A day of painting

We painted today and were more organized. We found out where the paint store is -- that's huge. We got to the second story; Patricio was on the roof painting. Patricio is a really hard worker, as are so many of the others working alongside us. We were joined today by high school teenagers. They goofed on us with their name tags by putting ninja names in for their names. I was touched by the fact that a few of the teenagers from local high schools walked us to lunch, totally in the opposite direction from the way they were headed. 

Entry submitted by: Ken Hunt 

Patricio, Mitchell, and Ken working hard

There's a kind of a welcoming quality of the people here unlike anything in northeast America. We were greeted this morning with kisses and smiles. Almost everyone in our group ended up taking care of the children today. The tías work so hard. We finished up most of the building. We walked through the market to lunch. The restaurant was lovely. On the way back we took a tour of Center 1 and met the tías, who were having lunch while the children napped. The moms in our group are in awe of the fact that the tías can get all those kids to nap in one bed at the same time. While walking back from lunch, Center 2 looked so brilliant, it inspired us to want to do more! The whole day runs smoothly because Maggie stays a step ahead of us. We're a big group and she's doing an amazing job - including keeping Matt out of jail. Everybody was too exhausted to go out for dinner so Eric, Blair, Matt, and Maggie went to the store to buy us all dinner. While shopping Matt picked up some chopstick and opened it to use it and share it with Eric -- Maggie had an apoplectic fit because I guess you absolutely don't use something before you buy it here. I gather it was quite an adventure.

Entry submitted by: Kate Straus

Varinda and Sammy feeding hungry little kids at lunchtime

The view of Quito and the mountains from down the street from Center #2

Message of the Day – Maggie Bjorklund: "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love." - Martin Luther King, Jr.