Some Pictures of Jima

I have finally gotten around to uploading some pictures from our site visit to Jima. It is the most beautiful place and I hope the pictures do it justice. We leave Thursday morning to Jima to start volunteering. We can't wait to get settled and into a normal routine. The pictures are as follows, the town, our house, our dog and my school.

Our One Month Anniversary!

Today is our one month anniversary and Casey took it very seriously. He has been looking forward to this day all week. He met me at 12:00 for lunch with a bouquet of flowers. He wanted the same flowers that were in my bridal bouquet and he found them! Then he took me to this amazing Italian food. It was very expensive but well worth it. I have been dying for some good spagetti with parmesan cheese. For the past week he had been asking all around town for a nice place is to take me to lunch. It was amazing food. Even though we only had two hours to spend together at lunch it has been such a great day. I have such an amazing husband.

Turning the corner

I am starting to feel un poco mejor!! I just took a shower and ate a piece of bread which I wouldn't of even thought of doing yesterday. This really bums me out because I have the weekend off and Casey, a couple of friends and I were going to travel to the hot springs. Oh well, at least I am feeling better.

I am miserable

I have never been so sick in my entire life!! I have the worst case of the flu. I don't think that it is food poisoning because this is the second day I have felt like this. I think it is a virus. Being sick in a foreign country is seriously torture. Whenever I smell the nasty food here it makes me start gagging and the pollution, I can't deal with all of these smells. Not to depress anyone but I seriously want to get better. I will update soon.

Our Paradise

So we have arrived back in Quito after our site visit. Let me first start off by saying that Jima (our site placement) is the most beautiful little pueblo in the world! We both absolutely love it. It will be quite an adjustment because not a soul speaks English and there is nothing much there. There is one T.V. in the entire village, no internet, and no mail. We are probably going to get a P.O. box in Cuenca, the closest largest city. When we first got to Jima we were shown around the village by the principal of the primary school. She kept introducing me and telling people that I was teaching at the primary school. Of course I corrected her and told her I was teaching at the high school but she continued to tell people I was at the primary school. She told me to come to the school the next morning and she would get me all set up. Well I show up at the primary school the next morning and she throws me in front of a class of fourth graders and tells me to teach for two hours. I was flustered and couldn't communicate because I don't speak the f**** language that I wasn't prepared to teach. It was just easier to teach. So I guess I am at the primary school (what the hell is going on?) Now I know why two year olds throw tantrums. It is really frustrating when you can't communicate. I have succumbed to the fact that I just have to go with the flow. This year will be a lot of head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes. I do feel truly lucky because the kids are soooo cute and very well behaved. They are in awe at the tall white girl. So fun!
Now that we are back in Quito I have to teach in the morning and then classes until eight at night. I leave the house at six and don't get home until nine. I am so exhausted. I love my classes though. It is so fun teaching people who want to learn. Every student in my class is so motivated to learn English. It is so much easier than high school history. I love it!

Casey in Quito

C-

Since Lara started in with her busy schedule with ¨the organization¨ we've been having quite different experiences, so we might try writing seperate entries.

I've started taking private Spanish lessons yesterday. Even after 1 day, I can tell they are really helping. I'm starting out with 2 hours / day and then spending the rest of the day studying Spanish and then reading all of the heavy medical books I brought down to keep me up to date. Despite having an unstructured schedule, I've managed to keep really busy. So far our schedule has been getting up around 6am. We try and run and then have breakfast, which consists of granola and yogurt, along with some NesCafe coffee (instant coffee). Then we take 2 different buses, each $0.25 and walk about 10 minutes to where World Teach is holding the training. I then go to a coffee shop and do my studying and reading until lunch when I meet back up with Lara. After lunch I have lessons until she gets off around 6:00 or 6:30. We then go home and have dinner with our host family and try and speak with them, then we get an hour or so to ourselves before bed. I found all 4 seasons of The Office (TV show) for Lara's B-day, so we've been watching a few episodes on our computer before going to sleep, with Spanish subtitles of course.

Both Lara and I are very excited about our "site visit" starting Thursday, where we will be traveling down to Jima for the weekend. I can't wait to check things out, especially the clinic and see if there are opportunities for me to volunteer. I'm also excited to check out Cuenca, as that seems to be my "back-up" as apparently there are many hospitals and even programs that I can take part in. I'll have a much better idea what the rest of the year will bring after this weekend.

As far as the altitude, it doesn't seem to bother me anymore. We ran for about 25 minutes this morning and I feel pretty good...no headaches or dizziness anymore.