Rain and Rivers of it.

It´s been raining sinceI got here. However, on an optimistic note, this morning rocked. Riveted awake by some fairly strange dreams I started early to hammock and journal until the aroma of breakfast called me downstairs of the hostel Rocio in Mindo, Ecuador. Awww man, blessed with the fruit of elsewhere- fresh mangos, pineapple, papaya and bananas adorned the table followed by scrambled eggs and pan. Coffee is different here. I went a WEEK without it entirely trying to maintain my pride and not drink the instant stuff. I´m not that addicted and there are certainly other lovely, new things to sip on.

The clouds lifted (slightly) and Michelle and I jumped at the opportunity to do, oh yes, an outdoor activity. Tubing!!! The river is high and fast right now, so I actually hestitated for a moment when our 13 year old guide pulled out a ¨raft ¨like thing which consisted of six thick, patched tubes roped together, handed life jackets and helmets our way and told us (in Spanish) to hop on and be careful to balance out the boat with our weight. My hestitation was more like a pause to stop and ask for a tighter helmet for my tiny head. Yeah, I guess I wanted this thing to fit well. The water was freezing, muy rapido, and there were trees and branches arching over the water´s surface. I yelled the whole time. It was great.

I´m happy to be writing this first blog today as the past week has been a challenging one. Arriving in Quito was quite a shock to my system, in so many ways I´m sure you can imagine. The language barrier was the biggest shocker, but I think I´m up to speed in tourist talk (¿donde el baño? Puedemos a comprar una tarjeta de telefono aqui? ¡Ayuteme! ¿Serpentes estan peligrosos? etc...). I´m taking Spanish classes with a local middle school professor. He doesn´t speak English and I spout out a single word accompanied by erratic arm gestures. I recently have come to the conclusion that I am not so good at pantomime. Aww so time will tell.

Tomorrow , Michelle and I will head back to Las Marianitas to work on our 90´by 7´mural... our volunteer work. I couldn´t ask for anything better. Oh wait, yes I could, and it would be to do the mural and have it NOT rain.

Living in Mariantis thus far has been interesing. There is one other volunteer in a nearby town and a woman with the Peace Corp. living across the futbol field frome me. There is a womans´ cooperative that has diminshed in membership from 20 to 4 women. Michelle and I helped with the jewelry making for a few hours but there isn´t an export business set up. They usually make money from volunteers (like myself) or the occasional school group that passes through on their way to the Eco reserve up the road, Maquipacuna. Also, the organic garden affiliated with the group is a sad sight. Aside from some healthy rows of lettuce and radishs, yucca (a root like potatoes) and platanos (bananas and plantains to us) there is little growing. The town is chock full of little kids with no shoes, runny noses and a gazillion stray dogs. I´ve only been there a week and with everything so new and different I´m not sure how to interpret much and feel no rush to try and do so.