So Wednesday was another long hot day in the community. We divided up our charlas, I did "salud en su casa". Its really interesting. hahahaha basically it's about keeping your water clean.

Wednesday afternoon we went to this nursing conference that two of our instructors presented at. I was so tired....I wasn't really paying much attention. Then again, neither was anyone else. After that, Kel, Angie, the davids and I went to this market over by Vernaza. We bought some more souvenirs--I got a wood box that has a decorative lid that I am going to give as a gift. But I am not saying for who yet. After that we went to David Caceres' mom's restaurant for dinner and to celebrate David's birthday. The food was so good! I had chicken and shrimp, rice and of course beans. It was so so good though! Then a Mariachi band came that David's mom had hired for a few hours. So that was fun! We all danced and had a lot of fun! After all of that, I went home and went to bed.

Thursday was our last day in the community. We left at 725 again to catch our bus. When we were getting close to the Hogar de Cristo offices (we have to drive through this market place where people are selling pretty much anything and everything--food wise.
Like meat just hanging for people to buy, fruit, drinks, etc.) there was a protest. The people aren't happy with the public transportation. So we were held up in our bus for about an hour or so. The police finally broke it up and moved the burning tires....
i guess that's how they do it down here. So we got to Hogar de Cristo and finally out to the community.

We dropped off the first group and were on our way to drop off the 2nd group of us when we came upon this fruit truck that was stuck in a mud hole in the road. So our Land Rover tried to pull it out of the mud. But the cables kept breaking and the frame of the car was stuck on the mud.

We tried for about half an hour and then our driver just took us on to our clinico. We stayed in the clinic pretty much all day long. We gave the kids some pictures to color: The lady that has the son with cerebral palsy came and found us again. She just lives next door to the clinic. I was really cool though because she came out and wanted to show us a "silla", which is chair. So I was kind of confused. So we went in she had a wheelchair she had received about a month ago from our church! She put him in it and let us push him around the streets. He loved it! It was so fun to see how our church is reaching out all over the world.
Then we took him home and played with some kids in the street while we waited for our ambulance to come pick us up. Then the lady came out with a bottle of pop and some glasses. She had sent a boy to go buy one. I was a little worried about drinking out of her glasses. But I felt like it would be extremely rude to not accept it. Plus I'm sure it cost her a good amount of money to even buy it. So I drank it. No problems yet. So lets just hope that keeps going....


That night we had a health fair at our ward's meeting house. It was really good and we had a good turn out. We taught first aid, CPR (RCP en espanol), Asma (that was my group), injections, and nutrition. The people really seemed to like it a lot!

Friday I was back at Vernaza. It was a really slow day. Angie and I started in the ER. There was literally NOTHING going on. We walked around. Went to the burn unit. Went to a Sala (it's like a big room with a bunch of patients in it). It was a pretty boring day to be honest.

Friday night we had another health fair at the stake center. On the way a group of us went to this shop by the mission office to buy leather scripture covers. I got one for my mini quad. It has a leather border and a really colorful piece of cloth on the middle. Ill post a picture when i get it on friday. Other people were getting the ones that were inscribed with a picture. I really wanted mine, so that's what I got! the other ones were great though!

We had about 30 minutes before our health fair started. So about 5 of us walked up the street to try and find something to eat. We all wanted McDonald's because it was fast and familiar. Drama. We walked about 8 blocks up the street. Thought we saw the sign for it by a mall. It turned out that was just a McDonald's ice cream stand. The actual McDonald's was back across the super busy street we had just crossed. So we went into the mall in search of a food court. We found a Burger King. By the time we got our food it was 7 o'clock. The exact time we were supposed to be starting. But we weren't too stressed because there were people there to get it going.

So we caught a taxi to take us back to the church. We couldn't find the right place to get one. First it was this crosswalk. Then this reserved taxi place. Then finally just off of the street. All 5 of us piled in and braved the traffic. Oh, and it was raining when we got out with our food. Hence the idea to get the taxi. So we got back, just about 10 minutes late. And the rest of the health fair was really good! There were about 75 people there, more or less. I love how they really want to learn and ask really great questions.

After the Stake Health Fair we went to what we thought was an institute dance. It turned out to be like a 5 stake talent show thing. Only it was just singing. It was OK. I was really tired. So I didn't enjoy it all that much. I went home and went straight to bed.

Saturday was a BIG day. We went to this forest preserve called Cerro Blanco. It's kind of like a rain forest. The hike was about 2.5 hours (thankfully it wasn't any longer than that!).
It was really hard at first. Very uphill. But then it leveled out and then we headed back down.
The other half of our group went on the longer hike that took like 4 hours. So while they were still gone, we went to look at these bird menageries that they had with McCaws and parrots.
Then we went back and ate lunch. We had chicken, rice, bananas, and this soup (some had chicken feet in them! when i found that out, I was really glad I didn't try the soup :S).

After lunch we went to this lake place that had mangrove trees. We all did a boat ride around to look at all the different types. It was really interesting and our guide knew a TON about mangroves and the area. Afterward, we got ice cream and headed home.

It felt so good to shower. SO GOOD! Later, we went to go see if we could see an IMAX movie. But it was sold out. The Malecon was so crowded! I have never seen so many people there. It turns out there was a concert going on there. So we went to go see, but it was too crowded. So we headed back to our hotel. We watched I am Legend on a projector. It was fun, kind of a weird movie, but interesting I thought.

Today, Sunday, we went to church. It was our last day at our ward. It was a good meeting. I read from one of my temple prep books since I was having a hard time understanding what exactly was being said.

We also went to the Iguana Park this afternoon. They were everywhere!

Then we went to the psychiatric hospital to sing to the patients there. They really enjoyed it a lot. It was a really interesting experience. I'm not really sure how to put it into words.

When we got home, we had our devotional for the night and talked about our plans for the week. I can't believe we only have one week left here in Guayaquil and then we're off to Quito! We had dinner in the little restaurant in our hotel. We three had filet mignon with mashed potatoes and rice (in place of salad hahaha) all for $8! sweet. It was really good. mmm. And yuca fingers with guacamole. Also really good. Now I am just in my room waiting to talk to my parents and chatting with heath.