Friday June 16 
We started off the day by eating breakfast in our hotel and packing up our bags. We waited for Sr. Anne to pick us up and take us to the flower shop. She came and we made our way there to pick up flowers for the celebration at the Damian House. The celebration was for the local Rotary Club that donated a lot of money to the Damian House for a new roof and new tiles. Once we arrived at the Damian House, we helped set up the church by cleaning the walls and putting the chairs in rows for the upcoming mass. We also helped to move plants around and overall just clean up the House for the visitors coming. We then put the flowers into the church and in the end it looked very beautiful. Sr. Anne was so happy with our help and she was told us how amazing it is when people work together to get things done.

The representatives from the Rotary Club arrived and we watched them receive their plaque from the Damian House and listened to them talk. It was hard to understand them since it was all spoken in Spanish, but it was a wonderful experience. There was a group of children there as well and they sang a couple songs for everyone there. Next, all of the patients who had been recently treated came around and gave out peace birds to all of the visitors. The peace birds are little handmade keychain like items that the patients make in their free time. Later on we went to mass and  it was beautiful. We tried to follow along while listening to it in Spanish but it was pretty hard. There was lots of singing by the people in church and people even played instruments such as maracas and tambourines.  

After mass we enjoyed a great lunch made by the cooks at the Damian  house and then we headed out to the airport for our flight in Quito. Once we landed in Quito, we met the Throm family at the airport. Together, we got on the bus headed to the Working Boys Center and drove for a little over an hour through the mountains in Quito. We finally made it to the Working Boys Center and got comfortable in our rooms. Dinner was hectic with all of the people staying here at the center, but it worked out well and it was delicious. The altitude has not affected any of us yet and we are hoping we will all be okay. Tomorrow we are planning on visiting the equator and look around town. We are excited to see what Quito has in store for us on our trip! Keep us all in your prayers!