*phew*

Hey everyone!
Sorry it's been so long since I've written, but last week everyone was too busy to bring me to the cyber! I'm in Riobamaba now at the orphanage, but I want to write about last week too. I absolutely enjoyed my time with Rosa and Victor and their family. We spent a lot of time laughing and chatting. Saturday night the neighbors BLASTED music until 5am. I didn't sleep much and we left for church at 7:30am. Ha! I saw soooo many people at church! Betsy's family came and I got to see Chelsi, the new sister. Sunday was the day of the child here and there was a party in church. The kids all dressed up in costumes, sang songs, and played games. It was cute! They played this one game where they had a pole about oh, 20 ft high I would guess, they tied prized to the top and spread butter aaaaaaall over the pole. The kids had to climb it to get the prizes. It was hilarious becase they couldn't do it. They got SUPER nasty from the butter and ended up putting 3 people on each others shoulders to reach the top. It was funny. Although, I did feel bad for the one little boy whose shorts feel halfway down his legs when another boy was trying to climb higher than him. :) I have pictures (not of that boy in particular) and I'll post them when I can.

I spent almost the whole last week just passing time in Rosa's house and I get to church and for my last afternoon there EVERYONE wanted me to hang out with them...Pastor, Raquel, Gretchen and Luis, Wacho! ay ay ay! I decided to have lunch with Oscar and Raquel. They took me out to a restaurant called La GranChef. It was a bit high class and yummy! Then Sunday night I went to Carlos and Christopher's house where my friend Gretchen is staying for the summer. I brought twister with me and they LOOOOOVED it. It was hilarious and we had a lot of fun playing it!

Tuesday night at 12am Rosa, Victor, Sarita, and I left the bust stationg for Riobamba. they told me way to many robbery stories for me to feel comfortable there. Plus I could tell Rosa was nervous so that made me nervous. Once the bus left for about 2 hours everytime someone got up or the bus stopped my heart would start racing. :oP That may sound wimpy, but oh well. :) We arrived in Riobamba at 5:15am and called the orphanage, but nobody was up yet. We walked in the freezing cold, (enough that my teeth were chattering) to a nearby gas station. We waited there until 6:15am until Ron came to get us. Rosa and Victor stayed about an hour to see the orphange, etc. and they they turned right back around to go home. I felt bad about that, but they had class and work so even if they wanted to stay they couldn't have.

The orphanage...*phew* I was feeling super overwhelmed until this afternoon. I helped out a bit yesterday while I got to know the kids. I was exhausted by the afternoon from the lack of sleep on the bus. This morning I went to work at 6am! I'm staying in an extra room with another volutneer from Canada. I got up at 5, the temperature was probably 40 degrees maybe? and I took a freezing cold shower. haha :) They taught me how to take care of the babies today. I changed about 10?ish cloth diapers today- each time washing them out in the toilet. :) We ate lunch at 2:30 finally- but it was a greenish pureed soup... not good to eat after changing diapers all morning. There are about 8? babies that we took care of, so there's always something to be doing- feeding, diapers, putting to sleep, dressing, undressing, bathing, carrying from room to room, making sure they don't chew things they're not supposed to. (Bourget family- you guys were too easy and nice to prepare for this kind of thing ;) The other workers are very patient with me. The people here have a different accent which makes it really hard for me to understand what they're saying. I'll learn soon I hope. Anyway- so now I have some free time. Yes- I promise to put some pictures up this week. With love,