On Monday, we went to the orphanage. Nothing new there. Miraculously the rain that threatened all day held off during our walk to and from the orphanage to the bus stop. The kids were playing a version of hide and go seek outside, which we haven't figured out yet. The funniest part was the special needs boy I'm closest with. He would continually peek around the corner of the building he was hiding behind. Then, when the person who was 'it' saw him and called his name, he would run laughing and screaming to base, even though he'd already been caught.
Tuesday, January 4th, was my twenty-third birthday! We celebrated by making homemade bread and brownies. How did we manage this feat? Well, New Year's Eve dinner was held at the compound because the festivities were in our region of the city, San Antonio. We noticed that the oven there had been connected to propane. Since we have not returned our keys to the compound we received for our first few days stay in this country, we took advantage of being able to unlock the four doors necessary to get into the compound apartment. We toted our batter and dough, we even bought an 8x8 brownie pan for the occasion, over to the compound. Once there we turned the oven on only to realize a minute later that the smell of gas was overtaking the kitchen. We turned off the oven, opened the window, and aired out the room. Then we noticed a match in the oven. We, of course, failed to bring matches with us and there were none to be found at the compound, so Andy quickly trekked back to get some. Yet, once we had matches in hand, we could not find any place to light. We tried each hole or crack. We pulled the oven out from the wall to see if we could find the entry point of the gas. No avail. Finally, I pulled out our cell phone, I conveniently brought, and called Guillermo. His phone was off. Next I tried Anita. Apparently we needed to light a piece of paper on fire and stick it down a hole under the oven where a burner was. Obviously. Anita was in the middle of saying that her Mom recommended a very long piece of paper, when Andy ripped out the only form of paper we had, a three inch sheet from the mini-notebook. Eight minutes later, after she talked with both me and Andy, we, Andy, managed to light the oven.
Brownie batter pre-oven.
Bread dough pre-oven. Admittedly, not so good looking.
But, viola! Bread post-oven.
Next to the brownies. Note the spoon in the right hand corner of the brownie pan. It was our snack while the bread cooked.
Then, as we left the compound, with three doors locked, it started to drizzle. On our way out the gate, I realized I left the window open. Seven locks later I was out again. As we prepared dinner, Guillermo called to wish me a happy birthday. He asked if Andy had bought me a cake. I said no. He said that he would be at the church later that night, if Andy ended up buying me a cake, I should have him come over. I told him not to count on it. Dinner was nice. Fresh bread with olive oil and salt with butternut squash soup, followed by a copious amount of brownies and later, popcorn and cookie dough.
Wednesday brought its own adventure. Our alarm went off at 6:30am. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:45am. I showered while Andy heated up water for tea and breakfast. We were out of the house at 7:30am, caught a taxi to the bus terminal, and were seated on a bus to Quito by 7:44am when the bus pulled out of the station. On the ride to Quito we had great views of Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world. On clear days, which we haven't had since our first week here, you can see it from our rooftop.
Here it is from our bus window.
Two and a half hours later we arrived in Quito. We were meeting a family-friend who was doing a short school term, a J-term, in Quito and had brought us supplies. Vital things like chocolate chips, peanut butter, oral scabies medication, eye drops for allergies, headphones, and books. Of course, we failed to use the internet to figure out exactly where in Quito the two streets, Av. el 6 de diciembre y Av. Naciones Unidas were. Eventually we figured out where to go. We took a bus to a bus/trolley/above-ground-subway to downtown. It took over an hour. We had a gross lunch of poorly done KFC in the mall where we were meeting him, the best part of lunch being orange Fanta. Then Andy got a black coffee as we waited for him to arrive. He arrived on time at 1pm and shared in our happiness that for once in this country, other people also had arrived on time. We chatted for a bit before heading over to his school to pick up the bag. We were back on the inter-city bus system by 1:45pm.
This time, since we started at the other end, there were no seats available. We crammed with everyone else all the way back to the bus terminal. It was 3:00pm before we got there. We bought a ticket back to Ambato, $2.50 per person, we think it's a dollar per hour on the bus. The bus driver insisted on picking up random group of people after random group of people on the way home, even when all they could do was hover in the aisles over you holding on to a bar above your seat. It was an unpleasant ride home. Eventually, however, we arrived back in Ambato. Took a taxi through lots of miserable traffic, and were home by 6:30pm. We had been on a bus for ten of the last eleven hours, and were quite tired. We did make it home in time, however, to catch this pretty rainbow after a rain storm, above the church roof. The sunset's reflection in the church windows is also lovely.
Thursday brought the conclusion of our consecutive Lord of the Ring movie nights. Friday centered on baking bread and brownies again. With slightly altered recipes, the bread came out even more delicious and the brownies became the best chocolate cake I've ever made.
Andy inspecting his work.
On the dinner table.
Viola!
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