Day 58 Friday 18 June – Going ahead

Today I talked to Leonore, one of the board members of Kallari. There may be a possibility for me to enter as a volunteer, but I they need to discuss this with all board members. Maybe they will talk about it on Monday, but most likely, it would be best for me to go to Tena myself next weekend. A minimum stay for volunteers is a month. Though I have the time, it is quite much. With the friends I have in the café, I should be able to come to an agreement.
I remain in contact with Alberto, my supervisor. Finishing my thesis before September 1 seems now like an impossible task. Of course there is a lot that can be written in Ecuador, but Alberto will be out of Dutchland much during august. More realistic would be to graduate before November 1. That will cost me a good deal of money, though. Studying one extra period and living without a job is expensive. Perhaps I should start looking for that dream job and start before graduating? Well, for now let's just focus on the task ahead in Ecuador.

Day 57 Thursday 17 June – Another goodbye

This night is a farewell party for Anne-Sylvie, so Sarah and I do some groceries at the supermaxi in the afternoon after having a lunch at the mall. Most of the malls in the big cities look very much the same. The same chains of stores and they all have a floor where a lot of fast-food chains are together. There are no ‘real’ restaurants to be found however. We both choose a different place to get our food and share a table (It’s like a square with tables, surrounded by fast-food companies). Sarah gets a fast salad and I a fast lasagne. We take an ice-cream afterwards.

In the evening, Mariela and I go to A.S.’ house. We want to take a bus, but at 8.30, there are none anymore, because of the centre filling with party-people. We take a taxi instead. Sarah is already there, but besides that, we are one of the first. There’s punch, food on the table and music. What else can we say about the party, besides that it was great.

Day 56 Wednesday 16 June – 2nd aikido in Quito

I’m having aikido practice now on Monday and Wednesday. Friday is a possibility as well, but I feel that 2 days a week is fine. This practice wasn’t entirely special or different. We learned one technique where the hand is locked when uke grabs the arm of tori, but I think we’ve done this before, without stopping and looking at the specific technique. After the training we followed up with stretching of the legs, like we normally do before the training. The stretching resembled a little the way we do it at home in duos.

I do notice that it is different to train at this altitude. I get more quickly out of breath. The positive thing is that we don’t get so sweaty like in Guayaquil.