Hi Mom, we are alive, I swear (PanIz). Yep (Enrique).

Starting the day with a lovely 6:30 wake-up call got us very, very energized. We got greeted with some happy faces in the morning. Anyways, starting the day off strong with a full breakfast gave us the energy we needed to get started with our first meeting of the day, discussing the truth about small businesses in Ecuador. Off to our personal bus, we started off by visiting Guano, where we got surprised by the mayor of the city herself! Crazy! From there, we went to our first spot, Fabrica Cerquié, where they showed us the process of making quinoa cereal. After our visit, as a parting gift, Enrique used his fluent Spanish skills to personally hand over a gift. In addition to this business, we made our way to the Zapateria  Arevalo, a small business that makes handmade shoes for men. There, they showed us how they made their shoes, and we also made sure to give them a great thank you with a Global Glimpse gift (given by Paniz).

Making our way back to the hotel, we had a bountiful lunch (with their tasty soup), followed by a chance to call home. We came together to the grass to have a communal gathering with ice cream while others got beaten at soccer by our Global Glimpse leader, Mateo. Following that, we had our first CAP (Community Action Project) meeting, where we got to talk about our plans for the next few days. After that, we got together for dinner, and from there, we attended the nightly meeting where we passed our torch to 2 new members. All of that led up to now where we are writing this blog here. Tomorrow, our leaders of the day will be Andre and Sam (good luck!) Well that’s all folks, goodnight!