Woohoo!

Hello loves!

Wah! I´m so sorry I´ve been slacking on the blog updateage. I´m at CIMAS right now just hanging out for a bit before I go on an adventure to Otavalo for in interview...SOLO! Yikes, this is big stuff. I am a big girl. Otavalo is a small town - about a 2.5 hour busride from Quito. I´m going to be interviewing at an organization called INNFA. I don´t know a lot about the organization, except that it works with children that are at risk and come from difficult family situations, which is exactly what I´m looking for. It sounds pretty promising, so I´m excited to go see it. I´m a little bit nervous about travelling there and back by myself, but I think I can manage!

I was supposed to have an interview last weekend in a small town called Cotacachi last weekend, but after I got there, I found out that the lady I was supposed to interview with was sick. Hm. So I accompanied my friend Eleanor to her interview and took in the scenery of the town. I think that was my first taste of the ´´Ecuadorian way.´´ Sometimes things just don´t happen the way you expect them to! It turns out the organization in Cotacachi was not at all what we though it was anyway, so that is how I ended up with this interview in Otavalo.

The rest of the week was filled with suprises as well. After finding out that I´d be interviewing in a different town, I found out that the students are studying education (thats me!) had class today, while everyone else did not. On Wednesday, I was plagued with a suprise illness, and I also suprised some people on the street my sharing my illness with them on my walk home. OOPSIES! I must have at something bad, and for some reason my body decided that everyone on the street should know that as well. Getting sick in public - definetly something everyone should experience at one time in life. Hahaaa.

Needless to say, I´m getting used to the suprises and I´m learning to just go with the flow and be ´´tranquila.´´ That is definetly something I want to take home with me. We read a poem in Spanish class this week written by Jorge Luis Borges called ´´Instantes.¨ It has a ´´carpe diem´´ theme to it and he talks about what he would do if he could life his life other again. My favorite line said, ´´Tendria mas problemas reales y menos imaginarios´´ - I would have more real problems and less imaginary. That really hit home for me because I know that I often create problems for myself. Why make mountains out of molehills, right? I have really grown to appreaciate the simple things, and simple moments here (i.e. spontaneous conversations at school, spending time with family, watching the sunrise above the mountains while running the morning).

Oh! The people of Ecuador are voting on a new constitution on Sunday. I´m really excited to see how everything works out. The new constitution focuses a lot on human rights and respect for all cultures and includes some very positive changes for the country. At the same time, I cannot imagine how such a huge change could be implemented. It seems like a lot of people expect that Ecuador will change into a totally new country after the consitution gets approved (about 70% of the population is for the new constitution), but many of the changes implied by the constitution would take many years to implement. Anyway, it should be exciting to see how it all goes down!

I am off to embark on my adventure!
Love and hugs!
Jessica