a new world

The flights are over, and now I'm off to a start of a new life. I got picked up from the airport by Zack (the volunteer coordinator through FEVI) and we went straight to my host family's house.  At this point, it was a whirlwind because it was dark outside, my whole family came to greet me outside of their house, everything was spoken in Spanish, and I was exhausted from traveling for 12+.  Although, Zack made it a little easier, because he came inside to greet everyone, and then ate dinner with us as well. That way, it took the conversation away from just me having to answer all the questions. Finally after all of the greeting, I was able to get to my room, unpack and get to sleep by 9:30PM.  
Through the night, I heard roosters crowing and dogs barking. This is a common occurrence here in Ecuador, so I just lay in my bed laughing.  The sun rises early (about 6AM), so I awoke on my own and greeted my family.  Breakfast this morning was like an omelet, eggs and veggies mixed together, plus some sort of freshly squeezed fruit juice. I was supposed to meet Zack at 8AM at the FEVI store, so my host mom gave me a tour of the surroundings and brought me to the store where we met up with Zack. He then gave me a tour of the community garden project and where the FEVI kids' daycare is. We played with/helped the kids for about 2 hours. They are adorable and are fun to talk to in Spanish. 
At about 11:30AM we pushed a lady in a wheelchair to a cafeteria where we served about 40 elderly people lunch. They were grateful to be served. Now we are working in the FEVI community store where we sell used clothing, etc. to people in the community. More to come later...

A likely sight in front of my house; just a random cow chomping on some grass while I'm leaving my house in the morning.

This is a view from the dining room in my house.  Mountains in the distance, dirt roads leading down to a river, "San Pedro".