The Beginning!

I´ve been here for three days and already I feel at home. My host family couldn´t be more caring and loving. I´ve been hanging out a lot with my host brother, Diego, who´s 20, and he showed me all around Quito on my first day. The city is so lively...and smells like South America!

I have my own room, which is really nice. Although I can never sleep through the night because I guess I haven´t quite adjusted to all of the screetching and honking of a big city. I feel like I wake up every hour on the hour. And more frequently once it´s light outside. But I´m never tired in the morning! So it´s all good.

This morning was my first actual volunteer experience here. Soooo many kids came out for our "activities," and many of them came up and gave me huge hugs within the first minute. It is so clear to me that the programs of UBECI (the organization I´m volunteering with) are in super high demand and such an incredible thing for these kids. I´m not saving any lives, but I definitely can already feel that we´re brightening them. I had a fantastic time this morning. We travel to a differnt market in the area every morning and every afternoon.

There are about 15 volunteers here at the moment, ranging from about age 10 to age 59. There are people from Spain, Germany, England, Australia, Belgium, and other parts of the U.S. In my free time (of which I think there will be less in the coming weeks), I´ve been hanging out with a guy named Al from London and a woman named Dianne from Australia. We explored the city yesterday, and tonight Al and I are going to take a salsa class! I am pretttty excited.

Although everything so far has been really incredible, I´m having a hard time imagining four months. Mostly because, as I predicted, most people are here for 2 or 4 weeks. None of the volunteers here now (other than me) will be here past the end of September. But...it´s going to be great. I´ll know Quito and UBECI like the back of my hand (what is up with that experession anyway?)!!

Adios, amigos!