Primer Dia en Ecuador

As the plane began to land in Quito two nights ago, I finally reached that point of full realization that I was going to Ecuador. The lights of the expansive city were glorious as we circled around and touched down, and I was so excited to be in a new place with a familiar language. I was grateful for my Spanish knowledge as not a single person even attempted to speak English to my very out of place white self while I went through customs. After lugging my giant 67 pound suitcase (full of bibles...and other things) out the door, I found the man holding the sign with my name. Robin (one of the directors of the program and husband to Wendy, my lead contact in Ecuador) took me to a nice hostel where I spent my first nigh--since it was too late to fly to Macas.

In the morning I boarded a tiny plane that made the 40 minute flight to Macas without problems. Landing in Macas was a completely different experience. It was pouring down rain, and as I looked out the window I thought we were going to land in the middle of a jungle rainforest until at last the tiny landing strip came into view. I was then greeted by Lauren, and we lugged my giant suitcase (filled with bibles, remember) to a nearby taxi, then made our way to the home.

After heaving my giant suitcase (full of you know what) up three flights of stairs, I went with Lauren, Elaine, and Amelia to the school, Unidad Educativa Cristiana Emanuel, to finish preparing the classrooms and materials for VBS. This included painting giant murals and cleaning everything with bleach since there is a rat and cockroach infestation problem. And no one wants the remains of rat feces on their school desk--that would be distracting to the learning process. After a late lunch and coffee break we returned to our work then went out to dinner. A group of four, young, white girls is apparently an uncommon sight in Macas--we received a few stares and hisses (the catcall of choice). But we thoroughly enjoyed our first Macabean meal, complete with batido de moda, a deliciously refreshing milk and marionberry beverage. Now we are in an internet cafe and tomorrow brings more prep and cleaning. Though I haven´t been in Macas long, I am so happy to be here, walk along streets where I hear Spanish and see crazy construction practices and stray dogs, and prepare English lessons with the other girls.

The rest of the team arrives on Sunday, and there is much work to be done but we hope to have a little time on Saturday to explore and perhaps go swimming. In the meantime we will continue coloring english charts, painting vbs backdrops, and cleaning up rat poop with joyful hearts, trying to remember Who we are working for.