Jaleah

Day 17: Baños Our hotel had some animals somewhere and roosters woke us up fairly early so there was no sleeping in here. We had breakfast at 8am buffet style. There were a lot of options (eggs, rice, fruit, meat, cheese, cereal, and bread). I wouldn’t consider all of the foods I would want to eat for breakfast, but I found some things I liked. A group of us went to the traditional hot springs. There weren’t naturally formed pools, but the thermal water naturally hot from below ground and the cold water was from the waterfall which was sourced in the mountains. It was a cool experience! The hot water had sulfur in it so it looked yellow, but it felt great. You’re not supposed to stay in the hot water for very long, so ... read more

Day 11: Quito For breakfast, we had tea/coffee, bananas and plums, and french toast with maple syrup from Canada. After some downtime, Zully, Kim, Thomas, and I went to a park and walked around (Mama was in the hospital so she did not come with us). The weather was nice and we had a great view of part of the city! Then we went with Zully to get her car washed. They did it all by hand and also cleaned the inside. This was interesting to me because I am used to an automated carwash that takes a few minutes. For lunch, we had rice, meat, and potatoes with garlic mayo. They had a couple different flavors of mayo, which I did not know existed. It was actually pretty good. We had a couple hours of ... read more

Day 7: Quito Today for breakfast we had grilled ham and cheese, tea, orange and banana juice, and an egg. At ACLAS we had another Spanish class and this one was more helpful for me because we worked on phrases, questions, and verbs that would be useful for us to know. We had about an hour's break to relax in the garden, then met as a whole group. We discussed how we felt after taking the trolley the day before. Some people felt uncomfortable and it was good to have time to process the situation since it was new to most of us. Then we gave presentations on different ethnic groups in Ecuador with our house partners. Some of us played games before going home for lunch. Mama was not home, but Marian, our maid, prepared ... read more

Day 3: Quito For breakfast, we had an egg, two plantain balls stuffed with cheese, juice from an Ecuadorian fruit, and tea or coffee. Kim and I walked to ACLAS for the first time with Zully's daughter, who is also named Zully. She speaks English so she was able to talk to both of us easier and explain the route. The walk isn't too bad, about 20 minutes. At ACLAS, we had a short devotional and talked about some logistics of our assignments. Then we went on a walk through Quito to a market. There was so much produce! A wide variety of fruits and vegetables everywhere that were bright and colorful. It smelled sweet next to the fruit. There were also whole roasted pigs, chicken feet, and chicken heads as well as seafood. Then we ... read more

Hello all! Welcome to my blog for my J-term 2020 trip with Messiah College to Ecuador! Since this counts for credits, one of my assignments is to keep a blog/journal. I will make 3 posts a week during my stay. I won't record everything here since it is for a class but will give an overview of daily activities and thoughts as well as meet the requirements from the blog rubric. Feel free to ask me if you want to know more information! -Jaleah... read more