Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas!!

I love you all and miss you! I feel very blessed though to have a family and friends that I love enough to miss so much this Christmas. I hope Santa brings you all presents instead of coal...and even better than that happiness and good health. Hugs and kisses from Quito!

So a quick update as well, and I'm very sorry for the long delay. The power has been out at all the wrong times lately and the internet as been very sporatic. I have also been having lots of fun at all kinds of cute Christmas parties and presentations here at the Working Boys' Center.

So to start, last week for a final class with the high school girls before the end of the semester, the other English teacher volunteers and I had a "Gingerbread" House Contest with the girls. Okay, so of course it wasn't gingerbread, and not even graham crackers, but we found some similar cookies, made some frosting, and bought lots of yummy candies. All the girls made "Santa Clause's House" as I think that was there best frame of reference from the movies. It was a lot of fun and the girls got really into it...I will try to add pictures later when I get them from Sarah.

Another fun party was with the special ed kids. There are five kids and I teach one of them, David, every morning. There were a bunch of visitors that came in and gave all the kids brand new outfits and some toys. They really got quite the loot. Also, super funny, we had a clown come in! Usually Santa Clause or Misses Clause comes perhaps, but nope, we had a crazy clown. He was actually pretty entertaining though and the kids loved it! So overall a success!

On Saturday, we had mass at both Centers (both here in Cotocolloa and downtown in La Marin) to celebrate Christmas, and also where the first graders give their hearts to Jesus. It was adorable (especially as I teach a majority of the first grade boys between my 2 English classes in each center). They all made red hearts with their pictures on them and layed them down on the alter. I pray that it really was something more than putting a piece of paper down though, and hopefully they can continue to grown in their faith here at the Center. Then after mass at each center we (the volunteers) handed out big bundles of donated clothes to each family. It was fun as we know the people we were giving things to, and we got a hug and kiss each time we gave a family a bag. Kind of felt like Santa Clause ;)

Then Monday and Tuesday were the preschool presentations at each center. ADORABLE! They were all dressed up to be a living Nativity set (with many angels and some snowmen too) and then did little dances and songs and such. Of course, for the most part they all kind of wander around and wave to the crowd a lot, but it doesn't even matter because they are so darn cute! I was thinking about my Aunt Ginny the whole time and all her little ones.

Four more masses to go in the next two days and two more parties! Then Sunday, Brennan comes! I will be praying for all of your traveling in the States and also keep in your prayers all of our families that our visiting Ecuador this holiday. Feliz Navidad!

Love,

Taylor

VIVA QUITO! VIVA EL CMT!

Long Live Quito! Long Live the Working Boys' Center (El Centro del Muchacho Trabajador)!

Last weekend was the Fiestas of Quito as well as the Center's birthday...meaning it was basically a party weekend! This year was the Working Boys' Center 45th birthday/anniversary. As tradition, every year they have a pancake (very American) breakfast then carnival games and a dance in the afternoon to celebrate. So at 6AM on Saturday morning all the volunteers were over in the kitchen cooking for all the families. Most volunteers were on pancake duty, making hundreds of pancakes, but I ended up cutting fruit with my high school girls. It was AMAZING how much fruit there was. Then I helped in making the plates, which included a pancake, scrammbled eggs (really good), fruit salad, and coffee. Right after breakfast there were festival games outside on the soccer field. I painted faces almost all morning. It was cute too, because some kid came over and asked me to paint the Liga logo and after that I am became the "Liga expert" for most of the time. We also did a "dunk tank" that they ended up dragging almost all the volunteers into doing. It was funny though...and cold. There was an empty soda bottle sitting up on top of a garbage can that the kids had to knock over. If they knocked over the bottle, the volunteer got a big kettle of water poured over them. I got soaked like 7 seven times before they switched me out! Yikes! All the kids thought it was SO funny though, so it was well worth it!

In the afternoon (after a quick nap), we all headed over to the downtown center for a sandwich and cake and then a dance party. I mainly danced with the little girls, especially Belen who is about 5 years old. She was exhausted and really just wanted to be held by the end! It was a really fun day and celebration. Both the Cotocollao Center and Marin Center were together so it was a big event and everyone had a lot of fun!

After all these events were done, all of us volunteers headed out to celebrate the Fiestas of Quito (founding of Quito). We were all exhausted but found that 2nd (or 3rd) wind to keep going. We first went to La Ronda, a pretty, historic street downtown. It was packed with people, so we had one hot sugar cane alcohol drink (Canelazo) and then headed to La Mariscal. I was planning on heading home shortly after we arrived, but Adam, Cinthya, and I met up with some of our friends from Guayaquil. They are our "fiestas" friends, as we met then during the weekend we went to Cuenca for their fiestas and then they also came for the Fiestas of Quito. I ended up staying out dancing until 3AM! It was a very long day, but a lot of fun and a good time to hang out and connect with my students and also the other volunteers.

Then St. Nick came on Sunday morning ;) so I was up early, but then headed back to sleep until almost 11AM. I took a shower and headed over to my old host family's house for lunch. I hadn't seen them in a while, so it was so good to catch up and see them. They even had a cute little Christmas tree up (Iola Grandma, it kind of reminded me of yours...about the same size). Maria Luisa made a delicious meal and then they even bought me an ice cream cake for my birthday! They know that I LOVE ice cream, so they specially got it for me and sang me Happy Birthday. Cinthya and Norma (cousin and aunt) were there too and got me this really pretty leather wallet too, with my name engraved in it! It was so thoughtful. I ended up hang out over there all day, talking and playing cards. Playing cards was a lot of fun. We played "The" game of Ecuador, called Cuarenta (40). I was taught how to play 2 years ago by Osvaldo (the deaf uncle), so it was fun to play with him again as well as the others.

Sunday night I was in bed my 10pm as I was exhausted, but definitely enjoyed all the events of the weekend! We have Center events every weekend (and during the week) until Christmas, so it will be packed with parties and fun time with all the Center families! Hope you all are in the Christmas spirit...and (for all in Wisconsin) loving the Winter Wonderland! <3 Taylor

A Special Birthday!

Okay, I wanted to just add this quick update because my high school girls are so sweet! I teach 3rd course, which is the highest here at our school (but really an equivalent to freshmen girls). I really enjoy them, but I also get frustrated with them at times too. One example was yesterday. They were basically all at class like 10 minutes late and so I had a discussion with them about how that is not acceptable for life and especially not when working. They were all like silent the rest of class and could tell I was mad. I told them they all had to be on time to class today or I wouldn't let them enter.

Well, they were definitely all on time today.....and then made me leave. I wasn't really sure what was up, but I could tell they were up to something. Well they all lined up outside of the classroom and then quickly entered to be at the front of the class and sing me Happy Birthday in English. Then they gave me this cake with all these Liga (my soccer team here) decorations on it and sang the fight song for me. A majority of them are fans of the other really popular team in Ecuador, Barcelona (big rivals), but they all sang the Liga song for me. It was very sweet as I've been teasing them for the last couple weeks about it. They even lit a soccer ball candle for me and then had me bite the cake...and then smash my face in it! They also bought soda, chips, and sweets. It was very thoughtful and clearly they worked really hard at it.

So to make it even cuter, I was telling another volunteer, Laura, about it tonight and she told me about how they had been trying to make money for the party all week! They bought a couple bags of chocolates and were selling them to their friends and other people in the Center to make money. I guess by yesterday they had enough money for the chips and soda, but then they working really hard today to buy the Liga cake from the bakery. It was clearly from the heart and it is amazing how generous they are despite having a lot less. Pretty special ladies...