I'm writing this from Cuenca, Ecuador.  Its cold, rainy, and beautiful.  And the best part of all, you can drink the water from the tap!  This city is a big hit for couples that are ready to retire.  They bring their savings here, and can live the same type of lifestyle for a fraction of the price.
This last week has been a wild one.  In Piura we finally bought the Chispitas and they are on their way now.  I had to leave to come up to Ecuador before they came because we had some screenings planned in Machala and Cuenca.  The first screening in Machala was packed with people.  There were over 100 mothers waiting with their children when we showed up.  No one seemed to get the whole take a number concept so it got a little wild.  Luckily my friends from help international came with me and they helped get everything under control.  The stake also had a bunch of volunteers.  We probably had over 20 people working and we used every one of them.  It was actually really fun, I think it is the most I have enjoyed doing the screenings.
Its funny how different the people from Machala are from Piura.  Its the first major city across the border, but even the people have a different look about them.  And their food is different too.  Every morning we ate encebollado, which is a fish soup that you put banana chips on.  I loved waking up for breakfast.  I never thought I would enjoy fish for breakfast so much.
.... A week later....
Now I'm in Santo Domingo Ecuador.  This last week has been so crazy.  I just got back from the program in Guyacana (I think thats how its spelled.)  Its a small village in the middle of the forest by Esmeraldas.  Coolest place ever.  All the houses are built on stilts, and they just take a bath in the river there.  There are pigs, chickens, and animals walking around everywhere and fruit trees that I've never seen before.  They live right on this river and I got to swim in it.  It even looked like clean water.  I was in heaven.  And the bugs ate me alive.  They speak a cool dialect there and it was kind of funny to speak to Ecuadoreans who spoke less spanish as a second language, if they even spoke it at all.  The coordinator and her husband let me stay in their house for the night.  They made the best smoked chicken ever, with a whole bunch of green bananas.  But the coolest part of it all was that to get back to the city I had to get up at 4 am and take a 3 hour canoe ride down the river.  I was so wet and dirty by the end of it but it was so fun.
Before that I was in Manta and Guayaquil.  I've been visiting the programs in each area of Ecuador and checking up on whats been happening.  All of them seem to be running well, but there are always more kids whose parents want them to enter the program.  The good news is that the government here is doing a lot right now to help kids.  They give everyone the chispitas if they go to the health centers.  The mom just has to take the kid each month in order to receive the supplement.  It seems like most people here like their president.  Its kind of nice to hear someone say something positive about a political figure.  
I probably have more things to write about, but I'm going to leave it at this for right now.  I've really enjoyed getting to know the people here, and the food.  The next few days I will see the rest of the programs here then I'm going back to Peru!
Oh, speaking of Peru, they just delivered their first batch of Chispitas to the kids in Piura.  Yippee, it looks like things will work out.
Adios,
Sean

¡Hola!

Cute baby at the Machala Screening

Me in the Cajas, some lakes above 11,000 ft.  Brrrr. Cold.  But good trout.  

Iguana at parque de las iguanas.  This guy is a monster.  Raawwrr.  

Little kids in a house in the village of Guyacana.  Cool houses.  

The children of the branch president.  They got a kick out of my inflatable sleeping pad.  WWF style wrestling is common down here.  

On the river for the canoe ride.  This is probably around 6 AM.  Prettiest river I've ever seen. 

My aunt Kim asked me to put up another blog post.  I have just been putting it off.  A few minutes ago I was sitting in my room, not in the best mood, and just kind of frustrated of being stuck in the city for a little bit.  I miss the mountains.  After whining a bit, I just felt like I should go up on the roof, and maybe that would help.  When I got up there I walked over to the edge where I was met with the strong odor coming from the sewage plant in front of my house.  I just laughed at the irony of being sick of the city, and my one escape is now contaminated with the smell of the sewage plant.  Oh well, at least it gave me something to laugh about.
Things are moving along here.  Today I am meeting with someone to talk about prices to buy a soy powder that the kids mom's can make into a milk.  Soy is supposed to be good because it is high in fat and nutrients, and will help the kids have the nutrients they need.  If I can get the soy for cheap enough then I can buy another supplement called Chispitas, which has the micronutrients that the kids need.  So I'm hoping that things work out with that.
One other option that we have is having a factory here in Piura produce what we need.  It was cool how I found out about the factory.  The lady I live with has a niece that studied food engineering, and used to monitor a lot of the factories in Piura.  We became friends and she invited me to visit the factory because she knew that they had produced supplements in the past for malnourished kids.  We visited them and talked with the head engineer and he was more than willing to produce something for us.  They are looking to create a product to sell to the public, instead of just working off of government contracts.  So if the soy and chispitas doesn't work out, hopefully we can get them to make us something.
I had a good 4th of July down here.  I went with the kids in help international and they had a big BBQ with american food and everything.  They even got some fireworks from the market!  One lady made a cake with the american flag on it.  We all sang the national anthem and one kid held the cake in the front as we took a picture.  After it was done, as is tradition in Peru, someone smashed his face in the cake.  It turned out perfectly, he got a corner of the blue, and the rest was striped.  It was the american flag upside down on his face.
I also went to Canchaque a bit over a week ago. I cant remember if I wrote this in the other blog post or not..  Well, Canchaque is cool, its in the mountains where the people I live with have their land.  I went and helped pick fruit and coffee.  I ended up staining all of my clothes from carrying bananas.  The lady I live with told me to be careful, and not to carry all of them at a time.  But me being the big man that I am, didn't listen, and I stained all my clothes.
I'm working on the whole, "listening to other people" thing,  but its been kinda hard because I definitely like to do things my own way.  I also have a hard time when people tell me to put my coat on because it drops to 70 degrees.  I usually just haven't paid them any attention, but now I just put it on so they will stop bugging me about it.  It isn't really that cold, I'm just trying to just do what they say so they will be happy.
I went to a birthday party for the lady I live with, with her work.  A mariachi band showed up and the table and played for like a half hour, trumpets blazing.  They brought out what I thought was chicha morada, which is a really good drink made from purple corn and pineapple.  I was going to get some but then they said it was sangria.  I guess sangria is some type of alcohol.  Well, they sure like their sangria.  About halfway through the dinner they brought another pitcher and told me it was chicha morada.  So I was going to drink it.   Then they told me they were just kidding and they got a kick out of that.  I was sad because I just wanted some chicha morada.
Well, This next weekend I'm heading up to Ecuador to do some screenings there.  Tomorrow we are doing a meeting for all of the volunteers that are going to help out here, so it should be up and running. Hopefully we can get the supplements bought tomorrow.
I'll keep you guys posted on what happens.  I'm excited to get up in the mountains of Ecuador, I have been missing nature.
Adios,
Sean