side.
There was still an egg inside to lay for the next day. (Not my favorite thing here in Ecuador.)

My neighbor Jennifer, Me and Tia Monce (my host aunt, she is a riot and I love her!)

Juramento de Bandera is a formal ceremony that the Ecuadorians celebrate in the schoools to honor their flag. The students graduating this year had to salute the flag in front of everyone, kneel to kiss the tail end of the flag and then proudly shout ¨Te Juro¨( which more or less means I honor the)

During the lenghy ceremony, one girl passed out and everyone ran to check on her. She had gone unconcious and now everyone was looking at the Gringa (aka. me) to give medical assistance. :/ (No matter how many times I tell them, they still like treat me as if I am the doctor)

I did my best to help by elevating her feet, giving her water/gatorade and luckily she woke up and was okay. As soon as we got her off the stage and sitting in a chair, another girl passed out. We attended to her, and because of the lack of ventilation, maybe lack of a good breakfast, and from standing for so long, over the next 30 minutes 5 or 6 more girls passed out. (Dios Mio!) I handed out water to all of the girls and tried to get them to sit down but because the ceremony is so formal and is a sign of respect, they refused to take a break. I thought it was crazy, but fortunately the ceremony was coming to an end. All the girls ended up being okay, but I was sure glad when everything was over...no more Dr. Alea.

The river behind my house that my host brother and the neighbor kids like to ¨banarse¨in. (To say you are going to play/swim in the river they say ¨banarse,¨ which litterally means to take a bath in the river) Gladys, Sandra and Delia

The girls I like to hang out with in my community.

My new Ecua gang...¨Caritas Felices¨