My first x-ray and my first bagel...

Discovered a bagel café yesterday - yeah!!! My first bagel in 5 months!!! Very tasty, tasted just like at home, I asked for peanut butter and jam! Mm, mm, mmmmm!!! I think I shall be visiting there again!

Breaking things, or not quite…
This is in reference to the title of this week’s blog! It all begins as I was entering ‘escuela dominical’ (a.k.a. sunday school), I was chatting away to Daniel not watching where my feet were treading (didn’t think I’d need to! It’d been fine every other time I’d entered the room) and before I knew it, CRASH!!! I plummeted to the floor, bashing my right hip and right elbow on the floor and wall! Ouch! There had been a carpet which moved as I stepped on it (slippery floorboards!), and not realizing what was happening I didn’t have time to save myself!
So danny picked up me off the floor and we walked (or rather slightly hobbling on my part) into the room, as tears started to well!!! So class started and I did my best to calm down and participate but I just couldn’t stop the tears from falling and the pain of my right elbow was huge and increasing!!! The others noticed and danny ‘rushed’ me upstairs (our class is in the sort of basement level) to see if ‘there was a doctor in the house’… there was and he came out to check me over! He had a good old poke and prod and decided nothing was broken but perhaps there was a crack and it would be best to get an x-ray… Maria Augusta came along at this moment and got very worried over me, saying she’d take me to the hospital, we just needed to wait for wendy (other sunday school teacher) arrive so that she could go with me… so I sat and waited, trying desperately hard to stop crying… I was really touched by how many caring faces there were around! (and afterwards how danny, aurea and rafa rang to see how I was) and Paulina (whose in the worship group with her hubby) when she noticed me came over and gave me a lovely mummy type hug!

Anyway to cut a long story short, Douglas (maria’s husband) took me to a hospital to the ER…had to wait quite a bit to be seen, then wait for x-ray (didn’t like the way the lady moved my arm, it hurt, but I understand she had to have it in a certain position!!), wait for the results and wait to pay (35 squids!!!).. so, the results - as you can probably tell from the fact that I’m able to write - it’s not broken! In fact there’s not a thing to show for my fall on me bones! Praise God! I have a contusion – basically a bruise, but man it hurt!! So he gave me some antiflammatories, told me put ice on it, to rest it and not to exert it…

Told Maria Augusta how I was and she forbid that I go to remar on monday coz it would be impossible to rest my arm there! So I had a day’s holiday, much needed! Spent the morning mostly reading, then went to the science museum cost me 50p and it was dead shoddy! Well my guide book did warn me but I decided to go anyway! Some really interesting stuff (although presented appallingly! You have to see it to understand how badly), got grossed out and freaked out by the size of some of the insects that live in this country – urggghhhh!!! Don’t wanna come across them in the day let alone on a dark night! Urgghhh!! But luckily (?) I’m living in quito and you hardly ever see bugs (all the pollution??). Stuffed croc and snakes gave me a bit of a fright too, their poses were just too life like!! Glad I went though…

I’m pretty much better now, doesn’t hurt but aches, though it’s not exactly an ache, it’s a weird sort of feeling! it's definitely letting me know its there!

Moody girls…
Had an interesting afternoon thursday making cards, Gladys (16), a new teenager to Remar (though she has been in Remar before), got angry with me when I ‘made’ her work. She’d not done anywork for about half an hour, so I asked her to stop doodling and continue working, and waited abit, giving her abit of leeway. I asked again, nothing, so I took away the book she had been tracing some pictures from… and man she didn’t like that!! Wouldn’t speak to me for the rest of the afternoon, and if I responded to something she said, like ‘I agree’, she’d reply ‘i’m not speaking to you’… and later when I congratulated her on the cards she’d made, how pretty they were, she said ‘I didn’t ask for your opinion’! Which made it a slightly difficult afternoon! Though friday she seemed to have let go of her grudge! Amen! Cards coming along well, been working on them everyday but thankfully I haven't been with them all the time, had to go out buying materials, do this and that, which gave me some much needed variety!

A is for apple…
This week coming, anné and I are going to start giving English lessons!!! We were thinking monday but we’ve not had a chance to get together and plan coz of card-making and whatever else--- ooo today had to be plumber again on the sink pipes, water was all over the kitchen floor and no-one seemed to be doing anything about it so I took it upon myself to sort it out! Mopping up I realized that water was coming from under the sink, so took everything out and it was ‘full’ of water! And the only way it can get full of water is if it’s leaking from the sink pipes so I took it apart and took out a lemon (they have wee tiny ones here about the size of small apricot) a pip of some kind, rice and bits of veg all wedged in there –lovely!!

My first time in a cell…
Well, its not happened yet, but I’m referring prison - not that i'm being sent there (!) but gonna go a visiting a prison… every tues tati goes to visit the womens’ prison where some of the girls mum’s are, and this tuesday, if all goes to plan, anné and I will be going with her! Very exciting!

Swings update…
Well we’re nearly there, it’s just the weather keeps getting in the way of getting the paint work done! Grrr, but I hope that when I go to Remar on mon that all will be ready!! At last!! and then i can send some photos!!

Psychological study..
A niece of one of paquita’s good friends is about to start her thesis study (for psych) with some of the adolescent girls in Remar – it’s all about idenitity and she’s going to use different forms of ‘therapies’ to aid the girls to express themselves and grow.. and I’m gonna help!! Very exciting! It involves all sorts of creative stuff, dancing, collages, writing… lots of things. Looking forward to it, we start monday –from 8am –10am every weekday for the next month (I’m gonna try and get there as early as I can, normally arrive at 9, so that I can get properly involved).

Connoisseur’s corner
This week, a new fruit ‘ uvillas’, orange and quite sharp… they grow in wee pod like things that are a light brown and dry, I remember my mum having some as a decoration once (though haven’t a clue what we call them in England) but here they eat them! New pastry type thing I’ve tried too this week, it’s called ‘buñelo’ (or it could’ve been ‘pristiño’, paquita wasn’t quite sure as they’re very similar), it’s a sort of fried sweet batter thingy in a random form… that doesn’t make any sense does it? Hmm, can’t explain it any other way!

What else?
Oo off to the zoo today with anné, it’s about a 45m bus journey out side of quito, I hope it’s good! Busy week with preparation for easter, the ‘youth’ are doing a mime and we were practicing till 10pm on wednesday, and last night we had a ‘super ensayo’ (super rehearsal) of the worship band, of all the songs we’re gonna sing over easter, at the ridiculous number of meetings we have! It lasted 3 hours!!! so yeah that's all, keep in touch my lovelies!! xxxx