This morning our group organized our seemingly endless documents, preparing them to run the bureaucratic gauntlet in hopes of attaining our year long residency here. Tomorrow the gauntlet begins. After all the photocopies and signatures seemed to be in order we boarded a bus and headed for a small communal living compound on the outskirts of Quito. The hour long bus ride was rewarding, as we ventured higher into the mountains the views of Quito below were quite breath taking. Dogs seemed to constantly be perched on the compound walls - the best place for them to bark at passers by. We arrived at our destination, a compound littered with greenery and garden. The residence here grow all organic foods and live off them almost entirely. Some food they barter for in surrounding mountain towns. We hiked a small set of switchbacks up a hill where one of the guys showed us how to harvest water from a desert plant. The plant can sustainably produce 8 litres of this sweet water daily for over three months, it grows everywhere, and needs little water itself and no care. Quite remarkable. From here we could see the round mountain which is the 'center of the world.' Sometime we will go right there and stand half in the south and half in the north. After we were finished there, and fed one of their typical meals we headed back down to our hostel. Beth and I had a meeting with Maria, a great and very practical lady who is the program administrator here. She informed us of our living arrangements for the first four months, and we will be able to live together with a family, and we will have two rooms. This is truly amazing as it was one of our main concerns. Thanks Maria! Praise God that we can stay together here, as we were praying for that! This evening Beth, Myself and a couple friends ventured out to a coffee shop and had some hot chocolate to warm up, as well as some empanadas. Delicious. It was relaxing.
Thats all for now, Love,
Matt
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