Off to a normal week....i guess

So starts my first 'average' week in Quito, Ecuador. On Sunday we did some sight seeing. We do church on Saturday, which is good for the touristy side of me because there are a lot less people at some places on Sundays. This week we went to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World) which is supposedly....well....the middle of the world. It's weird how much the climate here can change so quickly due to altitude. In Quito it was a mild day, but after the short 30 minute drive to Mitad Del Mundo it was SO hot. We ate at an almuerzo place there in the park. The prices here are so cheap I feel bad for paying them sometimes. We had a potato soup with avacado for starters, then we had a plate with a good sized pork chop, rice, a broccoli carrot and choclo (sort of a big corn) mix and potatoes in some cream sauce. Then for desert we got the richest chocolate ice cream I've ever tasted. All of this with a small coke was 3 USD. It's unreal. It's like when we went to the market the first day I was here and bought 2 backpack fulls of fresh fruit and veggies for less than 20USD. It's rediculous. But anyway...

Mitad del Mundo was great. It was interesting to know that I was walking in and out of the northern and southern hemispheres over and over again. It is here that if you put water in a basin and let it out, it goes straight down the hole...and doesn't spin either direction. Ok,....I'm a dork but I think that's pretty cool.

Other than that, this Monday was the day I was going to register with migration. We got what we thought was all the paperwork needed and after my language school we went off to the Department of Migration. What I was hoping to do there was to register with the country and to receive my censo (the Ecuadorian equivalent to a Green Card) and my salida (which is permission to leave the country.) Well we got there and there was no line, so we thought, hey this will be great. But....we forgot (we being everyone who works with OMS in Quito area) that before I can receive my Censo I have to have some other person stamp my passport. So apparently there is a contest to see how many times my passport can be stamped by one country for the same trip. So far they're winning by leaps and bounds. I'm not sure why my Visa stamp and the Immigration stamp in the airport don't work, but for some reason there must be a third stamp from the extranjeria to show that I really in fact do have permission to be here. So after this mild dissappointment we went across the street (and by across the streat I mean run like mad for our lives) to El Jardin, one of the local malls. We ate in the food court which was fabulous. McDonalds never tasted so good. Partially because this was, I think 2 or 3 in the afternoon so I was starved, and I just really wanted a hamburger. Then I had a coffee drink from a coffee shop in the food court which was AMAZING. So if you don't know, Ecuadorians grow coffee...they don't drink it. If they do it's instant, which I can bear...but it is not enjoyed.

Anyway, I have to deliver some papers to OMS's lawyer tomorrow so that He can in turn try to get said 3rd stamp into my passport. So hopefully this will work without any snags and I will have a censo and salida soon. Please be in prayer that this all goes smoothly. Everyone I've talked to, including Ecuadorians, says that paperwork is a bad part of their government. It never seems to go as planned. So please be in prayer.

Thanks A Bunch.