Time is ticking in Ecuador!

We have spent the majority of our past week in Conocoto, what a blast! Both, Bekah and I stayed with two different loving families in the area. My middle-upper class family, lives in a beautiful four bedroom home in a gated community. Marco, the father is an auto mechanic and his wife Mariana is an accountant. They have one daughter, Sara, who’s in school for architecture and an aunt and nephew who also live in their home. They were very kind and hospitable. I was very thankful that Sara knew some English because I know very little Spanish.

Parts of our host families

In the mornings, Sara drove us a couple minutes to the Orphanage. Ben and Kelly joined us each day. A few hours every morning we learned Spanish, at our teacher, Secilia’s home. I began to become overloaded with information. By the evening I could barely remember how to say simple greetings. It was especially hard for me because I haven’t had any Spanish classes before and in language studies there are many things to memorize and repeat.
For lunch and the afternoon we were assigned a Casa “home” to join. In each Casa there are about 10 orphans and a mother to care for them. They were all very lively and loving children. The language barrier definitely made it hard for me to communicate with them. But the young children were loads of fun, tickling, cuddling and laughing all the time. In the evenings we went back to our host families.
The first day, Bekah came over with some of her family. We watched the popular movie “Twilight” and later on in the evening, later being 9pm, they decided to take us into Quito, to see the city lights. Bekah and I, knowing that Spanish class would be awaiting us in the morning but both having a sense of adventure decided to go for it anyways. The next few nights were very similar late nights and early mornings. We spent a great deal of time together with both families in the evenings. Usually supper took place around 8-9pm. This is very typical for the average Ecuadorian family. There was always plenty of food to go around and we’re always offered more.
The last night, the girls dragged me and Ben to a dance class. This turned out to be more of an aerobics class! Ben and I decided it was still pretty feminine and we probably wouldn’t do it again. Although we all did get a great workout in! It was sad to say goodbye to our families’ and to the Happiness Foundation on Friday. We made many great relationships and have many great memories in Conocoto.
This weekend we climbed Iliniza Norte! Everything went extremely well, we were blessed with the safety from great guides and all of us stayed predominantly healthy. Although we didn’t have the best weather it wasn’t the absolute worst either! I had no idea what to expect when mountain climbing. It definitely gave me some fear and scare to see how exposed we were to the mountains edge.

Bekah and I on the mountains edge!

Our team ready for the climb!

We are recovering for the next few days here at OMS. On Thursday, we are setting out for the big Mt. Cayambe! Can’t wait to see what new challenges lay ahead! Thank you for those continual thoughts and prayers!