Yesterday, I finally made it to the monument at the equator line. I also included some random pictures gathered from friends. See you on Wednesday!!! [View Full Entry]

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My friends and I spent the day at El Panecillo. It is a huge statue of a madonna at the center of the city. From Wikipedia: "El Panecillo (from Spanish panecillo small piece of bread) is a 200-meter-high volcanic-origin hill. The original name used by the aboriginal inhabitants of Quito was Yavirac. According to Juan de Velasco, a Jesuit historian, on top of Yavirac there was a temple which the Indians used to worship the sun. This temple is said to have been destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores. In 1976, the Spanish artist Agustín de la Herrán Matorras was commissioned by [View Full Entry]

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These were from our trip to the flooded regions. [View Full Entry]

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I finally got to see the peak of the volcano I live next to! See the pics! We went to a gold mine for a class trip last week. This was definitely NOT a tourist gold mine. It was sketchy, but we had fun. I felt sorry for India because she had to walk in back of me in the tunnel - and I had beans for breakfast. My friend Oscar turned 40 last week so his wife organized a surprise party for him. Birthday parties here are a little different than in the states. After the usual cake and singing, [View Full Entry]

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For years I have considered becoming a missionary, especially since I arrived here in Quito. The past few weeks have been very difficult for me because I have been deliberating and pining over my future. I feel myself being called to this region and I believe that I was led here for a reason. On Monday I had an interview for a missionary position at HCJG Global, the mission that I have been volunteering at for the food donation center. It went well and I am still in the application process. The difficult part will be raising the funding. I am [View Full Entry]

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Just some random pictures I gathered fromk friends here. [View Full Entry]

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Friday morning we received a phone call from Karla, and she invited us to her university in Guaranda. We stopped by and got a tour the school (public university) - I liked it better than mine because it had normal people. Karla’s mother works there so we stopped to talk with her. As soon as the ladies of the office saw us they ran out into the hallway and set up chairs so that we could all chat. Most of the ladies were between 40 and 60, and they LOVED Richard and Howard. They told Richard that he was better looking [View Full Entry]

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By 7:15am we were headed to the airport to pick up a reporter that was tagging along for the day. Again, we returned to the Air Force base so that we could load the army trucks with food and water. Most of our destinations were along the highways. When the area floods, the military or the people themselves build shelters on the raised highways. They stay there for as long as it takes. The heat was incredible! I felt like I was melting. However, it was amazing to see and speak with the people about their problems and what else they [View Full Entry]

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At 3am my alarm went off and I managed to get myself ready to be picked up at 4am by Richard and Howard. Shortly after we met up with Hermann the German, who was driving the other pick-up truck (the semis left the night before because it takes twice has long for them to drive anywhere). The trip took about 6 hours to get to Babahoyo, our first stop. While there we unloaded water, clothing, and food. As we drove to the Air Force base, which was an hour south, we saw all of the fields and homes that were flooded [View Full Entry]

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Loading the Trucks On Wednesday the 26th, we were scheduled to leave with the trucks for the flooded regions by Guayaquil, but first we had to get the trucks loaded with the bags we made last week and the clothing that was donated. On Tuesday Oscar, Hermann, and I organized two teams to load at two locations. Since he had 1,000 bags to load at HCJB, I let him keep all the guys there. I figured I would have some muscle at Pan de Vida for the 550 bags I had to load. I arrived at P de V and found [View Full Entry]

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