"la chica come grande"/ Romans 5:3-5

Recently, I met up with my familia to eat encebollado in the park. As we sat down the woman began to joke with Carlos. Amidst the discussion she noticed that I too had showed up and yelled merrily to her husband, "la chica come grande". "No, no!" I tried to interject. "I want a small today, I just came from the gym." Too late.
Part of me was excellently happy that the encebollado lady in the park knows who I am. The other part of me wishes that I weren´t reknowned at a food establishment.
Such is my life as of late.
During tutoring the other day, Iscara reached out and grabbed my stomach. She said, "la señorita tiene guatita!" What upset me more: that she said I had a pansa and reached out to grab it, or that I have so much pansa really was able to grab it? You decide.
Either way, I´ve discovered the gym down the street and am loving it! The aerobics class is pretty fun. It´s not really intense, but I enjoy listening to trance music for an hour and hopping around following the instructions of possibly the most attractive man in Ecuador.
Fernanda has joined my support group and is now allowing me to serve myself at meals. Instead of 3 heaping spoons of rice, I get a spoon and a half, one piece of meat, a lot of salad, thank you very much.
Yesterday I taught her how to make cereal...yes, cereal. "How much do I put?" "a cup" "and then what?" "you put milk" "how much" "depends on how much you want, i´d put half a cup" "and?" "well, you could put fruit, I like raisins and bananas, here use some of my raisins" "how many do I put?" (as she begins to pick them out one by one and count) "just put a handful" "how about 6? just so he can try it"
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that the cereal was not for herself, but for Efrén. He´s got high cholesterol and it´s making him dizzy (???). He´s been drinking disgusting mixtures of cucumber and garlic, oatmeal and lime, and now he´s eating cereal. Whatever makes you feel better I guess.

I´m not fond of writing when I´m down because I can notice it in my tone. So I´m sure that you all notice it too. Really it´s only been the past week and a half. I could tell you a million stories about all the bad things, but what good would that do? Part of me feels bad for having a rough spot, much more for admitting it. But another part of me feels human. Would it be normal to go live in a 3rd world country for 2 yrs with the intent of living "poor" while striving to serve others that live in dire poverty and not get bummed out at first? I´ve had a few good crys, and talked to my parents, boss, aunt, ha! everybody.

Don´t worry about me though, I´ve got hope. I have a better understanding of why I feel the way I do, and how I can cope with it. Those of you who really know me though know that even when I´m down, down, down, I´m still a positive and happy person. Good thing God blessed me with eternal optimism.
I just can´t not be excited. :)
Plus, I think about Romans 5:3-5. Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not dissapoint!

The good? Well, there´s lots of that too:

I bought a kitchen table for the house I don´t have yet. There was a sale at Tía, the Target of Ecuador, on a little table and 4 chairs. It´s really cute and pretty large, plus it fit right into my Peace Corps budget. I´m excited to have my own place. I´ve never lived solo before- but, oh, I am so ready. Just the thought of waking up in the morning and doing what I want, when I want, without having to worry about anybody else or their habits...it makes me so happy. Plus, the thought of having people over at my house makes me excited. Especially if my new and wonderful Peace Corps friends come to visit me.

That is something worth writing about, the lovely people here with me. Theresa, Allison, Alli, Kentucky, Jessi, Cynthia, Kat, Damon, etc.- I could name you at least 30 people. They are wonderful and beautiful. They remind me of why I´m here: because we believe in something common. I believe that maybe by my being here I can influence one person, one change. Or, even better, I can let one person affect me. Something good, something great will come out of this experience and so that makes it worth sticking it out. Worst comes to worst, I´ll be fluent in Spanish, finally, ha!

Got lots of mail this week. My family loves me. :)
Hopefully, reading JFK´s "Profiles in Courage" will help inspire me. My mommy mailed me a pretty pink skirt that I´m wearing today with a green tank top. It´s a law: you can´t wear pink and green and not be happy.

Promise next time I´ll have more animo for writing.
Love!