this past week has been very busy for me and thats why i havent been able to write something. my job is starting to be too much for me. monday morning we started at seven. that day we went to deliver food-4 pounds of oast and 4 pounds of beans, i dont know how you can eat that but o well- to the families that need it. we drove around the unpaved roads of the slums in a 4x4 truck of one of the coordinators at juconi. we also made our regular family visits. at about three a clock i got to duck out to go to a meeting with afs in down town quayaquil. there we met with the coordinator of afs guayaquil and talked about all the rules of our stays. she was a scary lady and im not planning on breaking any of those rules. because the guayaquil 7 (all the other afsers in guayaquil) were together we decided to go out for a bit. we had pizza and met some guy from chile who had done afs as well. it was nice listening to a different kind of spanish accent and he was a very interesting guy who was traveling all over south america. tuesday was a planning day i mostly did other peoples jobs in the juconi office. after work i came home to a pepe that said: ok mark get ready we are going out-it was only six thirty. i got ready and after our plans changed four times we went to meet up with the guayaquil 7 to go bowling. there i met more host brothers and host sister of other kids and their friends. we had a good time.

wednesday i was very tired and i woke up very grumpy. that crumpynes turned into anger and through out my morning bus trips (i spend about an hour and a half getting around by bus in the morning) i was very critical of ecuador. this anger helped me think about a lot of things in this country that have been surfacing in my brain for a month. i was angry at why no one ever picks up the garbage from the streets; i was angry that people never fed their dogs; i was angry that no one ever talked on the bus; i was angry at all the poverty here and who ever let all of it happen; i was angry that no one shares the oil wealth. then toward the end of the day i saw a giant poster of pres correa, where he was literally lager than the poster board and his hands were flailing in the air with praise of whoever was supporting him. this poster was in the middle of the poorest part of guayaquil, a place where he has done nothing to help the poor or stick to his word. the poster read something like patriotism is for everyone. that decided it: i hate this dictator. i should point out that here in ecuador people dont have political opinions they have geopolitics. people from quito think correa is the next che, people from guayaquil think correa is the next castro. correa is just another south american dictator whos ego has grown larger than his political agenda. anyway back to me being angry on the bus. it seemed like my thought process changed and i was able to observe ecuador a little better. i realized that people here in ecuador always only have enough. they always have just enough to feed themselves, just enough money to get by, just enough laundry detergent to one load of laundry. the people i have met dont yearn over job promotions and people who beg for money just keep on begging. there are no people who drive around in mercedess or wear rolexes, i have a hard time eyeing out rich people. i think that there is very little motivation in people to go out and make millions like in other countries-or the one that im from. i thought more about the current state of ecuadors economy and now my opinion is that ecuadors economy is like the state of some of its children: both things have never had a solid foundation to help them make the right decissions. okay back to what i was doing on wednesday. that day was alittle special because we were helping repair the home of a very poor family, the poorest of the poor. we first had to replace a beam and then patch the roof. in the beginning i kept quite and just lent a hand when it was needed. then later on it seemed that people working on this project really didnt know what they were doing so i stepped in and said that i thought if they did what they were about to do the house would fall down. also being the tallest meant i had to do a lot of lifting and pounding of nails in hard to reach places. we finally patched up everything. in the end im not sure i would let jj live in that house because it is so rickety. after work i helped a friend move her stuff from one apartment to another. when i finally i got home i was lucky that pepe didnt want to take me out he just wanted to sleep too.

on thursdays i visit with a family and tutor one of the kids. that day we worked on math, english and geography. im learning that the best way to teach this kid geography is by encorporating soccer into. where is ronaldinho from? i aked. brazil he said. then i asked where am i from? peru he said. that wasnt exactly right but we are working on it. half way through the day i went to juconi to organize toys that we are going to use next week. man i hate being in that building. later thursday night jack and i went out on the town with jacks brother and some other friends including two english girls from work. it turned out to be a really good crowd and we had a lot of fun.

friday was another day at the office. we were setting up everything for this summer camp type thing we are having next week for all the kids. thats right its summer here. if i were a kid i would be really excited about going to this thing. then friday night pepe and i decided to have a party at the house here. i invited close to everyone i know and we set up the upstairs patio for a perfect party setting. there were was good music, some dancing, cold beer, lots of people to talk to. a really good party that lasted welll into the morning. now (saturday) i am getting set to go to a party of my host sisters best friend. she just graduated from college and now she is throwing a really formal party. i even rented a tux. ok i miss you all.
-mark