What a week! Last week on my birthday, my community threw me a surprise party. My community is Kichwa and so they don’t celebrate birthdays, holidays, etc. so their first attempt at throwing a birthday party was an incredible gesture. They said they wanted to make me feel like I was at home, I almost cried! One of the guys from the Fundacion gave me one of his paintings for a present. It is so pretty and I can’t wait to hang it in my house! We ended the night having a mini dance party. Friday night the entire family (and when I say entire, I mean like all eight brothers and sisters and brothers and sisters in law, etc.) went to my counterpart’s nephew’s graduation party. It was probably the most fun party I’ve attended here in Ecuador. We ended up dancing until 2:30 in the morning and continued the party when we got back to the caves. Tuesday morning I went with the girls and we painted my house – canary yellow! We lack one wall because the maestro was working on my ‘wrap-around porch.’ I’m really excited about moving there. Wednesday, Bertha (bear-tah, not Bertha) and I went into Tena to buy a cook top, refrigerator and gas tank. Thank goodness for buying on credit! I also bought some jellies – remember the shoes that were popular when I was like five and all they are is clear plastic? Back in style. (I think in the U.S. too?) So that was exciting. Not much else happening, I´m going to another community next week to see about helping with dry toilets. I know, hard to imagine me building a dry composting toilet. Such is the Peace Corps! Much love, SK (fotos - the girls at my surprise party, my counterpart luis in the caves, lady helping paint my house, dancing with my ecuacrush. haha.)