so so so much has happened since i last updated. i am really horrible at this blogging thing. plus, my computer no longer works and the internet here is not reliable at all. i dont feel like writing a long coherent collection of detailed paragraphs... so i'll just be lazy and use bullet points.

• we spent a week in Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. it was an eight hour drive to the coast. Guayaquil was pretty cool, but Quito is waaaaaay cooler. it was terribly humid there and i was so happy to leave at the end of the week.

• my pet chicken died. a huge black dog attacked her. he didn't eat her; he just chomped on her jugular vein once or twice and let her die slowly. anyway, we ate her for dinner that night.

• on friday, our group was given complete control over a local school. each of us was in charge of three classes. I taught a craft/music class and two art classes. I loved it so much. The kids were so beautiful and we had so much fun together.
  

• Tomorrow, I am going to the Supreme Court of Justice to interview a Lawyer. I am really nervous/excited.

• Our Latin American Issues class is super intense. Every single day i get so so worked up and angry and i really struggle not to cry. It is hard to wrap my mind around the injustice and corruption in Latin America because it is just so immensely overwhelming. The machismo and the abused women, the racism towards the indigenous, the countless homeless children, the lack of jobs, the oil industry, the depletion of the rainforests, drug trafficking, the lack of essential human rights. Even more frustrating is that i cannot fix it all. It just runs through my head all day and i get more and more worked up. It consumes me and i dont know what to do to release it.

• we are going to the AMAZON on my 21st birthday!! we are staying for a week. We are going to stay in an awesome little hostel, fly Cessna planes over the jungle, ride bikes, hang out with a tribe, trek, canoe down the amazon, white water raft. it is going to be incredible.
  

• i have twenty four days left. I don't want to leeeeeave. I think you all should just come here.

i leave you with some photos....