We left home on the 6th of Janauary to Tulsa Oklahoma. There we attended a Retrouvaille Servant Leadership Course (needed that ten years ago hoha). Then attended the International Board meeting for several days and left for Quito on the 14th of January. Arrived Quito at 11 Pm tired but happy. Our South African friends, Mike and Caryl Melly,arrived about 5 minutes after us also from Tulsa but on a different airline. We were overwhelmed to see about 14 or 16 Quito Retrouvaille community members meet us at the airport and caravan with us to Ana Luz and Fernando Bueno's house.

The next morning we took off to Bueno's rose farm, stopping en route at Otavalo's market - largest and most famous in Ecuador with handmade goods by the local indigenous people.

Beuno's rose farm has 120 varieties of roses. They cut and sell 50,000 roses around the world each day - some stems are as much as 1 1/2 metres.What a sight to see. This is their retirement project. He was an architect and she owned a furniture factory in their previous lives. And what hosts!!!! Can't lift a finger - two servants do everything except that Ana Luz does some of the meal preparation. As for homes - well, he is an architect, need I say more.Their home in Quito has a phenomenal view of the city.

Monday morning we returned to Quito and starterd classes on Tuesday. Classes are from * to noon with other activities in the afternoons - for example, a tour of the old town, a visit to the centre of the world, a visit to thermal hot springs about two hours out of Quito. We stayed with a host family which was a so-so experience.

On Friday, 21st, we returned to Bueno's house and attended the Retrouvaille discernment (election) with them on Saturday. They seated us in the middle of the room with couples surrounding us and translators next to us. They told us they seated us in the centre of the room so that we would be surrounded by the love of the Quito community!!!

Sunday 23rd, we packed in the morning, went to a wonderful restuarant for lunch and were taken to the airport for our flight to Cuenca. We are once again with a host family and although the experience is okay, we will stay in a apartment hosteleria when we go for our third week of classes in Manta.

It's not that the experience is bad but it was meant for us to learn more Spanish. However, we judge it is more of a financial thing for the hosts than trying to teach us more Spanish.Toniught the house is filled with a group of young couples having a Bible study - surprisingly, for Ecuador, Protestant.

Cuenca is a UNESCO Heritage city (pop. 400,000) at about 3800 metres. We had a walking tour of the old town yesterday and I was in a lot of pain after that. Today, Mike, Caryl and Elton did some more walking while I stayed at the school putting captions on the photos. We passed on the Salsa dancing class offered for today's extra-curricular activity.

The beach comes next followed by trips to Peru and a cruise amongst the Galopagos Islands.

So "Hasta Luego" for now.