Carnival

So my goal was to post every Tuesday. Yikes…off to a rough start there! So last week we started at work. I will go into more detail about that as I get more kids. Right now, we just finished with a holiday so there haven’t been many kids coming.
Carnival began on Friday and lasted until Tuesday. It is a big celebration right before Lent begins filled with festivities, parties, fair-type atmospheres and water fights. Katie and I had an extra 3 days off of work so we took this chance to travel to the coast. We left late Thursday night and traveled overnight to Guayaquil, a 9 hour bus ride. From there, we caught a 4 hour bus ride to Puerto Lopez. After the initial comparisons between a beach in the U.S. and Ecuador, we enjoyed our time in the sun. The beach town there was not filled with resorts and tall hotels like in the U.S. Rather, it is a typical town feeling.
We had some initial issues with reservations at hostels but after a bit of time, had a place to stay for the next 3 nights. Our second night, we came home to find 2 very large cockroaches in our room. Needless to say, I was not a fan. I couldn’t figure out if they were giant beetles or cockroaches but alas, we had not invited them for an afterparty. We told the owner and she fumigated the room. We left for a few hours to hang out with some Americans we had met at our hostel. When we returned, the room still smelled awful and there was a new cockroach there! Katie was brave and did the flashlight hunting for more as well as smashed the one in our room. We spent the night snug under our mosquito nets with our faces in our towels so we could breathe.
The next day we went to Montenita, another beach town on the coast, where we got to watch the surfers, which I enjoyed. It’s quite impressive. After soaking up some sun and finding ourselves a little red after a few days at the equator, we trecked back the 13 hours on the bus to Tena. During Carnival, we were lucky enough to walk away with only a few buckets/balloons of water thrown at us and some foam. We are an easy target, being gringas. We were able to avoid the eggs and powder, for which I am thankful.
We started back to work yesterday, where I saw a total of 3 kids. I have been working on the occupational therapy evaluation and progress notes and hope to start using those next week. There has never been an OT at this clinic before so I am trying to start from scratch. This is proving a challenge with my minimal pediatric experience.
Home in Tena: Gaby’s place is on the 2nd floor right by the airport, which is actually just a landing strip never used. People walk across it all day long, including myself. Once on the second floor, it’s kind of like a “C” shape. Juan Francisco’s room is to the right, making the top. Then the kitchen, bathroom, family room, and Gaby’s room make the main part. My room actually has a separate door and lock off the porch so it’s nice because I lock my door, while they do not. There is hot water that gets warmer, we’ll say, as you turn the water down. (at work, there is no seat on the toilet so everyone must squat). Also, toilet paper never goes in the toilet as the system cannot handle it. There is a big water jug in the kitchen for drinking water. Gaby and her son are great though I don’t see them all the time, depending on our schedules.

Last night, I went to my first tutoring session to advance my Spanish skills so I am hoping those go well!