A Work Trip to La Maná

 

After the first six weeks in Quito, I had become more accustomed to the culture here and my Spanish had improved as well. I was able to understand what was going on around me most of the time and I felt fairly ready for going out on service. I was placed in a smaller city, Latacunga, about two hours outside of Quito. My first week of service was an experience that I definitely was not prepared for!

Monday was the first day of work at an organization called the Pastoral Social Cáritas Latacunga. They are a nonprofit organization and I was working with the finance and credit circle branch of it. I went in and met all of my coworkers and was starting work and all of a sudden, the supervisor asked me if I wanted to go on a trip for the entire rest of the week in a completely different city, La Maná! I got it cleared with the leaders as well as my host family, packed a bag, and left the next morning at 6:30 am.

It was about a 3 hour drive and I learned that the trip was to check on the other branches in the Cotopaxi region. I met several people in charge of the Moraspungo, Pucayacu, and La Maná branches. The scenery during all of the driving that day was amazing.

On Wednesday, we stopped by one of the farms that the organization was involved with and saw more of what they did to make a living. The driving was getting a little tiring, but my supervisor mentioned that he liked music so we spent all of that time listening to 80’s and 90’s hits that I had downloaded. That connection through music definitely made the drive a lot more fun.

Thursday we drove to Pucayacu. I didn’t know what to expect on this day because all I knew was that we were going to a fiesta!  We drove to a small community that was a 30 minute drive on a completely gravel road. This community had 20-30 people in it and they were one of the many communities that this organization works with. There was a Catholic mass service followed by the fiesta. There was loud music playing and a big meal was being prepared for everybody and I was invited to play volleyball with them. I never really knew what the score was at any point, but it was still a lot of fun. It was slightly different from how I am used to playing, but all the people around were giving me advice. Being included in that was a lot of fun and made me feel less out of place there. After the game ended, we ate a traditional Ecuadorian meal. On our way back to the hotel, we met up with my supervisor’s friends who had band practice, and they played Ecuadorian music for an hour. This whole day was full of unexpected activities for me and it let me see many different aspects of the culture in the area.

Before we returned to Latacunga, we went on a hike that featured the 7 waterfalls of La Maná. It was about a 3 mile hike up and back, and it got pretty steep at one point, but it was worth it. The water in each of the pools was so blue and after we got back to the bottom, we all went swimming.

The whole trip was a great experience for me, especially at the beginning of service. I was able to learn more about the organization that I was working for by seeing what we do there and the people that it is helping. Seeing more of Ecuador is something that I enjoy, the nature and landscape, as well as the different people and cultures.