What’s the laziest animal on earth? ..keep reading to find out!

2 weeks have past… I was trying desperately hard to get to the internet last saturday but events took the opportunity out of my hands and nearly didn't make it today either! This week I’ve been in Galapagos with my family but the week before I was in Remar so I shall start with that…

Remar events
The baby came home! Which was awesome, she came home on thursday… she’s so lovely!! But poor thing she had to have another op on tuesday just gone (not sure of the news yet) because the fatty growth they took out from her arm/chest is growing again, and will continue to grow!! All abit worrying but she’s amazingly strong! Thank you so much for your prayers for her, keep going!
I had an unplanned visit to the prison again, the ladies didn’t recognize me, which isn’t surprisingly as it was quite along while ago that I went! Tati asked me to go so that afterwards we could go on a shopping spree for the ‘guarderia’ (nursery) as the big plastic shop was near the prison… Using money from my parents church we bought a load of stuff to deck out the inside of the nursery – tables, chairs, bins that kind of thing… in a couple of weekends time the ‘youth’ from my church are gonna help me paint it using money from my Chi church which is rather exciting!!
Another great class with the little un’s, they are learning!! Well it’s just the numbers but that’s a start!! And they were trying to join in with the song we were using which was encouraging too… I hope Anne’s getting on well alone and I hope I’ll do ok without her!
Bit o card sorting, now just one young lass working on them which is abit lonely for her – they’ve rather lost the umph they had!! Hmmm… and otherwise on remar I’m getting rather excited about the fiesta… Anne stayed over on friday so that we could put the wee party bags together before our girls day out… more later.

Tears all round…
So friday 20th my parents and brother arrived, albeit an hour late… as we were waiting for them to come through, I felt really nervous – I don’t know why, it was all abit weird… and as I expected their arrival through the doors I felt tears welling up, don’t why either!!! So when I finally saw them and they were stopped by a security door for a moment, it was all too much and the tears flowed… mum came over first and she was crying too, had a lovely long hug – then with dad and he was wet-eyed too!! They were pretty crashed out so we just took them to their villa so they could rest up – but being very, hmm not sure of the word, - well I told them they should rest and not do anything for the day on saturday – but what did I find out when I arrived at their place late sat afternoon after my girls day out? That they’d been painting the town red!! Naughty naughty, and they felt the effects of the physical exertion on sunday!! Everyone says that even if you feel pretty fine, on arriving in Quito you really should do nothing for the first 2 days!

Girls day out
Anne, Anna Maria (the lassy who did the Identity workshop with the girls) and I took out some (was meant to be all) of the adolescents for a day trip out of Remar… we picked them up at 11 and walked just a few minutes down the hill to a wee shop where one can make jewelry… it turned out to be a whole lot more stressful than we imagined!! But we got there in the end, with each girl choosing a design and bead colours – between them they made an assortment of necklaces, bracelets and earrings. We then popped back to the house to pick up the food and off we set to El Parque Metropolitano for a picnic and chill in the park… it was good but after certain attitudes that we experienced from the girls we decided to sit down and have a wee chat, which was really helpful, though painful, for them – they were able to freely express things that had been bugging them, the tensions within the group, and I think we all came out better for it! On the way back we got caught by the chapas (police) for having too many people in the car (11!!!! Hmmm, knowingly law breaking!) – at first the women said that Anna Maria would be off to prison and we were like ‘aahhhh’… but Anne got out and went to talk to the man, explaining we’re from the fundacion, 2 mins from the house, blah, blah, blah, and as she was a female gringo and quite persuasive, we ‘got away with it’…

Galapagos…
Well it’s actually my opinion and not scientific fact, but I think that sea lions are THE laziest animals around – or at least on Galapagos! They just lie there most of the day on the beach, sunning themselves and being very vocal about it! Oo the baby ones are soooo cute!! I’m now a very educated person and can tell you the difference between seals and sea lions – do you know there was one? (several actually!).. So just got back yesterday from 5 days in the Galapagos – a great experience but not without it’s frustrations – the other airport was closed so our itinerary changed… sniff sniff! So as not to bore yous out of your minds I shall just give a quick resume…
Giant tortoises (in the wild!!! Awesome!!), saddle sore (completely unexpected challenge of horse-riding!), seasickness (nuff said!! I’m sure you don’t want details – needless to say I shan’t be jumping at any chances to go a cruising!!), blue footed boobies, iguanas (man you ugly!)… there was so much we didn’t see which we feel was partly for lack of effort on the part of our guide but that said I really did enjoy it (well apart from the sickness!!) – the boat was lovely, the cook EXCELLENT, the crew really friendly, and the company fantastic – we were comprised of two German couples, one Canadian family (with 2 fantastic kids, 5 and 8), my family, a young French couple and a young Australian couple – we all got on really well, lots of laughs which really made the trip I think!
But the trip wasn’t without it’s challenges, especially the horse-riding – my brother fell off his horse coz his saddle came undone – it was just tied on with a piece of rope = HEALTH & SAFETY!!!!!!, Clare (5) got thrown off her horse when another horse bit hers and it bucked!! But she was SOOOO plucky and within minutes was back on another horse!!! Luckily she didn’t get concussed or anything… then my mum got kicked in the leg by another horse, and luckily it didn’t get broken!! Of course all were generally coping with the seasickness, but one of the German women she was hit soo bad, poor thing that it was very hard for her to enjoy the trip!! Oo ended rather negative but it was a good trip, I’m REALLY glad I went!

Otavalo
Last point for this week… today with Paquita and Armando, and some friends (Carmita, her daughter and her daughter's friend) we took a trip to the Otavaleño market, now famous throughout the world for their weaving!!! bought prezzies for people that my parents can take back with them!! hee hee - parents are very useful! we had a good but tiring day, i'm fair exhausted now!! we also squeezed in a wee visit to a high altitude lake...

Well, time to go again… fraid my ability to email at the mo is ZERO, will do my best to catch up with yous all when I’m back online, though I reckon it’ll take me a little while!!!
Hope you’re well, and for those of you in England, that summer is finally arriving!
Oodles of love
Me xx