Madrina....again

Sorry it´s been a coon´s age since I wrote....a lot of ¨not¨ going on. Mostly people pestering me about my stuff, like what I´m going to sell, give away, etc. Surprisingly enough, EVERYONE wants my gas tank! Like I´ve had literally 8 people ask to buy my tank (I guess when their gas in the kitchen runs out they like to have another since the gas truck doesn´t come around everyday...they are $60 new!). But I hav pretty much have all accounted for except for my stove....anyone? anyone? (kinda hard to sell since I don´t have the gas tank to go with it...)

In addition to hawking my stuff, I´ve been super busy with the World Map my girls and I are doing at school. I decided to do this as a big sendoff project, a physical memory of ¨La Cori.¨ It´s been more than I expected but a lot of fun. I had to measure it out (3 meters x 3 meters) and then paint the ocean. Then Grigs came over and helped me draw out the grid system (thank god because I was off like 20 centimeters on one side and it was all crooked....oy). I chose two girls from each classroom to help draw and paint the map. We drew it in one afternoon and we should finish painting tomorrow, making it three afternoons of painting. It´s been a lot of fun....Western Europe and the Middle East have been a pain in the butt to map out, however. Damn you, Turkey!! I can´t seem to get it right...they might be a little off but in the end, it´ll look great. World Map is a famous Peace Corps project and almost every volunteer does it. It´s easy and a great way to teach people about the world (like how BIG Russia is or how small Ecuador is in comparison to the rest of Latin America!) Pictures to come...

Then last but not least, I got the privelige of being a Madrina...again. There is this one mother I know from the school, I teach two of her daughters, and she has been bugging me the past few months to be the madrina for her seven-year-old Keiko Cyan (as in the whale from Sea World I told her...)I kept delaying it because I don´t really know the family and the girl I had seen once before. Finally we figured it out and I had to go to a meeting at the church about it...ugh. But Saturday we had the baptism here in Yantzaza, I wore my multi-purpose dress good for Funerals/Bapitsms/Weddings/Swearing-In Ceremonies at the US Embassy. But Keiko looked cute and all done up.

There were about 7 other kids getting baptized, I guess they do baptisms every 15 days (cada 15 días....the magical number here in Ecuador) simply because there are so many children they gotta pop ´em out fast enough or the baptisms would take forever.

Afterwards we went back to their abuelita´s house and had an apple cake I made (kids even took seconds!) and then chicken and rice. It was fun talking with the mom and her seven kids (I think she asked me because she is running out of madrinas and padrinos...they are all under the age of 17). But it´s a nice family and the girls danced....very low key. So now I´m double Madrina. I think I need a cape...

Actually my friend Miriam up north is madrina to six kids so she´s got me beat.

Next weekend cock fights in Guaysimi!