Hola friends and families! I will be giving you a rundown of today’s HECTIC schedule. Our morning was an earlier one with a trip following soon after. We enjoyed a homey, traditional Ecuadorian breakfast at our guest speaker’s home, Charito. Her real name is Rosario Salas, but she quickly told us to forget that and just call her Charito. She is a survivor and community leader from the Puea community that was destroyed in the Tungurahua volcanic explosion.

She gave an inspirational life story that touched all of our hearts and left many of us speechless, but hopeful. There are no words to describe the amount of emotional and physical hardships Charito went through during the eruption. She let us experience a small part of her struggles and we could not have thanked her more, but we gave her a small appreciation gift. She spent the rest of the day with us and joined us at our next destination: our first CAP Discovery Seminar.

At our seminar we learned about the Utopia program in Ecuador. They taught us the importance of eating organically and supporting our local farmers. Our speakers were kind and loving, but more so passionate about their mission. They gave us a tour of the program’s home, and that helped give us ideas for our Community Action Project. We interviewed them and made sure we knew what they needed so that we would not give them something unsustainable. Our field trip took longer than expected, meaning we had a late start for our lunch.

Charito joined us for lunch and sat with some students and I. She engaged in some conversation with us and enjoyed it so much that she decided to buy bracelets for every student. That only added to the awe she left us with after her life story.

After our nutritious chicken soup and traditional rice and protein dish for lunch, we were on our way to our first English lesson. It was a stressful and eventful all at the same time. Many of us were jittery but ready to teach our new students. Though we expected a lot of students, around 100-150, a little over half—if not less―showed up. My partner and I were expected to receive 15 students, but only 7 arrived and 3 of them switched out. Though that was disappointing, we were able to create a more intimate relationship with them.

The rest of our day concluded with a hamburger for dinner and our nightly meeting. We finished off our night with a deep group self-reflection. In a nutshell, we had a long and educational day. Goodnight and thanks for reading our blogs!

-Melanie Mendez