May 31- Corriendo

“Corriendo” is Spanish for “running.” I went running today. I am…so…tired. THERE IS NO OXYGEN HERE. But I figured I had better start conditioning to climb Cotopaxi in a week and a half (because the summit is about 10000 ft. above Quito).

May 31- Fundacion Amor y Esperanza

We visited la Fundacion Amor y Esperanza today, meeting with the director Pancho Sola. Pancho is a gregarious man, excited to fulfill his vision for Ecuador’s poor areas, and full of the love of God. Literally from the moment I walked into the school run by the foundation, I could feel the excitement (Neil put it better, he said he could feel the “JOY”) of the place. There was activity everywhere. Pancho took us around to a bunch of the classrooms where we were greeted by shouts of “Bienvenidos” (“Welcome”) from the kids, many of whom crowded around us to get a better look or just hold our hands. The school really is a great facility for these kids.

In addition to education of children, the foundation is active in promoting health and adult education. But what they lack is a means to help adults start business and earn income. They want to expand into microfinance, and that is where we enter. Pancho seems to want us to help him figure out how to design a microfinance program, and hopefully our research can aid in that.

I would ask you to please just pray for us as we start our research. Please pray that God can use us to find something constructive for both these organizations. Pray God might use us as a tool to serve the poor here in Ecuador. Thank you.

May 30- Meeting in Ibarra

Today Neil and I traveled to Ibarra (about 3 hrs north of Quito, on the same road as Otovalo where we went on Saturday) for a meeting with FODEMI, a microfinance organization in partnership with World Vision. World Vision is a Christian aid organization, and FODEMI is a Christian organization as well. We met with the president and executives. Jannake Robbe, the communications director, is from actually from Holland and speaks English (for which I was very thankful). We talked in Spanish with the president, Luis Rios, and Senor Riofrio (yes, that translates as “cold river”) for about 45 minutes, after which my head was throbbing from trying to decipher so much Spanish. It was a good thing that Neil and Ms. Robbe were there to help me out.

We decided that we will be working with FODEMI in an area a couple hours south of Quito for the next two weeks. They are trying to figure out whether to expand their services in the area, so they are very excited to have us research there and answer some of their questions. We are thrilled that they want to help us. Also, I’m really excited to get to work with fellow Christians who are seeking to truly reach out to the poor in Ecuador in ways that can really change lives.

May 27- La Ciudad Vieja (The Old City)

With this being the equivalent of 4th of July weekend in Ecuador, we still haven’t really been able to make a lot of headway on the research. Today, we went down to Quito’s Old City to see the colonial buildings and churches. The architecture is just fantastic in its Spanish Colonial style. My digital camera was nearly dead, so most of my pictures from today are on film. The highlight by far was climbing to the top of Basílica de Voto Nacional. It’s a huge baslica on the northern side of the Old City. First we climbed the stairs to above the ceiling of the sanctuary, and crossed a wooden walkway that ran the length of the ceiling across the arches to climb up to the lower steeple. Then we climbed up a bell tower. First we were on stairs, then iron stairs, then a spiraling iron staircase, then rebar ladders, then rebar ladders with half as many rungs. At the top, we were above the bells with a truly unbelievable view of the whole city. We even climbed out to the ledge and let our feet hang over. The pictures really don’t do it justice (those are Neil’s feet).

May 26- It was a dark and stormy afternoon

Apparently we did not re-enter Quito on the same road on which we left. Thus, we missed our stop (there really aren’t stops here, you just tell the conductor when you want to get off). When we figured out we had gone to far, it was already raining. We got off the bus.

To say it was raining doesn’t really do this storm justice. It was pouring, like the type of rain in which your pants and shoes are pretty well soaked inside of 60 seconds. Also, the temperature had plummeted. Within moments after disembarking the bus, hail started falling. The thunder seemed to crack the sky in two and the lightning strikes were not far away. Anything not under my rain jacket was soaked and cold. This storm seemed downright biblical.

We hoped to climb into the safety of a taxi for a ride back to our front door. Yet dozens of taxis passed by us without slowing down. In all our time in Quito, we were never looking for a taxi for more than a minute without getting one. Now in our hour of need, no taxi seemed willing to stop for a couple of tired, cold, and thoroughly drenched gringos being pelted by hail and attempting to dodge the lightning. We gave up. After probably 10 minutes of getting pounded by the storm, we just climbed aboard the next bus that passed by, thankful to get out of the rain and not even really caring where it would take us. Later on we did find a taxi and get home to peel out of our soaked clothes and to try to salvage our wet merchandise purchased at the market. The pictures show but mere remnants of the storm, later that afternoon.

May 26- The bus to Otavalo

If I thought 3rd world taxi rides were exciting, I had yet to ride a bus in the mountains in Ecuador. These bus drivers take handle hairpin turns at breakneck speeds without seeming to bat an eye. Meanwhile there’s a good 500m (about 1500 ft.) drop about 1.5m to the right.

Yet we did see some AMAZING scenery. For a good portion of the ride we saw various views of Nevado Cayambe (18933 ft.) , a volcano that sits on the equator. It’s a classic cone volcano, snow capped, and the third tallest in Ecuador. Also we met some UNC students on the bus who were studying at a Spanish school in Quito. However, they would only talk to us in Spanish.

In what Neil and I are quickly realizing is just how lots of things will get done on this trip, the manner of arranging our bus ride was rather unsystematic. After scouring our guidebook, we couldn’t really figure out how to get to Otavalo. So we just set out this morning and started walking, vaguely thinking that we might should go to the big bus station on the south side of town. Raulito said we should go to “Occidental,” and we couldn’t figure out if this was a street, a bus station, whatever. A little walking and a taxi ride later, we found ourselves on the dropped off on the side of a highway…apparently this was “Occidental.” Not until we saw some the UNC students flagging down a bus headed for Ibarra (a town further north of Otavalo) did we really know how in the world we were going to get to Otovalo.

(These pictures come from Google image searches)

More Otovalo Pictures

May 26- Market Day at Otovalo

It’s the biggest market in South America. Saturdays draw huge crowds of Andean locals and tourists alike (so much so that one Spanish speaker refered to it as "Gringo-land") Neil and I both spent more than we should have. The key to bargaining is to offer around half of their intial price, and then pretty reliably end up with a 25% discount.