LMMHS ECUADOR TRIP: We're Back!

And that's that! I feel strange not putting a period on the end of the sentence that was this trip, but I also don't quite feel like doing it yet. The whole group is still ringing with the experience, and by putting it in the past tense and declaring it "done" I feel like I'd be dampening that echo. So maybe I can find a way to squeeze the end a bit without completely knotting it.

The afternoon was grand, with students charging around Quito as they had been doing. The weather was glorious, which finally allowed for a grand view of Quito from the spires of the Basilica. Doubtless your students have shown you their pictures, which are incredible. I didn't make it there, as I was meeting with my Ecuadorian friend, Elenita, whom a few of the students and Ms Getzen met. We bumped into the boys, playing with their soccer ball with new friends Nelson and Guillermo in front of the hotel...It looked like they'd had a great afternoon together. It was a sad and yet still excited bunch that piled into the vans at 6:00 to go to the airport.

I chatted with our van driver all the way. He had some fascinating stories to tell about how he'd come to Quito 40 years before as an illiterate kid from a black town on the coast where the only access was by rail line, and how he'd gotten a job as a rich man's driver / bodyguard simply by having an impressive physique, and had parlayed that into a shot at the Olympic team as a sprinter and a short career as a boxer. And now he drives the van, with three kids in professional careers in Ecuador and abroad, and still looks like he could take care of himself if push came to shove. I got his phone number and his address, as when I asked him if he knew of a novel written about the fiercely independent people of his province and their resistance to government control in the 19-teens, he had no idea what I was talking about, and I promised I'd send him a copy of the novel. Neat guy.

But of course that all faded from my mind when I realized my suitcase wasn't in the van when we got to the airport. I thought it might have been lost in the semi-confused scramble to get them all out of the vans when we pulled up, and scanned quickly all the red bags people were walking or standing with around the exit (offending one particularly sensitive man, whom I, in a less-than-generous state, called a nina and told to calm down). I figured it was still standing downstairs in the courtyard of the hotel. When I couldn't make the phone number for the hotel work, I jumped outside and into a cab to dash back to the hotel before someone walked away with it.

Talking to the cabbie, I worked it out that the suitcase contained only clothes, my pillow, and my souvenirs, all of which are replaceable. And then we started in on Cuba (I told him about the poster I didn't want to lose), and he had some very interesting thoughts on that subject. His wife had been operated on in Quito by Cuban doctors, who were all very pro-Castro, and who didn't want to leave Cuba and went back to it when their time in Ecuador was done. He thinks Cuba has the atomic bomb. "Why else would the US not have wiped them out by now?" Interesting thought.

I ran in to the hotel and up the stairs and sighed a huge relief when the attendant at the desk smiled at my arrival. She immediately got up and walked toward the storeroom where I'd been keeping it all afternoon, wagging her finger at me disapprovingly and smiling. The staff had carried it back upstairs almost as soon as we had left. When I walked out with it, the cab driver pumped his fists in the air and howled triumphantly. We both laughed with relief.

Back to the airport, where I again exchanged information with the cabbie, who was a pretty neat guy. When I walked in again, I noticed four of the students standing in a close circle, holding hands. One, Laurie, turned and saw me and ran excitedly over, positively jubilant at seeing me with my suitcase. "We were JUST praying for you!", she said. What I had seen was a prayer circle! That's a very nice feeling, I have to say.

Check-in, followed by a long wait before we took off. As we rolled down the runway, Matt G leaned forward and said, "Mr Johnson, I think I'm going to cry." All I could think to say back was "That's a very good thing." And off we flew.

Lots of waiting and sitting and puffy eyes, endless transfers and baggage checks and a few close calls before we all rolled in to Lenox at 1:30 PM yesterday. Thank you to all the students and to the parents, who supported us all so well in the whole endeavor. And to Ms Getzen and Ms Gernat for donating their time and making things so much easier. We're still resonating with the experience. Welcome back, all, and welcome to the club of Those who Know Ecuador.