Bienvenido a Quito

Flying over the Caribbean coast of Panama

The past few days have been a time of adjustment, to say the least.  Adjusting to the climate, the altitude, the culture, the language, the big city, the food... a lot of adjustments.  When my connecting flight flew over the jungles of Panama and I made my way through the Panama city airport, I felt a little out of place.  My comfort zone waved goodbye to me somewhere over the Caribbean.  But I liked the tropical feel of Panama, I think I just might move there some day.

The breakfast room at the Estrellas

After a 5 hour flight to Panama, a 6 hour layover, a 2 hour flight to Ecuador, and a 2 hour wait in the immigration line, I finally arrived in Quito on Sunday night (actually Monday morning).  I guess it's still faster than driving the whole way...  My host family happily invited me in, despite the fact that they had to be up at 2 in the morning.  Gustavo and Cecilia Estrella, and older Ecuadorian couple, are my adopted parents for the time being.  Their 25 year old son, Diego, also lives with them in their very nice apartment.  It feels a little strange having a housekeeper preparing meals for us, doing my laundry, and cleaning all the time.  But, I guess I could get used to that.

The Estrellas have been challenging me to practice my Spanish, which is good but also difficult.  Cecilia speaks almost no English at all, but we've had several good conversations in Spanish.  I surprised myself at how much I am able to communicate, but I definitely need a lot of practice.  It can be frustrating at times when I can understand what people are saying to me, but I don't know how to respond.  That makes for awkward gaps in conversation at times.

Outside the Community Development office

Today is my third day working in la Oficina de Desarrollos Comunitarios (Community Development Office).  The clean water projects is a subdivision of this department.  Bruce, who's in charge of the water projects, has been discussing with me different projects to work on while I'm here.  HCJB worked with the people of Carabuela, a mountain community north of Quito, to build a drinking water system two years ago.  Now followup testing shows that the water needs disinfection.  It looks like we will be working on installing a chlorination system there in the coming weeks.  Lately I have been doing some calculations and planning for an automated injection pump that we will install.

Inside the office, that's my shared desk back in the corner

Quito is an interesting city to live in, but I'm still working on finding my way around.  Luckily it's only about a 15 minute walk from my house to the office, and I'm already getting pretty good at dodging cars and mopeds while crossing the street.  It's a well know fact that traffic is terrible here.  In just a short time I've met some really interesting people from all kinds of backgrounds who are devoted to serving the Lord.  There is so much for me to learn here about so many things.  While right now it is challenging and awkward and uncomfortable most of the time, I know that God is using this to grow my faith and prepare me for the work He has for me next.

Walking the streets of Quito