Ecuadorian Effects

A relative reminded me recently that I promised to report on my eldest daughter's trip to Ecuador and never did so. Sitting now in a Holiday Express just ten minutes from her apartment at her NY college, puts me in mind of "Wendy." (renamed for privacy).

This past summer Wendy went on a four week program with International Student Volunteers. First she studie Spanish in Quito while living with an Ecuadorian family along with six other North Americans. She had little prior knowledge of the language, but caught on quickly. A background of French and Latin helped.

Next she traveled to her volunteer assignment set in the cloud forest--something akin to a rain forest, but in high altitude and cooler. A generous, ecologically-minded family has established a nature preserve in the cloud forest to nurture native flora and fauna.

At the preserve Wendy and her ISV team were up before seven AM and at day's end so exhausted that their heads lay on pillows by nine. Wendy became good with a machete--cutting down some banana trees with this tool. She also de-weeded the coffee bushes, played soccer with the nearby villagers, and assisted the ornithalogist in keeping track of native birds. Her favorite day was spent hoeing the corn and coffee plants under a blazing-blue sky and the towering yellow stalks of corn.

Two weeks of adventure tourism followed: jumping off bridges held by a harness and ropes, sleeping in a hut in a rain forest and inducing a giant spider to leave their abode, climbing a volcano to a glacier, mountain biking and hiking. Wendy enjoyed the quieter activities too of touring Quito and days at the warm beach.

After the program ended came another adventure. By herself, Wendy took an airplane back to Quito, found the bus station, bought a ticket to her destination out in the country side and boarded a bus, conducted all in a language she'd only been learning for a month. Her goal? To stay a week with a Wycliffe family who are translating the Bible into Quechua.

That's a whole other story, but it's now near the day's end and a bowl of homemade pumpkin soup is looking me in the face as I sit in Wendy's apartment. My beloved daughter made this from some fresh pumpkin that she de-seeded and cooked herself. Time to eat!

Comments

[Margaret]

Thanks for reporting on Wendy's summer--what a great adventure. I'll look forward to "the rest of the story"