fried guinea pig and 42 bug bites later...

we are here in gualapuro holla

i mean hola

so actually we`re in o-town, that is otavalo...and i obviously cannot use this key board. leezee, so the community is basically awesome. half the group is staying with transito which is where last years group stayed. teh other half of us are in our own lil gualapuro house. we are rockin it with bucket baths and hose showers....doing dishes outside with the chickens and the goat. awww he bahhs everytime you call his name.

leezee so for adventures weve had so far...we rode a gondala up a mountain in quito, completed a secret mission to san pablo a nearby town where the guys cut their hair short gasp, soem went on a crazy intense hike to see waterfalls and up and down mountains with 3 puppies and 2 kids diving through the brush with them. one angry pitbull almost killed negro on a steep 45 degree slope but negro the superdawg was able to escape.

last nite we ate cuy. mmmm....cuy

the work on the school is going well. weve done a bunch of stuff...sanding, chipping cement, shoveling, mixing cement, oh bending rebar, and i am a professional rock hauler. at nite the stars are amazing and we play frisbee, futbol and kite flyign with the kids during they day.

we had a peanut butter and nutella feast too..mmmm

other than that, the people here are amazing. our host mom is wonderfully sweet and her 16 year old daughter is far wiser than her age. transitos family is amazing..always laughing and full of energy.

no llamas yet...but im planning on giving a few llama calls later tonite.

good to hear from yall..holla back

From Bigs

5-17-06
G-mala is awesome. It's wet but beautiful and we're having an awesome
time. We're staying in this nice hotel a block from the centro that we've
got all to ourselves, it's pretty cool. The group is doing quite well and
we're lovin' the work - did rebar and women's center (which got a roof and
is looking really good). There's some new construction in the forest of
temporary homes for residents on a finca. The mission bought the land and
some of the materials (others from US-AID) and finca residents are offered
the chance to build themselves homes off of the finca to escape the
typically oppressive owner. Apparently we CAN climb Atitlan, despite
being the rainy season, so a lot of us are really looking forward to that.
There's a group of doctors here and some of our group members that are
pre-med were offered the chance to go along with them doing traveling
clinic work which they're really excited about. I have a mohawk. It's
glorious.

-Bigs

?!

hey this is ari

uh, just writing to let everyone know that mary and marjorie are OK. they missed their flight from miami (to bogota to quito) this morning because of faulty info from some security guards, BUT they have a new flight and will arrive in quito around 11 pm tonight. mary's mom called me to let me know. p.s. she rocks.

also, what is happening down there!? how's gmala, tono, and the dogs? have you met a new 'ocho'? what's goin' on?

how's edor?! equatorial?

yeah. the midwest is still rocking it's pants off.

as for new orleans:
apparently they're predicting like 4-6 bad (i.e. worse than normal) hurricanes this year (on top of the the only "ok" ones...) in the atlantic, so that will be fun. maybe i should re-train for my lifeguard-ship so i can not get washed away by big waves and stuff. oh, wait, i really have NO idea what a hurricane even is...yeah. this will be fun.

ok ok.

see y'all on the flipside
ciao
ari

it's 3 am, i am leaving for o'hare at 7am

i am *almost* done packing, though i am highly considering repacking one bag entirely.

so for me, this is the first time i've traveled since senegal...wow. so many objects lying around the house used to be these kind of pathetic reminders of my failure at studying abroad. hand sanitizer bottles that would never be used...batteries that my mom had sent to me in a package that got to me a few days before i left....

...except now, thos hand sanitizer bottles are no longer sad symbols but useful ecuador equipment!

always always before trips there is a voice inside me that says "what are you doing? why don't you just stay at home...it would be so much easier."

and always always i find a way to ignore it and get on that bus to ohare, sleep deprived or not.

i am also hoping that my atm card does not, as indicated, expire in june 2006.

....uhhh, yay ecuador!

~Miriam :-)

Welcome to the Coolest Blog Ever!!

Hello all you happy peppy people!

So we are going to try an exciting and crazy experiment--an I-i blog!!! Awww snnnap!

This way, when we are on our projects, we can update the blog with our crazy stories of llamas and jugo to keep everyone up to date on our adventures.

Schhhwwwaaaaaaa!