Hey y'all
So another week in the crazy but fab city of Quito!
It has been a week of going up mountains and cramming my poor brain with Spanish!
Last Thursday, me and the other striders went up Antisana with this dude (a friend of someone we know, don't worry nothing dodge! ) but yeah we all squeezed into this car, and took a very bumpy road up the mountain after language school. On the way up we saw first very poor villages, very small houses falling apart, chickens running around and kids playing football on these dirt patches off the mountain. It was quite a sight! The higher we got up, we started seeing solid lava from when it was an active volcano along with a stunning view of the city!
The higher you get, surprisingly the flatter and greener it gets. Birds and bull kind of things scattered the lush grass, with the background of Cotopaxi and a stunning rainbow. Only one little house made of wood and straw sat in the middle. It was incredible!
I then stayed the night where Ross (the other strider) is living, in the valley, as it would have been very dangerous for me to get the bus back at night. The house is situated bang in the middle of mountains, with a little football field and lots of loud cows and cockerels! For breakfast we had eggs with meat sauce! Just thought I would share that experience...
The next day we went to language school, which is going really well. They changed my teacher to someone who speaks no English, so I am forced to speak Spanish for three hours which is awesome but flip me is it tiring!
Then on Friday night we moved into the family I am staying with for the year. You go through this big security door and you are welcomed by a bug family who live in three different apartments, all one floor each, so not nearly as big as it sounds! At the bottom is the grandparents, who are providing us with food and stuff. In the middle is one of their daughters and her husband and their two beautiful little kids! Also with them is another daughter. On the side is another daughter, and in the area is a lot more family, so lots of people around which is nice! We are at the top. A lovely little apartment, which is high enough that you can see above the houses and you can see an amazing view of the mountains. We also have a balcony with a hammock which is lovely to sunbathe in and study Spanish!
Then on Saturday, we went up pinchincha, another mountain! We took the teleferico up the mountain and then we did what I've alway wanted...I rode a horse in the Andes! It was amazing, we wore ponchos and sombreros and rode around gawping at the incredible view surrounding us.
I have also started to learn the buses, so we make the daily commute to school for 25 cent on an incredibly packed bus! Feels like being on the tube at rush hour all the time!
Today I went to the basilico, which is this mahussivveee cathedral in the city....looks so so different than anything else, very gothic looking. We walked up the top, on these incredible steep and terrifying stairs, but we did it!
Nothing major happened this week, mainly just frantically trying to study Spanish in order to be able to chat to more people about Jesus! But I spoke to Maria today and she said that after a bit I could go help her in the prison regularly and possibly help with the youth group, mainly leading evangelism and events for the youth. Which would be awesome!
I also have done a video about my time here, sorry for the delay with photos etc, its very hard to upload them with the rubbish Internet! But the link is http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RIUvr8f5ygQ
Hope you enjoy it!

For those of you who pray...
-keep praying for Barbara, the American lady still stuck in prison! That she would get a translator and a trial and be freed from this oppression!
-for my Spanish, that I would learn it quickly in order to be able to do more in the community
-one thing I am majorly struggling with here is that all the meetings I go to here are all in Spanish, and most of them (which really aren't many yet) have been very very different to what I'm used too. So it's very and to really receive and feel spiritually strong, something I really need! So prayers that in my devotional times and through the day I would really know that God is with me

Hope you are all well! Thanks for all your lovely messages, it really means a lot! Izzy xx