Stephen and Jodi Parker Family

Sorry the pictures are first…

This is he Hippie Market:
Me and Shawni with the owner of Hidden Door
Bread Knots at Fabi’sToday my morning shift was in Alegria. I love those kids! One of the kids is one of my favorites out of all of the kids. My favorite is when he crosses on leg on his other knee or when he crosses his fingers when he eats. He is my little man!

Today I was in charge of actividad and we played Jenga. They love Jenga! I also got to do two of the little girls’ hair. The HEFY kids are here and around four of them help us out with the kids. It is nice because all of the kids get included.

While I was helping with another girl she decided that she wanted to do my hair. It is a lot thinner now. Haha the same girl gave me a hug before I even asked today and I was so excited!

Today I had an off with Logan and Shawni and they are two of my favorites! We went into town and wandered around going in and out of random souvenir shops. Don’t worry we definitely stopped for ice cream and a churro.

We met the rest of the volunteers at Fabianos, an Italian restraunt, and it was really yummy! Afterwards there was a classic rock concert that the American embasy put on in celebration of the Fourh. We had a blast! Haley I was dying for you! You would have loved it!

When we were leaving the played “Living on a Prayer” and we were dancing all over the place! In the taxi ride home we were jamming to American music, curtousey of the taxi driver. Tonight was way fun.

Today I started off in Cunas again. I love the morning shift there because we get to hang out with the babies. Today I got to feed the littlest baby. She is an adorable newborn. My heart seriously melts whenever I play with the Cunas kids.

I worked with Nicole in Cunas and there was another American girl there helping who was my age. Her name was Emily, and she was super nice. She is kind of on a two week exchange program but through a college.

Today during our time with the babies the kitchen’s fire alarm went off. I am pretty positive they burnt an entire chicken. Luckily we didn’t have to evacuate or anything!

During lunch a group of us went to Monay and bought tomatoes, Spaghetti sauce,  and got money out. We also got some helado! Thought of you again dad!

My afternoon shift was in Casas with Logan and Nik. I was pretty nervous because of past experiences with them, but I loved it today. I honestly believe I am here to learn from those adorable kids.

They all finally know my name and it is so fun to play with them. Today I got to work in Casa Uno where the 3-6 year oldish kids live. We played ring around the rosy, read books, and I gave them horse rides. They were the CUTEST things.

We watched a movie today. First it was a Barbie movie and then when all the boys got bored we changed to Looney Tunes. Some of the kids came up and sat on my lap throughout the movie. They were really crazy for dinner and bedtime, but I still loved it. Who knew right?

Tonight we had a deep clean of the house and I cleaned the bathroom. I got to try a white pineapple tonight and it is really good! I wish I could bring one home!

We went in another social walk tonight and we explored the construction of the Rossero’s house and played volleyball on the net in the backyard. We had some funny times! Life is good here at the Cuenca House!

Today was so good! My card finally worked at the ATM! That means I have money to go zip lining on Saturday! This morning I had an off with Shawni and we went to Monay (the mall/grocery store). It was really nice, even compared to the U.S.. That is where we took out our money. Then I bought Oreos and Coco cookies to bring home. Don’t worry, I got some vanilla ones for Mason too! I also got two hammocks today! Yay!

First two pictures of of both directions of the road we live on.
This is over a bridge ob the same road.These are some Chulitas that we saw in town today.

Today Catalina made fish and I didn’t dare take any because it is really offensive to throw food away here. So I was not adventurous. Sorry I will try next time. Haha

My PM shift was in Casas and to be honest I prayed at least 5 times before, during, and after the shift to be able to survive. During the shift two boys locked themselves in a bathroom stall together and they refused to open it. The door was too low to be able to slide under, and too high to reach over. So after asking them ten times I climbed on top of the urinal and started climbing into the  stall to get them out. Meanwhile this other kid is crapping in the adjacent stall with the door unlocked. What the crap? The two boys in the stall put the toliet paper roll in the toilet and then threw it at me while I was sticking my  head underneath the stall. My cute coworkering volunteer, Jacie, came and put her hand on my back and said she was sorry that I had to put up with them. She is seriously the cutest person I know.

Despite that story I did have an ok time in Casas today and I am not super against going. I think the more you work their the more numb you become to the chaos. There were two cute sisters who I played with. The one was crying and then I scooped them up and sang the “Sisters” song from White Christmas to them and they loved it! Then the three of us played tag. I also finally connected with the ring leading antagonists from Casas. I played fusball with them. I have discovered that they are all angels when you are one on one.

When it came time to eat the kids were really onrey and refused to get in their train. We eventually gave up and took them in without the train. We left early tonight because of HML. That is always pretty nice.

This week I got to stay home from HML with Madie and go to FHE with the OSSO kids. I loved it! It was one of the sweetest experiences, and it will probably be the reason I cry a lot when I am home. We sang “I am a Child of God” in Spanish and that is when it really hit me how sad it was that these kids didn’t have earthly families. I really felt Hevenly Father’s love for all of the kids and I realized how important it was for me to spend all my time here focusing on them. They are so sweet and I am really going to miss their unconditional love.

While I am talking up the wonderfulness of these kids, I want to mention that one of the babies from OSSO is currently in the hospital with pneumonia. The doctors think she needs a feeding tube, but the cost of surgery is $5,000. We have the option of having the surgery from a free doctor, but we are almost positive that they will kill her. If there is anything you could do to donate or spread the word it would be much appreciated. You can send the donations to the OSSO office in Rexburg.

Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. I love and miss you all.

❤️The Girl with Big Plans

Ok so today I worked the morning at Cunas with Madie. I got to play with the itty bittys. They are the babies at Todao Tores. They seriously melt your heart. They are also really quiet and it was a nice break from shifts like Casas. I even got to rock some of the babies to sleep. Also because I worked off sote I missed out on going to church. 🙁

During that shift two volunteers at Casas got “married”. My he kids made them wedding rings and decorated. They even made her a newspaper veil! They aren’t allowed to hold hands or kiss, due to OSSO rules, they linked arms and shook hands. They signed away their vows and at the top the certificate said “Married and Kissed” in Spanish. So funny!

Clarification to those who read the earlier blog about my first kiss..the kid was like 3 so don’t you fret!

My second shift was in Alegria with Logan. The kids there actually seemed excited to see me. I think one of the kids called me fat in Spanish so that’s cool. We played with Jenga blocks. Those are their favorite thing.

Two of the kids totally blowout pooped their diapers and while I was changing one she peeshedeeshed all over the changing table. Yay.

Today HEFY showed up and it was super stressful because there were so many people. They pretty much took all the kids from Alegria so Logan and I just pushed the other kids in the swings. HEFY will be here for 2 weeks working on the house for the Roseros, but they will also help with the kids too.

Tonight Nicole, Logan, and Hailey, and I all went on what we call a “social walk”. They are really a good time! Haha we are starting a tradition. No worries we walk inside the gates walls of the orphanage.

I think that’s about all for now! Chao! 💕

P.S. Sorry about no pictures today.

Today my morning in shift was in the wonderful Milagros! I love that Casa! I worked with Hailey, one of my favorites. Milagros always gives me good stories!

So the boy I played soccer with at the very beginning always sits and announces imaginary soccer games. So today he was announcing a game about him being on gwa gwa’s team. Gwa gwa is another girl here’s baby doll. You had to be there.

Then another one of the Milagros boys was leaning against the window sill and his pants fell off. He was just chillin’ in his diaper.

Then another boy who has severe autism threw his colada on the ground and it went everywhere. Then he shoved Hailey into me. He is known for always smacking you in the stomach when you least expect it.

One of the boys also taught me how to make a friendship bracelet and it’s a hot mess, but he is making me finish it for him. Cool story bro. Haha

My second shift was spent off site at Azogous. It is another orphanage that makes OSSO’s look super nice. We spent it cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. There were ants everywhere and the kids had lice. Sketchy!

Also when we got done cleaning we had some extra time where we got to play with the kids. We pretty much just sang songs with them and played a Spanish duck duck goose. There was a girl there who was blind and she came up and wrapped her arms around my waist and . had me help lead her everywhere.

Tonight I cooked cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls for everyone! I doubled the batch and it was so much! Everyone was really excited though. It is funny, when anyone wants to eat what you are making they volunteer to help. I got a lot of helpers. Haha tonight we also had a Nacho Libre movie party. I skipped out and a bunch of us went for a walk around the orphanage.

We also decided our mural idea, don’t worry I will give you updates. I am really excited that u get to be a part of one!

Sorry this is so short! Chao.

Bread dough x 10 RollsCinnamon Rolls

Everyone minus Hailey and Kati: Amber, Jacie(flower hat), Megan, me, Nicole, Nik, tour guide for hike, Madie(blue), Hannah, Logan(holding the stick), Shawni(left of Logan),Heather(in the black)Continental Divide
The leaf was as big as my hand..actually bigger.
Me, Madie, Jacie, Nicole, Hannah at the top of the falls!
On the way back we walked through a rock to get to the start!At the bottom we got hommade hot chocolate, and it was so AMAZING!
Jacie, Madie, Hannah, Amber, me, Shawni, Heather, Nicole, Logan Logan and I. At the end of the hike after we ate we were waiting around to leave so we decided to start walking down the road and wait for the bus to pick us up. This was on that walk. Potato Soup!Today was the hike at Giron! It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! The drive was 1.5 hours. We stopped on the way at the Continental Divide. It was super cold there because the winds from Pacific and Atlantic were hitting each other.

The hike took like 3-3.5 hours, it was 5.5 miles. It was hard mostly because of the altitude. It was pretty hard to breathe. The whole time I was dying to have dad there because he would have loved it! Don’t worry I got him a rock from the top! 😊

On the way to the top it was muddy and rainy and Nik fell down the hill while taunting a cow. It was so funny! Logan got a sweet video on the hike on his goPro that I will be sure to get!

For dinner, as the picture above shows, I made potato soup for everyone! It was delicious! They all loved it too. ☺️

I have more pictures to come don’t worry! Love from Ecuador. 💛💙❤️

Today was great! I went to TRINI and finally got pictures! It was so fun. We got to sing songs in English and Spanish and dance with the kids. The assistant, Kati, took our pictures while we did. The kids are adorable. As soon as we walked in they all shouted “Hola” a million times all at different times. It is so cute! The reason we could take pictures here is because it is a daycare so the gov’t doesn’t hold the rights of the children. Sorry but I really know none of the names. The volunteers in the pictures are Shawni and Amber.  The drive there was really beautiful because you drive to the top of a mountain. I will show the pictures when I get home.

Here I go about food again..Catilina made the most amazing enchiladas today for lunch! I am trying to get the recipe translated to English.

After lunch I worked in Cunas. The kids there are adorable. I have found that if I don’t put everything into the kids the shift goes by a lot slower. Today I was a lot more involved with them and they were great and the shift flew by.

At Cunas we are in charge of putting the kids to bed. Tonight while I was putting one of the boys in his Cuna he kept calling me Hannah and then Nicole..I laughed and told him I was Lexi and he said, “Oh, Lesi?” I was dying. Then he grabbed my face a started kissing my cheek repeatatively and then he said “Otra” and as I was turning to the other cheek he planted one on me. So I guess you could say I finally got my first kiss! Haha

Tonight was HML, and that is definitely a handful! We decorated sugar cookies and the kids went crazy with the sugar! They kept coming up and begging for more until they eventually licked all the frosting bowls clean! Don’t worry they used their hands and then wiped them on my hoodie and in my hair. Good times!

I seriously love all the volunteers here as much as I love the kids. They are all so awesome and we have the best times together after shifts talking about worst dates, home life, and all the funny kid stories. I will definitely miss those late night chats!

Tomorrow is our field trip to Giron Falls, and I found out that next week a group of us is going zip lining!! Brace yourselves for the beautiful pictures! Love you all! 💙

Okie dokie peeps! Today was good, but as always really long. I have decided that the days here are super long the nights are short and the weeks go by really quickly. It is crazy to think that I have already been here for a week!

Today my first shift was in Casas with Nicole and Nik. I have been dreading going back to Casas since the first experience there. I’ll be honest I prayed a lot to get though the shift, but I survived! It was actually really fun, today we went on a field trip to a private golf course/tennis club/pool area. It was beautiful! I wish I could take my phone to shift so I could show you pictures! Lo siento. The kids spent about an hour on a playground at the resort. All we had to do was watch them or push them in the swings. We even got a plate of scrambled eggs with ham and a juice as a snack with the kids. They also got a Kinder chocolate egg. Sadly, we didn’t get the egg and we couldn’t drink the juice because it was strawberry, (A forbidden fruit to volunteers, due to the use of HUMAN feices as fertilizer.) and the juices here are just blended fruit.

We ended up leaving the playground around 12 and the drive was about 40 min. so we were late to lunch. Good thing we get a 2 hour break!

For lunch our cook, Catilina, made us this really good cake out of these ritz cracker things and some sort of sweet milk sauce. It reminded me of tres leches. I feel like I write a lot about food…

Anyways, my second shift was at Esperanza with Megan. I would say that is one of my favorite places to volunteer, if not my favorite. The kids are fantastic and there is always something to do.

There is a girl from Esperanza that is 19, and she is one of my favorite people. She loves to swing. I have decided pushing any of the kids in swings is my favorite part of working here. They are so easily entertained and loving. This same girl will always tilt her head back and smile at me while I push her and it is the cutest!

I am also very fond of taking the kids out of their wheelchairs and holding them. I figured that out today actually. They love to be held, even if they are 15+.

Also today the Tia spanked one of the girls, in a loving/teasing way, while we were changing her. It was really funny.

Wednesday is our shopping and deep clean day at the OSSO house. My jobs were to clean the downstairs bathroom and help wash all the fruits and veggies from town. We get so many!! I love it.

I have become Heather’s shadow and I totally spend every dinner helping her cook just so I can eat something good. She is so nice to let me help and share her food! Heather is the oldest volunteer here; she is 32. However, you would never know because she is really chill and adventurous. After she is done volunteering here she is moving to Peru for a little less than a year. Her stuff is already sold and in storage! Back to food..we made this really beautiful avocado, mango, lime, red onion salad tonight. Amber also made these absolutely fabulous brownies tonight! I am surrounded by amazing cooks. I told them I will make them pizza or something before I leave.

Tomorrow I go to TRINI, the one place where I actually get pictures of the kids, so check back for those. I love and miss you all! XOXO 🚶

LunchThere are some workers behind our house on the OSSO site that are building the Rossero’s (the directors since 2001) house right now. They always play volleyball at lunch so I creeped and took a pic.
Here are a the fruit and veggies that I got to wash today!Look at the size of those carrots!!

Hello! Today was an adventure! My AM shift was in Milagros. I fed the same guy twice and he was just as giggly. It makes me laugh! I have also decided that he eats about one bite every 1-2 minutes.

At the OSSO orphanage today the therapists came to weigh and test the kids, so they say in their underwear wrapped in blankets until they were weighed in. (To get weighed in we would weigh Nik and then he would hold them while the Tias wrote down the numbers.)

After breakfast and therapy we played with sidewalk chalk. There were some drawings from the day before. Mostly outlines of all the kids bodies or their wheelchair outlines. I thought it was cute. The boy I played soccer with on my first day was drawing hearts and writing Amigos backwards all over the pavement. I think he is dyslectic..

Today one of the boys in Milagros had an ear infection and had to get a shot in his bum. Haha Nik bought him a treat for being good during his shot and he shared it with everyone.

The second oldest, (the one with the warts), was really foday too. I was in charge of feeding him his snack, and he has to walk in order to get it. He has cerebral palsy and he falls a lot and he fell onto the drawings and got pink chalk all over his clothing and hair. Then I pushed him in the swing, aka his favorite place, and he would hardly get out when it was time for lunch.

At lunch I got to attend my first general meeting. (Where we talk about the different site reports and the field trip information.) I got to call home today at lunch! It was so fun to see familiar faces!

After lunch i had an off with Nik and Heather. Heather and I went to town and visited some sweet sites. She is really adventurous. She kind of reminds me of dad.

We went to the old Cathedral, built in the 1500s. It was super pretty! It reminded me of Vatican. We also went to a free mini art museum and Hidden Door. (The souvenir shop all the volunteers love.) we also stopped at a cute coffee shop for a churro and she got an empanada.

Tonight for dinner, Heather and I made broccoli and potato soup with grilled cheese. It was so good, especially after a long day outside in the cold.

Hannah made waffles but we don’t have a waffle maker so we made them like crepes. They were probably the best thing I have ever eaten.

Life is good! 💕 Lex

Old Cathedral
Free Art Museum
Hidden DoorChurros

Nan Bread and Curry

Cathedral in Cuenca Popcorn Soup
Today I had the morning off!! Yay! So Hannah, Shawni and I went to town. We climbed to the top of the cathedral and went shopping for everything you could think of. I bought myself a headband and an alpaca scarf!

The view is AMAZING!
For lunch today we ate a califlour soup that we put popcorn in as a topping. It was actually really good. The food doesn’t have a lot of salt/flavor and the popcorn added flavor to it!
During lunch Hannah got some crazy news about her coworker/boss and two of her preschool students being shot busy their husband/father, who then shot himself. SO sad!
She was the person who was supposed to work the afternoon shift at Cunas with me, so I was a little stressed that she wasn’t going to come to work, but she came in order to keep her mind off of everything. She did really well considering the circumstance.
At Cunas there were two lady volunteers who are living in Ecuador, who are from the U.S.. One of them spoke terrible Spanish and it was really funny to listen to the way she pronounced everything.
One of the boys at Cunas today was being so grumpy! He was crying about everything and I was ready to smack him..don’t worry I didn’t. It is hard because they don’t have parents to teach them right and wrong so we are kind of in charge of that. I eventually just left him to sit and cry and when he was done he would come back and be fine as long as nobody touched him.
I did get to hold this adorable baby who fell asleep in my arms and I was dying! I also made friends with Betty, a Tia at Casas and Cunas.

Tonight was HML and we played soccer with the girls, but they mostly just chill with Logan. He is definitely a favorite. They did let me come sit by them on the steps while we sand songs from Disney, Frozen, Selena Gomez, Lizzy Migure, etc. It was pretty cute.
For dinner Kati made us a vegetarian curry that was AMAZING! We are it with a Nan bread and it was delicioso! I will make that sometime too!

Buenos Noches!