Rostro de Cristo in Ecuador

After traveling a bit after Christmas I returned to Duran on New Years Eve and prepared myself for the night ahead. We burned a muñeca in the street outside the house and were invited over to Jesus and Walter for a second dinner and some dancing. We lit sparklers with Brian, Andres and Dennis and had a fun time watching Brian try to ride a adult sized bike. He made it alright until he hit the turns, which is when he would fall over. But true to his character he never shed a tear and hopped right back on it to ride and fall again. At 2am we traveled to Andres´house in Arbolito and danced the night away to raggaeton, salsa and merengue. By 6 we were all in bed exhausted. True to Ecuador the heat started on Sunday and in the last coulple of days, we in AJS have been baking in the oven, aka the house. But being somewhat accustomed to the heat now it´s not too unbearable. By tomorrow we will have two retreat groups here and although it will be crazy it will be good practice for the months to come, as double groups are planned. I think we´re all excited and nervous to have so many gringos at one time, but it should be a fun experience. Now that gym classes are over and I have a few days free I am able to spend more time in the neighborhood and had a nice chat with Gabriel and Theresa this morning. They are prepared for the groups and Gabriel is really excited because he´s starting making key chains to sell to the groups as well. THey are all doing well and continually make jokes about how for them it is one year less because of their age, but one year more for us because of ours. School break comes soon and a lot of us are lost as to what we will be doing but with Manos possibly moving to mornings we are looking forward to being able to put a lot of energy into being able to teach at them once the school year has ended. That´s all for now but as you all know poco a poco is how things go here...