la segunda dia en Quito

Hola,

i´m alot more rested now, I slept lots last night.
There´s a really nice Belgian girl staying with me in the appartment. Otherwise there aren´t any other volontaries, because it is just a small hostel with lots of different people. A group of volontaries are arriving next week.

Yesterday was another added day of fiesta here with lots of fireworks and different events, we just saw a glimpse because we didn´t really know where to go and it is not advisable to just start walking around at night.. we were also very tired. went to the airport to try and pick up my rucksack with little success. The Ecuadorian service consists of people who tell you to go to someone else as quickly as possible and it hadn´t arrived, another try tomorrow. One man even pointed to a wall "tiene que seguir todo recto!".. hmm, nothing there.

Today I had 4 hours of spanish classes in the afternoon. My teacher is really young, very friendly and speaks soo fast... I don´t speak anything but Spanish here, also with the Belgian girl, its really good for learning the language but quite tiring, because you´re always figuring out what to say.

We also took the morning to walk around the city as well as having a meeting with the project leader. I´´m definetly working in the street children project and might even live there later, not sure yet. The project requires lots of independence, sounds very demanding but really interesting.
The new part of the city which we walked around today is quite oldfashioned in the European sense but with big office buildings, lots of authentic small cafes and restaurants. It is quite broken and dirty, often we almost walked into a very deep pit, which they have lots of. However there are lots of big beautiful parks with street artists and interesting sculptures. Ecuadorians are very helpful and friendly, but quite quiet and seem a little serious too. There is a big difference between having some relation to them and talking to strangers who are perhaps a little hostile even. All the people I´ve really met are very sincere and friendly, they ask lots of questions and are really interested in you. That is perhaps one thing i could characterise them by, sincerity. They are quite calm and relaxed about life, content. They don´t put so much emphasis on everything like in Europe, but I can´t really put things into words yet as I´ve been here for such a little time. There are pretty many poor beggars and people who try to sell you little things like chewing gum or ask to polish your shoes. Lots of children too which is really sad, a really nice man of the organisation drove me to the airport yesterday in the evening and at night you see very young kids , around 4 years old on the streets.

Today we are celebrating the hostel owners, who is so friendly birthday. He has a little boy with epilepsy who we are also helping to take care of a little later on, because he has alot to do.

I am doing only Spanish courses this week, but on monday I already start working half day. I´m excited to start and meet more people, because we are a little lonely with the belgian girl because there is no one else at the hostel and neither of us know the city at all, but that will come with time.

Take care