I send my greatest apologies for this long overdue blog. Since the last real update blog, my squad has made it to our final destination: Ecuador. This country is absolutely gorgeous and on my list to revisit. This country is one of the smallest Spanish-speaking countries, yet is dense with wildlife and plant life in the Amazon, dozens of sky-lining volcano and mountain ranges, and home to the second highest capital in the world. Altitude sickness is a concern here, so unfortunately my mom was hospital-bound during her visit here. Ecuador has culture and tradition unlike the preceding countries on my trip, and it has been so sweet to be welcomed into it so quickly. During the week, my ministry team is at a private school that is K-12. I am a teacher’s assistant for Kindergarten again, so I have my own class of 3-4 yros (they start younger here). I will do a separate blog on one my days actually look like. After ministry all week, we have Saturdays and Sundays off. This means one thing: soak up as much of this traveling while we can 🙂 I have been fortunate enough to be able to explore a lot of what Ecuador has to offer with both of my parents, but the longest adventure will be coming about it the next month and a half: training to summit Cotopaxi. Me and a few of my squamates plan on training with a mountaineer coach (one of our host’s friends) by hiking/climbing a different volcano every week. Will update with pictures as this is unfolding, but for now, here are some pictures of my first month in Ecuador.
My squad was off and on at a ministry called Dunamis. This ministry focuses on the recovery of girls coming out of trafficking. We helped build the wall surrounding the property, paint, pave, and clean-up. Even though the work was hard, this view was unbeatable.
Work hard, play hard.
PVT(parent vision trip) with mi mama. This picture is in front of an old church near Old Town, Quito.
During PVT, a group of us went to a cable car that goes up the side of a mountain. We were told we could see for miles. We could see far enough to see the fog in front of us.
The cable car group, racers and parents
Mini-debrief with the gals.
Back at Dunamis. Can you guess what colors we were painting with?
PVT Round 2 with my dad.
-A
