Host Family Visit

On Thursday afternoon, Hailey's host family invited us for supper.  All of us went except Glen who was coming down with a cold and not feeling well.  The 20 minute Uber ride cost us a whole $3.00!

She is in a safe neighborhood, off a main street.  The houses are huddled up next to each other, with no yards and tall walls across the front entrance. Heidi had bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers on our way back from lunch for the host family.  Price was only $8.00!

 Hailey pointed out that it was the house on the left after we went through the gate that was actually part of a garage door.  She needed her key to get through the gate.  The family is comprised of a grandmother, a mother and one grandson who is 18.

 We were thankful that she was in such a secure place, especially now with the unrest in the country.

We climbed up to the third floor where Hailey has her own bedroom and own private bath.  We now call her the Princess since her family does all of her laundry, cleans her bathroom and won't even let her clear the plates off the table!  So, to offset some of the royalty treatment there, we made sure she did the dishes while we were at the condo!

 The whole house was filled with this type of furniture.  I was a bit surprised and not at all like I had envisioned.

 If you look closely, the walls are filled with paintings that the grandmother has done.  She is quite a gifted artist. We were offered tea or coffee, a type of native tomato juice and sandwiches.

 I had Lolita, the host grandmother, stand in front of the gorgeous picture she painted of the Quito church domes.  The detail was amazing!

After supper, we browsed around the side room that was stacked with her arts and crafts.  Both Heidi and I found things that we bought from her and she gave us each a picture as a gift.  Below is a photo of Carlos, the grandson, Lolita his Abuela (grandmother) and Hailey.  The host mother was still in the hospital with a respiratory ailment.  Lolita couldn't even get to see her daughter that day because the police had taken over the hospital after the protesters tried to get in.

Hailey served as our interpreter since the grandmother only speaks Spanish.  We did pick up a few words along the way that we knew, but not enough to grasp fully what she was talking about.