Our first Saturday!

Saturday the 31st was our first full day in Macas.  I was able to sleep until 8:50!  After we got our rooms situated and our supplies organized, we headed to the church in Macas for lunch. We were introduced to the Ecuador way of eating big lunches with a soup course...and popcorn to put in the soup...like a cracker.  The soup we had today was a pureed broccoli soup that everyone liked!  I actually thought it tasted like asparagus  Either way it was good. 

Then we had a FULL day of playing games...soccer, basketball, volleyball, and football.  We also had a table set up for the younger kids to color and blow bubbles; and for the girls to paint nails. 

Getting us all to town was a challenge some days!

Nathan teaching a boy to play American football

Baby Andrea, whose young mom just wanted to be young and play games...so we took turns holding her for her mom

Girls being girls!

  I was able to make friends with a little girl named Abigail.  When I would write her name on her paper, she wasn't happy until I wrote a capital B! 

She learned my name (even if she switched it to Any by the end of the week!), and we had a great day playing hide and seek.  She would get inside the slide at the top and I would peek my head in the bottom and yell Hola!  She would yell it back and giggle.  She must have thought I knew Spanish after hearing me say Hola, because she would rattle off something and look at me.  I would then chase her and make her laugh, and then we would have fun!  I did have to count in Spanish when we played hide and seek.  I managed that!  And then a boy joined us and she taunted him with something that sounded like nanny nanny boo boo!  I understood that for sure! 

At the end of the day, Abigail gave me a hug and told me Ciao!  I had made a friend!

Google translate was very helpful to me today .  I could even let older girls type Spanish in it so they could talk to me.  One of the girls I talked to wanted to get in the shade...I very much agreed!  When we got in the shadier part of the church, I took my sunglasses off and she immediately commented on my eyes.  That was a neat experience to have someone comment on my blue eyes!

One last observation about Ecuador, in the banos (bathrooms) the toilet paper is located outside the stalls.  A good thing to figure out before you go into the stalls!

After being at the church all day, we ate dinner and headed back to the hotel for devotions, singing practice, and bed.  Tomorrow is Easter!  

My location tonight!