¡Viva la cumpleñera!

¨When we've been here ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise, Than when we've first begun.¨ - John Newton, Amazing Grace

So, it´s my birthday y por eso, all day, as is tradition here, whoever and whenever one of the misioneras sees me, they shout ¨¡viva la cumpleñera!¨ (long live the birthday girl!) I like this tradition...we should do this in the States...it´s so festive! Praise the Lord for another year to serve Him and oh, by the way, thanks mom and dad for letting me be born, ´preciate that one :)

It´s been a week since being back here on base and the life is good. Back on the schedule of traveling to Libertad every day, though this week was a little different as we stayed on base one day to prepare paperwork for our big meeting on Monday with one of the organizations that gives us funding. I have begun to take on more responsibilities at the office which is great, my Spanish still lacks but by the grace of God I have been able to do a few things. I did my first solo intervention with a couple who are getting divorced and their son is therefore acting out. It is by far one of the mildest cases that we work with and we will only meet with them one more time but it was a good place for me to start, in order to use the words that I do have in a lower stress situation. I also started work with a group of young people who are going to Quito in a week to present, on behalf of our foundation, a presentation on alcohol and drug use in the Peninsula de Santa Elena (where we live). This is an interesting task but the kids are great about trying to understand me and I am working hard to keep their attention and focus - high school teachers of the world, ¡aplausa! Jaja.

Overall therefore, life progresses on and I am starting to feel a bit more useful which is great. The misioneras are fantastic and have made my birthday special for me, not to mention all the calls from family and friends, here and in the States, thanks guys. The other thing which is special about this weekend is that tomorrow is the anniversary of the day when our statue of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose wept blood. (Proclaimed an official miracle by the Church, examined by scientists and the whole nine yards...it´s pretty darn cool) The whole weekend is therefore a big celebration and I am happy to share all the excitement with Our Lady :)

An update on the four children that we removed from their home a few weeks ago. Thursday I was able to visit with them, we went to the park and it was beautiful to see how happy and healthy they are. Even the littlest one was belly laughing with me on the swing. And the two older boys were making me ¨coconuts¨ out of sand and serving them to me...a tremendous feat for them psychologically and a really good sign. Once again, as always, the light comes shining through as to why we do what we do here. Four beautiful children, now living a life that is safe, healthy, happy and filled with love. They will receive an education and learn what it is to live in a stable home. And when she can, their gringa amiga will come visit them, love on them and swing on the swings. Praise the Lord.

Thanks to you all who have been keeping in touch, I wouldn´t be able to do any of this without your love, prayers and support. I hope you enjoyed the pics, more to come again soon. Much love as always, please continue to pray for us as we most certainly will do for you.

Las Gringas con Patas Calientes

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. - CS Lewis

Yes, we are officially the gringas with the hot paws, so to speak. What that really means is that we are on the go all the time and since in about two hours I will leave Quito on a bus to return to Olón once more, it is pretty true. We have had a great week here in Quito doing research, gathering things we needed materially and spending time with our wonderful EcuaFamily, the Arroyos. This family has been unbelievably wonderful to us and we have been more than well cared for this week, we have been truly loved and welcomed.

Just yesterday, in celebration of El Dia de Los Difuntos (All Souls), we were invited over to Papito´s parent`s house, now our newly adopted dear abuelitos (grandparents). We had a wonderful meal, complete with the traditional colada morada and guaguas de pan (bread shaped like babies) and then played Rummykub for hours, laughing harder than I have in quite some time. And today, our papito lindo (Mr. Arroyo) and our abuelitos took us out for my first experience of eating cuye (guinea pig...yes, i´m serious, check out the pics) and then to El Mital del Mundo, where the equator runs through Ecuador (yep, that´s how it got it´s name) and you can stand in two places at once - northern and southern hemispheres. What a life we have lead this past week!

The reflection on it all pertains a bit to one of my favorite quotes from CS Lewis (above). That is, for me, all of this profound love and welcome would not make any sense (considering I can hardly have a proper conversation with the family what with my broken Spanish) outside of the love of Christ that is so absolutely present in the people of Ecuador and especially in this family that we just happened upon and have now adopted us as part of their family, en serio. And yet, the faith that I have been given allows me to understand that the Lord put this family in my life to bring His love to me while I am pouring out His love to the children in Olòn. Things like this ¨coincidence¨ are so much cooler when you can see them as purposefully given gifts.

That is my story for now. We return to base tomorrow morning (bus through the night) and resume work as usual on Monday. Despite the wonderful week here, I have dearly missed our little niños and the missioneras and am looking forward to being with them again. I promise another update next Sunday, in the meantime, I have added even more pics so enjoy those, note the phone number change and know that I am thinking of and praying for you all.

New pics: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AasmjFi0ZNGEo
(copy paste)


Me & the paws of my cuye (guinea pig)

Mariya and I at the center of the world

Pictures and Phone #

Quick post to say I have a new phone # and I have put pictures up on Shutterfly.

The new number is: (from the states) 011 593 8 5081 632
*Still the same where it is free for me to receive calls and I can text to the states but you can´t text to me. *

The picture site is:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AasmjFi0ZNGEb
(copy paste it)

¡Disfruta! (enjoy!)

Mil Maravillas

"The more you are intimately in love with Jesus, the more holy you will become. The more holy you become, the more you will be a channel of His love, compassion, and presence to the poor." - Blessed Mother Teresa


Buenos to one and all. I am writing today, not from a internet cafe but from the comfort of the home of our dear friends, the Arroyos, in Quito. Mariya and I are here for a week to do some research and relax a bit while the kids on base are on vacation. I won´t lie, I´m loving the warm showers :) We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and I can only hope to be as cool as the Ecuadorians one day, with their immense love and hospitality.

But let´s get down to business. This past week was certainly one of many lessons and yes, mil maravillas, a thousand wonders. On Monday, I began again to join the social workers in Libertad, doing home visits and other such things under the auspices of CAIFF, Centro de Attención Integral del la Familia del Fiat. And on this, my second day on the job, came the hardest thing that I have ever done. We received a notice in the afternoon that there was an emergent situation in a barrio of Libertad and that we needed to remove four children from a home due to extreme negligence, maltreatment and violence. After gaining the signature and escourt of the local police, we arrived at a home that was by far one of the worst I have seen in Ecuador. We had a police escourt because we were warned that the father was a very violent and unpredictable man and the mother mentally ill. Fortunately, the father was not home and we were able to remove four precious children and bring them to one of our compounds, the Casas Familiares, with little trouble, other than the extreme sadness of these four sweet babies who didn´t want to leave the only home they have ever known, even if this very home was killing them. During the 1.5 hour drive from Libertad to Manglaralto where the Casas are, I held these children in my lap and tried to convince them that they were safe and that they were going to a better place. Even though I knew that what we were doing was the best thing for these children, this knowledge did little to keep my heart from breaking for them. Thus far I have only heard the horror stories but it is entirely a different thing to see it for yourself. Later that evening, I sat before the Blessed Sacrament and cried because I was so sorry that we had let four precious babies ever live in a situation such as that. I told the Lord how sorry I was that this had ever happened to four of His children.

At the end of it all though, the experience only served to strengthen my belief in the work that is done here and my desire to be a part of it. Through the foundation (there is no govermental protection for children in Ecuador) these children now live in a home all together (Casas Familiares) where a missionary (one of the consecrated women) live and serve as the "mamitas" and the children can experience what a real home life is. As our own little "mamita" Fatima told me at the end of that day, yes, there are many ugly things here in Ecuador but that is why we are here. Within this experience lies many lessons and yet many wonders in that now we have four beautiful, clean, happy and working-on-being-healthy children who will now know the love of a family and of Christ, and I and my collegues will begin to work on finding members of their family to raise them or potentially rehabilitating their own family to the point to where one day they may return and live in safety. Redemption can be found in even the ugliest situations.

Other parts of life are progressing along well, we visited once again our brother Marciano on Friday and look forward to continuing our visits with him. We will also resume our visits to our little pueblo, Rinconada, a week from this Saturday - I can´t think of a better way to spend my birthday. Speaking of which, the mail works for sure and it took just about a week and a half for the package from Mariya´s mom to reach us...therefore, there is just enough time before my birthday, should you feel so compelled...haha.

Off for now to dinner with our dear friends, a post soon with my new cell number and a link to photos. As always, may the Lord bless you all as He has blessed us and our 'least of these'.

La Vida Loca

Hello friends, family and curious fans of Ricky Martin, this is Maribeth reporting after the first official month in Ecuador. How time flies when you are having fun :)

After my very blogger-ish entry last week, I feel I should give you a better look at what I have been up to in daily life. Let´s see...we arrived at the Santuario here in Olón three weeks ago now and have every day learning more and more about the work that the foundation does and the needs of the surrounding pueblos. We have gone with a missionary a few times to visit the sick in the two pueblos closest to us, on of which we have adopted as our brother in Christ. Dear Marciano is a man in his late seventies who lives alone, has been blind for the last two years and his wife and children died many years ago. Despite his complete physical aloneness, the words of prayer that come forth from this man are unexpressibly beautiful and are enough to bring even a tough bird like myself to tears. We have gone back to visit him on our own and now plan to do so every week. He is no longer alone, for now he has Christ and two gringas for family.

We have also been given a pueblo, located on the coast (quite literally...we walk the beach to get to them) as our own mission pueblo. Little Rinconada is so precious, we have visited them twice, yesterday on our own for the first time, and intend to spend every Saturday with them, Mariya going with a doctor every Thursday as well to bring them medical care. For this weekly hike we have really cool boots (past missionaries to Ecuador, you know of what I speak) and I´ll admit, I like my boots and feel pretty fuerte (strong) in them...joy in the small things :) Also, this last time in Riconada, we met 7 guys from a local university who were doing research out that way. We hiked back with them, ate pie and they came for Mass today. Now we have 7 more brothers and friends...the little gifts of joy are the best.

Finally, I have begun work with some of the social workers in the foundation. The foundation has an office in La Libertad, which is 1.5 to 2 hours from here and to where I will now go there regularly with another missionary social worker Mon. thru Thurs. to do house visits and learn and participate in the work that they do there. So exciting. Soy trabajadora social, oficially! (I´m a social worker).

So yes, that is the obra (work) for now. And in a month, this is some of what we have learned:
* We are learning to rise with the missionaries (and our beloved siren that functions as a ¨bell¨ to tell us when to do things) at 4:30am every weekday morning
*how to wash clothes by hand (really cool actually, gets things cleaner than you´d think) but only when the sun (dryer) is out
*learning all about helpful and not so helpful insects and how fleas can be the huespedes (¨guests¨, as it was explained to us) of both dogs and gringas (us)
*that you want salamanders in your room to eat the bugs
*how to pronounce things in Spanish and how messing up can be really funny
*that rubber boots are cool
*how every moment can be a time to learn something new about yourself, about the people you serve and about the Lord.
*mud is slippery
*to carry toilet paper in your back pocket always
And finally - to speak simply but love immensely with everything you have.

So that is our vida loca. We love it, we laugh a lot (mostly at ourselves) and are excited to learn more. So many times I am still quite lost in translation, but as we have come to say ¨hey, it´s the vida!¨ Please continue to pray for us as we are most certainly praying for you. Also, keep the intentions coming, it livens up the interceding to have specific things :) Much love as always, it is my hope that you are all doing well in your own little ¨missions¨ of life, and I´ll be back again next week to give you further updates on my little vida. (Also, will do pictures next week when we are in Quito and have more internet time). Dios les bendiga, see you on the flip side...

Lost in Translation

¨Holiness is not the luxury of the few but a simple duty for you and for me. So let us be holy as our Father in Heaven is holy.¨ - Blessed Mother Teresa

Hello to one and all. We are now at the end of our second week in Olòn, the third in Ecuador - how time flies. These last weeks have been much consumed by learning the work of the base, the surrounding pueblos (villages more or less) and oh yes - Spanish.

So funny moment and the reason for the above title - one day last week I was feeling a bit sick and Fatima (our mamita)was asking what was wrong. So, in my broken Spanish I was attempting to say that I wasn´t hungry so I said, ¨sin hombre¨. HOWEVER, I had confused my a for an o so instead of saying ¨Yes, I am sick, I don´t have hunger¨ which should have been (and is at best a little rough anyway) ¨Si, estoy enferma, sin hAmbre¨ I said, ¨yes I am sick, I don´t have a man (hOmbre).¨ Well, Mariya and Fatima thought that was hilarious and it has since been a running joke. But, by the grace of God, and lots of other funny mistakes like mispronoucing ¨jabòn¨ which is soap and instead saying ¨jamòn¨which is pork. Yep, I´m one of those hilarious foreigners, Borak (?) has nothing on me.

In regards to the above quote, it is something that I have been praying with for the last week as I have had a lot of time for prayer (prayer has no language barriers - woohoo!) It seems so simple but for me right now, living out holiness is taking on a whole new meaning. I had always thought in the back of my mind that it was easy for the saints to be good because they were holy. But now I am realizing, becoming holier doesn´t make it easy - it ups the anty. But maybe it does get a bit easier. In the continuation of quote, Mother goes on to explain that holiness is being more intimately in love with Christ and isn´t it easier to do things for someone you really love? I hope that this is so as I am attempting to live out the call that JPII sets in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio for all missionaries to be comtemplatives so that we might proclaim (and live) that which we have already looked upon ourselves.

Please pray for me as I will continue to pray for you. There is a lot of work to be done here and I am working hard to be able to fulfill some of their needs with the work of these two very small hands. Tomorrow is my first day going out with the other social workers to their office in the city, I am excited albeit a bit nervous.
Also, please reference the side bar list of material needs of the base. I will continue to update it and hope to be able to soon post information for the stateside organization that is being constructed to benefit the base (tax deductible and all that). In the meantime, if there is a prayer group/youth group/ambitious family that wants to start raising funds for the base, let us know as there are a few programs that are in danger of closing (like the junior high/high school they run). God has all the money in the world - He just needs your hands to give it :)

Thanks to all who have been sending emails and posts, it is always wonderful to hear from home and to know how your lives are going too. En el amor de Dios...Maribel

PS. If you actually want to know what we are doing, check Mariya´s blog at www.missionarynurse.blogspot.com (you can use the link to the left). She´s much better at play-by-play than I am :)


Mariya y "Mamita" Fatima

Life on the Edge

No literally, our casita is on the edge of a cliff! Crazy right? But what a view of the ocean...



Life is great here in Olon, we arrived in good order and have been completely spoiled thus far by our "mamita" Fatima. We each have our own room but the wall between them isn´t sealed at the top so we can still converse. There is so much joy here that it is impossible to not partake. The missionary/consecrated women are so beautiful (and often hilarious) and have said that it is an answer to their prayers that a social worker has come to help. What a beautiful confirmation of my little "fiat" to the Lord. I only hope now to learn Spanish well enough to be useful to them.

Internet is about a 30 min walk so we should get out here once a week I think so please keep the emails and posts coming, it is wonderful to hear from home. I also hope that the next time I get out here I will be able to post a few pictures of our casita, the name by the way is Rosa Mistica, after the miraculous statue of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose that is housed in one of the chapels in the ¨boat¨ (our main building with church on top is shaped like a boat...see picture on blog).

Please also check back soon, I hope to add a "wish list" for the base as there are many things that they need. For now we need prayers (and a new vehicle for the base...if you have an extra). Much love (again)...Mb