To add to your bucket list...

There Kevin stood, poised for the throw-in, hesitating as he tried to determine who was on his team. We were all in that boat, because our little pick-up game at the local school's concrete pad had attracted so many local guys so quickly that it was almost impossible to remember who was who. He throws the ball in to Sarah E. and then the insanity begins. I have never been part of a more exciting soccer game. These guys here really take their soccer seriously and most of them are incredibly good...and I am pretty sure they were laughing at us, because not only were some of them better players, but they were also used to the altitude and therefore weren't ready to die after a few minutes of playing. This is one of the few places where the language barrier doesn't matter as long as you speak soccer (which Michelle and I only pretended to, although she proved herself to be quite the goalie) and are good at exaggerating your injuries. If you like soccer even just a little bit, put it on your bucket list to play a pickup game in Ecuador (or probably South America in general, but I can't really speak for that), it is mucho worth it.

Today, in honor of the 4th, we all get to eat meat...which while the vegetarian food is okay, who is going to pass up locally made sausage? There will also be fireworks, so we all get our own little 4th of July after all!  This morning, half of us went for a hike, and the other half went horse back riding. Since I opted for the hike, I don't know how the horses were, but the scenery that we came across was absolutely stunning. We tried taking pictures at first, but then realized that we were not capable of doing the Andes any justice. A picture may be a thousand words, but standing there immersed in it all is utterly ineffable. We walked along the ridge to where the Cloud Forest begins (we will be going there tomorrow) and could only see a thick mist. To be honest, the image evoked a memory of my childhood favorite "The Land Before Time." It is as if the cloud forest is the "mysterious beyond" and we are all staying here happily in the "green valley."

It may be hard to believe that sitting here in this hammock in the yoga room is teaching me anything, but all of us cannot stop talking about how much we are learning about our world by being here. It is hard to notice the poverty sometimes, because people act as happily as of they had the whole world. And perhaps, by not having much of that world at all...they do have it...they understand life in a way that I cannot despite my 14 years (and counting) of education. This truly is a beautiful place.