Oh my word, in the past week we have already done so much in Ecuador! I'll most likely not be able to write about everything tonight..but I'll try to keep up with it throughout my two months here.
We started out in Quito and at first, only Ryan and I were there with our professor, her husband and their friends. The director of CEDEI (the organization that we are involved in down here) was also there and explained a few basic things on our bus ride to Hotel Quito. Later that night, Ryan and I went to get coffee at the restaurant on the top floor and although it was very foggy, we could still see a bit of the city...and what a view! Goodness, it's beautiful here!! :) We could see the volcano on the side where we were sitting and lights from the houses at the base of it. I've never seen such incredibly big mountains...haha and a volcano I guess. We were at 8,000 ft in Quito, which was a bit higher than we're used to...so it took a bit to get over the initial headache. After a few hours of sleep before another full day, we woke up and got ready for breakfast and for our trip to Otavalo.
Once we got to Otavalo, we checked into this beautiful hotel and then went out to eat at "Mi Otavalito". Then we went to get coffee and/or ice cream. Everything is quite inexpensive here and all the food that we bought was soo delicious! After that, we went to "Nanda Manachi" where we listened to the music of the Andeans. So amazing..a few of us bought "antaras" which are like little flutes. Next door to this place was another demonstration of music and weaving. It's still been tricky understanding everything that people are saying here but I think I've improved a bit since the beginning of this week with understanding and answering well haha. Everyone has improved already! It's been tricky but a lot of fun talking with each other in Spanish....usually messing up and laughing anyway, which is the best way to do it!
We went back to the hotel after visiting those places and went out to dinner at this little cafe. I had a tortilla espanola (Amy and Carlos would be so proud!) and it was so delicious! Later that night, we played Phase 10 with everyone, including Provost Jones and his wife, Evette from North Park. They came down before we did to check out the school and exactly what we'll be doing. They loved it and were so excited for us!
Again, this has been such a busy week, and I don't have a lot of time to finish writing about it...seeing as that was only a little over a day! But, I'll post more when I can -- probably next week. We're heading out tomorrow morning for Cuenca -- meeting our host families tomorrow night! Prayers are definitely appreciated.
-Becky
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