Travel & Orientations

Wednesday, June 27th we flew to Quito from Guayaquil. Germania, Nathan, Ishmael and Jocelyn came to the airport with us to help us navigate check in and baggage drop. We got to our gate with a few minutes to spare, so the boys bought some food for the flight.

The flight was totally uneventful and we were only in the air for 33 minutes.

Upon our arrival in Quito, the chaperones and some girls from Xavier High School in Phoenix were there to greet us. Osvaldo came to pick us up in the CMT (El Centro del Muchacho Trabajador - in English we call it the "Working Boys Center") bus. Incidentally, the girls from  Xavier are the only girls here! There are two other groups; one from Fordham Prep and another from St. Peter's Prep. Chaperones from those groups are old friends from our previous trips, which is kinda fun.

Caitlin McGuire, the new community outreach/group coordinator was here at the volunteer house to greet us. After we unloaded the bus, we were given the keys to our rooms. Benjamin, Ryan M., Chicco, and Charlie are rooming together again, and Ryan T., and the two Brendan's are rooming together again as well.

We had a brief house orientation, then Caitlin went over our schedule with Sam, Maria and I. Later, we got a kitchen/food prep orientation, then got to make our name tags.  In between, Rodolfo gave us a tour of the CMT school and the talleres (the workshops). In recent years, because of some financial difficulties, the CMT has had to close some of the technical training workshops. There used to be 7, now there are four that remain; beauty shop, sewing, auto mechanics and carpentry. It used to be that they were segregated by sex as well, but now, both boys and girls can choose any of the four programs.

Rodolfo explaining the CMT's 10 values.

The boys making their name tags. Judy started a competition. We'll vote on the best one on July 3rd, then the winner will get a prize.