I am so sorry for the delay. Things have been ridiculous trying to get the internet connection set up in our apartment. We finally have it now though! So, here we go. Everything went very smoothly entering the country and meeting up with Allan and Vernette. We spent the night in Quito and the next morning we were on our way to Tulcán. Unfortunately, Ashawnte and I brought enough luggage for about 10 people so Vernette and I had to take a bus to Tulcán while Ashawnte and Allan took the car. Finally we got here and started cleaning our apartment. Ashawnte started scrubbing out the shower while I unpacked my clothes and started arranging where everything was to go. We were up till 2:30 just getting the apartment fit to live in. The next couple of days we went walking around town and shopping for foods that didn't need refrigerated. Just an idea of the cost of food in the market...5 limes for 50 cents, 5 onions for 25 cents, 12 avocados for $1, and many, many more fantastic deals! By the fourth day we had a stove and a fridge in the apartment but we couldn't use the stove because we didn't have any gas yet. Gas is really hard to come by. They sell it for $2 per tank here in Ecuador but they sell it for $18 in Columbia so they sell all of the gas to Columbians and it's harder for Ecuadorians to find gas. So we were finally able to buy a full tank off of someone that had one for $11 so that we could cook. Before we got our gas, Vern lent us an electric counter top stove to work with.
Service has been a blast so far. Obviously Ashawnte and I don't work with each other since we don't know enough Spanish to converse with the householders yet. But we have been working with people that know very little if no English at all. Just watching us all pull out a dictionary to try and converse with each other all day has been a blast. Ashawnte and I have already had friends over to the apartment. The first ones to come over were Majo (Maria Jose) and Daniellita. We made an amazing pizza from scratch together. Then we had Paula and Nora over and we made cookies together while we taught them the Cleveland Shuffle and the Cupid Shuffle. They loved it!!
So we have only been here for 3 weeks and Ashawnte and I already locked ourselves out of the bedroom. Since we are on the second floor we had to find a way to climb in the window that's only about a foot wide. It was quite and experience. Haha!! But on a positive side of things since we have been here, we have commented at every meeting so far and we are getting better every day to the point where we will be commenting in our own words if not tonight then by next week for sure.
Well we are all connected now with our internet in our apartment so feel free to call us when we are online and comment on our blog posts. Hope you enjoyed the first one!! Love you all and miss you tons!!
