i guess im having some technical difficulties but whatever. okay last weekend (the weekedn of march 15 and 16) pepe, evelyn, her boyfriend fernando, evelyns best friend naomi, sonja (from austria), christina (from norway), cateriana (from italy) isabel (from norway), elizabeth (from wisconsin), her host brother, jack and his host brother and sister and me all went to this funky beach town called montañita. the place is a famous ecuadorian surf spot and it manages to attract a hefty number of foreigners from all over the world. the beach was nice but we where there for the legendary nightlife and it was legendary. the whole town partied until the sun came up. then we spent the rest of sunday relaxing on the beach. it was a lot of fun. montañita is in a region called ruta del sol (sun route) where there are many towns next to the beach. it is a really beautiful spot with white sand beaches, clear water, real ecuadorian villages and there arent towns that are poisoned by concrete hotels. it was a really fun weekend to say the least traveling though was not so pleasurable. saturday we took buses which was nice enough but for half the trip (which was three hours) we had to stand up because the bus was packed. then returnning i got a ride with fernando but his car was packed so someone sat on my lap for four hours-we ran into traffic. the next week work was more or less the same routine but the juconi workers became more and more tired and frustrated. by the end of the week people were very precicely deciding what they were going to do with their free time. amzaingly wedenesday i gathered up enough energy to go to some discos in downtown guayaquil with my friends and some of pepes friends. it was a long night but really fun. our group ended up meeting a group of americans on spring break. i remembered then how much i dislike americans in large groups. the next mornin at breakfast my host mom told me that i was going with her to the beach that day with some of her friends and i would stay there for two nights. so i had to go to work and tell my boss that i couldnt work that day then i returned home to get ready to go. we where supposed to leave at one in the afternoon but that soon turned out to be four in the afternoon. i should say here that in this past week my spanish has gotten significantly better and now i dont really have problems communicating. also my brain has started to program itself in spanish where somtimes, i think of phrases or words in spanish first and then translate them into english. even writting this is a bit difficult. anyway so my host mom and some of her girlfriends and some of their kids (three were my age) all arrived at a beach house in ballenita. ballenita is a collection of houses that mostly belong to people who live in guayaquil but stay there on the weekedns. at this beach house i got a lot of rest, i read a lot and we spent most of friday at the beach. the beach we went to had very mellow waves and mostly families showed up. the only downside was that because i have had baking problems i had no money and i felt a little constrained. the next day, saturday, i traveled by bus to meet up with my friends in montañita (i cashed some cheques so i wouldnt starve). on the bus i met a couple of american spring breakers on their way to the beach. it was nice to talk to some people from back home who werent complete idiots. i was really excited to meet my friends in montañita but when i got there they were all tired and they didnt feel like doing anything. we spent most of saturday at the beach. then saturday night we went to the discos and bars the problem was that the town was completely packed. it was hard to breath let alone dance. the next day evelyn, pepe and i (they were there too) got a ride to guayaquil with pepes friend. we where really tired when we got home. this week i dont have to work so i have been resting, playing poker with evelyn and fernando and just hanging out. hopefully later this week i will be able to go to the andes. i miss dirt and cold, fresh air so the andes sound good. i was going to visit some friends in cuenca but since one of them is ill i dont know if that is a good idea. ill keep yall posted.
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perhaps this post will be of epic porportions-because i havent written anything in a long time- but more than likely it will just be like the rest of the crap i put up. almost two weeks ago on wednesday the 12th i had my first full day back from work. that wednesday i felt in good health, well energized and really eger to get out of the house and off my ass. a lot of emotions where backed up inside my and that day i was very enthusiastic about helping out with the projects that we where doing at work. which brings me to what we where doing. the whole juconi foundation had all the street kids go to one of two schools. the first school was in the south of the city-we went there in the morning- and the other-that we went to during the afternoon-was in the north. this was kind of like summer camp. the kids played soccer and volleyball, they painted, they played games, they danced and so on. the age range was about 4 years old to 18 and each school had somewhere between 60 and 70 kids. there were about ten adults looking over the kids so it was a lot of work. from wednesday the 12th to wednesday the19th my job was pretty consistent. in the mornings i would help whoever needed it with setting up the premisis. then i would help jack with volleyball workshop-we usually ended up just playing a game. then i would get the end of day snack together. finally all the juconi workers would pile into a pickup truck or a bus and head north. it took about an hour and a half to get there. in the north we would eat at the same returaunt and then rest and then get back to work. in the north i helped out with soccer. usually i was put with the really little kids or the group of girls and we would do drills and then play a five minute game. this is the girls team at the end of the day i would set up the snack and say good bye to the kids. then at the end of the day we would travel home which took another hour and a half. after it was all said and done i was exhausted. amzaingly i was still pursuaded to go out after work some nights.

okay i dont know what happended to my browser but i have to make a new post so this post will continue up top.

hey people, i havent written anything for a long time and i just wanted to assure you all that im still alive. i have been in good health and i have been doing a lot of really fun things that i will hopefully be able to write about later. my life lately has been so busy but still, good.
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ok i made a photobucket account for yall to see my photos. if it doesnt work for some reason let me know.
http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc249/NathanSux/ecuador/
check that out.
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well i am feeling better today and i am even mobile. a few interesting things i failed to mention about being in the hospital: one i was there for only45 minutes and i didnt wait in a line or a waiting room. two, there was only one doctor working in the emergency room of one of the largest hospitals in ecuador. and three when i walked out of the hospital medication and care only cost $40. i think in the states my little stay would have been well over $200. sunday evening i was really missing some american food so i asked my host brother and sister to take me to mcdonalds. there are a lot of american fast food resturants here in ecuador but only mcdonalds has the same menu here as it does in the states. so i went and ordered the classic cheesburger, fries and coke. before hand i was so excited it was pathetic. later that night jack called me and told me that everyone from afs had to be downtown the next morning to do something called "global education." so i went to that expecting that i would get to sit in the airconditioned afs office for a few hours talking about the world. i was wrong. instead we were lead around town by a geography teacher (luis) who had been volunteering with the organization for years. we first went to a catholoc charities organization which makes houses for the poor. i had mixed feelings about this organization because they will make a house for any family that needs it but after the house is built they do nothing else. these families need a lot of help and in my opinion a house is only the start. then we saw the line of people who needed a house and it was about a hundred people strong. the people who lead us around the compound then said that the seven of us could pay $20 to build a house on some saturday. most people in the group were really inthusiastic and it sounds good so i think that might happen soon. the next place we visited was an organization that works with the black afroecudoriano communities in guayaquil. they did a multitud of things involving helping families but mostly the director told us about his mission of enhancing an afro identity in ecuador. it was interesting stuff. race relations arent quite as volitile here in ecuador as they are in the states but there is definatly a divide. for instace many rich people who i have met are taller and blonder than people with less. the afro population isnt segregated but like i say there is definatly a cultural difference. we had lunch at a peculiar vegitarian resturaunt but not before seeing a group of communists rallying in front of a french bank-im not quite sure what they were after. the final thing we did was talk about ecuador with our afs host. we talked about an insiders history of ecuador, politics, religion, wealth and then we talked about traveling in ecuador and where to go and what to see. it was a very interesting day but after it was all done i needed an ice pack. today i plan to see a doctor and have her okay me to work tommorow because i think im getting cabin fever hanging out here so much. o yeah and dad, have i ever been one for spelling things correctly.
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i havent written a whole lot this past week because there was wasnt much to talk about. i was sick with the flu and i spent a lot of time chilling around the house reading. unfortunately i only went to work one half day. that was wednesday. if i had gone to work this past week i would have been helping my organization with this day camp type thing they are putting on. everyday last week and this week coming up the kids in our organization go to a school where all the other therapists, educators and volunteers entertain the kids with games and activities. wednesday i helped the organizers of that day by just running errands for them. after only a half day though i was too exhausted to do more. i was told i needed to be completely well before i returned to work so thursday and friday i hung around the house some more. the crisis with columbia (thats what they call it here) is now over but not before i had to defend my own country in conversation. on several occations i was talking to my host brother and or his friends about the situation. they all had the unanimous consensus to join their governments stance of hating columbia for what they did and all that. after a few minutes into every conversation they would say "im sorry i have to say this mark but" and then they would relate the current situation to how america is trying to take over the world. i tried to defend our foreign policy saying that the US has very little to do with ths affair but that statement always went unheard. on saturday i was fealing much better and my flu was almost totally gone-except for a heavy cough. i was coughing so hard that i managed to throw my neck out and now it is very hard to move without pain. i spent all of yesterday in bed. today i woke up early with hopes of meeting the rest of afs here in guayaquil to go to a nature reserve. but when i got there they (the leaders of the afs chapter here in guayaquil) figured out what was wrong with me and told me i needed to go to the emergency room. a few hours later my host brother pepe drove me over there and i was checked out by a doctor. the doctor diagnosed me with wipflash and gave me some anti-inflamitories. being in a hospital reminded me of when i was in a ghanaian clinic for three days. i guess in the next third world country i visit i will also have to make a visit to a hospital. so now i will have to take off more time from work and hopefully in a few days i will be able to move again.
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i wanted to write something today because of two reasons: one i had some free time today and two, there is some unsettling news about ecuadors foreign policy in the news. the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7275732.stm

think what you will but its all politics.
today i came down with a bit of a tropical flew type thing. pepe says i have some sort of bug common to all the foreigners that have stayed in this family. i think i will be going back to work tommorow.
saturday after i wrote on my blog i went to this graduation party. it was a real site. it was the party of my host sisters best friend who has just graduated from university. this girl is very well off. in my last post i said that i havent seen too many rich people while here in ecuador, well i can say now that i have found them. this party took place in one of ecuadors-if not ecuadors- nicest hotel. i had to rent a tux to go. that was a little bit too much because everyone else were in suits but i fit in better than if i had been in jeans. there of course was lots of dancing. a band played that switched off from playing all different types of music like meregue, slasa, bachata and a couple of others. my whole host family went and everyone got down. it was also cool meeting some people there. i would have been perfectly keen with using my spanish skills but many of the kids spoke english fluently, some had studied in the states or europe. one girl asked me dance and i did. the first question she asked was "are you rich?", then she asked my my name. anyway it was quite a site. sunday i went with a friend to the really tourist district of guayaquil to take some pictures. i got some sweet shots and now i have to figure out how to load some pictures on this thing. today i woke up real early for work, realized i didnt feel good, called my boss and went back to sleep. once i woke up many hours later i organized some papers to take to the immigration people. after everything was organized pepe and i spent 4 hours going to the right offices to deposite all the right papers. when it was finally over they gave me my ecuadorian identity card. going to those offices was worse than spending time in the dmv because unlike the dmv there were no lines and no one was willing to answer questions. hopefully i will be able to go to work tommorow.
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