Un sanduche, una barra y un jugo

**CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Belong by Chris Rice**

Translation: One sandwhich, one granola bar and one juice.

This was the contents of the ''lunches'' we gave out saturday night with Pan de Vida.

But, first...Friday.
Meghan, Julie, Nikki and I all went to Sasha's (Nikki's host cousin) house around 9 PM and had Pizza and cake to start off the evening of ''partying''. The whole evening was to celebrate Sasha's birthday which was like three weeks ago. So after eating, a few of Sasha's friends met us at her building and then we all headed over to the ''Chiva''. ''Una Chiva'' is an open bus without seats with a DJ and lights. You can rent one out for whatever occasion and the bus drives around the city while you and your friends dance and drink (or not). We had a good time. =]

It was about 1230 when I got back to Nikki's house, where I ended up sleeping cuz I was soo tired. In the morning, Nikki made us pancakes and then we met Haley at the Supermaxi (grocery story) in the CCI shopping center. There we bought ingredients to make ''Butterfinger Pudding''. Unfortunatley, no one has thought to bring butterfingers to Ecuador yet, so we had to improvise...

We used Oreos in place of butterfingers, "Maria" cookies in place of graham crackers, whip cream from a can in place of cool whip, and actual ''make-over-the-stove'' pudding instead of instant. We got back from making our purchases and made the dessert. While we waited for it to freeze, I took a shower and we just hung around til we had to leave to go to Pan de Vida. Well, when it was time to leave, the dessert still wasn't frozen, so we vowed to wait until Sunday to eat it.

We arrived at Pan de Vida and it had started raining. We ran into the building and met with some of the other group members who had already started making the sandwhiches. We started helping. We made sandwiches with mayonase, cheese and ham. While we were making them, a TV crew showed up, and interviewed Fernando and a few other volunteers and then taped us yelling Pan de Vida's motto: Haciendo la Diferencia (making the difference). It was unexpected but I guess I'm pretty famous now. ;)

We bagged each sandwhich with a napkin and then put them in the fridge. Once we had made about 350 sandwiches, we started bagging them with juice and granola bars. We started a line and got all 350 sandwiches bagged, stickered (with the address and info about Pan de Vida), and tied pretty quickly.

Then we were split into two groups, each with their own ''security officer'', and sent off on our specific routes to deliver the sandwiches. Unfortunately it was still raining so most of the homeless had found shelter, but we ended up handing out more than 200 of those sandwiches. I'm not exactly sure how many we gave out or how many we had left over, but we helped so many people. It was so rewarding to see their faces and how gratefull they were.

To show their thanks to us volunteers, Fernando and the other Pan de Vida folk took us out for pizza afterward. =] I got home about 1130 or so and collapsed in my bed. It was such a good experience and I'm for sure going back the next time they do it, in October.

Today, I went over to Haley's house to do homework and I to the ''Oreo Pudding''. Well...we ate the pudding, but we didn't end up doing homework... =\ haha. She had a guitar there so we sat around for a really long time playing guitar and singing. =] It was nice. I haven't been able to play for about 2 months now...we more than that cuz I didn't have a whole lot of time to play while I was in the states, either...so it felt nice to get those strings beneath my fingers once again. =]

This week shouldn't be any more exciting than the past few, but this upcoming weeked, we have a night tour of ''El Centro Histórico'' (the historic center - center of quito) on saturday night and then a day trip to South Quito on Sunday. It will be nice to see all the BCA folk again after a month without having seen them. =]

¡Buenas Noches!


World Traveler