Saturday in Quito

Greetings to you all,
Today is Saturday and much of the hustle and bustle of the city I spoke of earlier is absent today. What a difference!!
Yesterday I had the entire morning to myself with no plans so I decided to make it a mini-retreat. I got up about 6:00 and I had the entire morning in silence (not really that hard when you are alone with no one to talk to), but no music, no TV, I just stayed in my apartment just kept silence all morning: reading Morning Prayer and Scripture, spending time in prayer and mediation and reading one of the books by Thomas Merton that I brought. It was a gloriously refreshing time.
About 11:30 I got a call from Chris Morck asking if I could help him a little. He and Trish were hosting a seminary student from Berckley who had arrived the night before. She is here for two weeks to improve her Spanish and help at the medical clinic operated by one of the parishes here in Quito (she is also a nurse). It seems Chris and Trish both had a meeting in the afternoon that would run most of the afternoon and he asked if I would take her around part of Quito for the afternoon, which I was glad to do.
He brought her to the supermarket near my apartment and from there we took a taxi to Plaza Grand and spent the afternoon there. We took a tour of one of the cathedrals there and it was an incredible experience of the churches opulance and extravagance in the presence of overwhelming poverty. I will go back and take some photos to show what I mean, but it was almost nauseatingly grandeose.
After that Chris met us and we took the seminary student to the churh where she will be working and to the family with whom she will be staying.
That church is the opposite extreme from the cathedral we had been in earlier in the afternoon. It is located in a very poor area, with a very meager sanctuary that is filled with worshippers twice on Sunday and again on Thursdays. It has a small medical clinic, a day care center for 45 children and an after school program for older children, a program for elderly and a seemingly endless list of classes and projects. It functions on donations from the diocese and from churches in the US and is always doing more for people than its meager resources can support, but they live and love by faith. IT IS THE CHURCH AT ITS VERY BEST.
I will go back to take photos of the church, its work and worship there on a Sunday.

As I said recently I am planning to get out of Quito and explore some of the rest of the country. I will start next weekend by going to a town called Otovalo. It is a town about two hours drive north (into the northern hemishphere). It is famous for its artisans and its market on the weekends, a market that includes not only works of the artisans, but a market of large and small animals--anyone what a llama, or a pig, or perhaps a guinea pig? It is a beautiful area about 7000 feet in elevaton. There is an Episcopal Church there and I want to get to know the church there also. I think I will go on Thursday, explore the area and the church on Friday, go to the markert on Saturday, go to church there on Sunday, and come back on Sunday afternoon or Monday.
You can take a taxi from here for $7.50, and stay in a very nice hotel for $35 a night. It will be a great first trip.
I understand that the recent small eruption of Tungurahua volcano is new in the US. It is not a threat to Quito, but it is news here also. Such minor eruptions are not uncommon and in fact it will erupt out of one side of the mountain while the other side remains covered with ice and snow. There is aways the possibility of a big eruption, but no one here seems concerned.
This afternoon I am going to the Botanical Garden to learn about and photo the flora of the Andes, and then I want to visit the Chapel of Mankind, a museum didicated to the struggle of the indigenous people here over the centuries. I am told it is very interesting.
Tomorrow I will go to church at the Cathedral and see what I might do next week with the Bishop and/or Chris.
Adios for now
Glenn+