The day care in the mountains

So we packed up a bunch of toys and clothes and headed for the mountains, well all the girls did, along with our translator Anita and a pastor. I sat in the middle of the front 2 seats, on a pillow.

When we got there, the country side was beautiful! We entered in through a door with medal bars on the front. I was shocked when we went in. It was a a cement room, the floor was damp, and and the only decorations were some hand made crafts hanging from the dirty window. There were a few book shelves, they were bare except for a few broken toys. The children were all huddled on an old foam mattress. There was probably about 20 some little kids ages 0-5. They were all filthy,not like they had been rolling around in the mud, but like they had been wearing the same clothes for 2 months, and didn't wash their faces. There was dirt caked on them and some of them had horrible sounding coughs. They used plastic bags for diapers for the babies. It broke my heart. We were told that these were the children of farm families. This was where the children would be taken care of until they were old enough to help.

It was a little awkward at first. So I started to hand out beanie babies. The children didn't know what to do. I think that might have actually been the first gift they'd ever received, and they weren't sure how to respond.
but eventually they got the hang of it and were as happy as ever :)
we also handed out clothes, they were so excited. I gave a little girl named Elizabeth a pair of pink over-alls with a striped pink shirt and red tennis shoes, she was so excited that she went in the other room and wanted to put them on right away. so i helped her, and then she had to go show everyone her new outfit. It was so cute! I could hardly believe that a little girl could be so happy over a used pair of clothes that didn't even fit properly!
We are so spoiled. I can't even stand it.
And when I put a little crown on Genesis (age 3) I told her she was a princess, and her face lit up so fast I couldn't hardly believe it.
These children were so happy with just little toys and gifts, and the thing is, they weren't greedy about it either. They loved each other. It's hard to understand, but I wonder whose actually better off, us or them.

ecuador

Tuesday: First of all, I apologize that this post is so delayed.
Ecuador was amazing. Is amazing. I don't think I'm the same person I was when I left. We left for the airport at around 3am. it was ridiculous. And we got to the compound (the place we stayed at in Ambato) at around 11pm.!

Wednsday: The next day we kinda just chilled for a little bit. The men worked on the church building an alter, and the girls packed all the clothes and toys to get ready for the next day. Then the girls got to go to the flower market, where I bought 13 beautiful roses with babys breath for $2!! incredible! We did a little shopping downtown, and then we went to Mi Tambo orphanage, the same one we helped at last year. The kids loved to take pictures with our cameras :) We tried to organize some games with the kids, but it just didn't work too well, haha.

On Wednsday night we went to the mall, in a taxi that was only $1! and bought tea and jam at the super market, ecuadorian tea is absolutely to die for!