It has been an eventful few weeks. Last week, Chris and I, Charlie, Seth, and our friend Mateo all spent 8 days touring the Ecuadorian coast doing "La Ruta Del Sol". It was a great time of hanging out, visiting different beaches and eating lots of coastal food (seafood, fried plantains, rice, etc.). It was Charlie and Seth's last week at Casa Victoria before returnin home to Santa Barbara so we were grateful to get some time with them before they left.
During our trip Chris and I were able to meet some of my family members that live here in Ecuador. We met my grandfather's brother and wife, and their children and grandchildren. It was cool to meet the other Tricerris that I've heard so much about.
The weekend before that, all of us from Casa V went camping at "El Refugio" ( The refuge), up in the mountains. El Refugio is a retreat center that was started by a group of North Americans who are working for an organization called "Mundo Juvenil". The center focuses on leadership and team building exercises through a series of ropes courses, most of which you have to rely on one or more people to accomplish. This would be the last weekend as a house that we were all together. Within the following weeks, Jon and Anna, Charlie and Seth, and Chris and I would be moving out of Casa Victoria. It was the perfect ending for our season here in Casa Victoria.
Posted are some pictures of our time at El Refugio. One of the courses involved walking on a thin cable with a partner, having only each other to physically lean on to get to the other side. There was also "A Leap of Faith" in which each of us, individually, climbed up a tree and stood on a 10 inch platform (tiny!)before leaping in mid air to grab onto a trapeze-type bar. That was scary! There was a zip line, that was probably the easiest challenge) that cut through the forest. "Jacob's Ladder" required all of us to split into pairs and take turns climbing an enormous ladder, in which each "step" was seperated by about 6-8 feet. So, unless you and your partner were helping each other climb up, it was impossible.
We all had a lot of fun. It was a great time of team building and learning about one another's strengths and weaknesses. It also forced each of us to depend on one another (literally) and trust each other as we went through the different courses.
This past weekend we had a Casa Victoria "Unity" concert in the plaza next to our house. It was an awesome turnout! It was Javie's idea, one of the guys in the house. He put together the entire thing. We had about 4 bands perform Christian rap and hip-hop music. Oscar, the Columbian who lives in the house, played guitar and sang. We were able to share exactly what Casa Victoria is and what programs the house offers. You really had to be there to understand how cool this concert was. Where we live, in San Roque, is very poor and a pretty dangerous neighborhood. Most of the upper-middle class, who live in the North of Quito, would never step foot in this neighborhood because of it's reputation. So, setting up a concert in the middle of Plaza Victoria, in the heart of the neighborhood, was a risk but turned out SOOOO well! It was so neat to see the neighborhood take a pause from the usual hustle and bustle to listen to some music and hang out for a couple of hours. Javier worked sooooo hard to put the concert together and it worked out beautifully. The Lord's presence was obvious...even down to the fact that it didn't sprinkle ONE drop of rain and it has been raining EVERY SINGLE day for the past week here! We were so thankful.It was a the perfect way to spend our last weekend in Casa Victoria.
Chris and I are now living with our good friend Daniela Borja and her brother Rafael. We are excited to spend more time with Daniela and the Borja family. They have become our family here in Ecuador. We are sad to leave Casa V, however. We will miss living with the guys. It wasn't always the most physically comfortable environment ( especially with 7 guys and only 2 girls!!) but we have had some very special, precious times there. We are planning on returning weekly to volunteer with some of the programs.
**P.S.: sorry for the duplicate photo...but, in case you missed it the first time... ;)
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