Parents come to find out why I love this place so much....

My family finally got a snapshot into my life.
hot, green, mangos, reggaeton, rain, good people and did i say hot....where just a few words my sister had to say when describing my site. My parents trip was so good but it was definetely harder to blend in traveling as a group of 4. Everyone in my community wanted to meet my family.

Behind my house near the riverme and my mamawaiting at the bus stopcanoe ride in Poza Hondaglamorous Courtney who decided to stay back and help out in my community and to be my new roommate for awhile. :)my neighbor´s bird haning out with my dadmy host mom and I´s garden host mom and I who loved meeting my parents but couldn´t get over how tall they were.

neighbor kids picking fruit for my famAnali loving on my dad.....who claims he is not a cat person......I don´t buy it. ;)

Court and IMy community wanted to wait to have the kids Christmas party until my parents came so they could see all the dancing and festivities....I think my parents enjoyed the experience but were shocked by all the extremely loud music and Hora Loca.


Also, during my family´s trip, I turned a 1/4 of a century old.

Ecuadorian family
my host family killed a chicken to welcome my family and to celebrate my bday. It was a nice fiestita with 2 families who I care about dearly.25!Another one of my favorite Ecuadorian families. Damaris, adorable 2 yr. old and her ¨mamina¨grandmaa turtle Damaris gave me for my birthday

all my bday surprises. the hat was from a family in my community who put their daughters names on the back...so sweetthe 16th of January, my bday and also the night before we had to say goodbye to my parents, we stayed at a nice hotel in Guayaquil where the staff sang me happy birthday and sent a cake to our room. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip with my family. Thanks Mom, Dad and Courtney for all your patience, flexiblity, open-mindedness and good company during your time here in Ecuador. LOVE YOU!

and for your enjoyment, I have posted below my reaction to having to kill a chickenclassic.

Ecuador welcomes the Richmond family

I couldn´t believe that the time had finally arrived.....my mom, dad and sister were coming to visit! I was so overwhelmed with joy when I saw them walking out of the airport doors. We all just kept smiling in disbelief. It had been too long since we had last exchanged hugs.

We spent the first 2 nights in Guayaquil, and I got to watch as my parents made their first impressions of Ecuador. The heat was definietely something they couldn´t ignore as Guayquil was having some of its hottest days of the year. We ate at good restaurants, walked around the melecon and hung out with iguanas in the park. Then it was time to send my parents off on their Galapagos cruise, and my sister and I headed back to my site to put on a the Fuerza Femenina, Women´s Conference. Enjoy the pix from my family´s tour of Ecuador.

One of the photos my parents brought back from their amazing crusie in the Galapagos. The mischievous little sealion kept wanting to play with the land iguanas tail.Our fabulous hotel in Puerto Lopez, Hosteria Mandala...one I would definitely recommend tails of peace. the hotel is all about saving the whales and supports a lot of good local causespazmi ñaña and I at the fish marketbringing in the big catches of the week
bringing back fish to his family

to give my parents a more intimate tour of the local communities, we visited the town of Agua Blanca where my family heard the history of the surrounding area and about the ancestory of the people.the town also had mud baths for us to relax insome of the kids from Agua Blanca who enjoyed practicing their English with my familyLos Frailes beach....its a must stop for all my visitorsmy adorable mother who loved taking in all the new sites my dad´s ridiculously good seafood souptagua...which is what a lot of the jewelrey is made fromMom took lots of good flower shotsthe hat makes you feel like you are ready for a safarian adventure but I loved it

Bellaitalia.....great Italian resturant we ate at while at the beach

Fuerza Femenina

Women´s health conference Sam, good PC friend, and I put on for our health promoters. Sam brought her ladies to my site and we had 2 days of interactive activites and educational seminars. My sister also helped out and got to practice her Spanish.

My Corazon Feliz promoters teaching Sam´s health promoters to take blood pressure and calculate Body Mass Index. Later Sam did a great aerobics class for all the women.


My explaination of the conference is very lame bc it was so much better than what I have described it, I apoligize.
I have been in this Internet cafe toooooo long and will have to write again later.

sending you all my love

Burning the old year away

New Years at the beach....On New Year's eve, many cultures are looking ahead and making resolutions for the upcoming year; however, Ecuadorians are focused on Ano Viejo, the old year. Families make parpermachet dolls representing the old year, tucking firecrackers into the newspaper stuffing. Each person writes on a small piece of paper one wrongdoing or bad thing from the past year that they think MUST be left behind. The paper testaments are then folded up and stuffed into the doll to be burned away, ensuring that the old year's mistakes go up in smoke.

At the stroke of midnight, we set fire to our papermachet cuy celebrating Rebeccas´s birthday and buringing our old year away

toasting with pink champagne

yep, the smerf went up in flames too

rebecca, me, sam and chris

vogue

sammy and me

Cheers to 2010!