Yesterday was a very full day!
After falling asleep late last night, we slept in a little bit before eating a wonderful breakfast provided for us at Alliance. Despite being pretty sleepy, we all enjoyed eating a delicious homemade breakfast. After breakfast we met Cameron Vivanco, the director of Education Equals Hope, and had a crash course in all things Ecuador. We learned more about the history of Ecuador, some key points to learn about the culture, and some important tips and tricks for our time in this new place.
We then ventured outside for the first time in the daylight to walk down a few blocks to the Youth World office. There we heard more from Cameron about the history and operations of Education Equals Hope, and the work that sister organizations under Youth World also do here in Quito.
We then journeyed with the Youth World interns who are with us throughout this time in Ecuador to an amazing lunch! Ecuador has incredible fruit juices, and we all had the opportunity to try juice from fruits we hadn’t ever tried before.
After lunch we journeyed to the Basilica in Quito and were able to climb the towers! Although some of us were a bit nervous about the heights, we worked together as a team to encourage each other and support each other up ladders and across bridges. We really are high up - climbing the stairs was much more of a challenge when there is less oxygen.
After a sleepy bus ride, we arrived at a large angel statue that stands watch over the city. She is said to protect the people of Quito. After some pictures and taking in a beautiful view of the city and the surrounding Andes mountains, we returned to Alliance Academy and had some down time before dinner.
Dinner was prepared for us by Cameron’s extended family, potato soup and more fresh blackberry juice. We then had some debrief time with Cameron and the interns before heading off to a relatively early bed - we were all exhausted from our excisions and adjusting to life at this altitude.
Here is a reflection from Victoria E. about our reflection and debrief time from Cameron:
Hey Everyone! Last night Cameron talked to us about short term mission and what to do when these 10 days end. She explained to us that even though the time that we spend in Ecuador will end, that the mission will still continue on even when we go home. She said that this would happen because everything that we have learned will go home with us and we would spread it around. After that we talked about giving and receiving and how our culture makes us want to give all the time but not receive. She mentioned in the bible it says "if we give we shall receive many blessings" but when we refuse to receive things from other people we don't give them a chance to receive their many blessings. So she wanted us to remember as we go throughout this week if any of the people that we are helping gives us something, whether if its a compliment or something materialistic to receive it so we don't take away their chance of getting their blessing. Because when we do that, even though it's not our intension, we make it seem like we are better than them. After we split up into groups and took "snapshots". Which is us talking about our favorite parts of the day and why. - Victoria Ekechukwu
Everyone is in good spirits and we are excited to begin our first day of partnership with local churches today! Also, stay tuned to the EDUSC official instagram on Thursday - our group will be “taking over” the instagram for the day.
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