Hi everyone! I´ve had a great time so far. Yesterday, after navigating through the tricky airport of Madrid + speaking to a lovely lady on the plane who was visiting family in Quito, Laura + I got here. The lady in the house we´re staying with is so lovely + warm, and speaks Spanish very clearly, which makes it very relaxing to talk to her. After having stayed up 22 hours, not being able to sleep on the plan, I then went to sleep + slept intermittedly for nearly 12 hours!! I was glad to get up at 5am though, as the view from the window was amazing- loads of tiny lights in the distance of the wakening city...
Today, we had orientation in the morning + got little packs with info + stuff in them + little flags of Ecuador (!!!) + then went to La Mitad del Mundo, which is lattitude 0, the absolute equator. Here, the whole water going down the sink anti-clockwise or clockwise was proved + it was shown that it is easier to balance a nail exactly on the equator line, though I still failed at it, which was very upsetting, as it meant I didn´t get a certificate. Feel gutted. Also, though easier to balance an egg, it´s really hard to balance yourself. Walking in a dead straight line with your eyes closed is absolutely impossible, because each hemisphere is pulling you to one side... Very odd.
Also at the site, we saw various things about how indigineous Ecuadorians live, including a head that had been shrunk to the size of a fist- that was chilling...
It was a lovely site, overall. Very much worth the 9 dollars I paid to go (five pounds ish). All us volunteers went except those doing Spanish lessons. Everyone´s really friendly- the volunteers + the locals + I feel very much at home, though of course everything is different. The roads are pretty scary, but you get used to it after a while. It´ll be weird coming home after 6 months and see people driving carefully + with sanity again!
Well, hope you´re all okay at home. I´m off to Tena early tomorrow morning, so not sure when will be able to write again.
Take care + God bless,
Helen
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