Carnival

Celebrated on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, Carnival in Latin America is basically a time for people to do all the things that they can’t/shouldn’t do during Lent lol. As a holiday, pretty much everyone had this time off of school & work. Most of the other international students/Ecuadorians went to the beach (which is a few hours away from here) but I decided to stay in Lumbisí (where I live).

I ended up having a blast!

My goal was to spend as much time with God as possible via sermons from back home, devotionals, journaling, etc. I was totally able to do that because my professors were nice and didn’t give me too much homework =)

On Sunday my family and I went to Latacunga, which is in the province right below Pichincha (the one I am in now). Some of the families in Lumbisí went because there was some water project that they were doing in Latacunga that they wanted to adopt here in Lumbisí. So we left bright and early (3 in the morning) and were there allllll day and came back around 8pm. While I was there I

1. Hiked A LOT (seems to be a common theme of this trip. I hope I’m in super duper top shape when I return to the States :P)

2. Ate cuy (Guinea Pig for those who didn’t know. It tasted kind of like duck if you were wondering. It wasn’t bad, but I’ll probably never eat it again)

3. Went berry picking

4. Got plenty of mosquito bites (5 on my FACE! That’s never happened before lol)

5. AND ACTUALLY TOOK PICTURES:

host sister, mom, and brother

The rest will be on facebook.

It was a blast!!

Yesterday I “played carnival.” To “play carnival” basically means to play with water, water balloons, soap, eggs, and anything messy. In Lumbisí its relatively tame; in the coast I heard they play with mud and paint and all kinds of crazy stuff. After playing carnival, I ended up looking like this:

Overall I had a blast the past few days! In addition to all of that, my host sister taught me how to embroider! I’m super geeked because I’ve always wanted to learn (as yet another way to customize my clothes) and I wanted a skill like that to take back to the US and use forever. I’m really glad I decided to stay home instead of flock to the beach like the rest of the world…A great way to have fun and relax before MIDTERMS! :P

Ecuador has been a lot of fun, but (very surprisingly) I’m slightly homesick. Granted being here in sunny paradise > being in Illinois with all of that crazy snow, but I really do miss my friends and family & CHURCH (Illini Life Christian Fellowship represent!!! if ur at U of I right now check it out!). This is the longest I’ve been away from home & everyone/everything that I love (previous record: 3 weeks in Nigeria lol). I’ve learned a lot about myself from being out here alone, but I write about all of that in my other blog (aprilstutters.blogspot.com) to keep this one from getting too mushy lol.

Adios!