First Goodbyes

Today us Sunday, and my last shift is on Wednesday. It seems as if the past 3 months have flown by. I'm going to miss these kids so much. I spent my morning in Casas, where recently I've been training Valerie, to be the new site leader. Though it's been less training and more just letting her learn to control my crazy kids and love them. I then spent my afternoon in Casa Esperanza, where I'm not gonna work again. I have one more shift in that location, Los Pequenitos de OSSO; I have one more shift in Casa Milagros on Tuesday. Today in Casa Esperanza I got to spend some time with Martín, who normally doesn't get taken outside because he is very difficult to watch unless you stay with him the entire time. But he loves doing anything new, and we had an awesome time before I left. Something I realized today is that in the past couple months it's been easier and easier to talk with the kids. It's not that my Spanish is getting better because most of the kids at OSSO are handicapped and can't talk. It's just that I've come to realize how they will communicate and how I can help. I felt like I could understand little Brayan through his smiles. As I've said I'm excited to get home and see my friends and family, but I'm gonna be heartbroken leaving any of these kids behind.

Hamburger Graffiti

All over town I've been seeing the same graffiti signature. A pair of hamburgers on the same wall. And I finally just decided to start keeping track. So today was a pretty great day, I started off with a shift in Casas, like always. The reason for that is that the site leader goes to his/her site 5 to 7 times a week, so I spend over half my time there. But anyways I went and had an awesome time. I love walking into Tadeo Torres and having all the kids run and tell me "Hola! Jérémie!" it makes me so happy I get to be there to help in any way I can. In the afternoon I went out with one of the other volunteers and we explored the area down near the river tomebamba. There are some awesome little stores where you can buy humitas, a traditional treat here. We also walked to Los Artes del Fuego, where there are tons of artisans that do iron work. It was pretty cool, and all the pictures are on fb and my imgur.

Impromptu keyboard thing

Fast Sunday's aren't very fun down here. Sometimes it seems that I'm the only one fasting, and not only that but the kids always eat delicious foods, and whoever gives it to them offers it to me. I've got three cups of jello and and a hand full of crackers upstairs to prove it. But also fasts here seem to be the most yielding. I feel like fasting makes me so open to the spirit and after ending it I felt overwhelmed with the spirit.

Another fun thing today is that that I played the piano in sacrament meeting. When we arrived there was no prelude music, and no one played for the opening song, so I walked to the chorister if she would like for me to play for the meeting and she let me. So for the meeting I played impromptu on a 5 octave keyboard and naturally made a ton of horrible obvious mistakes, but still by the end I felt like I had contributed more than I had detracted from the spirit of the music. Testimony was meeting was great, it seemed as if everyone was so eager to bear their testimony, and they all had strong testimonies if the gospel. I then got to work with mis hijos in Casas. I love those kids so much and I know it's going to tear me apart to leave them in 3 weeks. Today I did a little game where you rock the kids back and forth and do this chant:

Aserín, aserán
Los maderos de San Juan
Piden pan, no les dan
Piden queso, les dan oueso
Y les corten el pescueso

Then you tickle their neck as you say pescueso. The kids love it, especially little Karla. So after doing it with her Cristian came running up to me yelling ¡Córtame! ¡Córtame! And I almost laughed me head off. But the best part was that my Florcita heard me laughing and starting to laugh too, and her laugh starts fairly normal then her smile becomes very grinch like and her laugh becomes very guttural, which started an endless cycle of laughing for her, Cristian, and me. Speaking of laughing I think I finally won over Jennifer's heart; she is three years old and when she first arrived at Tadeo Torres she had a very hard time adjusting. But then I found her weakness: tickles. And after a couple days of working hard at her I think I'm ready to change her name to squeaky toy or tickle me Elmo. I love Jennifer.

Other big news, we three new girls in Casas, and they are all super cute. They're all sisters and their names are Maria, Michele and Marisela. They're all doing great and I can't wait to go back tomorrow afternoon and work with them some more.

Gas Fire

So today was kind of crazy, there was a fire in the laundry room. I had helped one of the workers, Gladys, bring a gas can to the room (because everything here runs on gas) when she came running back out and asked me to come back in. So I strolled into the room as the smoke started filling it, fun stuff. The best part was that the fire was being fed by the gas can and was in-between a wooden closet and the dryer. After asking about a fire extinguisher and starting to fill buckets of water I decided to go tell the nuns that their laundry room was on fire. Then after dousing it in water and that not doing anything we went out to evacuate the kids and get the bus driver to tell him why we were late. We called the fire fighters and they did us the favor of finding the fire extinguisher in the smoky room and putting it out. I couldn't have imagined a better ending to this story. Oh wait, they could have landed in Charlotte.

In all honesty it was a miracle that happened today, there were so many things as a matter of chance that happened right and the fire was handled well. First I happened to be by the laundry room when I was supposed to be in the lunch room, so I could go help as soon as it happened. Also the fire happened in a room made of concrete completely and it was hard for it to spread. The kids were all in the comedor, close to the exit so we could evacuate easily, and the gas in the buildings never exploded or else the orphanage and the other one next to it would have been destroyed. It's a reminder to me that God is looking out for these kids, because they have more purpose in this life. There are tons if more volunteers that will come and learn from them and there smiles. But most of all it reminds me that, while their mortal parents aren't able to take care of them right now, they have an immortal Dad that is making sure that they accomplish what they were sent here to do, including being a blessing to my life and many others.

Abandoned Gold.

Today was pretty great, especially in the afternoon. All the kids with september birthdays celebrated in OSSO and the Casas kids were invited. I got to take all the kids and have them see the other locations I work at. We all got together and some of the volunteers dances thriller for the workers, them the workers danced to a dong called something like chiuaua, ad finally Zach danced to firework. Pretty fun. Then, after cake and some delicious jello yogurt crossover, we did the piñata, ate candy, and all got sugar highs. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to be there. I just feel really bad for the worker who had do put them to bed while they were all hyped up.

So this past week I've had a very unique experience. Rex, the founder of OSSO is staying in the house. All the people here love him, and after talking to him I understand why. He is such an awesome charitable person, and I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't love him. A couple days ago he told some of the volunteers that the thought of no one wanting these orphans is the same as saying there are bricks of gold laying in the street, and no one wants them. But I know that even if they don't have parents here that want to raise them, there is a father for them up above and he will do everything to raise them right here. I'm so lucky to be a part of helping these kids, and I love being with them.

Paradise falls.

So yesterday I went to waterfalls at Girón, one of the most beautiful places in the world, and in my opinion, a place lost in time. Despite the lack of snipes the trip was a blast. We hiked for 3 hours through open fields, dense trees, and high mountains to find huge waterfalls that we could walk under and jump into. If was a ton of fun and I'm so grateful I got to go. Afterwards we went to Negro's house (our guide for all our trips) and he made us some of the best trout I've ever had, and I don't like fish. The fish apparently came from El Cajas, the Ecuadorian national park. That night we got home did laundry, watched contagion, played bang and went to bed. On days we go on trips we don't get to go to the orphanages.

Today made up for all that though and I got to be with my kids from Casas all day both shifts, so I've got my hands full. This morning I went with Whitney and Zacharie, and we had a blast. After breakfast the Hermanas or the Nuns all left for a meeting so we got the kids to ourselves. We took them all to the TV room and took them on walks as the got rowdy. When walking around with Cristian, Pablo, Edu, Karla, and Jasmine I took them all to the smaller and poor Cristian fell fast asleep slumped over in the swing! I've never seen him so tired. So I took him and put him on the bench and let him use my sweater as a pillow. In the afternoon I went with Nico and my mom. It went surprisingly well, the kids behaved great! We gave them baths and basically had play time for the whole 4 hours. Basically today was awesome.

I love being here so much and it seems everyday I love these kids more. I wish I could stay longer. It's so true that the more you serve someone the more you love them, even if you don't want to. The best way to get rid of a bad attitude or turn a cruddy day around is to lose yourself in service. It's such a blessing to be able to do that for 9 hours a day! Miss you guys so much and I can't wait to see you guys again!

Language barrier bathtime.

So today right before dinner the worker Irene asked me to take the kids for baños y las manos. But my language barrier decided to let through the word: bañarlos. You guys could guess the rest. I took all the Casas kids out and gave them baths one at a time, while poor Irene waited in El Comedor togive them dinner. Sooner or later Zach comes into a room full of screaming, wet, naked boys asking why they were not eating dinner. My response: I'm getting dressed I'll be there in a second. When Irene found out she just laughed about it, which is better than the alternative, I just thought that was the strangest thing that happened today.

So Maite and her brothers are now gone to live with their grandma in New York, Carlitos and Linda are leaving to live with their aunt in Guayaquil this weekend, and Wilson and Mercy will in 2 weeks go live with their grandparents in the Amazon. I hope that in the little bit of time I've been blessed to have with them I've been able to serve them well.

I watched Elder Holland's devotional today with the other volunteers and it was amazing. It made me so grateful that I can build my own spiritual haven from the world by living the gospel and having the spirit with me. I love Elder Holland's dream of being caught by Jesus while serving him. I share a similar hope, that any moment I could be caught by surprise, and I hope to be found serving others. I love and miss you guys so much, and I hope I get to see you soon!

House built from a bus.

On the way to the orphanages in the mornings we drive by 3 houses that are built from some odd materials: a bus, wood, and nails. Someone had taken some old vans, boarded up the windows and parked it next to the other houses. I will try and take pictures to post. Other news is that Carlitos and his ñaña Linda will be going home with their aunt on Wednesday. That's super sad news for me and super happy news for the kids. Their aunt is a super nice lady who trust will treat them well. I'm just gonna miss them both so much. Seeing children leave the orphanage is very bittersweet, you are sad to see them leave, but happy to know they will be with family that loves them.

I've though a lot about the verses in the scriptures which say "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." And the more I think about it tue more the answer becomes clear to me. God wants us to be like him so we can become perfect and live with him again, and God wants all his children cared for and loved, so he lets things happen to some if his children and he gives others the opportunity to serve and love those in need. We are serving God by doing what he wants us to do for his children, and we are doing what he would do in the same situation. We are becoming more like him while doing his work. I can't help but feeling so much love for these kids as I try and act as God or Jesus would be for them. Sometimes a particular child can be frustrating, but it doesn't mean I don't love them as much as the others. I'm so glad I can serve these kids and I can't wait to start my next shift tomorrow. I'm gonna be in Casas for 9 straight hours and I'm hope I can leave them happier and that I can find ways to help them all the day.

Incan Ruins

These past days have been crazy! Every day that passes I love this place more and more. First of all: Casas is a mad house now. In the past week the number of kids almost doubled! We now have little Daniel, Karlita, and her sister Maria Jasmine. All the kids are the cutest little angels and I am uploading pics on imgur while I´m typing. If you still don´t have the imgur username and password just ask in the comments. I´ve learned to love these kids so much just by working with them seeing them through a perspective of service. If you change someone´s diaper just the right amount of times it´s impossible not to love them. 

The whole schedual right now is becoming a great daily routine. My alarm goes off at 6:20 then I wake up at 6:45. The bus leaves for my first shift at 7 then depending on the location I feed the kids, brush their teeth, and bring them outside for an activity. After that I basically hold them off until papilla, or snack, then more acctivities and lunch. Then at noon the bus takes us home to lunch and we leave again at 2 for afternoon shift.  In afternoon shift you work activities with the kids until pretty much dinner, then you leave for home around 6. 9 hours a day, 7 days a week, with three off shifts makes about a 50 hour work week. 

Recently the family went out zip lining in the mountains and toured the museum with some incan ruins out behind the banco central. The pictures are below.  I won´t bore you with a long story and instead just title the pictures!

A parrot that lives out in an aviary hidden in the bank gardens.

Didn´t know why but I took a pic... no real story.

The fountain between el Banco Central and el Museo.

The hillside that leads to the Native American gardens.

Una vaca... what else is there to say? (He´s not stray, this one is on a leash)

Brothers

The view from the mountains.

Some weird native tree.

The view from behind the bank.

After Zip Lining.

While Zip Lining.

Ecuador.

Houses

Car wash by the river,

yep.

Befor zip lining.

A house.

If you look closely, you can see the basketball court also has futbol goals and a volleyball net.

Yep. thats it.

Low Gas Prices

So I wasn´t sure what to write about and I even decided not to write yesterday because I just didn´t feel like it. But today is Sunday, and on Sundays we all get together and have a devotional. Today the message was in the song: I am a Child of God. there is a line in the song that goes something like

¨Thank thee for this earthly home with parents kind and dear.¨

The question that came to my mind, and the others, was why don´t these children have these amazing blessings that we are given? Why does God give one of his children more than an other? God gives his children these blessings so they can act as family for those children without parents kind and dear. The children here look to us as family. We are their family and I´m glad I have the oppurtunity to show them that Christ and I both love them so much. I have a new apreciation for this hymn, number 220. I love verse 3:

I would be my brother's keeper;
I would learn the healer's art.
To the wounded and the weary
I would show a gentle heart.
I would be my brother's keeper-
Lord, I would follow thee.

Love and miss you guys! Good luck to those starting school! See you guys in 6 weeks! Oh, yeah, and gas is a dollar a gallon here.

Truckin´ by the dozen

The rule for trucks in Ecuador is that you can drive as many as you can fit. So today I saw a family of 12 all piled in the back of a pick up. The driving laws here are crazy, it feels as if everytime we bus over to the orphanage we have a near death experience. for example today we crossed over the double yellow heading straight into incoming trafic because the bus in front of us was going to slow for the drivers taste. But we always make it there. At least we have every day so far!

This past week I was made site leader for Casas! I´m super excited! That means I am in charge of telling the  other volunteers about what´s going at the site, make goals for the volunteers and the kids, and make sure everything goes smoothly there. It also means I work at the site at least 5-6 shifts a week (around 20-25 hours) and I go on all the field trips with them. Basically the best job ever. Over the past week 4 new kids have come to Tadeo (the building with both Casas & Cunas), which is very out of the ordinary. A newborn baby was brought into Cunas, and they today named her Maria del Cisne. Three new kids were put into Casas last night! They were apparently taken from their homes by the governmnent, which is usualy for the kids safety. I get to meet them tomorrow in my morning shift. The past couple days I´ve spent my time in in the OSSO houses, where most of the children are handicapped. I learned something important there: 

¨The kids aren´t messy eaters, I´m just a messy feeder.¨

You can quote me on that. I felt like this idea applied to more than just feeding. The more you get to know the  kids the more you learn what they need most and what you can do to make their time here more worth it, to make their life less of a messy bib and more of a nurturing experience. Some people just need to be fed diferently. Christian from OSSO Alegria has autism and doesn´t get along well with the other kids; he doesn´t quite understand why he can´t just take toys from other people and why he can´t hit kids to get what he wants. But the other day when volunteering I noticed he calmed down when he found some puppets and was lining them up into shapes. He was very focused and proud of what he had made. The next time I went over,  I ¨fed¨ him deferently. I brought him some building blocks, gave most of them to him, and the others to the smaller kids so they wouldn´t try and steal the new toys. Christian spent almost the whole time making towers as tall as he could, making sure they were the same deminsions all the way up. He didn´t run around hurting the others anymore. I hope that I, and whomever else that reads this, can, when we meet someone new or diferent we can learn how to treat them in a way that brings out the best in them or in us. Some people need to be treated diferently, and when they are, they become a new person that we can´t even recognize anymore. I´ve had it happen so many times down here and I hope I learn more from these kids throughout my next 6 weeks. Love you guys!

Stray cow

So I finally came up with a system for titling my posts. I'm just gonna pick the weirdest thing I've seen that day or the day before and use that as my title. And yes I saw a stray cow walking through one of the neighborhoods here.

Anyways these past days have been crazy. It's an experience where the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It is hard for me to imagine that I've already spent a week here. I love it so much here and I love the kids. These past 2 days I've been working in OSSO Alegría, where the younger kids are. As soon as you walk in it becomes a mad house. Kids are crying right and left and it's your job to make sure that they aren't. On the bus ride home after my first 5 hour shift I was wondering why I was even here the work was so hard. But when I went back later I was reminded why: these kids, when they are cared for become some of the happiest people you've ever seen, and they rub off on you. It's impossible not to feel amazing when you're helping Pablito walk around on his feet. You can't be mad at Dominica when all she wants is to sit on your lap while you help the other kids. These kids are so precious and I hope I can learn from them and become happy for the little things, like the spirit that cones from service. Yesterday I got to take Marcelo and Edison to church, and even though I couldn't understand much of what the speakers were saying I was glad I could take someone who normally wouldn't have the chance to a place where they could feel the spirit. I just love being here and I can't wait to work tomorrow. I miss all of you and love you all!

Also: I've got a drawing that Marcelo did on my iPod of me. I though it was pretty cute. I'll also upload some other pics but if you want to see pics of the kids you need to message me privately and I'll give you access to an imgur account with pics.

The view from our casa.

Another pic of the view.

I guess I kinda overdid it...

Yep. For sure.

A pic of all the produce they have at the fruit market.

Sketchy baggage claim.

This is what Marcelo thinks I look like.

Looking out the car window

From the OSSO house to the orphanages there is a 20 minute drive through lawless roads con loco drivers, and one thing I've noticed is that if you pay close attention while looking out the window you will see some pretty crazy things. 2 days ago I saw a dog looking in display cases at a pharmacy, except there was no one else in the store and he was intently staring at one thing, as if he was trying to decide wether or not to buy it. Yesterday I saw a man cooking a whole pig over a fire then scraping off all the black ash so there was no hair on it when he took his first bite. To top that off I saw a white horse today. In the middle of the city. Walking around on a soccer field. Completely alone. Things are so different here it blows me away sometimes.

Other than that the last 2 days have been so busy. I got put in Casas all day yesterday and I got so tired at the end of the day, especially since they don't speak any english. But it's such an amazing job and it's impossible not to love these kids, there so cute! I have some pictures online and if u want to see I can message you my imgur username and password. I made an account especially for this. This morning I finally got to visit Cunas, where the babies stay. Today I changed more diapers than I have in my entire life. But I still very much enjoyed it. José Luis started walking this week and he is the cutest thing. He is so proud of it and I wish you could all see his little smile after taking his steps, I love them all so much. And can't wait to go back tomorrow.

So this afternoon I went out to buy food at the fruit market and me and Zach made a passion fruit smoothie, it was awesome but I started thinking that I really miss American food. So in the next couple days could you eat something American for me and tell me all about it? I love Phil's, In n Out, and anything that includes muchos carne! I would much appreciate it! Love you guys!

First day on the job and also first time realizing I'm using way too many firsts in my titles!

I've been here for 2 days but it feels like I've been here a week. I love it so much here! Last night in "casas" (ages 2 to 10) I got to meet Maria, Mercy, Linda, Carlitos, Christian, Dilan, and Wilson, basically the cutesy children ever to have lived. Mercy during dinner (I don't eat with the orphans but I help them eat) gave me her food and told me "Corta! Corta!" but I pushed it back explaining that I would eat later. 3 seconds later I remembered that corta meant "cut" and she was asking me to cut her meat... I also spent a good 25min singing to Maria today. These orphans are so happy and it's so hard telling them no to anything! I don't know how the nuns can be strict when the kids are so adorable. Yesterday I also worked in "Casa Esperanza" where all of the children are severely handicapped. Esperanza is such a perfect name for that place because all the children are so happy and hopeful. Lucy is a girl in a wheelchair who doesn't talk at all but she loves being pushed around the courtyard. You can tell because when you do her mouth turns into an enormous smile. If you work hard enough you can get her to laugh which is one of the most precious things ever. I'm having an awesome time and can't wait to start work in the morning! By the way I was thinking if you want to know anything specific about here just leave a comment and I'll answer it in my next post. Also I am gonna start an album on imgur but it's going to be private because of Ecuadorian law. If you want a URL or password just comment and I'll message you privately. Love and miss you all!

First night!

After 2 days of travel I am finally in Cuenca! The country is so beautiful. The city is basically a colorful array of buildings built right into the mountains. I wish I could post pix, but still pictures would hardly do it justice. The sunrise this morning made it look like the city was on fire, it was so beautiful. Today we went and visited the city and also the OSSO orphanages. The city is awesome and the children are precious. Most of the children have disabilities and need to be wheeled around, but are always happy and super excited to do activities. Tomorrow I get to work in "Casa Esperanza," and my job will be to assist the tías in taking care of the couple orphans there by dressing them, brushing their teeth, feeding them breakfast, then do physical therapies to keep them developmentally on track. First day on the job starts in 6 hours. Wish me luck!

First Post!

Hey so it's Jérémie from San Diego and tomorrow I leave for Ecuador to work in an orphanage for 2 months. I'm gonna post here a couple times a week to share what it's like and some thoughts and impressions from working with the kids. I hope it becomes interesting and thoughtful and a place where I can still connect with people back home.

I would also love it if people would comment on things! I miss you guys and would love to talk!