Devil´s Nose, Sod and Guayaquil

Hey once again.

So I´m deciding to start 2 weeks ago when the 6 volunteers from the Ark and I went to the Nariz del Diablo (Devil´s Nose). It´s a few hour train ride from Riobamba that is apparently the most difficult track or rail because of the sharp switch backs. It was kind of boring, but the story behind the Devil´s Nose was kind of interesting. This railroad was very important because it connected the highlands to the coast. To make it 4,000 Jamaicans came over (apparently as workers and not slaves) to build it and 2,500 of them died in the construction of the track. The mountain is called the Devil´s Nose because they say the 2,500 souls are trapped inside. On the way back we stopped in a town called Alausi to walk around. We climbed up to a huge statue of Saint Peter, which had an amazing view of the city. They I bought some shoes in the market and a little lunch.

During last week I worked on sod everyday... meaning I ventured out of the orphanage to find random pieces of grass on the side of the road. Then I used a pick axe to cut out a square and haul it back to the Ark in a wheelbarrow. It was slow going, but there were some volunteers from Quito that decided to help which made it go a lot faster. We´re putting grass in this little courtyard for a play area for the toddlers so it´s not so windy and they can´t get into as much trouble! I also went to the hospital a few times to take some of the babies to get their treatment. A few had had pneumonia. On the way back we managed to fit 5 people with 5 babies in a taxi, not including the driver!

On Thursday, I went out with my English students for dinner... which ended up being at 9:00 (so typical). We met at 7 to go looking for a restaurant (meaning between 7 to 7:30). Then 2 girls got a phone call saying their niece or cousin was in the hospital so they told us to wait an hour. We walked around some more and ended up running into a few of my street church friends. Then at 8:30 we finally picked a restaurant and ordered pizza, limonade and a strawberries with whipped cream (yummy)! So we didn´t leave until like 10. I enjoyed though and will miss my students.

This last weekend I went to Guayaquil again (the coast) with 3 other volunteers. We walked around downtown again, went to Salinas (a beautiful beach with clear aqua blue water and waves), made some dinner for the people that lent us their living room to sleep in, and had a foosball competition one night by the water! After playing foosball for fun for a while we decided to let the winnners play until they lost. Well, me and one of the volunteers (Rebecca) ended up winning and winning and no one could beat us... so we ended up leaving undefeated!

Tomorrow is my going away party at the Ark because I´m leaving for Colombia on Friday! I still have to pack and get some stuff done before I go so I´m glad to have a little time to catch up.

Please pray that God will continue to provide for me. After the Children at Risk school in Bogota you are supposed to commit a year of working with children at risk. I would love to stay here in Ecuador and work with street children, but I will be praying to see where God wants me to go after the school.