The Land

I'm not big on taking the landscape pics...which is truly a shame, because the Sierra at every angle looks like a piece of heaven.... Pictures can't capture the beauty but here are some attempts....

Oh and just some other random shots of the land...
Emmalee in the cirlce where the Lenny´s would meet from time to time... And this is just what we would see while we were in training class in Ayora. Definitely different than working in my cube at Fox.

Oh well would you look at that...

This actually concludes our journey through pictures...
I thought I was going to have one more called...The Things We Do....

But you've seen that already...right? The Amigos section turned into group shots of randomness soooo... the journey ends here…for real cause I don´t even KNOW where my camera is at this point and if you think I´m going to bust it out in Gquil anytime soon you´re nuts! OKAY fine maybe one more post but that's it! Hope there aren't too many repeaters...Next up…The Things We Do…

Little Chocolate Monkey

I was going to have a fun witty little top 10 ten list...you know you're learning Spanish when....

but after a brutally hard couple of days (writing this a few days in...) here in Guayaquil the only thing I know is that I am NOT learning Spanish at the rapid speed I need to....or maybe I am, but it's not fast enough. I not only need to know my stuff...I need to know it muy rapido (super fast) and without the letter "s" since people on the coast talk way fast and drop the "s" at the end of every word.... They call that talking like a monkey or como un mono...

This reminds me of a story that happened during my days in Cayambe...

I found out that fun tidbit of information (about the the letter s and the fast talking) when my fam in Cayambe said when I come back from the coast I'll be a mona (female monkey) I was like UM WHAT!? I explained to them that calling a person of  African descent a monkey is really grounds for a drag down fight. But after a lot of back and forth they assured me that it simply they way the dialect in the Coastal area is referred to. They made fun of how they themselves talked too...so I felt un poco better.

Also, add to the fact that mi madre started calling mi Chocolatita which again is love...I refer to myself as chocolate too...but during the conversation we got into some Chocolatita Mona....Now you can call me chocolate cause after all I am :) and if mono is how they talk on the coast then fine...but I'm not going to be able to hang with being called little chocolate monkey...

That was quickly taken off the table and everything is everything once again between me and Mama Ana....whew...

AMIGOS

Amigos...

Talking about the Lenny's and Amistad just wanted to shout out all the new friends I've made that and I have bastante photos of folks and since this is the journey through pics, here are some faces I had the pleasure of seeing everyday...but alas now...no mas :( Thanks for the good times friends!!

Oh the Communities!

Puruantag -

Pesillo-

Ayora -

Cayambe A- The Lenny's of course

Cayambe B-

Cangahua-

Paquiestancia-

Cariacu-

Olmedo -

La Chimba Chicas...

Mas Amigos

Just a journey through friends...(this is not an exhaustive list…just some photos I had..sorry they are all scattered this post was impossible!) there will be more made now that I am in Guayaquil.... may the good times continue to roll!!!

This is my girl Tiffany, however everyone one thinks she´s me...(since we all look alike after all) she got her shirt made with my name. CLOWING!!

Labor Day Blues...Just when I thought it couldn´t get worse...

Was totally robbed on Monday. So upset. Was not harmed in ANYWAY. No weapons or anything. Just a broken heart. Things that only have value to me, like my PLANNER and things were taken. My phone however was part of the robbery so I don´t have phone and will probably have new number later, so just keeping everyone informed. This is clearly the making of Gangsta J.... Midwest/Tinsel Town Mentality no mas. Gotta get with these mean streets. Wish me luck, send your prayers and remember I´M OKAY!! Don´t worry!

Ode To The Lenny´s

Ode to the Lenny's

There were about 9 different language groups in different locations...

My group was in Cayambe and well... the lowest language thank you very much...BUT also by the end of training the Most improved (clearly).

Having being the underdogs made us bond quickly and for that reason a post needs to be dedicated to the Lenny's... Look at us always hard at work...!

The name was inspired simply by our fearless leader/facilitator Lenny or Lenin.

(Look we were too busy trying to learn Spanish to come up with an origianl name!) He always was so fun, funny

and patient when we all got attitudes and resisted learning any more spanish. He was able to get us out and about in the community

and our of our shells in the classroom

(i.e. my house)

If it got really bad (and boy would it get bad some days...) he would treat us to bizcochos (a Cayambe original treat) and Nutella.

Whooo weee I forgot how delish Nutella was and bizcochos are the bizomb...if you come visit me maybe you´ll get some!!! Sure we were bribed with food...(rather..encouraged...with food... )

but I think we owe Lenny a lot considering the fact that when most of us walked in we spoke virtually no Spanish y despues we were armed with the tools to make our way in our Spanish speaking worlds...

(pls note that in any photo of us getting our reward we are killin our snacks in the street cause we couldn't even wait to get home...it would always be quite the scene...)

The Lenny´s rose to the occasion continually,

like winning part of the fourth of July Futbol Competition, actually speaking in full sentences for our first presentation, rocking out our charlasdoing a kick butt minga and many otra cosas....

Honorable mention goes to Cayambe B, who were Intermediate but still let us hang out with them from time to time :) Gracias por su amistad tambien...
Also for our new facilitator

Theresa who we only had the pleasure of having for approx 10 days...therefore I have no photos.

I must say all of our Facilitators were amazing and they really cared about our success. Couldn't have done it without them!!!

But most of all Lenny!!!

(thank you to Emmalee for letting me pirate most if not all of these photos ;oP)