Hereis my next blog! I don´t think I have done one since last Friday so there is alot to catch up om. Where shall I begin. On Friday afternoon Iworked again at the cultual centre with the children to help with teaching again, only to discover that there aren´t really any classes on Fridays so only a young girl called Martiza was there with ther younger brother. Luckily for me she is one of my favourites and is really sweet so spent alot of time with her. Before long she headed back home and it was only 3 O´clock, which considering I was by myself left me wondering what to do. I ended up staying on with one of the teachers called Narcise, she is really nice and 22 years old, however likes Avril Lavigne and various other odd things, not that I have anything against that, it´s just that there is only so much I can contibute to a conversation about Avri Lavigne! I ended up staying with her until my dance class, having returned to the house, only to be told by Yolanda thatI had to move downstairs to another room, not a good move. Anway, dance was hard as per usual and Narcise waited for me and I ended up walking around with her until about 10, just letting her ramble about various things. The night alone wasn´t the best, especially since that house creeks all the time. My new room is huge, which is actually a disadvantage as it is bloody scary at night. My matress sinks really badly in the middle and the springs make so much noise. To make matters worse, I found the rat nearbyand several dogs outside my window, not to mention the hundreds of spider bites I have on my legs...and these aren´t small ones either!

Well the next day was my first weekend here and it was really chilled. I got up leisurely, closed my door, as one does, and then found that it didn´t open and I have no key, and it turned out neither did Yolanda. So on Saturday I was locked out of my room all day which was fun as I only had a pair of shorts on and a big bag of washing. Needless to say the majority of my day consisted of internet cafe and taking my clothes to the ´´lavaderia´´, it only cost 70p. At 3:30 I went to collect some of the new volunteers, who are 2 girls from Chile called Daniella (22) Joanna (23). They are both really nice, apart from their accidents which I find really difficult to understand. They dont pronounce any of their S´s which makes all the words run into one, however I am getting used to it and the random South American spanish: car is caro not coche, pig is puerca and bonito is chevre just to name a few. Whoever does Spanish will understand my predicament! The two Chilean girls convinved me to kick my door down which I duely did, so now I have a broken door with no lock, great. However the excitement of Saturday does not end there! I was casually sitting on some steps by the market minding my own business when a rather odd looking man sat down beside me and greeted me. I thought nothing of his questions until I started to stroke my leg and tell me how soft my skin was. Needless to say I quickly assured him that any more of that and he may well need a trip to the hospital, conveniently where I work. However this seemed not to deter him, he asked for photos of me and then some rather private questions to which I promptly got up and left! I ran away to a local internet cafe to hide but no, I was not safe there, he had followed me and was waiting outside. I ended up staying in the internet cafe for well over an hour before making my escape taking the most complicated route back possible! That was my first encounter with the dark side of Ecuador andI hope not to meet it again. To reassure myself I went to the local sports ground and did dips and pull ups, I mention this only for Billy´s interest: i ended up doing weights with rocks and it worked really well surprisingly. So another night in the house, expcept this time with the two Chilean girls. This night was just as awful as I had serious stomach pains and there was a massive thunder strom. Just as I was getting to sleep the next morning, Yolanda knocked on my window and brought with her 2 more volunteers. I turns out that Tony (30) from Ireland and Melissa (23) from Spain/Brazil/Holland/Englad (something to do with adoption-thats a few countries) are together. Tony is really nice and a pretty funny guy, being from Ireland he is my escape when the Spanish gets too exhausting to carry on with. That afternoon I took them all to Yolandas place on the bus, the one where there is the massive swimming pool. I went for another wonder in the rainforest and found some more interesting creepy crawlies. But the excitement of that day was still to come. Tony, Melissa and I were playing around with a basketball when a big group of guys came over and challenged us to a match, now for any of you who know me well, you will knoe that my team sports and ball handling skills are worse than pathetic, I really thought it was going to be hell. Incredibly I actually scored and we won the match! The only downfall being, and this being a big one, I played on concrete without shoes. That was the biggest mistake I have made in a long time. The blood blisters on my feet were huge and I could barely walk. Tony´s were also bad so we had to have some beer and play ping pong t distract us. In the end Yolandas daughter gave us a lift back to the house, so we sat in the open back of her pick up truck, which was really really good fun, although bumpy!

Forgot to say, I went to a club called Acuario on Saturday night, was absolutely rubbish and really empty so looks like I wont be doing much clubbing out here, considering that that is the only one for miles! Well my first weekend was over and after much excitement I had really sore feet. This is when I performed my slef-treatment. I got one of my sterile needles and syrings from England and extracted the fluid from my feet, applied Savlon and bandaged them up. It was really painful but to my amazement the next day they were much better. Now I can walk really well. Moday was actually a fairly dull day and I wont digress too much. In the hospital i didn´t do a huge amount as I was so tired so ended up chilling with the doctors and wacthed an operation. At the cultural centre, I talk a really cool kid called Brayan some natural sciences and we had a good laugh. He loves power rangers so I taught him the song and pretended to be one for about half an hour, he bloody loved it, and is bringing me his toys to play with this afternoon, I cant wait! I also spent time with a little girl called Cynthia who I wish was my daughter, I think I am falling for her but considering she is 9 probably not the best idea haha. I think we will play hide and seek later. Anyway swiftly moving on, I went to salsa last night and it was really tough, we danced reggaeton as well and the teacher was really going for it. But I have made friends now and have been invited by a woman called Mariusa to go a visit her niece on Sunday, I think she is trying to set us up. The chileans and I went and had hamburgers, they smoked marijuana which they seem to be doing every 5 minutes but thats the way they like it and it doesnt seem to affect them :S

Well here I am on Tuesday. I got a really good nights sleep last night and my work in the hospital today was really good fun. I did alot of wound care and did my first suturing! I sutured together a young boys cheeck which had been cut by a machete and I was bloody nervous. My hands were shaking, especially when injecting the anaesthetic but it was a really good experience...it is a lot harder than it looks. I couldn´t believe that my first suture and they ask me to do it on someones face. They showed me how to do it on someones knee and then asked me to do the face, why not the other way round! Oh well, to top things off I also say an abortion ona 14 year old girl. It was on of the msot unpleasant and depressing things I have seen in the hospital, I wouldn´t recommend watching one, it was fairly nasty. Finally I have caught up with the present. I am off to the rainforest tomorrow for a couple of days so will update when I get back!