Mas Ecuador por favor!!

After our visit to Quininde and our beautiful stay at Kashama, we headed to Santo Domingo. We drove through fields and fields of piña (pineapple) and the beautiful Ecuadorian canyons to get there. There were beautiful waterfalls like this one throughout.

When we arrived in Santo Domingo, we stopped for lunch at KFC (slim pickin's in Santo Domingo) and then went to find Ben's and Chuck's old house. When we drove up to the house, a man and woman were standing outside talking. Ben rolled down the window and asked if the missionaries still lived there. The man answered him and said that they haven't lived there in years and that he and his family now live there. Ben told the man that he lived there while on his mission. The man said, "We're members! Do you want to come in and look around?" Ben was excited. So, we met Teo and his wife Yesenia and Yesenia's twin sister, Maricela. None of them spoke English and Yesenia was asking me all these questions and Teo was talking with Ben and Chuck. Then all of a sudden this little kid who totally reminded me of an Ecuadorian version of my 6 year old nephew, Spencer, popped up out of nowhere and said, "I can translate for you!!" Woah!! Where did you come from!? Turns out that Maricela's son speaks perfect English. What a cutie! He was very proud to be our translator.
Seeing the house was really cool for Ben and Charlie. They spent Christmas of '97 and New Year’s '97/'98 there together and then Charlie got transferred. They had 17 baptisms in that one month between them. Ben didn't know it at the time, but the family that owned the home and lived above him was Maricela and Yesenia!
Teo offered us a drink. I said, "Yes, that would be great!" About 15 minutes later, Teo came back with Fanta for everyone. My heart dropped when I realized that he had run to the store to get us a drink. Little things like having a soda pop in our fridge are little pleasantries that Ecuadorians just don't enjoy like we do. All the Ecuadorians that I met were so hospitable and wanted to do all they could to make us feel welcome.
Saying goodbye was hard!! I immediatley liked Maricela (orange shirt). I felt like I had just met new friends and now had to say good bye, not knowing when we would ever see each other again.

(our little translator is the boy in the blue shirt and flip flops)
After we said goodbye to our new friends, we dropped by the church where Ben and Chuck would have their district meetings and hang out on P-Day.

A quick photo and we're off! We stopped at the bakery for some yummy bread and then headed for home.
This is La Cara del Diablo (The Devil’s Face). It's basically a giant Chia Pet carved into the mountain. Not too scary. ;)

The drive home was CRAZY!! It was so foggy and Ecuadorians are insane drivers!! Thankfully, Ben was able to channel his inner Mario Andretti and was able to safely get us back to Quito.

We're just getting started!! Stay tuned!!

Welcome Baby Max!!

My new DARLING nephew, Maxwell James was born August 3rd, 2011. He made his grand entrance into this world weighing in at 6 pounds 7 ounces and standing 19 1/2 inches tall.;) He is so darling!! I love that little finger in his mouth. Can't wait to hold him and squeeze those chubby cheeks!!
Congratulations Heidi, Wayne, Brit, Jay and Ali!!!!

Emotional Rollercoaster

Today has been an amazing day for me.
Ben and I had the opportunity to attend Youth Conference this year with the youth of our Stake and had an incredible experience (another post for another time). A few short hours after Youth Conference ended on July 30th, seven kids from our Stake were in a tragic car accident that killed 15 year old Gabe Hanson and sent the other kids to the hospital (two of them were Lifeflighted).

ksl.com - 1 dead, 2 in extremely critical condition in Centerville rollover

Among the seven, was one of "our kids", Lars. Ben and I became pretty close to Lars in those 3 days and were heartbroken to hear of his injuries. Today Ben and I attended Gabe's funeral which was so sweet and there was so much love in the chapel. Everyone was sportin' their PINK VANS in loving memory of Gabe. I met Lars' parents after the funeral and they let us know that Lars is out of the ICU and would love to see us!! Oh my gosh!! I was so thrilled to hear that he could finally have visitors!


www.larsfishoutofwater.blogspot.com

In the past, I have been pretty low key about mentioning private things on my blog. I consider my testimony to be very private to me. But today, I want the whole world to know how grateful I am for the Gospel; that families can be together forever and that there is healing through the Savior. I love my ward/stake family and the tragic loss of of Gabe has made us all closer.
Last night when Ben and I were going to bed, I told him that I didn't want to attend the funeral today. I didn't want to cry and be sad about it anymore. But I'm so glad that we did because it has brought so much closure and I have felt better than I have since we returned from YC. I have learned so many things from this tragedy. One of those lessons has been to not wait until tomorrow to tell that somebody how much you love them. Gabe bore his testimony before we "broke camp" on Saturday and he expressed his love for his big brother Cooper. I feel lucky to have been amongst the crowd that got to hear Gabe's final testimony in this life.

Please send your prayers to Lars!!

GABRIEL RANDOLPH HANSON Obituary: View GABRIEL HANSON's Obituary by Deseret News
xoxo

Kashama: Un Poco de Paraíso.

After Quininde, we headed to our hotel room that Anne had previously reserved. But Ben remembered this exotic place he had gone for P Day while on the mish. It's called Kashama and for the life of us, we could not find the place!! We happened to see a policeman on the side of the road so we pulled over and Chuck asked him if he knew where it was. He steered us in the right direction and after traveling through dirt roads and ghetto barrios, we came accross a little piece of heaven on earth called Kashama. When we arrived it was nearly 8pm so it was pitch dark and we were in the middle of the rainforest to boot! Miles away from civilization. Needless to say, we were all a little bit hesitant. As we entered, we thought maybe the place was shut down because it was really dark and the little houses (which reminded me of Hobitville) were totally closed up and dark. So just as we're getting ready to turn this around and head back to our original hotel, a cute Ecuadorian girl flips on the light and what seemed out of nowhere to me opened these wide doors on one of the houses to reveal the check-in desk. It was crazy weird. So while Chuck and Ben were talking to the girl about prices, Melissa and I were falling in love with the place. So TROPICAL!! The girl let us go check out the rooms so we walked down this little stone pathway to a beautiful view...a natural waterfall (with a rope swing!)

The place was so beautiful and exotic that we knew we would regret it if we didn't stay. Either that or we were REALLY going to regret it!! :)
They asked if we were hungry...YES!! They flipped on the lights in the resturant, turned on the music, fired up the grill and cooked us up a hot meal.
We explored the place and found a steam room so we all changed into our swimming suits and headed on over. It was so hot and smelled yummy like eucalyptus and lavender. We just sat in there and talked. It was so relaxing and the perfect way to end the day. Little did I know that the following day, Mother Nature would provide her own little steam room for us. Uuugggghhhh...
Then it was off to our room for a good night's sleep. It had been a long day. And how cool is that I was spending the night in the middle of PARADISE?
Our room...















The following morning, we headed down to our breakfast. They fed us the yummiest bread and jam, eggs and hot chocolate and a juice made from “tomate de arbol” which means “Tree Tomato”. I loved trying different things in Ecuador. They have a lot of different fruits there that we don't have here in the States. And the avocado and bananas were AMAZING! Did I mention that Ecuador has incredible hot chocolate! So good! It's really bittersweet like dark chocolate, which I love.

We decided to go for a little hike through the forest. It was so humid!!! I have never experienced humidity like that before. Charlie looked like he just got out of the shower! (I'm laughing just thinking about it!!) We were all just dripping. But it was so green and beautiful.

The top of the waterfall







Remember when I mentioned in an earlier post that bananas start as a flower? Well, here it is! The little yellow pistons is what will develop into a beautiful bunch of bananas.




This tree was the craziest thing we'd ever seen! It looked like it had dread locks! I have no idea what in the world it is but I loved it. Each plant growing from the tree was different.

















Chuck and Ben...at home!



Where your dishsoap comes from...palmolives!













Surrounded by beauty



Hot, sweaty and bloated...let's take a picture!!



I wondered what he was thinking...I think he misses Ecuador and now I know why.

Quinindé, hogar de mis amiguitos negros

Looking at all these pictures of Ecuador and reflecting on our trip has got me seriously missing the country and wanting so much to go back!!
Day 3 we traveled to Quininde from Quito which took about 4-5 hours down a winding canyon, full of beautiful green banana trees and tall waterfalls. I really felt like I was in a different world. I liked this world. :)
On the way there I had to stop and use the bathroom, of course. We found this guy right outside the restroom.

We all stopped for a photo op. After we all got attacked by red ants, we were back on the road!

Ben's church from June to November of 1997.

The Church is still true...even in the middle of the world!!

Melissa, Chuck and Ben walking the streets of Quininde.

Ben and Chuck lived on the 2nd floor of the yellow house for the first 5 months and then moved to the orange one.


Quininde is a very poor city. Their homes were very simple.




On the mission, Ben would cross over a bridge everyday that went over the Rio Blanco.

He said he always wanted to jump in it to cool off. Quininde is really hot and muggy. He wasn't so interested this time!! It was pretty dirty. This is where Ben's Mamita would wash their clothes. Take them down to the river and wash them on a rock!!

How cool is this? A woman carrying her bucket of laundry on top of her head??? These people are so AWESOME!

My favorite thing about this city, were the kids. They were so friendly with us and talked to us. I thought they were so cute!!!
This little guy was grilling plantains, which I love BTW!!

Right after I took this pic, the girl in the orange shirt stuck her tongue out at me! So, I did it back to her! Hey, I've never been the kind to walk away from a fight!!! She laughed at me!

These kids were on their way home from school. So cute!! Look how stylin' and handsome those boys were.
I love that as soon as I started taking the pictures, all the girls wanted to come over and have their picture take too! See them runnin' over!?


This little one was shy...

But hands down, these 3 little boys were my FAVORITE!! They were outside playing with this log and Ben pulled over to talk to them. We got them on video and I love playing it over and over 'cause their little voices are so cute. They were friendly and very happy. I love these little boys and that's why I entitled this blog post as "Quininde, home of my little black buddies.":)

They were proof to me that you can be happy with whatever God gives you. Even if it's just a little. I will never forget their cute faces.
As you leave the city, there is a giant statue of Jesus. These people are pretty hard core Catholic. I thought it looked cool against the sunset. (BTW, the sun sets faithfully at 6pm every night in Ecuador.)

It was time to head to our hotel for the evening but Melissa and I demanded that Ben and Chuck take us to Silencio!!! Why?? Because they told us the most hilarious story of them walking through the jungle of Silencio in the pitch darkness and being attacked by dogs. The only light they had was from Ben's little glow in the dark watch!! Then to top it off, Charlie meets a donkey face to face out of nowhere!!! The way they told the story had us all cracking up pretty bad!!!
Chuck and Ben standing just outside of the jungle of Silencio. The jungle was super thick. I can't imagine what it would be like in pitch darkness! Scary...

The jungle was mostly full of banana plants Just a fun little factoid ('cause I'm married to man with a brain full of factoids): The banana plant is not a tree, but the world's largest perennial and grows up to 25 feet, developing massive banana leaves that can extend 9 feet in the air. Did you know that bananas grow up? And that they start from a flower?? They're amazing. Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas in the world. Check your Dole sticker...it mostly likely says Ecuador. If it says Mexico, don't buy them!!! :)

The schools in Ecuador are not big enough to occupy all the kids at one time so some kids go to school in the morning and the others go in the afternoon. These girls were on their way home from school.

After goofing around for a while, we decided to head to the hotel. We were all pooped. We ended up staying at an incredible resort in the middle of the rainforest. More later!!!

xoxo