Recap Ecuador Day #2

It really takes a lot for me to get on here and write this. What it takes is meeting with my team and knowing that i need to share this experience... and so it continues.

Day #2: what a crazy first day. Not because it was crazy, but we were still all realizing the fact that we were finally in Ecuador, doing what we have been preparing to do! When we woke up, we found fresh bread for breakfast... and that was what we had for breakfast every morning, as well as bananas. On that first day we had known we would also have bananas, so on the counter we found a banana looking fruit, so we ate them! Come to find out, they were plantains. PERFECT!

After breakfast, we met Aide, our Ecuadorian translator/tour guide around the neighborhood. We headed over to a couple of our neighbor's houses, including Aide's families house where we met her mom, 2 sisters and little brother, and got to talk about to them about the differences between American and Ecuadorian life. We then went to Oscar and Jenny's house, met their whole family, and were very bluntly thrown very hard questions. Jenny told us about her life and how she grew up knowing she was great and very intelligent, and wanted to be a lawyer, but real life called and she couldn't afford the things she wanted. Now she is a very happy mother and wife, and that is her job. It really differed from the US and how if people tell us we are smart - we can go to college (well most of us), but just the difference in opportunities between the two countries and areas.  It is too unfortunate that this is the case and opened my mind to a lot of things and made me thing.

After lunch, tuna, fresh bread, and a veggie "salad" (same as every day). In the evening we had downtime while some of the group cooked dinner with Aide, and after dinner and more free time, we had our nightly reflection. it was the first real time when we got an idea of what everyone else was thinking. it was great to just reflect on this true lifestyle changed we had gone through over the past day!


PS: I don't know how i even slept while I was there, since not only was I sleeping in a room with 1 girl and 2 boys, but it was hotter and more humid than I have ever experienced in my life! But some how I did!

Ciao