family life

 3/1

 

I don’t think I can eat anything more. All that I do here is eat. I woke up (after having a terrifying dream that my family and a huge group of strangers were playing a pick up game softball in our front lawn while mt hood was erupting in the background. I started freaking out and told dad we should pack up and leave when he replied “I stood here and watched st helen’s erupt and I’m going to do the same with mt hood.”), meandered into the kitchen and sat down to a wonderful breakfast prepared by my mom.

 

Later, one of my mom’s sons, Fabian, came over after church with his wife and daughter. It was fun to meet them and I think their daughter might become my new best friend. At least we are able to understand one another.

 

One of the other volunteers who is placed in my community, Mitch, stopped by and so I should him around my house and introduced him to my family and we went for a walk to his house. We ended up running into another volunteer and her family on their way home from mass, so they invited us over for a bit, which turned into a long time. I’m pretty sure that my mom was preparing a big lunch for me and her family and that I had plans to walk around town with Maria but I honestly felt like I was kidnapped. But it was nice because the volunteer’s family (Abbie’s) that Mitch and I went to has two teenagers who are so much easier to talk to. I played Nintendo gamecube with their 13-year-old son. He taught me how to swear. Very vital to my success in Ecuador.

 

After numerous times of asking Abbie’s family if my family knew where I was, or if I needed to go home, they finally took me home. But my mom was excited because I came home just in time to meet her cousin from Quito. Sometimes I feel like I’m a new car or something that everyone needs to see. But my mom is so cute, she’s always like “meet my new daughter, my gringa!” ha and my new name has become “Mandita”.

 

But anyways, back to the eating all day, I had a huge lunch (Ecuadorian lasagne with rice and cake!) at like 2, then came home and my mom made me a sample lunch for tomorrow so we shared half a sandwich, then we went to the bakery and she got sweet bread for me just to try, and then we came home and had dinner. Its also difficult because I can’t quite tell the difference between when she asks “do you like to eat this?” or “would you like to eat this?” and since I have a complex where I like to eat everything, I always respond “SI!” (Actually, that’s just my natural response to everything anyone says to me). So low and behold, I end up eating entirely waay too much. But I’m happy, so its doesn’t matter to me J