Chillin in Quito

This weekend we chilled in Quito. One girl in our program, had to do something with her volunteer program so we promised not to go to Mindo. Since we also didn’t really have any ideas for other trips that weren’t off the charts awesome, we figured we could find things to do right in our own backyard, so to speak.

Friday I got out of service early, returning home around 2 for lunch with my host mom. I could have and should have wondered around the many museums just a 10 minute bus ride down the road, but I was exhausted from the kids. I worked with the younger ones, all under 10 with the other volunteer. I have experience with kids who have disabilities, but this is a whole new world. It was hard coming into something I already have done, because I came in with plenty of expectations, whether I like it or not. I was upset with myself for being somewhat shocked that my boss, Irma, knows a lot about the scientific aspects of the disabilities, and that the physical therapist spoke about Cerebral Palsy for an hour with me last week. After spending a day working with the little ones however, I really started to appreciate the people I worked with in New York

I completely understand that you can’t do everything, and you have to draw the line somewhere or you’ll burn out in a week. But when one girl didn’t want to put beads from one bowl to another, I could tell she is not disciplined very often. She got mad, tried to escape out of her seat, fall asleep, and cry multiple times, but this is what I had been expecting of my days since I learned I would be volunteering at this foundation! 

I know part of the problem is because I am so new to everything, that I am noticing different things.  The only kids I have seen that receive physical therapy are 2 little girls with severely advanced Cerebral Palsy. Side note- it’s so sad because both of these girls were born without any physical disabilities and all of a sudden they stopped laughing and squirming around. One of them got a terrible fever, the max your body can take, which lasted for 8 days! That fried her insides, and now she can’t hold herself up. The other girl got the infection from a cat.

If two of the kids received PT, however, I am sure that within months they would be able to walk by themselves. They are already pretty strong, they just need some guidance with their muscles. One little girl always has her knuckles bent, as if she’s a gorilla. They aren’t stiff, so I always try to open her hands and she doesn’t mind it, she just doesn’t know that’s what you’re supposed to do. It just frustrates me that she doesn't work on this formally with  anyone.

Well I don’t just want to complain about it, I just had a really hard Friday. Wednesdays though are my favorite! We take a bus to a house with lots of horses hiding in the backyard! Since I have class at 11:30 and have to take a taxi to my university, I always get to go first, and this past Wednesday I rode with 2 different kids-PS, it’s bareback! Just a towel between me and the horse, and I seriously have almost fallen a few times. 

The first time I got up, the man who was going to lead the horse for us put his hands out, and I thought he wanted my foot. Instead, he grabbed my bent knee and counted to 3. I barely had time to think, no actually I had absolutely no time to think and jumped up, andddd almost fell off the other side! But it’s fun, and I move the kids’ arms around, sing to them, or try to get them to talk to me depending on if they can talk or not. Last week Alan all of a sudden burst out “yo vivo en mi casa” I live in my house. Probably because we try to get them to introduce themselves at school all the time, and we ask where do you live? Looking for the address, but my house is pretty good too sometimes. Also, my service has a penguin welcome mat!

So, back to my story. I burned daylight hours watching TV and doing a little homework. I really wanted to explore, but I was just so tired! Some of the girls were doing down to the Mariscol, aka Gringolandia or the place where all the foreigners go, but I wasn’t really in the mood to take a taxi and “go out” so to speak. Luckily, my friend Hannah wasn’t either. I asked my host mom to call a taxi for me, and I headed to Hannah’s after eating dinner at home. Her host mom was excited to see me, and for those of you from St Mike’s, she hosted Kendra Corr last spring! Hannah and I went to the store to buy pirated movies to watch, and when we came back we chatted a bit with her mom. She was so excited to get to talk to me, and I was so excited to be in the house where Kendra used to live and where I saw so many pics from! (I had been there once before, but didn’t realize it was the same place because we just met there quickly before heading out to Mitad del Mundo the first weekend)

Anyway, we went upstairs (the place is huge compared to mine!) and watched that movie with Sandra Bullock when she’s a crossword puzzle writer and stalks the gorgeous guy from The Hangover who plays a TV newsman. I don’t have internet as I write this and my memory is that of a goldfish.

After, I headed home. I could have slept over, but didn’t feel like showering/getting stuff together for Saturday before I went over. Apparently, the next day, her mom was shocked that I wasn’t there in the morning! So I know for next time I can def stay over! PS-Kendra/Hannah’s mom always has delish strawberry hard candies, and Kendra sent salt water taffy so I had some of that too! So delish!

We decided we would head to the TeleferiQo Saturday morning, and even though we only heard from one other person, Hannah and I were going, and we were going early. I’m sick of wasting time waiting for everyone and meeting way later than we planned. (Even though that ended up happening anyway, at least Hannah and I had an hour extra on the top of the mountain!)

The TeleferiQo is a sky tram, set up as if it’s a ski lift but you’re in one of those little cars, and takes you up Volcano Pichincha, at 4,100 meters or something like 12000 feet. ). Since Hannah and I got there basically when it opened, we didn’t wait at all. 

We found a little church that was built in 2008, another great musician playing Eagles and Beatles music, accompanying with his pipe music and this guy even had chimes! We looked to see if they had chocolate, but the stores with the candy bars was closed. Our taxi driver on the way there was really nice, and gave us his name and number to call him again! Don’t worry, he wasn’t creepy. Luis is a bit older, is from a private taxi company that my host mom called, and he chatted with us because he knows we needed to practice our Spanish! He also made sure we had water and jackets, and was going to stop at a candy shop so we could get chocolate before we got there! Apparently, chocolate/sugar helps with the altitude, because last weekend on my field trip with class another kid’s mom gave him a jar of sugar to bring with him! I asked my host mom why, and she said it’s a secret because she has no idea.

ps no running-it's deadly

When the rest of the girls came, (4 others ended up joining us!) We went to a higher level, and walked a bit further. 

We took some pics, but after looking at the ones I took versus the ones some other people took of me on my camera, apparently I do have some photography skills-people tend to forget to make sure the mountains and miles of city are included in the picture…oh well. I have good pics of my friends! We sat and chatted for a bit, taking in all that was around us.

Next stop: Centro Historico, to check out the Basilica. We took a bus that only had us in it directly to the Basilica, but we had some hungry people with us, so we ended up walking a ways away to get some grub first. After finding a place with empanadas and snacks, we headed back to the Basilica. The church itself was gorgeous but very empty and dark. Hannah mentioned we could climb up into the towers, so we walked around the block-but first we took a turn into an indoor cemetery! It was a little creepy, and of course I took a picture to share it with you. But i'm not sure if it is showing up or not

We found the entrance for the towers, and got a discount with our Censos! (the card that we had to get in order to be allowed to leave in May) We started climbing, and I counted the steps every step of the way. Pun intended. It took 487 to reach the top, or at least that’s how many stairs I climbed in all. Yes, I was a bit of a whimp, but so were the majority of people at one tower. For the most part, it was climbing indoor stairs, with stops along the way. My favorite was the first stop, where you were almost in the choir loft of the church, except it wasn’t because they had 2 of those near the altar and not as high. You could wander around because it was wider than the church itself, and go into little alcoves to peak at the outside side of the church. It’s hard to explain but it was cool, and we got to see how this Gothic church doesn’t have gargoyles, but birds turtles and other friendly animals on the sides. We were also really close to this gorgeous stained glass window, that is taller than one story of a building I’d say.

We went higher, where there was a café and then a gift shop. I got some postcards to send to my first round of special people-my Best Buddy Linda, my Nana, and my two nieces, because Lauren wants to bring one in for show and share! Also known as show and tell. To me anyway.

Okay, so here’s where it got scary. To get to the tower, you have to walk across a very creaky wooden pathway, kind of reminiscent of star wars a little bit. On either side were arched thingys, and just a rope on either side in case you should fall or lose your balance. I was nervous.

I realized later that we were walking directly above the church, and you know how the ceilings are arched and fancy? Yeah well the top was dirty, dusty, and scary because if you slipped you wouldn’t necessarily be able to climb back up too easily.

At the end of the pathway was a wider platform, but I didn’t like that because it was only held up by 2 by 4s at the corners. Awesome. My friends tried to say oh come over here, where it’s wider. But since I could see what they were standing on, aka basically nothing, I said no thanks. Then, there was a steep ladder, and they put wide mesh really more like a cris cross pattern of metal to catch your feet so you don’t fall through. It was really slippery and really scary, and I was thinking about having to come down before I could fathom going up. I did it, but very very slowly.

The view up there was gorgeous, with ridiculous ladders you could take down closer to the edge of the actual church or up to a higher tower. There were ladders from long ago that are legit just bent, thick wire to the top, but they also configured the same type of ladder with mesh catching. These ladders were outside tho, and if you fell off it you could potentially fall onto the slanted roof and who knows from there. I was already nervous, so I didn’t attempt this. 2 girls in our group did, and later we got to see what it looked like from the other side of the Basilica…

We headed down, me first-very very slowly, and joked with some other Americans about how courageous I was on that ladder, they were surprised I didn’t want to go up. (they made it to the top, we saw them later). We headed back across the Star Wars hallway, and I leaped to safety at the end I was so excited to be back on “solid” ground. We continued up, because we really wanted to make it to the clock and bell tower.

More indoor stairs, and then a see-through spiral staircase-not my favorite, and this was alone was made up of 72 steps. I went up a ways, and stopped to rest my nerves where the clocks were. I’m not sure if they work. There’s a large gadget in the middle of the room, but it didn’t seem to be connected to anything at first glance. I was honestly too shaken up to check it out too much and I also really didn’t feel well-the altitude at the TeleferiQo kicked my butt that morning and I was still feeling a bit odd.

Diane and I didn’t think we wanted to go up anymore, but when our friends started ringing the bell that was way up, we couldn’t let ourselves sit down there any longer. We made it up slowly but surely, only to find out that the bell tower was one more staircase up! A flat ladder, with thin metal rungs and no safety bar around you. Great. I told myself this was nothing compared to when I worked on the roof for Habitat for Humanity with SMC’s MOVE last Spring. (pushing out of my mind the fact that I was at the top of the tower of a Basilica, at the top of a hill in Ecuador, thousands of feet higher than my normal life already). I got up there, and got a picture ringing the bell. Although I’m not even sure if I took a picture of the actual bell, but I made sure to ring it while the picture was taken so I wouldn’t be a fake just holding the cord.

You could have gone even higher, but nobody else did so I didn’t even need to pretend to feel like a coward for not going either. We started down, and I continued for sometime without stopping. Once we were back to the indoor staircase I felt 1000000 times better.

 It was fun, and I took a picture with Diane outside to document our great companionship!

After, some of us headed to the Museum del Banco because Kara needed to go for class. It has some cool stuff, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. Nothing really tickled my fancy. Although I did get beeped at a few times for getting too close to things, and asked to delete a picture after I took it! Sorry, there was no sign that you couldn’t take a picture! 

We headed home, or at least we thought we did. Looking at the map I figured I could just rock a bus down the main street, but little did we know that once we walked the 2 blocks to said main street, Avenida de Rio Amazonas, it was a one way up here because it’s the beginning of the road! And one way in the opposite direction. We walked for a while until it was 2 ways, and could catch the bus. I got home, only to find no one home.

I started writing this entry and uploaded my pics, when all of a sudden my host mom was calling me to come! Let’s go! I was bewildered. She hadn’t answered my call or text, and all of a sudden I was being summoned to go somewhere. So I changed really fast and grabbed money, assuming we were going to buy stuff for my jewelry class.

The car was full of my host mom and sister, and an old student of my host mom’s from Germany who was visiting Quito. We went to a mall so I could buy Tagua nut for my jewelry, and I’m so glad they took me not only for that errand, but now I know where a normal mall is! Most of the malls I’ve been to so far are huge and ridiculously expensive, with fancy name brand clothing stores from the US and other shops full of things I’ll never need. This mall has useful stores, a cheap clothing store downstairs, and plenty of jewelry stores-including one to buy more pure silver if I need it, and an AWESOME store full of beads of all kinds that I know I will be returning to buy lots of awesome things for me and my sisters!

After we got back, I wrote out my post cards, organized my room for the first time in a week, and helped my host mom in the kitchen with the dishes. We chatted a lot during dinner tonight which was awesome, and she helped me with some homework and directions. I’m so glad I stayed in Quito this weekend, sometimes it’s nice to just be home, and this place is finally starting to feel like home a little bit. It took a month, and believe me I still have plenty of moments, but between watching a movie at a friend’s house and running errands in a car for once instead of a bus and with my host family, things are starting to make sense.

Sunday morning I woke up to go to the Iglesia Republica, a Christian church that some of the girls in my program go to with their families. It started with about 5-8 songs, and they played the words on two big projector screens. It was interesting, to say the least. Then there was a little bit of work with the Bible, where they took out very small passages and discussed them, and finally, a guest speaker took the stage. It ended with a few more rounds of the songs, and it lasted from 8:30 until 10:15.  It’s nice to know I’m not in the minority of people who enjoy mass, whatever kind that may be.

After, Hannah and I got changed into shorts and T-shirts, because we wanted to check out the aerobics class at Carolina Park! We passed by horses, crazy winding pathways, and a cool roadway for bikes. We walked down, and followed the music to find two men in green spandex and black shirts struttin their stuff on a big platform made of dirt and rock. Awesome. We ran into Zannah and Susanna (I know, we have great names in our group!) and started laughing hysterically at ourselves attempting the moves. Too bad the mass went so late, because Hannah and I only caught the last 15 minutes. Since the other girls wanted some shade, we decided to walk a little bit to find a shady spot to watch some futbol, aka soccer.

We found a spot, and in a few minutes were asked to play. At first we only pushed Susanna and Hannah, but eventually Zannah and I joined in as well and it was pretty fun. I’m terrible, and accidentally scored a goal for the other team when I was just trying to stick my foot in the way to top the ball, but I’m glad we got into it. I wanted to check out the volleyball/basketball games, but didn’t feel like going along, and I should come back without a backpack next time so I don’t have to worry about it. I also want to check out the museums here, but with my camera for all the flowers. Some of the girls went home, but Hannah and I took the trole to another park, to check out the market!

I finally bought some presents for other people here! Everything is so nice, I’ve had serious problems thinking of other people I just want everything I buy for myself!! Anyway, park El Ejido is pretty nice, and I bargained for some sweet crazy colored pants to go with my crazy jacket, or should I say to clash with my crazy jacket. I also got handmade gloves, and ran into a silver jewelry making man whom I chatted with in Otavalo-and he remembered me before I even walked up to his table! He makes gorgeous stuff, it’s just so hard to pay more than 15 dollars at the market when everything is so cheap!

We spent at least an hour walking through the market, me trying to contain myself, and decided it was a good time to head home. This really has been an awesome weekend! And, I’m chatting with my host mom more and more!

fast update: enormous amounts of bugs in my room. so my host mom sprayed a serious cloud of raid all around my bed. and then i got into my bed and went to sleep. 

and getting a package here is a huge ordeal. ugh.