fri, sat, sun...ish

Friday morning I had the pleasure to attend the end of year Club Rotario Quito Valle Interoceánico breakfast, during which, my good old amigo Miguel was going to be passing the reigns to the new President for the coming year. As I followed the directions Mr. Falck gave the day before at the school closing, I ended up approaching an impressive hotel known as the “Swissotel,” but immediately grew hesitant; thinking the hundreds of police outside, the riot guards, and secret service looking personnel must not be there to welcome me as their guest. Oddly, as I walked up the front side-walk and towards the marble steps I managed to avoid any questioning (as I’ve learned so far in my travels, if you act like you know what you’re doing, you can usually steer clear of most suspicion), and easily find my way to the concierge who pointed on towards the breakfast/ ball-room. There, I learned from discussing with a number of white-haired Rotarians that, even though we deserved the attention that was forming outside, the unusual security and attention was being provided for the leaders of ALBA that were staying at the hotel, and soon would be leaving the country to continue on official business; just in case you haven’t heard of this organization, that would include Rafael Correa (the president of Ecuador), Hugo Chávez, and Evo Morales, to name a few.

The breakfast included some of the freshest fruit I’d tasted in my life, fried plantains, and other wonderfully decadent comida that my stomach could hardly bear as I started to get sick the night before (I know I shouldn’t have taken up the school cook on the second plate of potatoes with the questionable salsa…) and still didn’t have much of an appetite. After eating, the podium was graced by directors, treasurers, secretaries, and finally Miguel, who gave the best speech of the day- summing up the year, his time as President, and the desire he has to continue to see this organization make a difference in whatever means possible. In the end, I spent the rest of the day reflecting on his inspirational words (which was sort of easy since my stomach only got worse after eating, and I spent the afternoon and night in bed…) and pondered the possibility of maybe coming back Ecuador after graduating to fulfill my newfound desire of continuing the genuine tradition these people have begun.



The two week-iversary of being in Tumbaco that I celebrated this weekend, again took me to the capital of Quito. After peeling myself out of bed, I called a friend of mine from DU who has been doing community development work on the Southern side of the city to meet up before rugby practice. About two hours, four buses (which should have only been three had the guard at the bus station told me he wasn’t sure what bus to take instead of guessing) and a bit of a walk later, I met up with my team-mate from back in the states, Eric, and a 12 year-old kid he has mentored over the past 12 months. With quick greetings and introductions, we hopped in a cab and headed to the most beautiful field I’ve ever played on. The grass was rough, pot-holes littered every five meters or so, and we had to share the campo with two middle school soccer teams, but situated atop the second tallest hill in Quito, the view from this field- including the vast stretches of urbanized houses and apartments from the Airport at the most northern point to el Panecillo in the south- was breathtaking (not only because of the combination of running and the extra altitude). As I have almost always found with the people I meet through rugby, the players on this team were welcoming from the start. With a few 7s games and a tournament on the horizon, I look forward to building the friendships that started as we scrimmaged in the rain, sun, and then later rain again, over the next couple of months.

Looking at my clock now, I should probably get back to my work that’s due tomorrow, but to sum up the rest of the weekend: I was able to experience my first black-out while in the sketchiest part of Quito, eat the first red meat I’ve come across since being here (in the form of a double bacon cheese burger- I know, typical, but if I was gonna have a burger, I figured I’d make it worth it!), go shopping for some sunscreen that my shoulders sorely need, test out the swimming pool that we have in our housing complex, and relax a little while getting over the U.S.’ loss yesterday with some distracting one-sided soccer games today.

I miss you all, and hasta pronto

drew