La Pradera....Las Damas and Diaherrea

So we arrived at La Paradera and everyone was really nice to us. (The picture I took during our 45 minutes hike down to La Pradera) We each had a separate host family and quickly learned everyone´s names. After a few short days, we felt like part of the community. The was a center of town I guess you could call it where everyone gathered after 3 or so and played Vollyeball (wildly popular in Ecuador and know as Volly) and soccer. The kids loved the frisbee I brought for them and I managed to explian how to pancake a disc when catching it despite the language barrier. The food was good...chicken and rice...chicken and rice and then soup.....chicken and rice and then some fried plantans too. Despite our repeated efforts to exlpain that we did not need three plates of food at every meal everyone was eager to stuff us with food. The only problem was that there was no realy project for us to work on in La Pradera. The people there were very kind, but we had come under the impression that we would help perfect the distillation of ethanol from sugar cane. The people showed us how they ground up the sugar cane into a juice to eaither drink of use as feed for the pigs. So, after four or five days in La Pradera, Br. Giovanni arrived unexpectadely and gave us ten minutes to pack everything and said we were leaving for another area where they were working on distilling aclohol. He said the people of La Pradera had been promising him for months that they would have the distillation process ready for us and they never did. This is about the time that started getting sick. Lets just say diaherra is no fun. So, Giovanni took us to another area near Alluriquin and there we have a family to stay with and help with their distillation process. I was there for a little over a day and got more sick and Br. Giovanni came back to get me and bring me to Quito where I have been resting and getting better for a few days now. Near our new area there are a number of other families spread out along a really steep dirt road from Allurquin who we can work with as well. There is interenet access in Alluriquin so I hope to update the blog more regularly when I return. Untill then I am trying to get better....Hast Luego....Adios