Painting, Puppies, and People Watching by Emily Ruff

As soon as our plane touched ground in Quito on Friday night, I was ready to go to work. I was so excited to return to the sounds and sights of Ecuador that I had fell in love with last year. On the flight, I made sure I focused heavily on clearing my mind of any expectations for our first day of work, since I knew God had been planning a whole new experience for me and my 27 team mates. As I lay in my top bunk at the hostel in Quito, although I had no idea what we were going to be doing the next day (unawareness is the Ecuadorian “way”), I excitedly said a quick prayer and went to so that I could be fully prepared for the big first day ahead of me.

And that brings us to yesterday. We spent the first half of the day doing some much needed exterior painting at Boris’s ministry, Dunamis. We transformed the exterior walls from a dark brown and dirty white to a vibrant lime green and fresh white, which I know will make the building more welcoming to young women coming out of the darkness of human trafficking and abusive family homes.

The teamwork here was incredible (which excited me for the rest of the week) and Boris’s cute puppy named Princesa made the perfect painting companion.

After getting a nice coat of paint on the house and on myself, our crew got ready to go journey through the hustle and bustle of Quito. We went to a monument at the top of the city that overlooked everything, and let me tell you-It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. There were millions of little homes and buildings crowded along every fold of the mountains, which rolled on as far as you could see. I felt so little but so big as I stood on top of a monument that overlooked everything even more. After spending some time there, we trekked over to the food court at a local mall in Quito where we ate a wide variety of typical Ecuadorian food court foods. Like all food courts everywhere, this one had a McDonald’s so I got myself a big mac and chowed down.

We spent the rest of the night here just chilling and people watching, although I’m pretty sure they were more fascinated with us giant, Chaco-wearing Americans. Looking back now, yesterday was an awesome, adventurous, fun-filled first day in my favorite place in the world. It was nothing like the previous year and I know it will be nothing like any of the other days in store this week. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in the jungle!!!!