Coming back to Ecuador has been like finding an old friend.  Each day spent here holds new discovery.  Ecuador continues to amaze me.  I love it.  

    Saturday was a World Cup qualifier game for Ecuador against Bolivia.  Amanda and I walked over to the stadium to soak in some of the atmosphere.  Once there we decided we wanted to go to the game, so we stood around for awhile trying to figure out how to get cheap tickets.  Suddenly two free tickets were handed to us... apparently a benefit of being the only white girls amidst a crowd of people.  Ecuador won 3-1. Every time Ecuador scored the crowd went wild and we received beer showers.  

    I went with Kim and Pablo to Santos Pamba, an extremely poor Quichua community (the Quichua people tend to be society's outcasts and do not have rights with the government, etc) in the very south part of Quito (1 1/2 hours south of where I live) on Sunday.  She has started a pre-school and kindergarten there - with the hope of adding a grade every year.  There is a church in connection with the school, so we attended the service and I got to meet some of the people from the community, including the teachers at the school.  This experience was one of the most tangibly evident of God's provision that I've seen.  He has taken Kim's dream and blessed it beyond her imagination.  Throughout the church service there were stray dogs wandering through the building (and we were on the second floor), because it does not have doors or windows yet.  It was also incredibly cold, because its up the mountain a ways, and again, no windows to block the wind.  The people were so gracious and loving towards me as a newcomer, and especially to Kim, who has impacted their community so deeply.

Compassion International will be coming into the community within a month to start a sponsorship program, which is a huge answer to prayer.

    This is a picture of Quito from Santos Pamba - the little hill in the middle is the Panacillo, and I live somewhere around the white cloud in the far north (around 30 miles away from Santos Pamba).