Homes, Best Moments

Well, it's been a couple more great days down here in hot, sunny Guayaquil. Thursday I was back at the community school with a group. We had 150 more kids to get through all the screenings and tests, 6 students, a few volunteers and awesome helpful parents. Remember, the first day we only got through 40 kids, so the feat seemed rather great. I started off with Sonya teaching a half hour lesson on nutrition to some parents. We tried to make it a discussion as much as possible, with them suggesting different ways to improve diets and nutrition for their children and families. I love how motivated people are to learn and grateful they are for what they are taught. I hope they keep their goals and really work toward them. (Yes, we had them set personal goals and I even found myself promising blessings. Classic missionary pattern. Love it.) After that lesson, we were amazingly enough able to get through the rest of the tests, which were way faster with the older children (something we were counting on). The kids are so cute. I always feel bad when they just come up (I was doing finger sticks and hemoglobin testing again) and are so afraid, just because they know they will be poked and think it will be way painful. Even though other kids who have already gone assure them that it doesn't really hurt, some are almost to tears when they approach. At least they really do find out it's surprisingly not very painful and they are happy to get candy afterward.

Thursday evening I met up with one of my old zone leaders from the mission, Paul Sotomayor, and we were able to catch up as we ate with a group of my peers. We served together (not as companions) in Tena-my little branch we worked very hard to keep going out the in the Amazon. Unfortunately, after the mission, he pretty much had to start college over again because they nixed his major while he was gone. Though the same has happened for many others in the states, it seems like I've always heard that they were allowed to still graduate from that program and not start over. Paul has a good attitude about it, though.

Friday was one of my favorite days yet. I know I like manual labor, just for the physical satisfaction it brings as you see the fruits of your labors, but it was really fun, too. We teamed up with hogar de Cristo again, split into two groups with a professional for each as the leader, and built two houses for people. The deal with hdC is that if people make less than $1 a day, they are eligible to have a bamboo house built for them that they can pay off over three years. The bamboo house on stilts with a metal roof costs $830. Even with the water we took and the sunblock we applied, we were feeling dehydrated and burned fast. Jadira, the sweet lady we were building the house for made us lunch and we shared our PB sandwiches with the workers and the Jadira's family, too.

Saturday was really a play day. Don't think we're too spoiled, but we went out to Salinas (which translates to saline=salt water), a beautiful beach 2 hours away. We had some good conversation and study time in the van going and coming back, too. Debbie, one of our instructors, even related the long version of meeting and hooking up with her husband. I love getting to know people better thought their life stories. At the beach, we dove right in and swam out to the buoys. I found out really quickly how appropriate the name Salinas is. I'm not sure about the osmolarity of that water, or its comparison to ocean fronts in the states, but this was pretty much a strong gargle. At least my burst blister from the day before was very clean.

Some of the guys (yes, there are 3 male nursing students in our group here) were getting bored and filled a water bottle to throw around in the water. Luckily, I go about prepared with a frisbee, so we didn't have to play with a bruising bottle for long. First we were just throwing it around to each other in the water, but then we decided a fun game was making people run along the shore and have to dive to catch it in the water. I hear there's some pretty good pictures from that, too. Good old frisbee.

We then had the best lunch ever. It was a great buffett. Everyone was really excited to get lots of vegetables and to taste all the delicious desserts. It's funny how much we missed a good (trustworthy) green salad after just a week here. I don't even like cake much, but that moist, chocolately oreo goodness passed the bar in my book, too.

We got back to the hotel with a half hour to get cleaned up and back downstairs to go do a health fair for two stakes. Of course, when we got there, one of the first people I saw was a mission friend, Elder Aguirre, who actually went home when I did last February. At the health fairs, we have 4-5 classes on nutrition, heart disease/hypertension, diabetes, first aid and baby CPR, and adult CPR. There's also classes and activities for the children. Either before or after, we check blood pressures and blood sugars, which people love. We didn't realize all hundred people would want us to check. That took a while, but it's good for them to know where they stand personally after that control and management teaching. I was teaching baby heimlich and first aid. I just love teaching. I think I get really enthusiastic about it sometimes, and I love it when people have fun as they learn, too. It's really great that we have the mini mannequins for adults and babies so people can practice, since people probably don't have many other such opportunities. The first few times through the class were a little more rocky (I was the only really fluent one of the student nurses there), but we got a lot better and more confident as we went.

Today was a good day of rest for real. I spoke on talents and service. My focus was how they help us to acheive our purpose on this earth of having joy and preparing to return to the presence of God, or what role talents and service play in the Plan of Happiness. Basically, we are all given talents and expected to increase them, whatever they are. As we serve, we can receive blessings (as stated in For the Strength of Youth) such as increased capacities, hearts full of love, blessed lives, and a greater nearness to God. The challenge I gave was for everyone (and each of us) to begin to pray to know whom to serve and how best to do so. I think that's a lot more common (or was for me) during mission life, or maybe with regard to specific aspects of life, such as Relief society callings. However, I know I don't do that on a regular basis just in everyday life. One thing I really noticed about the example of Christ with regard to service this week was that His service wasn't necessarily planned out like a project, but part of life. In Spanish, "to go" is IR, but in the scriptures it doesn't use IR to say "He went about doing good". Rather, the verb andar is used, which signifies that something is more part of a constant lifestyle of doing good, part of who He was and is. I like that. I feel like so much of the most significant service we give that really touches hearts is performed as we are aware of those around us and just are ready with a helping hand and loving heart, as Pres Monson talked about a couple conferences ago.

Speaking of which, I want to mention that I'm really glad I'm able to room with my friend Cassidy down here. She's very ready to serve and give. We bought some bananas that were going bad and she saw a woman on the street with her child, but only had juice to offer at the time. Arriving back at the room, she asked if we could go out with our bananas to hunt down the lady and share with her. We did, and though we never found the lady, we started operation guineo (banana) of taking one of those ripe bananas with us to be able to give them to people who might be asking for money or begging on the street.

My favorites of today were: 1) While we were eating, some children came up to the hotel restaurant window and started knocking on it to beg (or sell something to?) a couple sitting there. The hotel worker shook his finger at them and started to go out. However, instead of just shooing them away, he went out with a candy for each one. The children had started running away, and I was touched as I saw the young boy practically skip back to the hotel worker in excitement, followed by his sister. It not only matters what we do, but how we do it. 2) Hearing the reactions of our teachers as they found the dozens of roses we'd purchased and prepared for them between 11:30pm last night and 8am this morning (they were in our bathtub in the meantime). They had a good mothers' day, even tought they're far from their children. That means today was a success. 3) Being in the primary for the third hour at church. I really love singing time, and that one loud kid in every primary who sings the loudest and holds the notes out extra long. Cute kids.

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