I’ve been quite fortunate to have wireless internet up to this point in my host home. This past week, our internet wasn’t functioning, but as of last night, it’s back up and running.

A bit of a current event update for you: Ecuador depends on hydroelectric dams to generate its power. Because the country is currently undergoing the worst drought in about forty years, there’s scarcely any electricity production going on. To help save electricity during the energy crisis, we’re currently undergoing compulsory electricity rationings. At least in Quito, we usually have black outs four to five hours each day. The schedule is quite confusing. Quito is divided into many sectors, and different sectors are on different schedules. When the outages began, they would rotate each day – morning, afternoon, evening, etc. This past week we maintained the same schedule each day. It can get a little complicated. One day a couple of weeks ago I didn’t have power in the morning as I got ready for school, then our power was cut in the afternoon at school, then I went to a pharmacy in the evening to buy some medicine and, well, they didn’t have power. It honestly is not that bad, though. I feel sort of pioneerish as I do homework by candlelight. I have also invested in a flashlight. And watching a four way intersection without traffic lights or police direction can be really entertaining…until I have to cross it. J

On a different note, I gave my first presentation to my host Rotary club “Quito Sur” this past week. Aside from some small technological difficulties, all went very well. I shared about Bryan and what I am studying, the Dayton Rotary Club, the goal of my scholarship, Ohio, and my volunteer work. A funny little side note to my presentation: because the computer and projector were on the other side of the banquet room from the podium, I didn’t have the ability to operate my slides. There was a man from the club operating the computer, who, I don’t think was the most technologically savvy. Somehow, he managed to exit my power point presentation and enter my picture file during my presentation. I remember looking up in the middle of my presentation, and there was a picture of me and some other Bryan students standing in front of a huge batman poster at our Batman themed homecoming banquet!!!!

An important facet of the Rotary Foundation is volunteer work. With this in mind, twice a week, another Rotary student (from Taiwan) and I volunteer at “Chicos de la Calle.” We get to help street kids with their homework after school. The kids are so sweet, and love getting attention and help. It is, however, difficult to try to explain math (which is not my forte to begin with) that I’ve almost forgotten, let alone in Spanish. I do, however, love it when the kids have English homework. I’m currently the only native English-speaker that is volunteering, so I guess I get to be the expert in that department. J

Shangrila

At this point I fear that any followers I might have had have given up hope that I would ever post again. Take heart, I shall be more frequent from this point forward. My computer was not functioning properly, but I believe I have resolved the problem.

I spent last week with a small group from my school in the Amazonian jungle. It truly was the week of a lifetime. I ate ants, climbed waterfalls, played soccer with the children of a small, isolated jungle village, swam and tubed in a tributary of the Amazon, climbed some precarious rock walls using my hands and feet on one side and my back on the other side, swung on a vine George of the Jungle style, had a lizard in my shower, and ate some amazing carrot soup. We also had a pretty awesome, machete wielding Ecuadorian Indian as our guide that led us, everyday after classes, for hours through the wild recesses of the jungle.

Our lodge, called Shangrila, is located on the edge of a cliff. While we ate meals, had classes, and relaxed in hammocks, we enjoyed an incredible panorama of the Andes Mountains in the distance, the Amazonian jungle, and a tributary of the Amazon River below us. Everything except for the living quarters was open air.

I partially expected us to go to a super touristy part of the “The Jungle.” Although our lodge was obviously built for and frequented by tourists, it really was in the jungle.

I was a little disappointed that I never saw a man-eating anaconda or a ferocious, Godzilla sized tarantula, but they were out there somewhere. In fact, I did hear that during our stay at Shangrila, one of the Australian tourists had a tarantula in their room.

Departing was bittersweet, I could get used to the tranquil, laid back, adventurous jungle life. I also became rather attached to the hammocks and their amazing view of the jungle. At the same time, I could live without the nearly 100% humidity and mosquitoes that we encountered.