It was a crazy flight down to Quito. We flew from Newark, New Jersey, and our team leaders had failed to mention that we were making a late night stop in Bogota, Colombia. After learning this, I was a little leery about it, knowing such statistics like Colombia having the highest kidnapping rate in the world, the largest drug cartels, etc. I had hoped it would be similar to the experience my team to Bolivia had stopping in Manaus, Brazil where we just sat on the plane, people got on and off. Not so though. By Colombian law, all planes are required to be inspected (for drugs), so some government officials boarded the plane and checked under every seat. It wasn’t too bad, but it was a little awkward. When we finally got to Quito one of the SIFAT employees, the doctor for the ministry center, met us at the airport and drove us to the ministry center. He gave us a brief welcome and then we all went to bed. I ended up rooming with Mark, one of the leaders and our room just happened to be next to the men’s bathroom. We were both almost asleep when we heard this pounding on the bathroom door. After a few moments, and having the bottom bunk, Mark realized what it was and got up to go check. It had turned out two of the guys who had decided to take a quick shower had managed to lock themselves in the bathroom. The door was constructed in such a way that when it touched the frame with some force, a latch would go over it for a padlock to lock it up. The latch had gotten stuck and pushing from the inside only made it worse. We decided at that point to just leave the door open and told all the guys not to stand in the doorway. The guys later told us they were prepared to spend the first night in the bathroom, talk about mission sacrifice!

Saturday, March 19 – Day in Quito

We awoke the next day to an alarm at 7:30. Mark and I beat the rest of the guys to the shower. As I’m comfortably enjoying the hot water, Mark asks, “you have hot water?” I replied affirmatively and after a few minutes, he says “oh, I got it, they’re backwards”. Really they weren’t, they were just marked “C” for caliente (Spanish for hot) and F for Frio (Spanish for cold). I was too tired at the time to point that out though, so I just finished my shower and then headed downstairs for breakfast. As I entered the dining area, I met one of the ladies from SIFAT who was visiting from Alabama and had just finished leading a women’s trip to Santo Domingo de los Colorados. I also met an attractive young Ecuadorian woman, Veronica, who I learned was coming with us to Pasto Calle for the week. As we finished breakfast, the bishop for the Methodist churches in Ecuador showed up and blessed us for our trip and gave us all key chains made of jungle ivory with different things carved into them. After thanking him, we all got ready for our day in Quito. Getting on the bus, we met our driver, Vicente, who would also be accompanying us for the week in Pasto Calle. We headed off for Old Town, where there was some neat stuff to see. Quito was founded on the ruins of an ancient Inca city, and was declared a UNESCO World heritage site in the 1970’s. It is the only such city in South America. Being a history lover, I was excited to see everything. We stopped first at the Basilica that looked like your basic Spanish Cathedral, and if it weren’t for the tall mountains around, I would have thought I was in Spain.

  
Quito Basilica                                                                            Basilica Entrance

We went inside and were amazed at the stained glass. After looking at the views a bit, the tour guides took us to the top of one of the towers for a magnificent view of Quito. To get to the top, we climbed something halfway between a ladder and a stairway, basically a railed ladder. The view was amazing and we realized just how big Quito is, having over 2 million residents nestled in this valley stretching about 10 miles.


"the Rose" stainglass


View of Quito


View of Guagua Pichincha Volcano

Sunday, March 20 – Palm Sunday/Traveling to Pasto Calle

One of the exciting aspects of our trip was that we were there for Holy Week, so we got to see firsthand how the country celebrated it. We went to church and like many churches in the US, we were all given palm leaves. The pastor kept walking up and down the aisle during worship with a giant palm branch and waving it so excitedly that the branch kept hitting one of our teammates standing next to the aisle. We had a good laugh over this afterwards.

After church, we had lunch at this buffet in town called “Restaurante Toronto,” that had a Canadian theme. I thought it was funny since I have some Canadian friends and wondered what they would make of such a place. At lunch, we got to meet another Ecuadorian young lady, Adriana, who was also joining us for the week in Pasto Calle.

We returned to the Methodist Center where we packed up our stuff to get ready to head to Lasso, where we would be staying while serving nearby Pasto Calle. I was hoping the drive down would be pretty, but the weather was not cooperative and it rained much of the way. After a couple of hours we pulled up to a beautiful area with several buildings spread out over approximately an acre or two of land. There was gorgeous plants and flowers growing and even a pool and soccer field as well. It was the Hosteria Posada del Rey (The King's Inn), our home for the next six days.


Posada del Rey (King's Inn)

We all felt a little strange about having such cushy accommodations, we definitely felt like kings, but certainly weren’t complaining. We unpacked our stuff got settled in and then had dinner followed by another evening devotional. Then I went to bed to rest up for the next day when we would be starting our work in Pasto Calle.

Monday, March 21 – First day in Pasto Calle

We awoke at 6:30 AM to have our morning devotional prior to breakfast at 7. As Mark opened the door of our room, I could tell he was blown away by something and called me over to see. As I stared out the doorway with him (in my pajamas), I too was blown away at the sight of the perfectly cylindrical Mt. Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in Ecuador rising majestically to 19,600 ft (nearly 6000m), over a 9,000 ft (~2700m) vertical from where we were.

Cotopaxi Volcano

It was so amazing and I stared in awe for several minutes as the sunrise illuminated the snow at the top. Everything had been clouded the day before, so we had no idea how big this volcano was. After breakfast, we boarded the bus and as we were doing so, I noticed another volcano on the opposite side that had been blocked from sight by the trees and you could just see the top of it. It was Iliniza Sur, which was lower than Cotopaxi, but just as beautiful. We headed out to the school and soon our bus passed a sign that read “Pasto Calle” with some graffiti spray painted on it. I knew we were close to the school.

Upon arriving, we were greeted with hugs, handshakes and kids playing. The people of the school had prepared a welcome ceremony and motioned for us to sit down in some chairs that had been set out and lined along the far wall. As we sat down and looked back at the gate, the top of Cotopaxi was visible over the gate and created such a memorable image in my mind.

The welcome ceremony consisted of some singing, prayer, and a couple of speeches. One of the speeches was amazing that the pastor gave, as he told us how the volunteers at the school had fasted and prayed for 12 hours in hopes that the Lord would provide them with workers to finish the school. It was such a moving story that I was nearly brought to tears at the thought that we were the Lord’s provision to the school. At the end of the ceremony, a bunch of kids did a dance. They lined up at the far end by the gate and gradually made their way towards us. A little girl that couldn’t have been more than about 5 years old came towards us and got really close to one of our team members Scott and then put her hand out for him to take it. As Scott grabbed her hand she pulled him into the dance and our entire team doubled over in laughter at the sight of Scott attempting to keep up with this little girl and dance with them. After a little dancing, all of the kids came over and grabbed each of us and we all danced for about 5 min. Then, as the dance finished, so did the ceremony and everyone went back into their classrooms.


School in Pasto Calle - beginning of the week

We had a brief snack that had been prepared and then went to work on the construction. Several people sifted dirt, others went to work helping in the first room on the second floor with stuccoing the walls, and I helped to move 200 cinder blocks from the ground to the second floor, with the help of several people. After this, it was time for lunch.

After lunch, I helped with mixing cement and helping to lay the first row of cinder blocks in the fourth classroom that only had one wall complete. Then, at about 2:30, the kids showed up and we played with them, took them up to the soccer field and played soccer with them.


Pasto Calle - Soccer Field                                                               Iliniza Sur Volcano

At the soccer field, this kid that obviously had some disability wanted to play, but none of the kids wanted him to. Veronica quickly told them to let him play and on the way back to the school, he started singing a song that Veronica and a few of the other kids recognized and started singing along with him, as well as kicking the soccer ball back and forth. It was so cool to see her being so loving towards this outcast kid and that she convinced the kids to be nice to him as well. Once we arrived back at the school, we said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel.

Tuesday, March 22 – Day 2 in Pasto Calle

We arrived the next day to find a little more progress had been made on the construction since we had left the previous day. I spent the morning stuccoing the walls with cement. The cement didn’t like to stick to the wall, so we quickly tried to learn from the natives who somehow managed to fling it with a shovel or trowel and get it to stick. One of the natives we began to refer to as “Master Flinger” since it seemed like he never had any of it fall to the ground.

In the afternoon I helped to lead worship for the kids as part of the first day of vacation Bible school along with two of my teammates, Jess and Trent, as well as Adriana. Jess, Adriana and I all knew some good kids songs, so we sang them. Vicente also helped out with the electric guitar. The kids got a little bored since they didn’t know any of the songs and we didn’t have any lyrics printed. It was pretty disorganized. Standing up on the stage, it brought back memories for me of devotionals at La Palmera back in Trinidad. Afterwards, I helped with a craft, which was coloring. It was pretty successful, but I was a bit rusty with my Spanish in talking with the kids. After a few rounds of pato, pato, ganzo and a couple of other games it was once again time for us to leave. We had a special treat that day afterwards as the pastor took us to his house where he has a guinea pig farm. In Ecuador, guinea pig is a common food eaten (called cuy). We would have the opportunity to try it later in the week.


Some Guinea Pigs

Wednesday, March 23

When I got to the school, I decided to do some sifting with Scott and Donna. We started out sifting and after getting a substantial pile, Edwin, who was the engineer in charge of overseeing the construction came over and said it was enough. About this time a pickup truck backed into the school ground and I helped Scott and another guy load trash barrels into the back of the truck. Then the guy said for us to hop in and we went across town to the dump (which was actually the creek . . .no wonder they told us not to drink the water!) and emptied the barrels. Then when we got back, we were told to shovel the sifted gravel into the back the of the truck. It was hard work and Scott and I were both working up quite the sweat. Then the guy told us it was enough and we drove by the plaza and used the gravel to fill in a huge dip in the road. I told Scott that we could officially claim that we had done road construction. When we got back to the school, I was getting a little tired and so I wasn’t able to shovel much longer. Fortunately, we were interrupted by a couple volunteers who had made us a snack which was toasted corn, similar to corn nuts, but some of them had been made with this sweetened, sugary batter and the rest were just salted. I tried some of both and really liked them. As they took the snacks into our eating area, I started having some vision problems and realized I was dehydrated. I had worked all morning with hardly any rest and very little water. Immediately I started drinking small amounts of water in frequent spans of time in an effort to hydrate myself. As everyone else headed back to work, I mentioned I didn’t feel quite right and stayed behind to focus on hydrating myself. As it turned out, Adriana and Veronica stayed with me and we had a nice conversation about my job, what I had studied in school and other things . . . in Spanish. I was pretty pleased at how well I was able to speak and I especially enjoyed getting to spend time with the girls. Soon enough lunch rolled around and I was feeling much better.

After lunch, Jess, Trent, Adriana and I all gave another go of worship. This time we were more prepared with more songs with movement involved and gave index cards to the leaders with the lyrics so they could at least help lead. It seemed to go a lot better as the kids were more focused and enjoying things much more. After our worship, a few of the other group members prepared a skit to teach the lesson, it was pretty funny. Then, after we had side tracked the little kids into a craft some of us snuck off to the soccer field with the older ones and played another game. As I got up to the field, one of the kids was hanging from the goal and another one pulled down his pants. Ah, the pranks of elementary school. . . Once again, upon returning to the school we immediately got our stuff together and boarded the bus to head back to our hotel.

Thursday, March 24 – Saquisili Market/Last day of VBS

It was a bit different morning as we got to go to an Indian market in the nearby town of Saquisili about 20-30 min from our hotel. I wandered around the market with Scott and Veronica and bought some stuff for my family: an Ecuadorian flute, some wall hangings, an alpaca hat and a purse. I had soon spent nearly all the money I had allotted for the day, but our time there was nearly over so I just browsed at a few things with some other team members. Then, we boarded the bus and headed off to the school.
  
Saquisili Market

When we got to the school we had a brief hour or two to work before lunch. I helped with laying cinder blocks on a safety wall we were building on the balcony for the brief time we had to work. During this time, we heard some music, it was some members of the local church performing a short parade through the streets by the school. We managed to catch a glimpse of them as they went by.


Band on Maundy Thursday

After lunch, once again I helped with leading worship, but we didn’t have a large turnout. It was still fun though. After the worship, some of the other group members did skits again portraying the birth of Jesus, Jesus walking on water and Jesus healing a paralytic. They were hilarious. After that we had extended game time and also had a craft time. Then, about 3:30, we had to board the bus early as the town was closing the main streets for a parade in honor of Maundy Thursday.

That night we had quite the scare as Scott had trouble breathing and we had to rush him to a nearby clinic. I went along with the leaders, as well as Veronica, Vicente and Raul (the dining room waiter). At the clinic, Scott was given a pain killer and immediately felt better. Then we heard this scream from outside the door as the doctor stuck a 20 gauge (3 inch) needle into his butt and injected some pain killers. We were just grateful he was ok, and we headed back much relieved to the hotel. The doctor from Quito had already come down to check him out, so he was looked at again and a couple of the girls who also weren’t feeling well were checked out too. It was getting to be a war of attrition.

Friday, March 25 – Saying Goodbye

Well, the time we were dreading had come. It was our last day in Pasto Calle and we would be saying goodbye to our friends that we had been serving all week. The kids were out of school because of Good Friday, so the only other people at the school were the other construction volunteers. We took advantage of the independence and played some music on the pastor's boom box, mostly country and Latin rap. I was feeling a little sick, so I tried to work for an hour or so and then was feeling so awful that I had to sit down and just take it easy. A couple other people were also feeling ill, so they weren’t working either. For lunch, we got to try the much anticipated guinea pigs. For as gross as they looked coming out, they were actually pretty good. A couple of the girls were grossed out by the presentation of the animals, and couldn’t stomach trying them. Fortunately, we had other food for lunch and the guinea pig was more a sampler.



After lunch the volunteers at the school and some of the students had prepared a goodbye ceremony for us. But before they did it, we finished the construction goal for the week, so some of us went walking around Pasto Calle just to see the town.

Saturday was exciting as we got to go to the Cotopaxi National Park, that encompasses a large amount of land, and includes the Cotopaxi Volcano. We drove the bus to the parking lot about halfway up the volcano at about 14,600 ft (4500 meters), already higher than any point in the continental US. After parking and bundling up, some of us climbed up to the refugio (refuge) about 1000 yards up the mountain at about a 45 degree angle.


View of Top from Parking Lot                                          Refugio Jose Ribas

Every step I took seemed like about 20 and I was stopping every couple of minutes to catch my breath. My heart was racing so fast I could feel it up in my head. I felt like Frodo Baggins climbing the slopes of Mt. Doom at the end of Lord of the Rings as I was exhausted from the week and the high altitude wasn't helping any. Eventually I made it up to the refugio (refuge), which sat at 15,600 ft (4800 meters) in elevation. At this point I decided it was the toughest hike I had ever done. I took some pictures of the amazing view of the valley below, the neighboring Rumiñahui volcano and just of the mountain itself.


Valley below Cotopaxi


Views of the Glacier

As with the majority of the other days, it was cloudy that day, but it was kind of neat as we could see pieces of the volcano through the clouds. Some of the members of our group who were more physically fit hiked past the refugio to near the base of the glacier which was over 40 feet (12 meters) tall! I didn’t make it that far, but I can only imagine how amazing it must have been to see it. After resting up, we literally ran down the mountain to the bus (I made it down in 10 min!). Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel. Many of us slept on the ride back. Then after returning, we ate lunch, packed up our stuff and headed back to Quito.

Back in Quito, we went to a park close to the ministry center and played Frisbee, baseball and a little soccer before dinner, which was Pizza Hut that night. The doctor thanked us for the hard work we had put in that week and told us we were welcome to return anytime. I may just have to take him up on that offer sometime . . .

Reflection