Galapagos part dos

 

I really took a liking to the vibrant crabs that were on the shoreline.

Its a little pufferfish that an exchange student from taiwan(lili) caught.

Swimming with sharks as big as me was the coolest expierence of the trip.

Yeah that is my hand. I touched the shark, this is James fault for taking the photos to soon. I do not have real proof grrrrr

This has got to be the best picture I have ever taken in my life! I should get a prize, but I am sure a million people have the same picture. Just go to Galapagos and you will instantly turn into a professional photographer... or at least feel like one.

CristoVivo Camp el gran rescate

Through my local church here in Ecuador, I loaded on a bus with 60 other volunteers to Racar last friday afternoon. Racar is a small village in the mountians outside of Cuenca. I really didn't know any background or much information on what we were going to encounter. We arrived in a government run orphanage. This was not any orphanage every single child or adult had a special need. Incuding cerebral palsy, down syndrome, autisim, and other mental or physical disorders. This orphanage held about 60 kids ranging from 2 to 49 years old. Many of the kids were just abandoned by families that could not or did not want the burden of raising a child with special needs. The Institution is run by workers who switch every 6 hours. Boy were the campers in for a treat. We planned a Jam packed weekend for them, and each of us were paired with one of them for the whole weekend. I was part of the music team, there was not a piano so I was put in charge of hand motions and overall getting the crowd a'movin!

These are two girls whose parents are missionaries here in Cuenca, they are from Africa.

This is my girl! Chela, she is 16 years old, has cerebral palsy and a mental disability. She cannot walk or feed herself. She could talk, but is extremely difficult to understand, I actually had more luck then the other team members because I am used to spanish that is mumbled and full of errors hahaha. She loves to sing and give away lots and lots of kisses to whoever is willing to recieve=)

She loved getting her makeup done and hair. She would just smile as we told her how beautiful she was, she would run around in her wheelchair telling everyone to look at her face and nails.

We both did our nails the same=)

Boy does she love KISSES!!!

We had a time in the camp where we prayed individually for each of the campers with the directors of the camp. And if the camper could would pray for us, the counselors. This was a big thing because not much of Jesus is put in the institution. Chela just started crying 5 seconds into the prayer uncontrollably, we pressed on and with tears streaming down her face we led her through the prayer of salvation as she repeated every word!

After our Prayer session we had a huge party to celebrate being born again! Music, pinata, face paint, a competition for the King and Queen of the Camp, and volleyball. A lot of the kids had to take breaks or just calm down because talking to the workers, they never have partys. A lot of the kids just starting going crazy...too much fun!

On our last day we had a talent show. Everyone participated, this girl did a cheer with her counselors.

This boy told a story from the bible with a picture book.

This boy had a mental handicap and could not talk. But with the help of his counselor could take of a plastic glove from his counselors hand when given the command, very talented for his condition.

This boy has absolutely no mental disorders, but has severe seizures when overly excited or scared. He had many scars on his face and body from many falls and other incidents. He played and sang a song that his grandfather loved.

For our talent, we put my dress on Chela, say a song, danced, and blew kisses!

COMIDA!!(food)

Everyone recieved a gift package full of crayons, candy, gum, games, and a bunch of fun things. Everyone was so excited

Missions Trips

 

Through rotary I got to travel around different schools surrounding Cuenca in the Mountains as a translator. There was about 7 dentists on the team and none of them spoke spanish.

My job of translating was quickly dropped and turned into cheering the kids on and comforting them. Some of them had never seen a dentist and were in great need of one. I would be scared to if someone that didn't even speak your language had a huge needle of novacaine and expected you to open your mouth really wide to inject you. Some kids had to get up to 4 teeth pulled and many fillings.

We awarded each one with toys and big trucks seen in this picture.

This poor guy is only 5 and fainted as we were pulling out teeth. We had to give a little break and when he woke up his eyes were so big with the expression "where am I and who are these strange people and why can I not feel my mouth?"

I took a break from translating to paint all of the girls fingernails, boy were they excited. The boys were just as excited haha.

Showing off our new painted nails. This boy wanted his nails done as well.

We played tag between breaks and many other games. With the change in altitude boy was I dieng, haha But I fell in love with all the kids like I always do, precious beautiful children of the God.