From Shell to Quito

by sara

On Tuesday I said my final good byes to everyone at Casa de Fe and headed by bus up to Quito. It was hard to believe that my time in Shell was ending, and even harder to say goodbye to everyone. I will miss them all very much.

Israel, the driver that works for Casa de Fe was able to take me to the house to pick up my bag and then to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Quito. Just as we were leaving CDF Pablo, one of the special needs boys came running up. He hoped in next to me and accompanied us the whole way. He insisted on helping with the bags, and wanted my arm around him whenever we were in the van.

I had a pretty uneventful trip up to Quito. It took about 5 hours to get to the southern bus station, then I changed busses and rode for about an hour to get to the north bus station where a friend came and picked me up.

While I am here in Quito I am staying with the family of Christian, a Ecuadorian student who had come down to volunteer at Casa de Fe. His father is a builder in Quito and they have a beautiful apartment on the top floor of the building they are working on. After living in the jungle climate of Shell with all the housing considerations that come with it, Christian’s house feels like paradise. 

While I am here for this final week I will be keeping busy visiting the children I sponsor through Compassion International. On Wednesday morning I headed out for Santo Domingo, a 3 hour bus ride from Quito. I spent the day with my sponsored child Elian and his family.

Then that night I headed to Esmeraldas where I spent the next day visiting with Yami and her family. Esmeraldas is on the coast, and we had the chance to play on the beach.

I will write more about those visits later.

On Monday and Tuesday my other children will be coming to Quito to spend a fun day in the park, or some other activity. I will have the two girls one day, and the two boys the other day. After visiting on Monday and Tuesday I head to the airport early Wednesday morning. While I am looking forward to seeing family and friends, It is hard to believe that my time in Ecuador is almost over.