The ten of us, plus Jimmy and Erik and various family members met up and prayed early in the morning. Then after we finished packing up all our luggage and then unpacking some of it, we all piled in and headed out with a mixture of excitement and exhaustion. The adrenaline lasted 20 minutes, but the donuts made it a bit longer.

We spent the two hour van ride to the Saint Louis airport talking, sleeping, and getting caffeinated.

And then singing and writing poetry. We were very excited as we entered the airport. We flew to Atlanta, Georgia and during our layover there enjoyed three hours of getting to know each other a bit more. Since all of us were wearing our matching t-shirts, we had a handful of people comment on our group and even a group of bird watchers who were also headed to Ecuador ask us what we were going to do there. Then we boarded our flight to Quito and had a very exhausting five hour flight. We arrived in Quito, very exhausted and very ready to sleep. We met up with Cesar and Nancy and headed to the hotel on a bus, which, we all noted, had very nice seats compared to the airplane and in which we enjoyed the views of Quito at night. We checked into our hotel, headed to our rooms, and went to bed, most of us falling asleep very quickly, in anticipation of the days to come.

The highlights of our first day of travel include arriving in Quito, being able to get to know each other a lot more, the food at the airport, flying over Panama and seeing the views. We are very much looking forward to getting to the top of the mountain, seeing the village and showing God’s love, digging for the water project, and putting on the VBS. Things that are surprising us the most are the sheer size of Quito, and how chilly it is.