Goosebumps at the equator?

Well, I just HAD to put this picture up from today, because it really captures our sentiments after 3 hours of listening to Spanish. It's a really great picture of Sarah (on the far end...who looks like she's at a funeral) and me (drowning my sorrows with food). Really I wish I could just crop this thing of JUST Sarah. I was laughing/crying for like 5 minutes when I saw this! I guess you had to be there...we were at a training meeting for community, but it was 3 hours...all in Spanish. It started off great, and I was looking up all the words I didn't know in my Spanish dictionary, but soon that list got longer and longer! It's a little more draining than I thought. It wasn't all bad...it was just that we were sitting underneath the air conditioning and had to go to the bathroom really bad. We had GOOSEBUMPS because the fan was blowing on us so hard. I was never ever expecting to be cold here.

We saved a lot of lives today...well mostly each other from getting hit by the millions of cars in the city streets. Literally had to pull each other out of the road! I've always heard that everyone kind of just drives with their own rules down here, but it's really true! I love the tiny cars though...lots of toyotas with miniature horns. I actually really like the constant background noise of horns echoing and cars driving by outside. We are staying in a place called Hotel Palace in the middle of the city. It's great! They provide us with a nice breakfast in the morning with really good fruit and yogurt, and at night we have 2 toffee chocolates waiting for us on our beds! Everyone here is so nice. Really I feel bad that we're not roughing it a little more, but I am grateful for everything they've provided for us.

We went out into the community with Hogar de Cristo, an organization that helps build houses for the poorest people in Ecuador. We are going to build some houses with them (they say you can do about 2 in day). Most of the houses are made out of wood and bamboo and cost about $840 dollars to build. The family pays about $50 as a down payment, and then about $15 each month (that's about 50% of their monthly income). Things like micro loans help pay for the houses. The houses last about 20 years! They said that there are 13 million people in Ecuador, and 3 million in Guayaquil. 70% of the people here live below the poverty line. We got to see a lot of the houses that were built in the community, and I am really excited for it next week!