Working, lentils and Espanol... Quito

I wake up at 5am every morning to write for an hour and a half before waking Kristen up (Buenas Dias! Tienes que levantarte!) and get ready for volunteering. We leave the hostel at 7.20am on the dot, we both get to our separate buses around 7.40am. My buses, luckily, takes about 20 minutes to get to the school where I work. Kristen's, unfortunately, takes about an hour. I'm working on a project called 'Vida y ninos' (life and kids), and Kristen's is 'Camp Hope'.  I play with young kids (2-5 years old) all day, make them wash their hands before eating (a BIG deal here) and basically tend to them whenever they cry (often). Kristen works at a school where they integrate disabled children and non-disabled children. She's hoping to be able to use some art therapy at some point during her time working there.
Then we get back to the hostel around 2pm, eat, go to our 2 hour spanish lesson, get back, chill, exercise for an hour, eat, read, go to bed.
It's great. We're having a great time here and I feel so lucky to be able to do this.

However, a couple of downsides.

Most importantly and devastatingly is that Kristen was hit by a motorcycle.  We were walking across a road, a bus stopped to let us past, the motorcycle behind it tried to zip through the gap between the bus and the side of the road, and it hit Kristen. Luckily, she was pretty much okay - cuts, and bruises, but nothing seems broken. She was very brave, especially in the face of an idiot motorcyclist who kept saying 'Esta bien?' She's feeling much much better now.

Downside number two - lentils suck. We bought lentils so that we could have protein without buying suspect meat. Lentils have a very strong flavor. That flavor is... nothing. Nada. Zip. We have tried all sorts of varieties of lentils and rice, including putting in have a bulb of garlic, four peppers and two pinches of oregano... it tasted like nothing with a bit of a kick. Fuck lentils. Seriously. Don't do it. It's so disappointing.

Downside number three - Cubs spring training starts, the Bulls lose to Toronto (what?) and blow a game in Atlanta (aww), and I realize that the word 'Jugo' means 'juice', not 'I play' as I had thought I was telling the kids this whole week.

More on the Cubs in a separate post.

Also, more on life in Quito in a serparate post. (Which do you think'll be posted first).

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