Hot sauce and hair cutting

Since the beginning of June I have been baptized, became a god mother, and started to feel comfortable with my new home of Ecuador. Yeah its been a good month. Now for a little explanation…


My high school, where I am still “teaching” English three times a week has a yearly celebration called the Nobatada. At said celebration the senior class baptizes the seventh graders, who are the youngest grade in the high school. The baptism is a loose interpretation of what you would see in the church. One senior dresses as the father, there are a couple nuns and other bishops. Then there are three very important devils in tight spandex red outfits sucking on lollipops continuously grinding with the father. I cannot forget to mention that the father is also drunk and smoking weed. After a lengthy presentation of how uncatholic they can be the seniors bring the small innocent seventh graders forward one by one to give them the body of the Christ, being a candy ball with an inside of something grotesque. Each poor kids face turned immediately upside down as soon as one was shoved into his/her mouth, quite hilarious to watch. This year the high school has like 6 new teachers or something crazy, so they decided to make it a full baptism by calling all of us new-bees up. I took my place in front of the father, after I shaked my ass a little for the crowd, and then got to try such wonderful body of Christ, quickly realizing why all the sour faces, because the candy ball was filled with hot sauce!!!! Not sure if you have ever witnessed me eat anything spicy before, but I am one of those kids, yeah one of those who tears up a little, sweats, and looks like she is going to barf. I cannot even explain how awful it was, then they poured water on my head while I was wearing very thin white shorts, luckily they dry quickly.
As for being a god mother, every kid in Ecuador has the pleasure of having three godmothers. One for baptism, one for the first nail clipping, and a third for the first hair cut. Yeah, I am not kidding. This week I was blessed with the opportunity to be a godmother of the first hair cut for Francesco. I will preface this by, it did not go so well and will now explain with some imagery. Take my regular sized hands of a man, put some children’s school scissors in them, and then place a small child in front of them who cannot sit in one place for longer than a second, ok, let describe the kid more accurately like a goldfish, attention span of nothing and always on the move. Not to mention the hair was completely dry and the small child is highly irritated by anything close to his ears. After one snip I told them I did not want to continue on, oh but I did. Seriously, I felt horrible after I saw what I did to this poor kids head. Not one hair was the same length as the next and there is an obvious chunk missing the middle of his head in the back. But they told me I did great and today Francesco asked me to pick him up, we are almost friends.
Why am I starting to feel comfortable? It simple and for anyone that has lived with me for any period of time over a month will fully understand. I have started to only shower twice a week. I am on a Sunday, and Thursday ritual now. I might take another shower during the week if I do any type of hard exercise but even then it all depends on how long of a time period it is between the stopping of dripping sweat and reaching my house. If the equation leads to more than two hours, I probably wont shower. But again if you have ever lived with or near me this is no surprise. I have always like to savior my showers by not taking them often so when I do they are that much better. Plus the not having a mirror thing takes away that whole idea that my hair is greasy cause really I have no idea, and having to shower in ice water also does little to promote the idea of taking them more frequently.
Few other side notes: I got the opportunity to talk to one of the local prostitutes that works illegally in my town with some visiting med students. We learned some awesome things, like she gets tested monthly for STD’s and AIDS, she makes about $5 per visit, and told us she always uses condoms with her guests. She was also very grateful that we came to visit because most people regard her as trash. It was actually a really cool experience, so if you ever find yourself with some friends passing by the local brothel, take a break from your busy lives and talk to one of the ladies, it’s great. I also have started to play basketball with the kids in my town, let just say I might as well be Michael Jordan to these kids. They have no chance with my height and that I have been taught how to dribble. To negate their downfalls they have resorted to literally jumping on my back every time I have the ball. Very soon I will be have a small info sesch on the rules.

Motor oil... what?

I officially have two and a half friends. They are a 17 year old, and 15 year old and a 14 year old boys in my town. The half is because i dont think the 14 year old would hang out with me if it was not for the other two. Well, I was pretty desperate one friday evening as i was planning my 10 o`clock bedtime and comtimplating whether i wanted to watch the only movie i have over agian and i heard some of the neighborhood kids outside so i went to join them. We got into conversation of bad words in english, and in this low, i have no life, i feel like a grandmom, i gave in and started to teach them the finer words in our lovely language. This of course escalated, of which i wont go into many details, but the one kid asked what you should use for lubricant, and before i could respond his friend said, well of course motor oil. Yes, he said motor oil. I almost lost my cool immediately but decided instead to use it as an awesome informal education moment. I quickly dispelled the beliefe that motor can be used, and that not only can you not use it but it might actually kill the girl. So if you were wondering what jrex was doing in Ecuador to help save the world, rest assure, that i am saving lives, dispelling one myth at a time. Oh and making some awesome friends.

Me and said friends are going tomorrow to buy seeds for the garden we are growing with the youth group, also buying movies and baking ingredients because this saturday we are playing movies for the town to raise some money and selling COOKIES!!! Not sure if i can describe how pumped i am for cookies its been a while.

My counterparts Aleida and Gonzalo gave me a bike so that i dont have to walk 25 minutes to school everyday, i rode it one day and now i cant sit down because my butt is so bruised from the bumpy dirt road and the bad positioning of my bones, I walked the bike back, my town laughed at me. I am going to see what i can do about a new more comfortable seat. Also i was invited to be apart of the high school baptism that they do every year where the seniors baptize the seventh graders. I asked what they wanted me to do and was told that i should be the devil. Beside the initial hurt i asked what the job of the devil was and it is to wear a very small red outfit with a tail and grind with the priest. I think i am going to dodge this one with all my effort. Not really in my plans to get down to reaggeton with a 17 year old student of mine.

Besides that i am eating a lot of fish, still dont think i like fish, but it goes down, and they are starting to give me smaller portions. not much smaller but anything helps.