The Zambranos

We love all of the Zambranos and we want to remember them all, so we have decided to describe each of them individually and write down a few funny quotes that each of them have said!

Washington (The Dentist):  Washington is hilarious. We always tease him and call him “The Clean Freak” because that is exactly what he is! It is so funny. He is always walking around the house with a rag or a broom and tidying up!  His favorite pastime is cleaning his cars! One time we went to an orphanage that was way out on a dirt road and we knew we were going to come back the next day to finish our work, but he couldn’t fathom the thought of having a dirty car for 12 hours, so we went to the carwash on the way home, and again the very next day.

                He is so generous. He dedicates his life to charity work and makes it a big part of his family’s life. He works Monday through Thursday doing charity work, and does dental implants and surgeries on the weekends. He is always making sure that we are comfortable and that we have enough food, and that we are having a good time.

                We walked outside one evening while Washington was cleaning his car (again) and the car radio was playing the weirdest song. We had never heard it before but we instantly fell in love. It was a techno song that kept saying “I lost my underwear.”  So naturally we started dancing and singing along; Washington just laughed at us because he is used to this behavior by now.  A little bit later we asked Him if he would like to have a dance party with us and he said “no, I don’t want to lost my underwear!” haha. He is a fun person to be around.

Maru (the wife): Maru is the sweetest person ever. She is so loving and makes us feel right at home. She calls us her “babies” and is always worried about us walking alone or talking anything valuable because she know that we are a hot commodity, (and she loves us).  She reminds us a lot of our own moms. She is really spiritual and friendly to everyone but is really spunky and cheeky at the same time.

SHE IS THE CRAZIEST DRIVER!!! (but you have to be to live here). One day she was driving on a one way street and saw a motorcycle coming the opposite direction. She stuck her hand out the window, making a gesture that we had never seen before, and gave him a stank face. We asked her what “this” means and she said “Please. Oh no. Don’t repeat after me.” Apparently it was the Ecuadorian way to flip someone off, and tell them that they have no brain. We had never seen this side of her, but we loved it!

 To contrast that story, we will tell you something spiritual about her that really impressed us. We had just made a 4 hour drive back from Tena (the jungle) and before we got out of the car she asked if we could say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for keeping us safe. We thought that was really awesome because we have never heard someone say a prayer at the end of the trip thanking the lord for safety. She is a great example for us.

Juan (aka Juanito, Juanny, obnoxious pants, Mr. Knowitall, oldest son, 30 something):  I bet you couldn’t figure out anything about Juan’s personality from the nicknames we gave him, so we will tell you. I guess we could first start out by telling you that Juan is super nice to us and is always willing to show us all around the city and take us to cool places.

 He USUALLY makes us feel really welcome and at home, HOWEVER, when he takes us on these fun little adventures, he makes sure to tell us ALL about his homeland, the government, history, structures, how they were built, where every single relative in his family went to school, and every other piece of seemingly useful information to us! Usually in this situation we would just go nod and act interested and happily go about our day, but NO, we get quizzes and when we don’t answer correctly he says, “Remember? I told you that!” We have tried to kindly inform him that history isn’t really our thing, even in our own country, but to no avail. No matter where we go, what we do, or how much we try to ignore, there is ALWAYS a history lesson to be given.

Another thing about Juanny pants, no matter how much you try to correct him on your own language, he will always argue back. Courtageous=Courteous and Paraphernalia=Apparel.

Mary (Juan’s Wife, AKA saint): Maybe we should just let Juan describe his wife the way he described her to us. If you never met Mary, you would think she is a bit of a freak. It has become quite ridiculous and we have enjoyed making this list of what kind of a freak Mary really is. Here is the list.

1. Soccer Freak

2. Card game Freak

3. Scary movie freak

4. Pasta Freak

5. Cookie Freak

6. Horse Freak

7. Ice cream Freak

8. People Freak

Sounds freaky, right?  She is really the nicest person! We love her so much. She is very quiet and doesn’t speak any English at all so communication can be tricky. She just laughs at us and teaches us naughty words in Spanish.  Most of our time spent together consists of us being idiots and making her laugh! They have a precious little 2 month old baby named Emanuel and we love helping with him! We have become the baby whisperers. Whenever he starts crying, we take him into our room and turn on meditation music and rock him to sleep. It seems to really work! They are probably thinking that we are some pretty strange Americans, but hey, if it puts the baby to sleep, who is complaining?

Anita (Oldest daughter. 24 years old): Anita is so cute and sweet and there is NOTHING bad to say about her. We can’t see how anyone couldn’t like her, but we haven’t really had the chance to get to know her. She is in medical school and works over 80 hours a week in the hospital.

Josue (14 years old): Josue really got under our skin at first, but he is really growing on us and it’s going to be hard to leave him! He definitely does not act his age, but we have learned not to compare the younger boys to people we know that are their age. He is kind of nerdy, hence the water museum, but really smart and funny. He always has the funniest comments!

“I don’t want to say this, but I have to. I really need to poop!”

“God is not happy with your opinion.”

“Um guys, Code red. Code red. Prairie dog!”

“I don’t like this food. I would DIE for it!”

                Josue always makes us feel really good about ourselves. He tells us that our food is a perfect 10 and that we aren’t nearly as annoying at the other 4 girl volunteers that were here earlier. He tells us that he loves us and that he is going to miss us and calls Kassara his teddy bear (once again, stop comparing him to a regular 14 year old). 

Mathias (12 years old): Mati is really cute and sweet, but spoiled to DEATH! He is always so helpful and loves to be around us. He was so excited and so happy to greet us at the airport. It made us feel really welcome and happy to be here. He loves American music, especially ghostbusters, and dances like a spaz whenever it comes on. That kind of behavior is definitely right up our alley! We taught him the Michelle dance and he LOVES it! Now all of the cousins know it as well and we do it at dinner time!