Day 51 Friday 11 June – Cheering me up

Sleeping on the floor was alright, there were blankets above and below me and Sarah lend me a pillow. The reason I didn’t sleep that well after all, was more because of my own worries. I was planning to get up early in the morning to do some arranging, but I was so tired in the morning, I spent another two hours in bed. After revising my mail and having a bit of a breakfast, I went to the supermaxi for some groceries and to the laundry service. They are faster here than in Guayaquil (and cheaper), ready the same day at 4pm.

I kind of felt bad the whole morning, and I promised Sarah I would bake a pie. So this was the ultimate moment to do so. I put on some music and went going. Some essential ingredients were missing though, because they weren’t available, like real vanilla, but the result was fine in the end. During the baking, I got to cheer myself up with a hot tea, cake dough and chocolate. There is almost no better way. After the pie finished, I went to grab lunch at Shakti, one of my favourite places and bought some more souvenirs at the local artisan market. A nice handmade bag and some light trousers. Like a friend always says: good food happy people. And shopping helps a little.

The afternoon I hung out at Kallari with Mariela and her friends. I helped a bit in the kitchen a well and Mary jokingly said to one of the directors (who was coincidentally there) that I was a new volunteer. I should have told her that I may need Kallari as my case study, but I did that the next day. Now the directors are in Tena. But all is not lost there of course.

In the evening I invited Mary for dinner, so I made her a nice, but simple, spaghetti meal. We watched ‘When Nietzsche wept’ in Spanish and ate pie. Then, at around 10pm she took me home with her, because her brother said he wasn’t going to sleep at her place this night (and luckily he didn’t). And yeah, that was the best way to cheer me up.