Today we went on a city tour of downtown Quito with the group from New Jersey. There are four groups here right now: Regis, an all boys school in New York, St. Peter's Prep, an all boys school in Jersey City (I've been calling them the "Jersey Boys"), GYM group from Wisconsin, and us. There are a lot of groups to coordinate, Madre Cindy is usually the group coordinator, but she's in the states raising money for the WBC. So, with all that is is totally understandable that there are some mix-ups that have been occuring. For example, this morning, we arrived to the Office to catch our bus. We all thought that the Jersey Boys were coming with us this morning, that Regis was staying here, and that the Wisconsin group would be going on the house visits with Marianna and Teresa on public transportation. However, the schedule they had was different. After about 45 minutes of negotiation and communication with La Marin, we figured things out. Wisconsin group would go with Marianna and Teresa on the public buses to visit houses. The Jersey Boys and us would go on the city tour with Marcia and Regis would stay here. Vincente drove us downtown in the small bus.
He took us directly to La Basilica del been Vota Nacional which is run by the Oblate's. We were able to view the sanctuary from the balcony. Our tour guide explained that the church is built in the Neo-Gothic style, but all the decorations inside are Ecuadorian in origin. There are isises and orchids in the rose window, and no gargoyles. The teens all wanted to climb to the top in the bell towers which they did. While they were doing that, the adults stayed on the third floor in the gift shop and observation room. We concluded our tour there and got back on the bus with Vincente.
He drove us to la Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus which is a Jesuit Church. This is where the Working Boys Center got started, in the attic. This church is gourgeous inside. It features 52 kilos of gold (120 pounds). They started building it in 1605 and it was completed in 1765. Besides the gold, is made of volcanic rock from Pichincha, wood from the cloud forests and Ecuadorian marble. It is Baroque architexture, rich people attended the church, but it was largely built by Ecuadorians. We were not allowed to take photos inside because a few years ago the Church was robbed, the thiefs got away with a 5 ft. tall solid gold monstance. They were caught, but the monstrance had already melted down. They found out that the thieves had visited the Church and had taken photos of security, etc. before planning the robbery, hence, no photos are allowed.
The first Ecuadorian saint, Marianna de Jesus lived from 1618-1645, was declared a saint in 1950. She is entombed in the altar. During her life, Quito had many earthquakes and pestilance. She prayed that the city would be relieved and she offered her life to God. When she returned home, she got sick and died, but the pestilance was lestend and the city prospered.
Our Lady of Sorrows is the patron of the Jesuits in Ecuador. There is a picture of her hanging behind the altar. In 1960-something, some boys were in the church and they saw the picture blinking at them for 15 minutes!
After the tour of La Compania, we took a walk through La Plaza de la Independencia. The Presidential Palace fronts the plaza.
There was a protest going on, complete with police in riot gear. We walked through and then on to El Centro del Muchacho Trabajador in La Marin. They served us lunch, then we reboarded the small CMT bus and came home.
At CMT #2, Rodolfo put us to work. Some of the group were in charge of making some posters for the school. The rest of the group were give the task of painting some classrooms. When we had finished, we attended the Kindergarten graduation which was VERY cute. Each of the classes performed a little dance or routine of some sort.
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