One Week In

So the past week has been brutal, long, fun, and heartbreaking. It seems like everyday we are saying goodbye to volunteers as they end their stays, and the kids always sad to see them go. Everyday we go to a different market, so we see each group of kids about once or twice a week. I am still interested in doing a shoe drive, but after talking with the directors of UBECI I found out having them shipped here would be extremely expensive for them on the receiving in. Such things are heavily taxed in Ecuador, and it is likely they would be responsible for paying well over $100 for receiving a package that large. What they typically do to get around this is to coordinate with an incoming volunteer to bring the items in an suitcase. So my plan is to do a shoe drive around Christmas time, when lots of kiddos will be getting new kicks anyway, and collect their old ones to be taken to Ecuador by another volunteer.

An aside about the funny things that have happened since I've been here. First of all,  I have come to understand that I and other volunteers in this program all live in the worst neighborhoods of Quito. Whenever I have mentioned where I live to local Quitenos, I get the same reaction; "oh wow, that's a bad area." As recently as yesterday I was telling a fellow on the bus about it and he said "oh ya, that's where I got carjacked and tied up." (!!?!?!) I haven't felt in danger or anything, but it definitely is a rough part of town. I hd an old man hollering at me the other for not getting on the bus fast enough, though in my defense there were already at least 900 people on the bus squished all the way up to do the door. And every night something different and crazy is going on outside my window at 11pm. One night I looked out to see a bunch of teenagers breaking bottles and peeing everywhere. Another night a whole family (man, woman, daughter, son) werte in a four way screaming match/fight in the street. Their dogs were going crazy too. just another day in Quito.

Here are some more pics from the past week: