February 2, 2013

We have all arrived safely in Ecuador, although we got to our hotel after 1 am. It was a long day of travel, and there were as usual a few hiccups along the way

After the majority of us met up at the Louisville airport, we had just started to check in when we found that the out-bound flight to Miami was delayed two hours. This was a problem, because this only gave us around 25 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Ecuador. It was either that or spend a day in Miami waiting for the flight Saturday night. We felt that we should at least try to make the connection, and two of our team members who were already in Florida would attempt to have the flight in Miami held for us to make it.

We landed in Miami at 6:53, and the flight to Ecuador was scheduled to leave Miami at 7:10. No way we will make it, we thought. But we ran anyway, and through a combination of divine intervention and a gracious captain (that was convinced to delay by a few team members already on the plane) we all made it. We arrived safely in Ecuador around 11:30 pm.

But our luggage did not.

We are now gearing up for a 3-4 hour bus ride from Guayaquil to Manta, leaving in about an hour. Elsa, one of our leaders, will stay today and wait for our luggage to come in on tonight's flights. This contains all the supplies needed to operate. Luckily, we will not need them until Monday, but some of our team also needs a change of clothes, and are currently doing a little local shopping.