Visiting My Valeria

By: Emily

Sorry this is a little late, we just got our internet working here at the house in Shell. More stories to come soon.

On Friday Erin, Sara, Luke, and I went to visit Valeria, one of the girls I sponsor through Compassion International.

Early in the morning we met David, our interpreter, and took a bus to the city of Ibarra where Valeria lives with her family. The bus wound around mountains and lent some breathtaking views… and the opportunity to take a little siesta.

I was so happy when I finally got to meet my sweet Valeria! Her mother and a tutor from the project were with her.

We met up with the project director and another Compassion worker at the church where the Compassion project is located.

We took a tour of the project and got to see Valeria's classroom.

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Then we all drove up to Valeria’s home in a pickup truck. Her family’s farm is located on a mountainside at about 8,300 ft. There were spectacular views of the mountains all around and the volcano behind the house. 

I gave Valeria the gifts we had brought for her and she really liked them. She looked so cute in her new hat, shirt and sunglasses.

We played hide-and-seek (her favorite game), frisbee, jump rope (another one of her favorites), tag, and football (soccer to us North Americans). Valeria and I were on the same team and we won! She scored at least two of our goals-she is quite the soccer player even in her sandals and long skirt :0)

Her little sisters, Diana (6) and Alexandra (9), came home from school and our whole group went out to lunch in town.

Then we played in the restaurant's playground and had a blast!

And we got ice cream.

Then everybody piled back into the truck and we dropped Valeria and her family back at there home. We prayed together and got one last picture with some of her cousins.

Everyone was very sad when it was time for us to go. It was so hard to leave! It was a wonderful visit and I am so glad for this awesome opportunity to see my Valeria.