Home away from Home

Preparing for the big game

Working on our team banner, this is where we have our language lessons everyday on Don Edwin's farm

Champions

Puru Queen

So yesterday was the big soccer playoff game. Each training group elected a reir (queen) of the team in addition to creating a team chant (may i say rapping and rhyming in spanish is very difficult....). Our team was the Puru Chicas (solely girls) of Puruhantag. Our queen, Inez, was beautiful in her crown of roses and lovely red dress!....and I think our black and pink jerseys with the skorts were a hit too.

All in all, it was a great day, beautiful weather, great games played with the snowtopped Cayambe mountain as the backdrop, and wonderful people. I got to meet my big sister, who is wonderful. She was full of big sisterly advice for me while I was ravously running around packing back in the states and feeling a bit uneasy about the impending future.

After all the great food at the cookout, (which included baked chocolate chip cookies, you don't find those here) we had a surprise. An awsome couple with a daughter doing PC in another county, was in Ecuador visiting on vacation. They were kind enough to fill their suitcases with goodies from the states for those of us serving in Ecuador. They brought peanut butter (can't find that here), candy, books, and other goodies from home. The current volunteers also contributed to the goody stash with movies :) What a treat!

We were all choosen to pick a goody from the pile. When it was finally my turn all the peanut butter and most of the good movies were gone....but even better, there was a book by Garrison Keillor! Garrison Keillor always reminds me of my own dad and we had just been to see his show in DC this summer. I felt like this gift given through another parent, was in away a gift from my own and even though my family is faraway distance doesn't keep the people you love far.