Guayaquil

Well I arrived yesterday night after a 45 minute detour in the air to avoid a volcano near Quito that had been belching smoke and ash for the past two weeks. My host family welcomed me warmly. There is the father Hugo, mother Rita, daughter Viviana and son Hugo jr. Viviana and Hugo speak english fairly well although the parents know only a few words. So far communication has not really been a problem. I have my own room with my own bathroom...it´s pretty nice. Though I am told I will possibly be getting a roomate in May when more volunteers come. They know that there will be another volunteer but don´t know yet if it is a boy or girl. So I will either get a roomate or a neighbor in the empty room next to mine. This morning I went on a car tour of the city with the country co-ordinator Camillo. A wonderful man who is also a professor at a university here. Afterwards we ate lunch at the small restaurant around the corner from my house, that is owned by the other host family. On my trip around town I met another girl who is here from England as an intern. There is talk of possibly going out tonight to a movie or a futból game with the other volunteers (there are three besides me, one girl, two boys, and Serina the english intern). Tomorrow I start work at Nuevos Caminos (new paths). I think that the translation was a little off in the original description of the project. I was under the impression that I would be working with street kids. In fact it is a school designed for kids with special needs. I will be a teacher´s aid there and though there is no english program there yet, Camilo said he would love if I would start one. Either way the prject sounds interesting, apparently Camilo actually started in in ´85 after grad school. Well I think thats about all for today...

hasta pronto.

Rosita