Food is a big part of my family life here. I have enjoyed cooking with my family whether it be my Mom or with my siblings and cousins. A staple food that is perfect for breakfast lunch and dinner here is rice. It is a great thing that I really enjoy rice : ) However the other night I decided that I wanted to make dinner for my family. This turned into quite an interesting feat as I quickly discovered that my family does not own measuring cups and that while they have an oven in a downstairs back room it is rarely used and therefor my family does not own bakeware. I caved and bought a 9x13 pan and a pizza pan and then tried my best to estimate amounts while making pizza dough. : ) Speaking of the pizza dough I had asked my sister if their was yeast in the house. She said yes but in reality what we had was baking soda. While it wasn't the best pizza I have ever made all things considered it was pretty good and we had a lot of fun in the process : )
Another big part of my life here is church. My family are evangelical Christians and a couple weeks ago my brother Oscar got baptized along with 2 of my cousins. After church in the morning everyone piled into a few cars and my family's bus (they own a bus because they run a tourism company) and made our way to another church about an hour away where we had a joint baptism service at the public swimming pool. The pictures above are my sister attempting to through me into the pool as we were waiting for things to begin and me with my brother after he got baptized. It was a great day of celebration with family; both the family I live with and my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Here are a few more pictures from the day Oscar was Baptized. In the photo on the left is myself, and my cousins Damaris, Belin, and Kelly with my Pastor sneaking into the picture in the background. Both Damaris and Belin were baptized as well! In the other picture are my friends Frank and Henry (Upper Left) my cousin Eddy (kind of in front of me) and my brother in the us on the way to the baptism. Many international students complain that it is difficult to make Ecuadorian friends... I have not had that problem as I have found myself surrounded by my immediate family, cousins, and friends from church who have just taken me in as one of their own.
Last saturday morning I was talking to my Dad and he asked if I was free during the day and would like to go with them to a ferria. I didn't know what a ferria was but figured why not go and find out. A ferria is more or less a cow show : ) We walked around and admired the Holsteins, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, and Ecuadorian breeds of cows. There was also a ring where the cows where paraded and judged. In addition there were lots of demonstrations of milking machines. Not exactly the experience I had anticipated when thinking about going to Ecuador but a lot of fun none the less! These are just a few of the many adventures I have had with my family. Another thing I have really enjoyed is learning how to play Ecua Volley (different than volleyball) with my Dad, brother, and cousins. But I believe this post has grown long enough so until later, Dios les bendiga!
