Visas and Sightseeing!

Hello again! It’s been quite a week of adventures here in Barrio Quiteño. We have been working hard at the school, making sure all the kids are getting fed, clean clothes on at the end of the day and have tied shoes all the time! haha Oh, the joys of working with small children!
We had quite the trip into the city on Tuesday. We went to get our visas registered for the Ecuadorian census, I guess they are trying to keep track of who all is coming into the country and it was such a catastrophe! We first went to a place near the U.S. Embassy, got told we were no where close and sent across town by a friendly music store owner. Then we found the post office and I mailed a letter for $2 where we asked again, is the embassy close? No, no it’s very far, was the reply. And we were told to take another bus. We decided to learn from our last mistake and ask a second opinion. This kind doorman at a nearby hotel told us the same thing, but gave us a map and showed us the bus to take. We hopped on the bus, rode about 40 minutes back across the city where we finally found the hospital that is very close to the Embassy. At this point, I was so glad to see the hospital that we had been searching for, I didn’t even care. haha I was confident if we continued to ask, we would find it. So the next three people sent us in the same direction (always a good sign) and we ended up walking in a circle around the hospital to where the Embassy was, (we actually walked right past the block it was on when we first got off the bus!) But we were relieved and content to see the American flag flying high above the huge building. We waited 30 min. for the doors to open at 1:30 p.m. (what straining hours!) and after passing through the metal detectors and giving up our cameras and my electronic dictionary, were told we needed to go to the General de Extranjera del Ministerio del Gobierno (The General of Foreign Ministry). After walking about an hour, 3/4 of the way, (we didn’t want to risk another bus trip) we got on a bus after being told for the 5th time oh it’s very far from here. We got off the bus and walked to the dept. only to find out we needed a bunch of copies of our documents and to pay $10 into the Foreign Minister of the Government bank account. We were not too happy, but only had about an hour before the office closed so we caught a taxi to the bank, came back, made copies and cut people in line to have them say, ok, you can come pick up your passports in 3 days. Which meant, Monday because Friday was a holiday! So we will be returning in a few days, to our favorite place … to retrieve our most prized possessions.
Friday was the Independence Day for Guayaquil, the 2nd largest city in the country. We had the day off, but celebrated on Thursday with the children. We had a brief history of Ecuadorians fight against the Spanish, which we got more out of than the children. haha We have to learn somehow! Then we had traditional music and dancing. They were so precious!
So for Friday, Nicole and I decided to go into the city for our day off. We stopped off first at this large park, which turned out to be the Ministry of National Defense. We tried to take a picture of the outside, got waved over by the guard and thought we were going to get in trouble. Instead, he talked to us, asked all about where we were from and why we were here (don’ worry, we were very vague!) and ended up getting a private tour of the inside from another person who worked there! haha We took lots of pictures and then got a ride to the Panecillo, a beautiful statue of the Virgin of Quito. It is enormous and stands on a hill in the center of the city. You can see the mountains and Quito from all sides. Beautiful! Next we decided to stop for some lunch and tried almost everything my Ecuador guidebook recommended from this quaint little Cafeteria Modelo. It was just what we needed to head out for the afternoon. We went to the Palacio del Gobierno, where President Correa does much of his work, sort of their capitol building. It was a free tour and afterward we realized we didn´t take the free picture that went along with it, so we asked about it, waited, took the picture and went on the tour a 2nd time! Haha We were able to listen a little better since we weren´t worried about taking pictures. The first time around we sort of got in trouble, Nicole sat in the PRESIDENT´S Chair! The guards were quickly walking toward us, but we didn´t know! Oops! It made for a great story and lots of laughing from everyone in our group. Afterwards we walked around the Bohemian neighborhood, La Ronda. It was very artsy and cute! We stopped for coffee and enjoyed lots of music from the surrounding stores. All in all, a much better day than our last trip to the city.
We are adjusting to living with the sisters. Its going well. We try to get up in the morning, do our chores before breakfast and then get ready to be at school by 8.30. We get home around 5 and relax for a little while before evening prayer, followed by mass and then supper around 8 p.m. After supper we usually watch the news for awhile and then do our own things. It is a pretty full day, but we are enjoying getting accustomed to our surroundings and the people in the neighborhood are very friendly!
Thanks for all your comments and support. I really appreciate hearing from you!
Besos y abrazos, (Kisses and hugs)
April