Today we are back in Pimampiro...so nice to be ¨home¨! Yes, I know that home is a stretch but it is my home for right now and its nice to come back to my bed here after being gone for a month. When we arrived on Tuesday morning we had nothing in the house...flour, water, and pancake syrup. That...became breakfast and then lunch too! You would be amazed how far just a few ingredients will go...
We arrived back in Pimampiro on Tuesday morning...after a super speedy bus ride. We left the beach (yes we spent a few days soaking up some sun before coming back to work) at 5pm and arrived in our beds by 8am! That is super fast...and definitely surprised us!
The 26 hour bus ride was quite uneventful, except that we got to sit in the front and look out the front window the whole time! There is place to rest your feet...and space to move around...its most definitely the best seat in the bus! After that ride, we will NEVER sit in the back again...we decided. Our ankles werent swollen and we actually had pretty decent sleep. Crazy...for a bus...I know! It was also a pleasant ride since we were accompanied by 5 of the Canadian students and Javier! We had also bought a 10 pound bag of candy and cookies to take along with us...that also helped pass our time.
As soon as we arrived in Guayaquil, (after Liz had slept most of the 26 hours-which is abnormal for her)we had already decided that we werent going to spend any time there, we jumped on the last bus to Moñtanita! We arrived a few hours later after being packed like sardines into a tiny bus with way too many people in it...but super grateful to be back at the beach! All that Pimampiro is lacking is the beach....can someone take care of that for me? I got to surf again and get tan...super enjoyable! Also, a little slice of home showed up in front of my face...no bake cookies!! Laying on the beach a girl passed...suddenly I smelled the warm chocolate...I looked up and what else could it be?? I wanted to eat her whole plate...but I decided to leave a few.
One night we went to a birthday party...a barbecue....with a few of our friends from the beach. We ate before going but of course they insisted that we eat on arrival...the food was great...but the only thing I could manage to say was "I cant eat any more of this, there is too much sand!". Truth is, no matter where you go or what you do everything is covered in sand!
I mentioned that Liz slept a lot on our last adventure...I think that Solidarity in Action wore her out...thats the only explanation! I am the one that sleeps while in moving vehicles...but this time she was unable to be awoken by anything or anyone. While in that small bus, with 20 other people, and our legs intertwined with the people sitting across from us, and no headrests...she slept! After we arrived at the hostel, she went straight to bed...no shower and without even changing her clothes! Best part...she woke up in the morning covered in bed bug bites! I told her that that is what she gets for getting in bed so incredibly dir-ty! Kidding, I was actually pretty worried about her...I dont think I have ever seen her sleep so much...glad she is finally out of that funk!....and waking up at the butt crack of dawn once again. Yay for me!
Currently we are working on a presentation...hopefully that we can use as a tool for awareness and fundraising. We are hoping to finish it over the next few days and get it out there. If anyone knows of anyone who might be interested on more details of what we are doing....please let us know! The grand plan is to send my little brother to as many places as we can and have him be our voice until we can get back to the states and do it ourselves. Thanks Jo!!
My sister is working on a website for us, yes I do have an amazing supportive family, and as soon as I get that link worked out I will attach it to here also! This will be where our progress will be kept and there will be a ¨donate now¨ button available. All types of contact info, and hopefully anything and everything that someone might need to find out about what we are doing.
Paul will be back next week and we are super excited! We have a lot of talking to do with that man and a lot of future planning!
We have one major issue that we must overcome before heading home...our visas! Unfortunately the man at the boarder only gave us 31 more days...and we need 40! The way that it works is that all US citizens receive 90 days per year, free per say to visit Ecuador. After those 90 days you must apply for an actual visa, whichever type best fits why you will be staying in the country, if you do not take care of this you are banned from the country for a period of time and must pay a $200 fine. We definitely do not want to deal with that, so Thursday we got up early and headed to Quito to take care of this...or attempt to take care of this rather. We were sent to four different offices...all the wrong place...until the last place that we arrived was closed. This place is the right place but who would have known that it was only open from 9am-12pm? Great, now we traveled more than 3 hours to Quito and accomplished nothing! So, please think about us this week as we go back to Quito and request this 9 day extension. We are hoping that "requesting" it is all that it takes...and we wont have to change our airline tickets.
While we were in Cusco we celebrated our 3 month anniversary in South America and as a traveling duo! Just so you all know, we are still sleeping in the same room...the anxiety is too great when we sleep in separate rooms! Funny...but true!
To conclude this blog of a million things...yesterday I had a migraine...my first one since I arrived in South America. When I opened my eyes Liz was already out of bed and rattling things in the kitchen...I knew what she was doing...heading to the roof to start the laundry. All I could think was that I had no desire to move straight from my bed to the roof to pretend that my hands are a washing machine. But...this is what I did! Liz and I scrubbed and washed all of our laundry by hand! We have done it before, but this is the first time that we have actually done it all by ourselves! This will become a habit...and for anyone who comes down to help us or stay with us...this will also be your reality!! I consumed some food...then started on the house. Remember our house had been closed for about a month while we were gone...shortly after starting to clean I started to feel a migraine coming. boo! I hate migraines, not that anyone likes them but they always seem to come at the most inopportune times! Anyway, I laid down and thankfully Liz finished cleaning! Later on we went to visit Elaina (our mom here) and she asked me what was wrong, I told her and she said that I am very sensitive to change. Apparently since the house was closed up some bad energy got caught in the house which in turn gave me a headache, true or not her method of getting rid of it worked. She took a raw egg and rubbed it on my head...and then my back and legs...but mostly on my head. Apparently the egg absorbs the bad energy and gets rid of the headache...my headache did dissipate! Crazy...I know...but whatever works Ill take it!
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers...We are in a very crucial time...things are on the verge of exploding!! ....and we are super excited about it!
"When we dare to see things differently, life opens up to our eyes". -Paulo Coelho
"All we have to do is understand that we are here for a reason and to commit ourselves to that. Then we can laugh at our sufferings, large and small, and walk fearlessly, aware that each step has meaning." -Paulo Coelho
