After my night in Chicago, I successfully arrived in Quito! I was a little worried about my bags arriving with me because my flight to Miami was on American Airlines and my flight to Quito was on LAN, but no había problema, there were no problems. The one other annoyance was that I had to walk all the way from Terminal D to Terminal J in the Miami Airport. I seriously think I walked a mile. Plus, I had to leave the terminal and go through security again. Luckily, I had a two-hour layover and the lines for LAN were way shorter than for American.
Shorter lines was just the first of many reasons to fly LAN. For one thing, they board by rows starting in the back. Doesn't that just makes sense? No waiting for the front row people to get their junk in the overhead compartment and just sit down already. Secondly, the aircraft was huge but not full, so I got a window seat without anyone in the aisle seat to climb over when I had to use the lavatory, plus I had more elbow room and space to spread my stuff out. Then, they offered free wine with dinner! Now that is classy. Most importantly, the flight staff was both exceptionally friendly and exceptionally good-looking. Nothing makes a flight more enjoyable than a young, handsome, smiley male flight attendant.
After arriving in Quito and being reunited with my BFF Mandy, we dropped my stuff off at her apartment, I called home and cleaned up, and we met the North Park students studying in Ecuador this semester and the other short-term missionaries for dinner. Since then, Mandy and I have mostly been running errands to prepare for the team coming with Covenant Merge Ministries and meeting people Mandy works with.
Yesterday, we went to the zoo with a couple of former missionaries who were visiting and some of their Ecuadorian friends with little kids. The relaxed excursion changed quickly for me as I watched a stranger pass out in her boyfriend's arms. Thanks to my training as a "professional rescuer," I felt the responsibility to stick around, assess what happened, and wait for her to regain consciousness. I probably didn't actually help at all except to ease the look of helplessness and fear on her boyfriend's face. She came to pretty quickly, was aware of her surroundings, and said she thought she was dehydrated. Lucky for her, I had a full water bottle.
Today, we went just outside of Quito to Carapungo, where Mandy first lived and worked. We met her former host family, who she lived with for about six months. Her host father took us out for ice cream. Then, we went to the church she worked in and visited the Compassion project, which gives sponsored kids a meal, homework help, and Bible lessons a few days a week.
On Saturday, a team comes from Canada work with Covenant Merge Ministries. I'm still not exactly sure what my role with them will be... translating mostly, I think. We'll be going to Sumaco, which is a few hours from Quito. I won't have internet access, so I'll be incomunicada for about a week starting Sunday. So, until next time, I will be doing my best to remember not to flush the toilet paper, to diligently apply sunscreen, to drink lots of water, and to ignore the many hisses, whistles, and "mi amor" calls on the streets.
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