Welcome to Saturday’s blog post!! This is Callie reporting today from the WS Fellows!
We woke up on Saturday morning to the privilege of seeing a little tuft of smoke from the local active volcano! Apparently not very common to see – lucky timing!
Views of clear beautiful skies from our hostel!
Chivita continued to rock it on the aux! Beneficial for the extended van ride (featuring some navigation complications and traffic!) to the park where we met the Carmen Bajo youth community and leaders!
Some graffiti on a wall that we drove by that I really liked :) for our non-Spanish speaking friends out there, this means "God has the control/God is in control"
Carmen Bajo is a church in Quito that partners with Education Equals Hope, and we got to participate in a variety of activities with the church during our time in Ecuador.
Specifically on Saturday, we got to hang with the youth and helped facilitate games, passed out the delicious sandwiches and fruit provided by some wonderful women from the Carmen Bajo church community, and both Ned and Hef provided great talks for the older groups of youth!
Fruit is fortunately very affordable in Ecuador, and we enjoyed some refreshing papaya, pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe! I couldn’t participate (gluten free life) but I heard the croissant sandwiches were unparalleled.
I learned the common word for sunscreen in Ecuador, “el protector,” through a conversation with one of the girls; it was certainly needed for the couple of hours we were out in the heat! (Ned applying his sunscreen below!)
Likely my favorite part of this day was getting to sit in on the Bible study lesson provided for the younger kids by one of the Carmen Bajo staff. The discussion was on 1 John 4:18 and I was so encouraged and inspired by the eagerness of the kids to share their thoughts to the questions and how we got to practice memorizing the verse a couple of times as a group at the end. A nine-year-old girl prayed for the group to wrap us up – an inspiring picture of a beautiful and mature faith at such a young age.
Some of the fellows and I had a special bond with the flies at the park that day – some allergic reactions even resulted. As for me: 46 bites, swollen ankles, some steroid cream, and 2 weeks later and doing much better!
Grocery run afterwards – I convinced Lucy and Wyatt to try the “cedrón” (lemon verbena) tea – a favorite beverage for me the last time I got to go to Ecuador in high school. Wyatt has reported back that he really likes it, I’ll have to check in with Lucy regarding her ratings.
Afterwards, we walked to a Greek restaurant for dinner – I got lamb (“cordero”!), fries, a tomato and lettuce salad, and some delicious hummus! A number of us got the famous Ecuadorian juice, “jugo de mora” (blackberry juice), and this type of blackberry juice even featured some mint in it! So good!!
We had a debrief back at the Verbo Divino retreat center afterwards to discuss highs and lows of the day. A great time to reflect on the day.
The night finished off with Jazmine and I burning off a little extra energy (not sure how we had any left but there we were) with a little dance party in our room. We may or may not have gotten a knock through the walls – it was 10pm after all.
To finish off the post, we'll end with a game. If you zoom closer, you can play a little Where's Waldo and you might spot one of the Fellows taking a short nap on our bathroom break
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