What a week. Monday was frustrating in class, but I came home and helped my family with the avas and watched a few telenovelas and felt much better. My host brother asked me if I had seen the movie ‘Sao’ and I said, no, I have never heard of it. And then he put it in the DVD player and it was Saw II. And I was like, oh, Saw! And they made fun of me. Sawww. Saaawww. Good stuff. It was also the first birthday of my host niece so we had cake and it was goooood. Tuesday was a gathering of todos, and we got our bank cards, learned more about how not to be robbed, and Jamie Nicole and I once again made ham sandwiches for lunch – amazing. The best part of my day was coming home and seeing a sheep tied to the gate. My host mom proceeded to sheer it in the driveway. Now, he’s chomping around in the back yard and baah’ing in the mornings. I figured out that I no longer need an alarm clock because mister rooster wakes me up at 5:00 without fail! Wednesday, we learned about typical dishes of the different regions of Ecuador and prepared our presentations for Friday. We have to speak in front of our facilitators and trainers in Spanish about our town – a map, the needs, a typical day for a man or woman, and a seasonal calendar showing when to plant crops, when school is in session, festivities, etc. I think our posters are the most colorful and awesome. We had lunch at the Kioskos (one of three options here) and it was tasty – fried egg, rice, tomatoes, onions, beans and fried bananas. Then we played a game with our vocabulary and Jamie and I were ‘las azadones’ but we lost. Oh well, after that we got to begin our garden. It’s on land the the other Sarah’s family owns (they also own a cheese/milk/butter/yogurt factory and the yogurt is amazing). We hoed the land, made raised rows for our crops, and planted lettuce, cabbage and tomatoes. Thursday we took a trip to a tree nursery. The land used to be owned by a mining company, but they found better ore over the mountain and donated the land to reforestation. It was pretty awesome. We were supposed to pack a lunch, but Jamie and I forgot – and had also promised Nicole we’d bring her a ham sandwich – so we improvised. Bread, cheese, stale crackers, and some borrowed Nutella. When we got back, we went to the gringo café for some French fries and spaghetti. We will return there on Sunday. Today, we learned about the different ethnicities in Ecuador, gave our presentation about the city (we did awesome) and then worked in our garden. My madre let me wash clothes this morning! I also got to meet the three new ducklings that live in the backyard with the sheep, pigs, guinea pigs, chickens, roosters, puppies, and dogs. Tomorrow is a trip to the leather capital of the world and Sunday is a day of rest. What a life.