Day 5 (2024): Esperanza Art and Camp at Otavalo

Today, we woke up and Anita greeted us with a beautiful breakfast platter, consisting of croissants, sliced queso, blackberry jam, cooked ham and of course, instant coffee. Muy delicioso! Then, our group made its way down to the Youth World headquarters, a place where we had already visited once before, but didn’t get to learn in-depth about End Slavery Ecuador. We learned about a group called Esperanza Art which focuses on giving women in prostitution jobs and helping them get out of the sex trafficking economy in Ecuador. We all bought a few pieces of jewelry (some of us more than a few) to help support these young women and their dreams. There were so many beautiful bracelets, necklaces, and earrings that we all couldn’t wait to have for ourselves or to take home to those back home in the States. 

You can help support this mission and get some beautiful jewelry here: EsperanzaArt

Then, we left for a 2.5 hour trip on the bus to ride up the mountains and arrive at the camp in Otavalo. The camp was run by Carmen Bajo and included a few of the kids that we had seen before, so it was great to see those familiar faces. Right after we arrived, we spent our time serving the kids who were at the camp food for lunch. Then, it was our turn for lunch. We had such a delicious lunch cooked by the women who are staying at the camp. It was a beautiful spread of fresh garden vegetables and grilled chicken served alongside delicious potato cheese patties called llapingaches.

This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

 We also got to meet many new friends in our icebreakers, including Little Sally Walker (a big fan favorite) and then a relay race game with a volleyball. It warmed our hearts to watch these initially shy, confided children open up to us and be relaxed in these games that we played with them. This new heartfelt connection helped us continue to build relationships within the camp. After an hour of playing games with the kids, we decided to go on a hike. But before going on the hike, we met a stray dog who we named Jabosco. The dog was named a combination of a few of our members' dogs at home. 

The scenery was so perfect, and the sky was as clear as it could get. We were surrounded by multiple volcanoes. It was so beautiful. Walking up the trail we got to connect with many of our new friends and nature right before we reached the stream. We stopped by a house that had two very cute puppies. Everybody loved them. Then a few of the kids decided to go down the stream. There we saw some beautiful scenery in the valley of the volcanoes surrounding us. There were many alpacas and even some cows to finish off our hike. We decided to walk a few minutes over to a natural sparkling water spring, where we spent a few minutes having so much fun, tossing each other in the water, drinking the water and just overall having a great time. Jabosco even loved the spring! 

Afterwards, we decided to head back up the mountain just in time for sunset overlooking the lake and the valley. We had a bit of extra free time after the hike so we decided to spend that playing a variety of games, including Mario Kart on the Wii, volleyball outside, and soccer. Then we enjoyed a delicious meal of pasta, chicken and broccoli again made by the cooks of the camp. We said a final goodbye to all the campers and staff and headed home to the new hostel for debrief.

Today in debrief, we talked about being present to God's presence and just taking everything in, the good and the bad. It was about seeing and noticing that beauty in everything around us, whether it was the volcanoes, the mountains, the kids, or even just all the joy that we saw today in this beautiful community. It was understanding that wealth does not come in material goods, but it comes in the love that’s around us, making us all very blessed when we share what we have because, as children of God, we all have something.

-Pilar Dunlap & Dylan Lawson